The ferry Sir Robert Bond effortlessly cruised up the bay so as to deliver us on time and early in the morning in Cartwright. The short overnight cruise had been uneventful and we slept heavily until the morning arrival announcement awakened us. Offloading was a cinch and we found ourselves deposited in Cartwright hungry and in need of fuel. First things first, we immediately made… breakfast the priority.
Not being a very large town, not too far from the ferry dock we found a small diner where the locals were busy getting ready for the day. We joined them, munched down some good local fare and inquired about obtaining fuel. They told us the only gas station in town would open around 8:30 and it was now 7:30. Kim and I looked at each other and decided that with the extra fuel I was carrying we would head on towards Port Hope Simpson where fuel was available and where we planned to stay for the night.
By the way, if you don’t know, click on any one of the pictures in the gallery below and it will open that picture into a full size picture and then you can click your way through the remainder of the pictures in either direction in full size.
Somewhere on the TLH.
Dave Noel and his sons.
Just outide Red Bay. If you look closely, you can see the icebergs floating in the harbor.
Look closely and you can see the mist from the whale spouts.
Look closely and you can see the mist from the whale spouts.
Look closely and you can see the mist from the whale spouts.
Look closely and you can see the mist from the whale spouts.
Icebergs in Red Bay Labrador
Icebergs in Red Bay Labrador
Icebergs in Red Bay Labrador
Icebergs in Red Bay Labrador. Notice the whale spout in the foreground.
Icebergs in Red Bay Labrador.
We meandered along the TLH enjoying ourselves and the scenery, just soaking everything in. It was decent weather, we were in no particular rush and in fuel saving mode. We’d been traveling a couple of hours. Cruising along, I looked into my rearview mirror and saw a dust cloud and two headlights coming our way at a high rate of speed. They weren’t spaced evenly so it wasn’t a car or truck. As I stopped to see what was coming, my guess was confirmed. It was our friends Roy and Jeff from the ferry. They had waited for the gas station to open and were high tailing it to try to make the ferry at Blanc Sablon. They had covered in one hour what we had in two. They were moving!
We chatted briefly and they decided to get going so they didn’t miss the ferry at Blanc Sablon. We wished them well and their bikes and their dust cloud soon vanished in the distance. Their bikes having disappeared over the horizon, it was time for us to make our own headway towards Port Hope Simpson to get the fuel we needed and obtain respite from the black flies which had recently made themselves known in full force. In fact, for one photo stop, Kim refused to open her faceshield lest she immediately be swarmed by the nasty little critters. She was right, it was better to keep moving.
After some beautiful riding and some very abbreviated photo stops, we arrived in Port Hope Simpson and found the General Store that also sold fuel. To our surprise, we found some familiar faces. Yes indeed, it was our friends Roy and Jeff from the ferry once again. It seemed that the power was out in town and therefore, the fuel pumps were not working. We chatted and walked into the General Store to find out if they knew when the power might come back on.
The clerk there told us not to worry, that the power should come back on in an hour or so. She told us that this always happened when the guys down at the saw mill turned up the power without calling first and it trips off the breaker. That puts that part of the town out of power until the circuit could be reset. So we waited around for about an hour and sure as the sun rises the power came back on and we were able to fill all our bikes.
Unfortunately for Roy and Jeff, they were now truly under a time deadline and they REALLY had to make a beeline for Blanc Sablon if they wanted to make the ferry before it left the dock. (We found out later that they did make it but only by a matter of minutes.)
Fully fueled, we headed to the only accommodations in town and settled in. We were sitting in our room relaxing when the phone rang. Kim and I simultaneously looked at each other with bewildered looks. Who would be calling us in a little tiny hotel in Port Hope Simpson in northern Labrador? I walked over to the phone and picked it up wondering who might be on the other end.
A unfamilar voice said “Mike”? Yes, I replied warily. The voice on the other end said, “Hi, it’s Dave Noel. We’ve been corresponding on the Ride The Rock forum and I thought I’d come over and say hi.” I was shocked but really pleased. Dave and I had been chatting on the excellent Ride The Rock forum (you can find the link on our links page) when I was planning the TLH ride and Dave had been following my postings on ADVRider.com (you can also find their link on our links page) He took it upon himself to ride over 25 miles on gravel from his home town Mary’s Harbor, just to say hello to someone he had never met. In what other community would that kind of hospitality be shown? I was amazed and pleased to no end. I met Dave in the “lobby” and we went back to our room for a chat and we decided that the three of us would ride together tomorrow for a while. We would meet at Dave’s house and ride from there.
