Goose Bay Trip Log continued... Click here for PAGE 3 |
Check Glenn Call's website for his ideas on the Trans Labrador Highway: |
Goose Bay Trip Log -- PAGE 2 -- |
DAY 15 -- Thursday, 4 July 2002 Happy birthday, Naomi! On the road early, we drove into St. John's, NF and stopped first at the Harley-Davidson dealership, owned by Mark's father. (Mark has the dealership in Gander, NF.) Liz was looking for a head rag, but they didn't have the kind she wanted. Next, we found a large bookstore, Chapter's - similar to Books-a-Million. Starbuck's coffee house, connected to the store, was open. The guy there led us into the bookstore (closed at the time) and back to the computer section. After opening an account and dropping a toonie (a $2 Canadian coin) into the slot, we got on line and had 20 minutes of high-speed access. E-mailed family, checked the weather, etc. Just down the road, we found a Wal-Mart, then the bank to turn some travelers checks into Canadian cash. With business matters taken care of, we drove up to Signal Hill. What a view - from all directions. Took several photos. From there, we drove back down the streets of St. John's. A young girl told us a few days ago, when we were at Lomond River, "If you're into shopping or drinking, you've got to go to St. John's!" Someone else said that George Street there has more liquor per capita delivered annually than any other place in Canada. It's a continuous row of bars, we've heard. Needless to say, we didn't go to George Street, but on our way back through St. John's, we made a corner parking space and went into a couple of antique shops. Also stopped in a neat pet supply shop - The Doghouse. |
We got on the most direct route of of town and back to the TCH. Turned back to the west... and when we got to Route 80, turned north and drove 12 klicks (kilometers) into the town of Dildo, NF. Was a surprised to find a really nice museum - the Dildo Interpretation Centre - with old fisherman's tools and many other old things on display, including one of the finest old cast iron stoves we've ever seen. There were two aquariums with a good selection of sea creatures: cod fish, flounder and conner and a "touch tank" with crabs, starfish, mussels, sea urchins and seaweed. They also had a selection of "Captian Dildo" t-shirts, postcards, and other gifts. The young folks working there were sharp. They welcomed us and were very eager to answer all of our questions. On display outside was a replica of a giant squid caught in Dildo in December 1933. We sat at the picnic tables on their seaside deck to write our postcards. The curator of the Centre came out and talked to us there. Good stop! Mailed our cards from the local Post Office on our way back to the main highway to insure they'd have the Dildo postmark. Stopped to get a photo of the Dildo road sign on our way out of town. |
Back this afternoon to Clarenville at Route 230 to Tim Horton's and to the grocery store, then drove northward for 30 or so klicks to a small campground, Cabot Hi-Way Cabins. We'd had a very good day. Started with overcast, but the clouds blew away, leaving clear skies by noon. Glad to find a place to settle in a bit early. It gave us time to relax and read. Had hot, clean showers. Plugged in the heater tonight, as temps began to drop quickly this afternoon. Nice, quiet night. |
Lighthouse below Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland. |
View of St. John's from Signal Hill. |
DAY 16 -- Friday, 5 July 2002 Woke up to fog and cold, nippley weather. Dressed for today's ride with our fleece pants and jackets from REI over our jeans and our rainsuits on top. Nice and warm. Followed Rt. 230 north and found breakfast at a restaurant about 30 minutes into the ride. Drove on up to see the Cape Bonivista Lighthouse. There, we stood on the edge of the cliffs and watched (and photographed) the Atlantic puffins playing. Really neat birds, their back and white feathers are handsome and their orange feet distinguish them from a similar, more common bird in the area. |
The Atlantic Puffin. |
Puffin playground. |
Bird house. |
Had plans to make the loop -- Rt. 230 up and back down on Rt. 235, but when we stopped for gas, the girl working the station told us that the other road was in much worse condition. The freezing and thawing have to play hell with the paving. Thanks to her honesty, we decided we'd take Rt. 230, a somewhat bumpy trek itself, back to the TCH. Rode back through the Terra Nova National Park toward Gambo, NF. Ran out of the clouds and into the sun around 1:30. Stopped at Mary Brown's (NFLD's answer to KFC) to take off some clothes and to split a high priced fried chicken sandwich for lunch. Turned north at Gambo onto Rt. 320. Drove through Hare Bay, NF, a very picturesque area. A bit further up, in Centreville, we stopped... Whoa!... for much needed gas. The reserve light was on! Jim said he'd had his head so far into the scenery, he forgotten everything else. Got directions to the fish market in the small town of Wareham, NF - the turn off wasn't even a mile ahead. Jim bought several small packages of smoked salmon there. We continued this loop, going through a heavy fog bank as we neared the northern edge of the peninsula. In the Deadman's Bay and Musgrove Harbor areas, along the coast, the open ocean waves were crashing just yards away from the road. There, temps had sudden fluctuations -- dropping 20 degrees in spots. Warm, extremely cold, warm, extremely cold... this happened over and over along a 20-30 mile stretch. Was pretty wild. |
