Gros Morne National Park - Part 2

On Monday, I recounted the first four days of my trip to Gros Morne National Park this summer. Today, I conclude with a summary of days five through eight.
 

Day 5

Lucky for us, it was a sunny beautiful day, with little wind for our hike to the top of Gros Morne Mountain. We had heard this hike could take anywhere from 6 to 10 hours and was considered very strenuous. Before we began our hike, we went to the Visitor Centre in Norris Point, where a helpful Parks Canada employee provided some clarification about the 16 km hike on the James Callaghan Trail. We were told the climb would start off with a fairly easy 1.5 hour

Such a pleasant warning

walk from the parking lot to the base. Next we would have a very hard 1.5 to 2 hour steep climb over broken rocks (shale and granite) called scree. Once we reached the top; we would then have a 3 to 4 hour trip back down. 

There was a more casual hike that wrapped around the mountain, but we selected the first option. In retrospect we were glad we took the direct route, as the alleged casual walk is not that casual in my opinion. It's full of rocks which are very hard on your feet. That is not to say the hike up the front of the mountain is a day at the beach. However, everyone we met hiking the direct route said they were glad they took the tougher steep climb than going up and down the casual route due to rocky gulches.

The walk to the base of the mountain was exactly as the park employee described. It is fairly easy and much of it was through forest which we appreciated as it blocked the sun. For us, the hike to the base took about 1hr and 15 minutes. The steep climb is as advertised. It is a very steep climb over broken rocks that never seemed to end. It felt like the mountain continually teased you as you thought you were done, only to find out you had more to go. The views going up are very nice, but the way up is not necessarily the greatest place to appreciate them and nothing compared to the views at the top of the mountain. 

Climbing the face of Gros Morne Mountain

We reached the top in 3 hours from our start off position in the parking lot. We were very tired. We had packed a lunch and our reward for reaching the top was to eat while taking in the awesome views afforded to us by being 800 meters high. Our decent was down the back of the mountain. The views of the fjords are unbelievable. The walk down is worse than the walk up as the rocks just pound your feet. People with hiking shoes were complaining so you can imagine how those hikers wearing runners felt. (We wore our hiking shoes on all the trails and were pleased we did.) Our only disappointment on this trail was that given the top of the mountain is considered an Arctic environment, the only animal we saw on our hike were Rock Ptarmigan chicks.


View from the top of Gros Morne Mountain

In total, our hike took 7 hours, which included probably just over a half an hour for lunch and picture breaks. My wife found the climb up very challenging. 

We rewarded ourselves with dinner at Chanterelles, the Sugar Hill’s fine dining restaurant. The highlight was an awesome cod wrapped in prosciutto with smoked coulis sauce sitting on a scallion shrimp rosti and lemon tart for dessert. As you have no doubt noticed, my wife and I enjoy our food.

Day 6

The weather gods decided they had provided the Goodfield’s with enough sunshine and the weather returned to rainy and misty. However, since we wanted a lazy day to recover from our Gros Morne hike, we did not really mind the rain. We purchased curry tuna sandwiches from Sugar Hill and took a leisurely drive of 25km or so past Cow Head to Parsons Pond to the Arches Provincial Park to view the arched rocks formed by sea wave erosion. The arches were interesting, but compared to what we had seen in the previous days, they dulled in comparison.

We then drove to Shallow Bay Beach which is a nice long sandy beach – unusual for Newfoundland. Unfortunately upon our arrival, the rain intensified and we had to leave. We went back to Western Brooke and drove slow to look for moose and caribou but had no success. We headed back to the Inn to rest up for what everyone told us was a must see show by the Anchors Aweigh band, at the Ocean View Hotel in Rocky Harbour.

Norris Point

Before the show we grabbed another dinner at Justin Thyme Bean & Bistro. I had chili scallops and a steak with onions and mushrooms that were excellent. My wife had a spinach salad with blue cheese and a hazelnut orange citrus dressing and salmon with black plums and apricot, both of which she thoroughly enjoyed.

