Beach Mussels

Before leaving Gros Morne we wanted to do a little back country camping. There are several options for doing this, but ever since listening to our friend Caroline talk about cooking freshly picked mussels on the beach, Kristal was intent (obsessed) on hiking the Green Gardens trail and camping overnight on the coast.

With camp set up, the next priority was to scope out the mussel supply. Our timing was perfect, as the tide was well on its way out. Here is Kristal sussing out the tide pool situation.

Jackpot!

Hmmm, mussels....

Time to get down to business.

Did I mention how psyched Kristal was?

Delicious!

In between courses of mussels we hiked along the coast, checking out the nearby sea caves, scrambling on many of the cool rock formations and collecting driftwood for our epic fire.

Later in the evening, as the tide came in, so did the jellyfish.

Day 2 did not start out all that great. It had rained overnight, and current conditions were cold, foggy and miserable. The pump for our fuel canister decided to seize up, making our stove inoperable. That meant cold oatmeal for breakfast, no coffee for kristal, and the prospect of no hot lunch.

We then discovered that with all the recent rain, the next section of the trail was an absolute mud-fest. Combined with a lot of tall, wet grass, by the time we made it back down to the last beach area we were cold, completely drenched and muddied from the waist down. The prospect of 6 more kilometers of that, fueled only by Clif bars, was not all that appealing.

But as we were catching our breath the sun started to poke through the clouds. Oh, glorious warmth! We hung out for a couple of hours as the sky cleared and I found enough dry wood to get a small cook fire going.

By the time we headed off again we had a hot lunch in our bellies, Kristal had her coffee, and most of our clothes had dried out. The last section of the trail was much more pleasant hiking, and in the end it turned out to be a beautiful day.

We ate a delicious home cooked meal in a small, nondescript motel restaurant overlooking Bonne bay, watching whales swim by in the distance. It was a great end to our time in Gros Morne.