Words cannot do justice
Group from Laurentian University wowed by Long Range Mountain hiking experience
Leanne Sweeney could hardly contain her excitement as she set out on a two-week adventure through western Newfoundland recently.
Sweeney was among 21 students and two professors from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont. who just spent 14 days hiking from the Lewis Hills to Gros Morne National Park as part of their outdoor leadership program.
The experience was extra special for Sweeney because, not only do both of her parents hail from Newfoundland and Labrador, but her mom is originally from Flat Bay — not far from where the hike began May 31.
Her dad is from Placentia. Sweeney, who is from Brampton, Ont., had lived in the province for a few months here and there, but never for any extended amount of time. When she was here, she never went into the backcountry.
“The whole thing was incredible and it was amazing to see Newfoundland in this way,” she said Friday, one day after the trek finished.
The group crossed the Lewis Hills and Blow-me-down Mountain ranges on the southern side of the Bay of Islands before being ferried across the bay to the North Arm Hills. They finished up by splitting into two groups that explored the opposite sides of Trout River Pond before wrapping things up with a celebratory lobster boil in Trout River.
“It was amazing going through the different landscapes and feeling so small all the time,” she said. “You’d just drop into these valleys and there would be these massive walls of rock on either side of you.”
Before deciding on this particular hike, the class spent a lot of time researching and debating what they would do to fulfill the requirement to plan and do an extended backcountry trip. Initially, they were going to go to Peru and then considered other destinations in Western and Northern Canada before finally agreeing to do the Long Range Mountains of western Newfoundland.