The show exceeded my expectations. I would urge anyone visiting the Gros Morne area to check out the band. Please note you must reserve your seats if you have any hope of getting in. The show lasted almost 3 ½ hours and I was sad to see it end. The band is extremely entertaining. They are funny, great story tellers and excellent musicians. They play mostly local music but mix in a bit of everything else. The show was also surprisingly educational as the band provides a historical trip through Newfoundland both in their music and their banter. You really gain an appreciation of the pride Newfoundlanders have in their province and how they appreciate the tourists who come. I reiterate, a must see.

Day 7

Here’s a surprise, it was foggy and rainy again, only on this day you could cut the fog with a knife. Our intentions were to hike the Green Gardens, which is a very highly recommended trail in Woody Point. When we arrived at the trail we could not see five feet in front of us and debated whether it was worth hiking since we had almost no visibility. But as we had nothing else to do, we went for it. This trail takes you

Green Gardens Coastline

down to cliffs above a beach. We truly wondered about our intelligence as we could see absolutely nothing. About half way down the hill to the beach, the fog began to lift and our visibility began to improve. We could not see anything in the distance, but we could see immediately in front of us. After an hour or so down the hill, we arrived on flat land, which is essentially the land above the cliffs overlooking the beach. To our surprise, we were able to observe some awesome cliffs and coastline sites. I would recommend this hike, especially on a nice day. The hike back up was somewhat tiring and it took us three hours in total going up and down – not an easy hike.

We then went into Woody Point for lunch and had lobster sandwiches at the Galliott Studios, a store, gallery and restaurant (essentially the only item on the menu are lobster sandwiches). The studio has excellent coffee and lattes. While waiting for lunch, a whale swam by a boat docked at the studio giving it a good shove. Unfortunately, we did not see the whale, only the evidence of the rocking boat.
 

Day 8

Guess what? It was raining heavily again. Our best investment turned out to be North Face waterproof windbreakers we had purchased at Sporting Life earlier that summer. I cannot say enough about how our windbreakers kept us warm cut the wind. 

We were flying home later that day so we decided we would go back to the Tablelands for a 10:00 guided tour that is provided free of charge each day. The park representative was just outstanding

Tablelands in the fog

and tied together the visual surroundings with the geological history. The Tablelands are the result of the collision of the two ancient continents, that I discussed on Monday, but in this case, the way they collided caused the floor of the ocean to rise above the earth’s crust. Very little plant life grows or survives because of the heavy metal concentration in the earth, you are truly walking on the bottom of the ocean. 

If we did it again, we would take this tour at the beginning of the trip to gain a greater understanding of the geology we saw throughout the week. 

For lunch we went to Trout Lake and ate at the Seaside restaurant. The restaurant came highly recommended. We had soup and cod and it was very good, however, the restaurant is not cheap for lunch. 

Summary

Although the weather could have been better at times, my wife and I loved Gros Morne; but doing it as a pure hiking trip is not for everyone. The geology and beauty of the area are second to none and the people are friendly. I would definitely recommend visiting the Gros Morne area, particularly Norris Point, Woody Point and Rocky Harbour, for at least two to three days if you are travelling around the province.

P.S. If you are a hiker, here is a detailed list of some of the top hikes in Gros Morne.

Gros Morne National Park

Last summer my wife and I traveled to Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland. We had a fantastic time! The variety of scenery, geological history, people we met and the seafood we ate made it an awesome week; even if the weather did not always cooperate. Today and Wednesday, I am going to recap our vacation, so if you are looking for my standard tax or money blog post and have no interest in Newfoundland, you may want to hit the escape button now. However, you may want to read on and learn about this very unique national park.

Newfoundland is a large province, so we made the conscious decision to just stay in Gros Morne National Park and hike its various trails. Do not let the word "park" fool you. The park is larger than some small countries.