If you don't like the weather -- wait a few minutes. It'll change. |
Made it around to a campground, Jonathan's Park Pond, a few miles north of Gander. It had once been a Provincial Park, but is now on a 50 year private lease. Found the best site... as open and near the water as possible. Been told that the breeze off the water helps to keep the number of black flies to a minimum... Ha!!! Met Brian, a young, local fisherman who dropped by to talk while we were setting up. He and some of his friends were camping there this weekend, too. We had a good supper with a nice campfire. Showers were in one building; toilets in another. There was no exhaust in either. Was quite hot and humid in the showers, but we were glad they were available. A couple at the campground, Moses and Joan Herald, from Glovertown, NF, sat with us at the picnic table tonight. They were very friendly. We all had a nice chat by the fire. Joan went back to their camper and came back with gifts... a sealed pack of their own smoked herring fillets and a large mason jar of canned moose meat. That'll be interesting! It's supposed to be similar to our beef stew. Breeze or not, the black flies and mosquitos joined us! Had to cut the evening short. |
CANNED MOOSE MEAT -- a gift we will not soon forget. |
DAY 17 -- Saturday, 6 July 2002 We rode the bike into Gander this morning. Found breakfast at Tim Horton's on the TCH. From there we went to the Visitor's Center. Parked in front, as the other spaces were filled by four Goldwings with trailers of different sorts. One had a B&F bunkhouse like ours. It belonged to Ron and Lil Trudeau from Falher, Alberta. Spoke with the bikers - all from the Alberta province. Said they needed to get their bikes serviced (an oil change). We suggested, even though they had "Wings" to take them to Mark at the Gander H-D, as he could probably change the oil. (Didn't think about it being Saturday, which we found out later was Mark's day off.) Took time to enjoy the North Atlantic Aviation Museum's historic exhibits and vintage aircraft. The young folks there let Jim use the computer to check e-mail. Then, just outside Gander, a gravel road (just one of many) led us to the "Silent Witness Memorial", a tribute to the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles and aircrew, 256 in all, who lost their lives in the DC-8 Arrow Air Disaster (December, 1985). |
BLACK FLY / UP CLOSE & PERSONAL |
Our next stops were for groceries and gas. On the way back through town, we stopped at a BBQ joint, considering it for lunch, although BBQ wasn't what we really wanted. Out of the blue, from across the street at the traffic light, Mark (from the H-D shop) pulled in beside us. He had the day off and was out, enjoying his bike. When we told him what we were looking for, he escorted us up the street to another place for lunch, Lilly's Landing. The "Wingers" had already found it. They had almost finshed eating when we got there. Had a light sprinkle outside while we were ordering. Liz had to go out and bring in the small box of Tide she'd left on the seat of the bike. The sprinkle didn't last long and had stopped by the time we were ready to get back on the bike. As soon as we got back to camp, Liz took off for the laundry. (They charged only 75 cents per load to wash and dry. Not bad.) It rained off and on during laundry time, but cleared off later. Jim built another fire and finished cooking all of our semi-smoked salmon. Later, Liz went over to visit with Joan and Moses, taking our leftover detergent (our quart-sized zip-lock can only hold so much) and a nice piece of our salmon for them to enjoy. Nice folks. We had a piece of fish and a fresh salad for supper before taking showers. Hit the sack as the sun was setting. After midnight, a couple of hours later, Jim went over to ask Moses to turn George Jones down a bit. Folks up here really love country music. |
DAY 18 -- Sunday, 7 July 2002 At 7:00 our skies were overcast and the temp was 65 degrees. We packed up and ran the 15 klicks into Gander... again to Tim Horton's for coffee and a muffin. The morning was going smoothly 'til we were on our way out to the bike and Jim farted and more... he shat in his pants -- too many damn bran muffins!! Forgot the first rule of getting old: never trust a fart. We opened the camper and he took out what he needed. Was walking a little funny when he went back inside to clean up. The skies were looking heavy, so we took time to put on our rainsuits before leaving the parking lot. Just up the road toward Lewisporte from Gander, there was a large, dark, mucky mess in the right-hand lane which had smeared a bit into the left-hand lane, too. The road crew had it almost cleaned up when we reached the flagman who waved us through on the open lane. At the other end, Jim asked what had happened. The road worker told us there'd been a peat moss spill. Jim remarked, "Oh, thought it might have been a moose!" (If it had been moose, it would have been a small herd.) It was a real mess. We also hit some road construction where they were building a new bridge on the TCH this morning. |