The following morning we easily found Dave’s house and met his family, his wife and two sons. Soon we were on the TLH headed towards Red Bay. The trip had been cool, and along the way we found how cool it had been. It was mid June and we found large patches of… SNOW! More than enough to make snowballs and enough for Dave to try to sneak in a couple of sneaky snowball attacks! However, I am pleased to report that he was unable to connect any either of these New Hampshire natives.
As we approached Red Bay we stopped for a couple of pictures. We were on an elevated portion of the TLH with a partial view of Red Bay. In the distance we could see the bay and I could see white specs in the water. I was somewhat speechless. I told Kim to look closely behind her and look in the bay. Did she see what I saw? Were there really icebergs in the bay? Now we were really excited because neither of us had ever seen icebergs in person. Dave humored us and we descended into Red Bay.
As we approached, it became clear that the specs were indeed icebergs and they were majestic. Sparkling white and huge, they floated silently in the bay. We did not sense any motion, but they floated there like barren white islands of various shapes and sizes, daring you to describe them. Some were gigantic, towering monoliths of ice, jutting out of the water. It amazed us to think that fully two thirds of the berg lay under water. Others were smaller and flatter, still white almost silver in color, again defying description.
We stopped at a small restaurant in town and had lunch with Dave. He needed to get home so we wished him the best and thanked him for taking the time to come and meet us and share this journey with us. We remain friends to this day.
After we said our goodbyes, we rode closer to the bay to gain the best view of the icebergs and yet another magical thing happened. As I was sitting on my KTM staring, I noticed a spray of water in front of the iceberg. Then another, and still another. My mouth dropped agape. I couldn’t believe my eyes. There from the side of the road, right in front of me, were several icebergs and in front and around the icebergs were several pods of Humpback whales feeding! They were breeching and if I listened carefully, I could even hear them blowing. It was a spectacular sight. One that I will probably never experience again. There must have been more than 100 whales feeding.
As I sat beside the road, a local came out of his house and said, “Pretty good show huh?” They were here all day yesterday and today.” I was dumbfounded. All I could mumble was, “Yes, it’s a great show, I am so happy to be here to enjoy it.” So everyone, I was lucky enough to have my little point and shoot camera with me which had a video mode. Because it’s a little point and shoot the video isn’t excellent, but I think it’s worthwhile. Therefore, I am indeed pleased to share with you the best whale watch I’ve ever been on, (including those on boats hehe) that was taken from the side of the road on my KTM motorcycle. You can find it here:
We sat there for an hour watching and listening to the whales. It was an amazing experience. Words just can’t describe it, it’s one of things that you just have to experience for yourself. We could have watched for hours, but we too had an appointment with the ferry at Blanc Sablon and it was time for us to make our way there. So with significant regret, we mounted up again and made our way towards our next stop at Blanc Sablon and the ferry to Newfoundland where we’ll take you in Part 6
We awoke to light drizzle but with an increasing outlook for sun. We were headed for Goose Bay, but we’d have an intermediate stop in Red Bay and it was to be an exciting experience, one that we’d not soon forget. We left our combination hotel, restaurant, supermarket, high school building and packed the bikes. Soon we were off the paved roads of the town of Churchill Falls and back out on the gravel of the Trans Labrador Highway.
As the sun climbed higher in the sky, so did our spirits as the clouds parted and the temperatures rose. Today was going to be a truly nice ride and we were about to reach one of our milestone places, Goose Bay. From Goose Bay, we were going to take the ferry to Cartwright and the final run through Labrador to Blanc Sablon where we’d take another ferry to Newfoundland. Goose Bay was to be , the beginning of another adventure in our adventure. We were psyched!
By the way, if you don’t know, click on any one of the pictures in the gallery below and it will open that picture into a full size picture and then you can click your way through the remainder of the pictures in either direction in full size.
During the day’s trip, the gravel was to transform many times. We were had been impressed with the overall condition of the TLH, the stories we’d heard of how dangerous it was for bikes hadn’t seemed to be true. Caution was indeed necessary as was demonstrated by Kim’s get off outside of Labrador City. But overall, the gravel had been fairly uniform and other than the hazards presented by the road graders, the road condition had been pretty good.
Today however, was a day of road and sky transformations. It seemed that the road condition changed with the sky. The clearer the sky became, the deeper and looser the gravel became. Later in the day as it began to cloud up again, the road firmed up and became almost like pavement. It was truly strange. But enough about the road conditions. We were headed for Goose Bay!
