Aare moved out to Newfoundland in the early aughts and on occasion comes back to Toronto to visit but the natural beauty of Newfoundland has kept him on the "Rock" for years.
In addition to staying at Esto's, we also visited Gros Morne, an amazing national park with wonderful trails.
The first time we travelled to Newfoundland, it was the Victoria Day Weekend and when we visited Gros Morne, there was still snow on the ground!
Alas, we did not hike that time but embued with additional wisdom, our next two trips were both in July, one over the Canada Day Weekend!
In 2008, we hiked the Gros Morne mountain trail, a long flat walk in followed by a climb over steep scree to the flat top of the mountain with amazing views out over the water (and also some caribou).
After a lunch break at the scenic vista, we continued on a loop around the mountain, complete with a stop at a lake with a moose on the other side, before descending at a much milder grade down to the trail that had brought us in. All told the trip took about eight hours and our bodies were sore after, our feet doubly so!The next time we came out in 2009, we hiked what Aare calls the Green Gardens trail (or so I recall). This was a much less strenuous trail with a descent from the entry point down to a trail along the water followed by an ascent and loop back to the starting point. It was aptly named as the whole journey was filled with lush greenery whereas the top of Gros Morne Mountain had been fairly bleak.