Turned north to Lewisporte on Rt. 340 and within a mile had to yield to a moose cow and her lanky, young calf crossing the road. She didn't look like she appreciated the roar of the Harley. We slowed a good distance from them, as we knew better than to fool with 1500 pounds of pissed off Mama Moose. By the way, "moose tracks" in Newfoundland are not a type of ice cream, but twin skid marks going down the center of the road!! You see them more often than you'd think. Supposed to be at the ferry office in Lewisporte to confirm our reservations by 2:00 to leave at 4:00. Since we had plenty of time, we stopped at McDonald's for a cup of coffee. Put our rainsuits back in the saddlebags. Skies were clearing. There was a man there wih an early 50's model, all original Crystler in mint condition with only 22 thousand miles on it. Several fellows stopped to admire the old car. Got directions to the local laundry and went to wash Jim's jeans along with a few other items. While we were waiting, we talked to a young couple, Austin and Donna Blanchard from Prince Edward Island, who'd been camping in the area. Austin, an excellent craftsman, showed us a sample of his work, a carved, stained and painted, detailed, wooden wall plaque of an Atlantic puffin. Very impressive! Makes similarly designed pieces depicting other wildlife, too and sells his work. Nice to talk to them - time passed by quickly. |
When we got to the ticket office, we learned that the ferry was going to be late. On its trip from Goose Bay, a lady had fallen down a steep set of stairs. Her injuries were such that the ferry had to veer off course and take her in toward St. Anthony, NF to meet a small boat that could get her to the hospital. We went ahead and got our ticket, though we were told not to expect the ferry 'til between 6:00 and 9:00 in the evening. The day had gotten hot and it was time for lunch. Found a place called Restaurant 97. (Think it was named for the year it opened for business.) Met four bikers who were traveling together from Connecticut and Massachusetts that were headed for Goose Bay, too. They invited us to join them, as they'd just ordered their meals. Good guys... Jack Phelps, Paul Kilventon, Chip Carlketon and Cosmas Poulos. Jack and Chip were on R100GS BMWs. Cos and Paul were on Honda(?) street bikes. After lunch we all bombarded a "health food" store next door when the owners dropped by on their day off to water plants... The owner of the shop was a Harley rider and he and his wife invited us to come out to their house for the afternoon if we wanted, since the ferry was running late. (We never got there.) The four other bikers bought some items, then left for the ferry ticket office. We stopped for ice for the cooler and snacks to take on the ferry. It was very hot and the wind was still. To break our waiting time and for the breeze, we rode as far north above Lewisporte on Rt. 342 as we could before getting back to the heat of the parking lot to wait for the ferry. |
Went inside to get an update on the ferry's whereabouts. Still in line, the four guys were at the ticket window. Computers had been down, which had brought ticket sales to a halt for the past hour or so. The guys were just getting their tickets and they looked tired and disgusted. Once outside, they decided to go for a ride themselves - to cool off! When they got back, it was time for supper. Jim and three of the guys walked over toward the Subway on the next block. About the time they got there and Liz caught up with them, the Chinese restaurant across the street opened. Decided to eat there instead. Cos joined us, too. Chinese food in Newfoundland leaves much to be desired. It was bad! Think we ALL would have been happier with a sandwich. An hour or so after supper, we moved the bikes "up front", as everybody started lining up for the ferry, which now wasn't expected 'til 10:30 or later. Another biker from New Jersey, drove in on his BMW Funduro and joined us all in the line. |
Jim pulled a piece of our cooked salmon out of the cooler. Took turns pinching bites off - us and the other bikers. Think Cos really liked it! The guy from NJ, Duane Kerzic, took off on his bike and came back with a twelve-pack of beer for the group. The ferry actually pulled in at the docks just before dark. |
Back into town to Wal-Mart. Found "no-see-em-proof" bug jackets - fine net, over the head jackets with elastic bands at the wrists and waist. They'll be a necessity if we break down or crash in the wilderness of Labrador. Locals have told us that the life expectancy of an adult with no bug protection was three hours. (Bullshit??? Maybe; maybe not.) Also heard that an adult could not survive more than 1600 black flies bites. Ouch! How'd they come up with that figure? Told, too, to get some large rubber bands for our pants, at our ankles, as the black flies will crawl up your pants legs 'til they find exposed skin to feast on... nasty little bastards. |