We traveled over and between verdant forests. Many shades of green contrasting on the same hill or mountainside. It was an irregular patchwork of greens, a pattern chosen by nature into a decoration of magical proportions. All the while, we swooped and dived between the mountains on a path of stone and sand. It was a symphony of nature and music for my ears was unnecessary because the music of nature before my eyes played in my head as I rode.
Time passed very quickly even though by this time we were in and out of rain showers. Before we knew it we made it to the greeting sign for Goose Bay and Happy Valley. It had stopped raining for the moment and it gave us the opportunity to take some pictures in front of the sign as evidence that we had made it. Someone had left a marker of their achievement as well and built a rock man figure to the left of the sign letting all others know that people they had been there previously. and now so had we.
Shortly thereafter, it started to rain again and we headed to our hotel for a day and a half layover since the ferry would not be leaving until then. We parked the bikes and unpacked the gear we needed in the rain. Once in our room we dried off and warmed up. It had become quite chilly by this point and the warmth of the hotel was greatly appreciated. Now all we needed was a hot dinner. Luckily for us, there was a small restaurant right next to the hotel and we headed on over.
They were serving a buffet and we passed a gentleman in the line. I guess we look like “bikers” because he asked are you the two on the bikes? We told him that indeed we were. He said that he noticed our New Hampshire license plates and remarked that we had ridden a long way from home. We told him we enjoyed the ride, especially over the TLH and that we were now headed to the end at Blanc Sablon and the ferry to Newfoundland, then on to Nova Scotia. He said he was very interested in our trip and asked if he could join us for dinner to chat about it. Of course we said yes and we had a terrific dinner discussing where we had been and were going on this trip and about adventure riding in general. In return, he told us about himself and his family. He was the local pastor in Goose Bay and had travelled there from Quebec a few years earlier. His flock was growing and he was enjoying being in Labrador where he said could be a part of a community where people were like family. After dinner, we wished him well and we returned to our hotel room feeling like we had become a bit part of the Goose Bay community, we learned about them and they about us. It was a nice feeling.
The following day, I did a little preventative maintenance on the bikes and we did a little looking around Goose Bay. But late in the afternoon, it was time to head to the ferry terminal to pick up the ferry to Cartwright where we continue our journey to the end of the TLH in Blanc Sablon, Quebec. Little did we know that this part of the trip was to become very, very special.
We arrived at the terminal fairly early and found ourselves one of the few vehicles in the lot. Parked at the pier was our ride to Cartwright, the Sir Robert Bond, our ferry. She was a sturdy looking vessel and we were somewhat impatient to get on board, tie down the bikes and get underway for Cartwright. It was to be an overnight trip and we had rented a berth so we could arrive fresh and rested to start the beginning of the end of our TLH ride.
Loading time came and was orchestrated very well. It was an easy process and we were supplied with tie downs for the bikes. Faster than we thought possible, we were on board and ready to depart. We walked around the Bond looking for some dinner and they did have a cafeteria. Well, it was a cafeteria, and the food quality merited the name cafeteria food, but it was food and we were hungry. Fed, we were ready to hit the sack and we adjourned to our berth for a good night’s rest. Along the way, we met a couple of other riders, from all places, Massachusetts, the state right next to New Hampshire. They too had been riding the TLH albeit at a much higher rate of speed. They were really zooming and had covered much more ground in much less time than we had. We had a good time joking around and having fun with them. In fact, so much fun that I guess we drew a complaint from someone and a member of the crew staff asked us to keep the noise down. Ooops!
Our partying done, now it was time to hit the rack. The last of the TLH lay in front of us in the morning and well tell you about this and the very special happenings (the pictures will knock your socks off!) in Part 5.
Having snaked our way up the side of Manic 5 we were underway for real on our TLH adventure. It had been a beautiful ride so far, but it had been an all pavement ride up to this point and we were really looking forward to a bit more challenging terrain to ride. We were about to experience some and find out what the TLH had in store for us.
As we made our way northward, the rain decreased in intensity and the low clouds began to lift a bit. We were able to see a bit more of our surroundings and enjoy the very green forests that encroached from all directions. The rain could do little to dampen our spirits as we soldiered on deeper into the forests of Labrador. Yes, we were really heading into the wilderness and we were loving it. The gravel road undulated and swooped up and down, sometimes with fairly steep grades. The gravel varied from hard packed to loose and piled, so we had to stay alert, but it was not hugely difficult riding. In fact, the rain was doing us somewhat of a favor and keeping the dust to zero.