View from top of Gros Morne Mountain

The park is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Under the UNESCO criteria, Gros Morne qualifies as an “outstanding example representing major stages of the earth’s history” and as an “area of exceptional beauty”. The historic criterion is met because the rocks of Gros Morne and Newfoundland demonstrate the theory of plate tectonics which describes how the surface of our planet is in constant change. As I understand it, Tuzo Wilson, a Canadian geologist, suggested the idea that the Atlantic Ocean closed and reopened and that an earlier ocean basin was crushed between two colliding continents raising the Appalachian Mountains – the western side being the rocks of ancient North America and the Eastern side being the rocks of Africa.

We selected Norris Point as our base and the Sugar Hill Inn for our accommodations. The four star inn is more upscale than most options in the area and you could certainly find cheaper alternatives. The inn has very nice rooms, an excellent restaurant and was centrally located, making it easy for us to travel to Rocky Harbour, Woody Point and various other points of interest in the park.
               
For those interested in travelling to Newfoundland and Gros Morne in particular, I will provide a brief summary of what we did, where we hiked, what we saw and some of the places where we ate. Just a word of warning: if Rogers is your cellphone carrier, you may not have use of your phone (which was actually a blessing in disguise).

Day 1

We flew into Deer Lake, picked up our rental car and drove about an hour to Norris Point. As we started our drive, a sign quickly caught our attention, noting that there had been four moose/car accidents this year. We were careful not to collide with a moose in the dark.

Day 2

We woke to a rainy, misty day, with low visibility. We had read that a good rainy day activity was to visit the Discovery Centre in Woody Point and that’s where we headed. The centre has exhibits on the natural and cultural history of the area and a great lookout on the Verdana when there is visibility. In retrospect, I would suggest the Discovery Centre is better visited later in your trip, after you have hiked the area and the geological information has greater context. 

The Discovery Centre parking lot is also where you pick up the Big Lookout trail. The hike has some excellent views; unfortunately our views were limited because of the weather. The hike is uphill and we decided to use the trek as a warm-up for our future hikes, despite the rain. The hike took about  1.5 hours (after a few hikes we realized we were always at the lower end of the hike estimates provided at the beginning of the trails – so if you want a gauge, 50 year olds in fairly good shape can do most hikes in good time).

After our hike we drove to the Old Loft restaurant in Woody Point. We had lunch outside on the deck. My wife and I both had the cod, which was very fresh and pan fried. The accompanying salad and fries were also very good. By the end of the trip, we considered this restaurant one of the best restaurants we had dined at when you consider quality and price. 

The Tablelands

Following lunch we went to the nearby Tablelands. To say the Tablelands have a unique terrain is an understatement. You are essentially walking on the ocean floor. The rain and fog made for poor visibility and our view of the Tableland Mountains was impaired. However, the walk was a very easy, flat walk that can take from 1.5 to 2 hours depending on how often you veer off the main track. (I will discuss the Tablelands in greater detail in my day 7 summary.)

After returning to our car, we drove back to Norris Point, about an hour drive and checked out Neddies Harbour Inn which was our other consideration when booking our accommodations. Neddies has a beautiful view of Norris Point, however, we did not get a chance to see any of the rooms.

Day 3

The weather on day 3 was very similar to day 2 a misty, cloudy day. We decided we would hike Bakers Brook Falls, a fairly easy 2 to 2.5 hour walk and is not dependent on clear views. The walk is not very interesting, but the prize at the end is some very nice waterfalls. This was a perfect hike for a misty day.

We then went for lunch at Java Jacks which was highly rated online. The restaurant is very quaint and we had nice salads and very light fish cakes. We also tried the mussels which were fresh and large, but the broth was watery. IMHO, when preparing a broth for mussels, the water from the mussels must be drained first and the broth should be tasty enough to dip your bread. This is a nice restaurant that many people rave about, but the watery broth took the restaurant down a notch in our opinion. 