Then we waited and we waited and we waited, as the ferry had to be unloaded (people, pets, cars, trucks, and walk-on passengers) and the staff had to prepare the cabins, baths and everything for our voyage. Randy Whitehorne, from Labrador, who'd taken the ferry many times, talked to us while we waited. Said that the "turn over time" (clean up time) had never been under three hours, but it was quick this time, as the delay had apparently given the staff time to do as much as they could to prepare the boat before they came to shore. They finally let us board just after 11:30pm. We had to tie the bike down, then got to our cabin minutes later. It was small, with two good bunks and a sink. The bathrooms/showers were down the hall. This was our l-o-n-g-e-s-t day yet! Time to hit the sack. It was pretty interesting watching Liz climb up to the top bunk - the space was kind of tight with low overhead. Took us a while to get settled. Music and chatter from the bar could be heard that night at our end of the corridor. The old boat vibrated a little, too, especially our cabin door. Jim fixed it. He actually "put a sock in it". The cabin turned out to be the best buy of the trip. We had privacy from the other passengers (and their kids) and a quiet, nice place to rest. Not everyone had cabins. Some folks made their nests in the seats in the two "movie" areas or on the floor between the seats and even in the isle at times. We were lucky that Jim had called in early March to reserve a cabin. |
DAY 19 -- Monday, 8 July 2002 Our first day on the ferry began at 7:30. Liz ran for the shower, then down to eat b'fast. Made a sausage and egg sandwich with her leftovers and brought it back to Jim in the cabin. After Jim had a shower, we walked around for a bit inside and out and up on the deck. Had kind of a long day... bored. Not much to do on this ferry! Of course you eat all of your meals on the ferry - down the steepest set of stairs. We sat with the other bikers at lunch today. Food on the ferry was a lot like that from a mess hall crossed with hospital food. (Jim always got the last piece of carrot cake!!) Saw the bikers on deck from time to time, too. Saw many iceburgs from the deck during the course of the day. |
STORMS IN THE AREA TODAY |
ICEBURG ALLEY !!!! |
Jim talked with Randy some more today about things to check on and people to see when we get to Goose Bay. |
Saw many more iceburgs than pictured here. Just showing how they vary shape. |
Liz caught this shot from the deck as a storm moved away. |
Sat down for the movie tonight... The Perfect Storm, Titanic might have been more to the point!! Afterwards, we went back to the cabin to read for a while. |
When Liz was ready for bed, Jim decided to walk back outside to the upper deck, as the ferry was making a planned stop at Cartwright, Labrador. Had the ferry been on time yesterday, we would have been there earlier this afternoon. Anyway, Jim just walked up to get a night photo of the area. Within minutes, he went back to the cabin to get Liz. She had to go up with him! Threw on some clothes and grabbed a jacket. We went up to the deck to see, of all things, the Northern Lights. Amazing! And very unusual this time of year. The cool temps brought them out... at first in a dancing, diagonal pattern low to the horizon, then vertical and all around in different places. Finally, before we had to go back inside to escape the cold, they formed a whole band, like sheer curtains, across the night sky. The lights were mainly white, but there were subtle highlights of blues and pinks that would dull off, then brighten up again in "waves". We were so pleased to get to see them - something we'd heard about and seen pictures of all of our lives. They were truely awesome! Locals say if you sing a certain song to them, they'll come to you and if you whistle at them, they'll dance for you. Hey, you can't believe everything you hear. |
It was late when we came back inside and although we were elated about seeing the Northern Lights, it didn't take us long to fall asleep tonight. DAY 20 -- Tuesday, 9 July 2002 We were both awake by 7:30 this morning. Had showers, then went down to breakfast together. Liz spent a little time this morning sitting at one of the tables in the bar playing solitaire with a deck of cards that were on loan from the bar while Jim spent some time throwing toonies away in the slot machines. We were so ready to get off the ferry!! Packed up our things mid-morning and took our bags and pillows down to the camper. Turned in our keys early, too. We both carried our books around during the rest of the day. Spent a lot of time reading, as the ferry got even more boring. The long stretch through Lake Melville was smooth, but there was not much to see. While we were in the lower part of the lake, the skies were overcast and filled with smoke that had drifted in from all of the forest fires in the Montreal area. Skies were extremely dreary. We were supposed to reach Goose Bay between 10:00 and 11:00 this morning, according to the original schedule, but because of our late start, we didn't arrive 'til 4:30pm. The ferry will change its route next year. Instead of leaving from Lewisporte, it will leave from St. Anthony, NF at the top of the Gros Morne peninsula. Will be a much shorter trip. Lewisporte's economy will be cut dramatically. It will no longer be the "Gateway to the North". |
Got a picture of Jack, Chip, Paul and Cos with Liz before we all headed down to get our bikes ready for whatever lay ahead. |
Goose Bay, Labrador! All of the single bikes left ahead of us. We were delayed a few minutes, as we had the camper and were behind some large containers (tractor-trailer loads) which we had apparently picked up at Cartwright last night. Took some time to get around them and off the ramp. Drove off the ferry through mud puddles and gravel to the wet, paved road into town. |
This was our first view of Happy Valley-Goose Bay... potholes full of water and mud, mud, mud. Glad is wasn't raining. |