After about two hours on the road and not a single car coming from the other direction, we were really in riding nirvana. All this to ourselves, lush green surrounded us, the grey misty skies embraced us and softened all the features to a gauzy dreamlike condition. If you could ride a motorcycle and enter a trance at the same time, now would be the time to do it, it was just that peaceful. Just when we thought that we were the last two people on earth (or at least in Labrador) as we crested a hill, we were reminded that we were still surrounded by “civilization” no matter how isolated we thought we were.
To the right side of the road atop an orange pole stood tall, thin, blazing red beacon with unlit yellow and green lights. It stood there silently with another square little box counting down the minutes and seconds as if it were waiting for something big to happen. Could this really be? A traffic signal in the middle of nowhere on the TLH? Indeed it was and it was the first of its kind seen by this city boy. It was a time controlled traffic signal and it was waiting for us and telling us to wait until it counted down to zero. But it was quite strange. Ahead we could only see sodden gravel road and varying shades of green trees, for what appeared to be a half mile. We still didn’t know what it was doing there but we waited somewhat impatiently for the countdown to end and the light to turn green.
In fact, it took so long that a car pulled up beside us and turned off its engine to wait as well. It’s occupants rolled down their windows and offered us some of the nuts they were munching on and we chatted a few minutes about our trip and where were from and where we were headed. They told us that up ahead, we would find some construction where the road would narrow to a single lane and that’s why we were being held, so that traffic coming the other way would have time to pass the construction and pass us. After the allotted time had passed we would be free to go and the folks on the other end would have to wait until we had passed by the timing of the traffic signal. When the light finally turned green, we wished our new friends well and let them go first since we were in no rush to get anywhere and they were headed for Labrador City, quite a distance away.
One of the “highlights” of the trip was to pass through the vanished town of Gagnon, Quebec. Gagnon provided us with one of the most eerie feelings we’ve ever had. Gagnon was founded by the Québec Cartier Mining Company to mine iron ore at Jeannine Lake. Construction of the pilot plant began in the winter of 1957. By August of that year, the plant had processed a thousand tons of ore. On January 28, 1960, the town was incorporated as Ville de Gagnon and named after Onésime Gagnon, the first Minister of Mining in Quebec. Thereafter it grew rapidly to 1300 inhabitants and by the end of that year, Gagnon had more than 4000 residents. It had an airport, churches, schools, a town hall, an arena, a hospital, and a large commercial centre, despite being isolated and only accessible by aircraft
In 1974, mining began at Fire Lake, some 80 kilometres (50 mi) north-east. By the mid-1980s however, the mine was no longer turning a profit and the mines were closed. More startlingly, the town fully was fully dismantled in 1985. All buildings and nearly all of the streets were demolished.The town’s main street is all that remains and it became part of Route 389 two years after the town’s closure. Eerily, that section of road retains a boulevard configuration, complete with a median, sidewalks, and sewers, despite being deep in the wilderness, hundreds of kilometres from the nearest active community, It was a very strange and unsettling feeling having traveled many miles on damp gravel to arrive at a paved section of road, complete with dividers and sidewalks, and see nothing around you but brush and trees. You could only stare and wonder, “What happened to all the people who used to live here and where are they now?”
We stopped for a brief time but needed to move on since we had planned a fairly long day and had planned to bed down in were bedding down in Labrador City. As we headed further north, towards Fermont, the mining town that led to the closure of Gagnon, the road began a set of twists and turns and multiple rail crossings. Despite the fact that you are many miles from any large city, there are plenty of trains traversing these tracks and you must be very careful at the crossings to ensure that there is not a train coming. While we completed this section in a single day, three separate trains passed by us.
Another hazard of the TLH is the “dreaded” road grader. Traveling at low speeds, the transit the TLH for hundreds of miles evening out potholes and adding a slight crown to the road to assist in drainage. While this is excellent for the four wheeled variety of vehicles, it can lead to more difficult riding for the two wheel variety. The graders often leave an in or two of soft mixed soil in their wake as well as very significant mixed gravel berms that can make negotiating the road quite difficult. The graders have gained a significant notoriety among the two wheeled adventure riding community and although their wake is not generally deadly, it can bite the unsuspecting if you turn your back on them as we’ll find out in Part 3.
Ride2ADV 