Western Newfoundland - Part 2

We started off our second day of hiking with big plans. We were going to go to do the Green Gardens hike. Now, if you're familiar with Gros Morne you will know that this hike is a favourite of many but you will also know there are 2 options for hiking it - the long route or the short route. The short route is 9km return and the long is a 16km loop (maybe if it was flat). We decided that we were going to do the 16km route, I was a little unsure about this because we had a topo map and at some points the hike was pretty steep, but we decided to go for it anyway. Green Gardens is trail 2 on this map in the south west corner. We started at the western parking lot.We packed up a lunch and some snacks and headed out. We hiked in to where the trail forked and took the right path, the left being the path that most people take. It wasn't too bad, we encountered another couple going to opposite direction and they seemed like they were doing fine. We began a long descent into the river valley. At this point I was thinking there was no way I would be wanting to come the other direction because we were going down for a long time and there were lots of stairs. We finally reached the river and forded it (we were prepared for this and we would have to ford it again down stream) and then rested on the other side. At this point I was exhausted and had already drank half my water, we weren't even half done the hike!

We ate lunch and discussed what we were going to do. The options were to continue on our planned route or take the other fork back to the second parking lot. I knew there was no way I could have done it, I was pretty sure Tim was more tired than he was letting on. I'm sure he could have done the planned hike but it would have been really difficult for him and impossible for me (we found out later that many people say this hike is more difficult than Gros Morne mountain) so we decided to head back to the second parking lot and hitch a ride back to our car at the other parking lot. I wasn't even sure if I was going to make it back my legs were so shaky. We realised that day that we wern't as physically ready for intense hiking as we thought we were, and we didn't have nearly enough water for a hike like that. Here's the one picture we took that day of the river we forded.
Honestly it was difficult to enjoy the beauty of the place because we were so exhausted. My advice? If you want to do this hike then take over night things because there are tent sites along the way. This would be the only way to appreciate the beauty of this hike and have a chance to explore the sea caves and beach that this hike is known for. If you don't want to do this than do the short route because it's a lot easier and just as rewarding!