On the evening of May 15, 2013, IAT Chairperson Paul Wylezol and IATNL executive member Delano Pittman set off in an open boat across chilly and windswept Parsons Pond on their way to Western Brook Gulch to continue work on the Devil’s Bite Trail.
After crossing the 14 km (9 mile) pond, Paul and Delano settled into “Pittman Lodge” near the mouth of Western Brook,
where they cast their line and caught a half dozen on the first day of trouting season.
The evening’s catch keeping cool on the shore
Rising early the next morning
and pausing to let a moose cross the river
the two-man chainsaw gang crossed the back end of the pond in boat,
then hiked 7 kms (4 miles) in warming sun to reach the worksite at the inside valley,
IAT Chairperson Paul Wylezol with chainsaw in hand in Western Gulch
where the trail climbs a screefield alongside a waterfalls to the only exit out of the gulch.
Along the way they spotted five moose, three caribou, two beavers and a bald eagle
Caribou on the “mish”
Days-old moose calf
and stopped for lunch at Middle Cascade, between the gulch’s two half-mile ponds.
After 4 hours of cutting halfway up the valley slope, the duo had to pack up and hike out before the diminishing light of a 9:00pm sunset.
The retreating sun lights up a waterfalls 2,000ft above the canyon floor
Arriving back to the boat just in time, Paul and Delano finally zip across the still pond with minds now focussed on downing another day’s catch!