We then drove to Lobster Cove to a scenic lighthouse. I guess it is a make work project, but there were two Park Canada employees in what seemed like a 20 square foot space in the lighthouse. Anyways, I digress, the view was awesome at the lighthouse and many people bring a picnic lunch. We also loved the two red Muskoka chairs placed at the end of the little trail where we could sit and admire the view. We later learned that these signature chairs were placed strategically on many trails and scenic spots. On our subsequent hikes we would look for these two red chairs. 



View from Jenniex house in Norris Point

On our way back to the Inn we stopped at a tea house called the Jenniex house in Norris Point. The view of Bonne Bay and the Tablelands is just spectacular from this vantage point. This is a must-see picture destination.



For dinner we ate at Justin Thyme Bean and Bistro, a new restaurant that was opened only two months earlier by a husband (Justin the chef) and wife (Lynne) team. We ended up eating at this restaurant several times, since the menu is imaginative and changes daily.

We started our meal with the aptly named Justincredible mussels. Where Java Jacks’ broth was waterlogged, this broth was a taste sensation. The mussels were large and fresh and the pesto cream sauce (the water from the mussels was drained) was excellent. We soaked up all the sauce we could with Justin’s homemade bread. My wife had read online about Justin’s butter poached lobster and had called ahead asking if he could prepare lobsters. We were pleasantly surprised that not only had Justin got the lobsters as per our request, but later found out he had made a special trip to get live lobsters at the fishery given the supply is limited post lobster season. All this for two people who might not show up for their reservation. The poached lobsters were outstanding - two of the best lobsters we have ever eaten anywhere in our travels. Overall just an awesome meal, if not a cholesterol nightmare.

Day 4



Western Brooke Pond

The travel gods were finally with us. We needed a clear, sunny, beautiful day for our pre-booked boat tour of Western Brooke Pond and got that day. This tour was a must according to any review we had read about Gros Morne and it did not disappoint.  

To get to the tour you had to walk 45 minutes (this is a very long walk and many of the elderly people we passed where struggling and later told us they had not expected such a long walk) to a dock. Once your reach the dock you set-off on a two hour boat tour; which more than lived up to its billing. Don't miss this tour if you go to Gros Morne. 

The fjords of Western Brooke Pond are what caught my attention on the “Come to Newfoundland” TV advertisements that got me interested in taking this trip. I remembered thinking to myself, this place looks like Norway. As I understand it, the pond actually started as a true fjord (which is saltwater) but as the glaziers moved and the land closed, it became a fresh water pond and is technically not a true fjord anymore. The scenery and fjords are spectacular.

After the tour we planned to hike Snug Harbour in the Western Brooke Pond area. However, at the start of the hike there was a water crossing which ran about 4 feet deep. To forge the water passage you needed a bathing suit, boots or water shoes, none of which we had.

As we were returning to the parking lot we saw a moose about 50 yards away in a field. Two minutes after we pulled out of the parking lot towards Cow Head, we saw three caribou. We had lunch and then headed back to undertake the Coastal Trail hike. It was very windy and while there was a nice ocean view, the scenery was mostly scattered driftwood. Not one of our favourite hikes, but supposedly it has a great view at sunset. One cool thing on this hike was the Costal Tuckamore, where coastal trees grow only on the protected side of the water so that they seem to lean away from the sea as they grow.  The mini forests have openings and you could walk under these contorted trees if you wished, however, they are pretty eerie and you would almost expect to be attacked by bats or witches :)

We had a light meal as we got psychologically ready for our penultimate hike of Gros Morne Mountain the next morning.

On Wednesday, I will conclude my Gros Morne travel recap. Hopefully, I have you sufficiently interested in Gros Morne and Newfoundland to read my conclusion. If not, you may want to at least read my Day 5 summary to see if I survived my trek up Gros Morne Mountain in one piece.

The Revised T1135 – This Could Get Ugly for Taxpayers, Investment Advisors & Accountants

I’m back from a summer of hiking and golfing. I had a great time going east to west across Canada. Specifically, I went with my wife to Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland which was incredible (pictures and blog to follow in the next few weeks). This was followed by a boys’ golf trip to Predator Ridge in Vernon, BC, a short drive from Kelowna. I could not ask for much more; except for the course marshals at Predator to take some chill pills.