Goose Bay, three weeks ago had record cold temps, with snow and Lake Melville was still iced over. Two weeks ago, they had record heat and forest fires in the area which required two places just to the north to be evacuated for a day or two. This week, just in the last day or so, there was record rainfall here. We didn't know how badly this would affect the Trans Labrador Highway, but were soon to find out. Thankfully, it wasn't raining when we arrived this afternoon. Everything was just muddy as hell. Our first stop was at the Visitor's Center. They gave us directions to several places. When we pulled in at the hardware store to hopefully find face masks to take with us on the gravel road, the "travelers four" were walking out with their masks in hand. Not that they'd need them today; just wanted to be prepared, too. When they drove off, they were headed for Churchill Falls, planning to make the first leg of the Trans Lab Highway (gravel road) before dark. Wishful thinking... as it turned out, they got there after 10:00. When we came out of the hardware store, a lady and a young man approached us in the parking lot. She introduced herself and her son, Jeffrey. Cindy Wall is the "morning show lady" at CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Company (the radio station) in Goose Bay. We answered their questions about the bike and our trip. They were both very nice. Before the conversation ended, Cindy asked us to stop by the station tomorrow morning for an interview. We were a little hesitant, but she assured us that it would be very informal. Told her we'd try to come by before noon. |
The local library was open today, but their computers were down and the librarian didn't seem to care and was not much more than just barely polite -- well, maybe she had had a tough day. She did suggest we check back in an hour or check again tomorrow. Time for supper, so we headed back up the road to Tim Horton's - the first one we'd seen since Gander, NF. As we were about to turn in, we passed Duane Kerzic (the biker from NJ) going in the opposite direction on his Beemer. He turned around and followed us to the parking lot. Said he'd just had pizza and was heading out to the Trans Lab Highway toward Churchill Falls. We told him that the other four riders had left an hour ago and that we were planning to stay in Goose Bay through tomorrow to give us time to drive up to Northwest River and tour around the area. He took off saying something about catching up with the other guys, and we went inside to eat. During supper, we talked to a local man who was sitting at the table beside us. He's known as Gunner. Nice guy. |
Just as we were finishing our meal, Duane pulled back into the parking lot, He and the bike were covered in mud - he'd had dumped it. Said he'd been running along about 40mph and had felt secure so he had upped it to around 50mph, just before he hit a really slick spot (as we found out later, there were lots of them) and had been thrown off of the bike when it went down and then high sided on him. Said he slid down the road 30 feet or so in front of the bike. His chest, at his ribs, was a bit red and sore and, of course, he was badly shaken up. We all talked to him and suggested he might want to go over to the hospital just across the street to get checked out. He didn't seem to think that was necessary. The bike was bent out of shape, the handlebars and the Jesse pannier mounts. The right-side rearview mirror was also gone. Gunner offered to let Duane use tools at his home workshop to work on the bike. Liz asked if he thought he'd be interested in just forgetting about doing the Trans Lab and getting back on the ferry. Jim pointed out that Duane needed to make a decision, and fast, as we'd been off of the ferry for two and a half hours or so and it would be pulling out soon for the return leg, if it hadn't already left. He also told Duane that it didn't look like he was much interested in a gravel road trip right now. We offered to follow him back out to the docks and make sure he was alright and that's what we did. |
The ferry was still in the harbor. The girl at the ticket office told Duane he could drive inside the gate and line up with the other bikers there and pay once he'd boarded. As he drove in to join the others, two or three Goldwings, it started to rain. Now that we felt Duane was safe and in good hands, we went inside the office and put on our rainsuits before driving the 5+ miles back to town. Talked with Duane after we got back home and found out that the gal bartender was so surprised to see Duane back on the ferry that she kept buying him drinks all night -- maybe to ease the pain??? Guess every cloud has a silver lining. Checked in at Hotel North ($90 bucks a night). Found a room on the first floor, located so that we could park the bike and camper just outside in clear view from our window. Rain continued to fall, steadily through the night. The Goose Bay area was getting drenched, yet again. Made calls home to family and friends. The motel room was nice and clean, but the furniture was poorly arranged. We tried to figure a way to move things around, because to watch the TV from the bed, we had to turn our heads strongly to the left. There was no way to fix the problem (the bed was screwed to the wall) and the strain got old - quick. Took showers and hit the sack. Day 21 -- Wednesday, 10 July 2002 Up at the crack of dawn. Walked over for breakfast at the A&W, a short walk up the street, with an umbrella. It was still raining. The A&W seemed to be the local gathering place for a morning cup of coffee. Spent most of our morning doing laundry and watching the rain come and go. |
