Sunday, August 18, 2013

Is it a fen or a bog?


18 August 
Last night in north New Foundland we were at a campground that instructed you to boil water for 5 minutes before drinking, yet we had our best Internet connection of the trip to date.  In fact we were fortunate to FaceTime with Trent, which was great catching up with him.  He would have reached 100 surgeries on Friday, but two were canceled.  Regardless he is feeling comfortable with “routine surgeries” and hopes that his supervisors think he’s ready for more challenging assignments.
Now back to the trip…
We drove south (because we were as far north as we could get) along 430 and the St Lawrence Bay to Gros Morne National Park.  It took us 4 hours to get to the park, which was good.  We took a 6km walk out to Western Brook Pond, through bogs and sub artic forest (thinks squat short pine needle trees), with some late season flowers.  Of course we didn’t see any moose, but lot of other folks were headed out the walk to take and  the two hour boat tour out to the former fjords that were carved by glaciers.  As ice bit through the 1.2 billion year old block of granite and gneiss, fjords were formed as was Western Brooke Pond.  We could have hiked further, but it required fording Brooke Creek and there’s no way I’m deliberately getting my feet wet hiking, without the proper equipment. 
 

After our stroll, we headed south again for another trailhead.  Unfortunately it took us a lot longer than we thought it was going to take, so we opted just to pull out at a scenic view of the eastern arm of Bonne Bay and the Tablelands. 
 
 It was getting late, and Roger didn’t want to drive on unfamiliar roads with potholes, narrow shoulders, and possible wandering moose (if the prolific signs were any indication; however they were probably all napping when we went out to Woody Point.)  We got to out campsite with no fuss and are spending the night at Deer Lake, which is at the junction of The Canadian Highway 1 (TCH1) and 430.  All in all a lucky day-- because we only saw a short drizzle of rain.

Random thought for the day—why don’t groceries sell beer, yet gas stations do?  There are frequent signs about hands free cell phone usage, but beer is sold at gas stations (along with hunting licenses.)

The answer to the title question is a fen is the same thing as a bog.

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