Western Brooke Pond
Newfoundland

All this crisscrossing of Canada did not leave me much time to work on my book so I am still sitting on two chapters; I either get traction this fall or the book dies an early death. I also did not take any of the guitar lessons my wife bought for me, but I intend to book lessons in the fall, so watch out Jimmy Page.

The T1135

To provide some symmetry to my return to blogging, I start off where I left off. You may recall that my last blog discussed the revised T1135 Foreign Income Verification Form ("T1135"). In that post I discussed the new reporting requirements, which now includes the following:

• The name of the specific foreign bank/financial institution holding funds outside Canada
• For each foreign property identified on the T1135, the maximum funds/cost amount for the property during the year and cost amount at the end of the year (the old form only required the cost amount at the end of the year if at anytime in the year you exceeded the threshold)
• For each foreign property identified on the T1135, the income and capital gain/loss generated (the old form asked for total income or gains from all foreign property in one lump sum)
• Specific country where each foreign property is located (the old form had pre-defined groupings based on each continent for all the property on an aggregate basis) 

The T3/T5 Exclusion

I concluded my July 2nd post by saying that “There is one important saving grace to these rules. If the income for a foreign property is reported on a T3 or T5, the details do not have to be reported. This will exempt most U.S. or foreign stocks held with Canadian brokerages; but the details for property held outside Canadian institutions will be burdensome”.

While the above statement is essentially correct, the CRA’s administrative position in regard to this exemption may prove problematic. You see, the CRA is saying that even where you hold a foreign stock or bond in an account with a Canadian brokerage firm that issues a T3 or T5 for that account; if that security does not pay income in the form of a dividend or interest and thus is not reported on the T3 or T5, the specific stock or bond will not be excluded and will have to be reported in detail on the T1135. This position was recently confirmed by a CRA representative to one of my tax managers.

In addition, it must be noted you will still be required to file the T1135 if the total cost amount of your foreign holdings exceeds $100,000 at anytime during the year, even if dividends or interest is reported on a T3 or T5. See the example discussed in this article by Jamie Golembek, where the CRA representative states you would still need to file the form and check the reporting exclusion box for the stocks reported on a T-slip.

The Tax to English Version

 

So what does this all mean in English? Say you own 25 foreign stocks held at a Canadian brokerage that have a total cost of $150,000, but five of those stocks do not pay dividends or fail to pay a dividend in that year. As we now understand the CRA’s position, even though the 20 dividend paying stocks do not need to be individually listed, the 5 non-dividend paying stocks must be reported. Thus, you will need to tick the box on the T1135 Form to claim the exclusion for the 20 stocks, but you will also have to determine the highest cost amount of each of the five non-excluded stocks during the year (troublesome if you bought and sold) and the cost amount at the end of the year in addition to providing other information such as country location and capital gain or loss.

In the example above, if all 25 stocks pay dividends that will be reported on a T3 or T5, you will still have to file the T1135 and check the exclusion box; however, you do not need to report all the details of each individual stock. Clear as mud.

For people with only a few foreign holdings, this is not much of an issue. However, I have clients who are in private client programs with the large Canadian financial institutions that own 20-50 shares of multiple foreign stocks or have private managers running their money who have upwards of 50 U.S. and foreign stock/bond holdings. This means that the client, the advisor, or their accountant, or probably a combination of all three must review all these stocks to determine which ones are exempt from reporting because they paid a dividend or interest that was reported on a T3 or T5 from those that did not have any income reported on a T3 or T5.

My tax manager said the CRA representative he spoke with, gave him the impression that the CRA’s position has not gone over very well. Let’s hope the CRA simplifies life for many Canadians and just exempts any foreign security held at any Canadian Institution whether income is reported on a T-slip or not.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.