Jim left Liz, with her book, at the laundry and rode off to check out a few things. The computers were still down at the library, so he rode over to the local bike shop and met a couple of guys that had just ridden the Trans Lab road on Honda 650s -with full knobs- and were waiting for a new sprocket to arrive on next day air, as the gravel and rock dust had finished off one. They seemed to think we were crazy as hell to try the road on a Softail, let alone pulling a camper. Jim met George Rogers there, THE local H-D rider, and he allowed as how our style back tire was too slick for the road. Turns out Jim should have had mud and snow tires mounted right then. Jim took a short ride to the beginning of the Trans Labrador Highway. It was slick and touchy and the top speed for him seemed to be about 25mph. The record rains of the past week had softened the rock dust and gravel and made staying upright an iffy proposition. Was easy to see why Duane had dumped his bike, even though it was set up for kind of this shit. Back to sit with Liz while the clothes finished drying, Jim didn't report anything about "the road" to her, as he did not want her to worry. Was hoping it would dry out some before morning. Still sprinkling out... damn, damn. After taking the clean clothes back to the motel, we drove over to the CBC. Tony, their TV guy, greeted us and said that Cindy had told him about meeting us yesterday. While we were talking to him, Cindy came into the office. They'd made plans. Tony took his equipment outside and got us to sit with the bike for the interview. It was very informal and Tony made us quite comfortable. It began to sprinkle lightly. We all went back inside for a few minutes, then Tony came back outside with us and wrapped up the interview before we cranked up the bike (for that Harley sound) and drove away. The interview would be broadcast'd tomorrow morning. |
Came back in for gas at the station by the traffic light and found "fish and chips" at a small place across the street for lunch - was pretty good. Went out to the Air Museum on the military base to find Max Peddle, another fellow we were supposed to look up, but missed him. Back at the motel, we prepped the bike for tomorrow... and Jim took the extra tank to the gas station for a fill, for an extra 3 1/4 gallons for the 175 miles with no service stations. When we walked down to the Subway for supper, the wind was strong and the rain was falling lightly. Later, Jim called and made reservations at the motel in Churchill Falls for tomorrrow night -- positive thinking. Slept warm and dry tonight, but Jim tossed and turned with the knowledge of what we would face tomorrow. Still hadn't mentioned his inspection of "the road" to Liz. |
We took the paved road north, out to the Innu villiage of Sheshatshit -- they changed the spelling to Sheshatshiu recently. Jim liked the old spelling better. Across the bridge was Northwest River and THE END of the road in the northeastern part of the North American Continent. This was as far north as we could possibly go by paved road. (You can reach this point by road alone, no ferries are necessary.) Posted a couple of cards at the post office and went to a nice little museum there with a small coffee shop. Not much else besides a few houses and the satisfaction of having gone as far as possible. Our return to Goose Bay was in a slow drizzle on the frost heaved, bumpy, but paved, road. |
The absolute END OF THE ROAD on the Northeastern coast of the North American continent. |
ALL WRAPPED UP !!!! |
DAY 22 -- Thursday, 11 July 2002 We had the "continental breakfast" in the room today and were on the road by 7:30am. Stopped for ice and the fellow there shook his head when he heard where we were going on the Harley. We'd been told all sorts of things about the Trans Labrador Highway, a gravel, class "A" road. One fellow on the ferry had suggested to Jim that we ride out to the road sign, take a photo and get back on the ferry to Newfoundland and go home by way of good paved roads. Others had told us that we'd love it, would have few problems, if any and it would be the trip of a lifetime. Some had said that they wouldn't drive the road without a hefty, four-wheel drive vehicle. Even the map we have of Labrador has this note: "The Trans Labrador Highway, Route 500, is a basic gravel road, and in places, narrow and winding,but with ongoing improvements." We were about to see for ourselves what "the road" was like. |
We started in light rain which continued on and off all day. The road was real wet in places with loose gravel, potholes, and wet ruts all along. Stopped a couple of times to stretch, including once to gas up from our extra tank. Couldn't stop for long or the black flies would find us. The wet road was tricky... we couldn't see the potholes 'til they were just in front of the bike. Some were deep and filled with water; others were more shallow. Our worst enemies on this part of the road were the road graders. As they scraped the road, they left an even layer of gravel about 1 or 2 inches deep and filled the potholes with the loose stuff. The bike just danced around on this surface. One guy described it as "riding on marbles" and he was right on the money. |
Check Glenn Call's website for his ideas on the Trans Labrador Highway: |
OH SHIT! WHAT HAVE WE DONE ????? |
Along the way, about mid-day, two RVs, headed toward Goose Bay, had stopped for a break. When we passed by, they had a video camera pointed at us and waved like they knew us. Fellows in a truck we met later on the road gave us a friendly wave, too. We found out why later. |
OLD ROAD |
NEW ROAD |
PORTABLE FILLING STATION ...a necessity along this route. |
Where the road came near lakes and rivers, there were two or three spots where we actually saw small, rustic houses(hunting cabins). They were all different, but beside each one was a shed and an outhouse. Don't think these were permanent residences as the were 50-60 miles in the middle of nowhere. |
A BRIGHT SEA-FOAM GREEN MOSS COVERED THE RIDGES. |
MARBLES !!!!!!! |
LEARNED TO HATE ROADGRADERS ---- FRESHLY GRADED AND SLICK AS HELL WHEN WET ---- This is the actual visual image we most often remember of this part of "the road". |
WHAT CAN WE SAY?---- DUMPED IT!!! NOW WHO'S GONNA HELP US PICK THE BIKE BACK UP, OUT HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WILDERNESS? (IT'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT WHEN YOU BUY YOUR NEXT BIKE.) |
We'd only seen 6-8 vehicles along the way today... could be a while before someone came by to help. Within 10 minutes or so, we heard a vehicle coming... miles away... coming toward us from Churchill Falls. Luckily, it was two young guys on their way out to work. We disconnected the trailer from the hitch and they helped us push/pull the bike to an upright position. A tractor-trailer truck came from the other direction -- flying! Heard him coming from a distance, so we were able to get their truck and our camper moved to safety before he plowed through. When we got the camper back on the bike, the young men went on their way. (We didn't get their names, but remain very grateful.) Drove the last ten or so miles into Churchill Falls. Whew! Was good to see that the roads around the small town were paved! Jim came up with his own name for the Trans Lab Highway -- calls it "THE ADRENALIN HIGHWAY"! First things first. Found the only gas station in town and filled both tanks. A man from the states, on his way from Lab City, had stopped there to have his tire fixed before going on to Goose Bay. He showed us a long, slender rock from "the road" he held in his hand. Said it had gone through his tire and fell out when they took the tire off its rim. He was saving the rock as a souvenier. We didn't realize it at the time but the sharp gravel was fast eating the back tire off of our bike!!! |
Checked in at the motel, the Churchill Falls Inn. While Liz went inside to sign in, a man pulled up to Jim in the parking lot and said he recognzed the bike and the camper. Wanted to tell us he'd heard the interview this morning on the radio. That explained why we'd ben getting all of the friendly waves today! Folks all over this province mst listen to the CBC's morning show. Was 2:00pm when we checked in. It felt like we'd been on the road for much longer than we had. Liz took things to the room an Jim took the bike and camper, both filthy from today's run, to the local trailer dumping station to wash off all the grime. Wish we'd taken a picture! Later, we found snacks at the grocery and the internet at the library and mailed things from the post offce. At Churchill Falls (a company town), the town office, the library, the grocery, the otel, the town's only restaurant, a conference room, the post office, the K-12 scool, and the rec center (of sorts), with an inside swimming pool, and probably more... are all located in the same building. Nice in the winter months to be able to make one stop tofind everything you need. The church, gas station, a couple of bars and a private lodge are separate, but within blocks of the main building. All of the houses, mobile homes, and apartments in town are owned by the company and are reasonably rented to the employees. The housing is equipped with the four major appliances which are maintained by the company. Your status with the company determines what kind of housing you get. Sounds a bit strange to an outsider. |
Sat down together for a light supper in the restaurant. Talked to a fellow afterwards in the conference room while we were trying to catch the weather report on the only decent TV in the building. (The one in our room need not have been there. It was pathetic.) Anyway, he told us what to expect of tomorrow's ride from here to Lab City -- that it was the worst part of "the road" -- damn, damn, damn. We shouldn't have asked. He also said the morning temp was supposed to be about 2 degrees centigrade (that's 36 degrees F) and there was a possibility of snow flurries. Whoopie. We were both tired from the stress of today's ride, but decided to take the 7:00pm tour of the Churchill Falls hydro-electric generating station, the world's largest underground powerhouse. Small group, just us and the guide. After an introductory film, she took us down into the powerhouse where the floor actually stretches three football fields in length. Couldn't help being impressed with the massive tunnels and the 11 enormous turbines with rotors that were 9m in diameter. Jim felt funky down there, 9-10 stories underground, and was happy when we got back to ground level and away from the low frequency hum/vibration. Neither of us got much sleep. Not because of the sorry mattress, but due to us both dreaming about the next two full days of running more gravel road. Our imaginations and visions were worse than reality. We tossed and turned all night. |
Day 23 -- Friday, 12 July 2002 Grabbed a decent breakfast at the restaurant and were back on the bike by 9:15 this morning. Thankfully, it wasn't as cold as we'd expected when we started out. Left Churchill Falls in a cool drizzle. Dried off in the early morning and the day got warmer as we drove toward Labrador City. Stopped to see the Churchill Falls RIver. Well, what's left of it since the power plant rerouted it years ago, underground, to their facility. The old river bed is enormous and the bridge across it is steel grating that you could see straight through, wa-a-ay down to the river. Jim said it spooked the crap outta him. The water that runs through there now is just a trinkle compared to what is was originally. |
Wish we could show some scale here, so you could understand how really big this old riverbed truely is... the boulders beneath Jim's feet and the steel grate bridge are as big as houses. It's a l o n g w a y d o w n to them. |
Several years ago, during a bad storm, several of their towers were blown down. There was several days of water coming in from the river, so, for that 2-3 day period, the plant routed the river back to it's old course, allowing locals and visitors in the area to see, some for the first time and probably the only time in their lives, the true strength of the Churchill River. Folks we talked to said the sight and sound of the river was truely indescribable. Stopped by the next large river crossing, too. Spied an osprey nest atop the powerline there. Got some photos of the pair feeding their young. Neat. Bill, the area Wildlife Manager (known locally as "Wild Bill"), talked to us yesterday at the main town building. While we were stopped and getting pictures, he came along and pulled up behind us. Talked to him for a few minutes before he drove on out to a project site up ahead. |
OSPREY NEST ON POWERLINE |
Along the road, traffic wasn't as scarce today as yesterday. Met the mailman who travels the road year 'round, making his daily route from Lab City to Churchill Falls. Later, we met four Dodge pick-ups, all with camper tops and all loaded down for camping/fishing. The first truck in their caravan stopped at the bottom of the hill and actually waved us down - to chat. He, too, had heard the interview on the radio yesterday morning and wanted to ask us how the trip was going. We just said everything was fine; didn't share the details. Would have held him up for hours. Met three graders and a couple of tractor-trailer trucks, too. A couple of cars passed us later in the day, along with the mailman on his way back to Churchill Falls. |
The closest thing to a traffic jam we had seen in days. Four pickups at the same time!!!! Check out the size of the rocks that covered the road. Jim's arms got plenty of exercise bouncing off of and dodging them. |
FRESHLY GRADED ROAD WITH 1 TO 2 INCHES OF LOOSE GRAVEL |
THE ROAD GRADER: MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL ON THE TRANS LABRADOR HIGHWAY |
LARGE BEDROCK WHERE SURFACE HAS BEEN WORN/SCRAPED AWAY |
Can't say that today's section of "the road" was better than what we traveled yesterday, but it was different. It had bigger rocks, more loose gravel and places where even the bedrock was visible. It had been scraped and worn away to the point where large boulder tops were sticking up 1 to 3 inches. Made for a bumpy ride. It was a good thing Jim had had lots of experience driving the "bumper" cars at the local fairs when he was a boy. The gravel ranged from pea-sized to the size of a fist, but it was dry, and where the road graders had not been, we could ride the ruts - as long as they lasted. Got up to 40mph on some stretches. The dust was not too bad this morning, as it had just rained, was thicker this afternoon, as the road was dryer. A necessary CAUTION all along the road is not to get within 5 feet of the roadside. It is VERY soft and you will sink 6 inches or more as soon as you hit it. Most of the road has three ruts, one common center one and two outside ones. As long as you stay in the outside one, you are okay as far as the oncoming traffic is concerned. If you have to move over the drifted gravel between the ruts, be aware that your bike will pretty much pick its own path - so you might as well relax and enjoy it, 'cause there ain't much you can do about it. |
If you get within 5 feet of the edge of the road it will just collapse under you. It may look hard, but don't be deceived. As you can see from the tire track this was a slow rolling stop, not a skid. |
The road is better to travel when it's dry (like it was most of the day today). When it's wet, it's dangerous. |
RAIN = SLICK; DRY = DUST |
FOUND THE SUNSHINE AGAIN |
NO MATTER HOW FAR YOU GO ON THIS ROAD, IT NEVER SEEMS TO END. AND WHEN YOU THINK IT'S GETTING BETTER, IT GETS WORSE. |
Goose Bay Trip Log continued... Click here for PAGE 3 |
Lake Melville's calm waters. |
Our next stop was at a local gift shop, the Northern Lights. Jim bought a t-shirt there that says, "I Survived The Trans Labrador Highway". Hope we make the trip from here to Quebec, so he'll be able to wear it. Jim also asked about old auto tags. A fellow there had several. Jim chose a good one to bring back for a friend in South Carolina. |
