Last night the campground was lively with children playing and laughing and the adults sitting around picnic tables enjoying the late day. On our walk around this campground we found no license plates other than Quebec ones. This campground is off the beaten path and not in a tourist area. These were families that lived somewhat close and each summer weekend found their way to this vacation getaway.
Baie-Comeau is the community maybe six miles away. We break camp and head out back to Baie-Comeau to fill up on gas and find the Information Center. We’re looking for more information on the road that heads north to Labrador City 400 miles away. Gas was no problem but the Information Center was elusive. We never found it so we headed north without current information about the road. There are signs that say if a section of road is open or closed along with additional information. Our French speaking and reading skills are such that we are clueless on what they say. Add to that some of the picture signs were a little difficult to figure out. We press onward. One sign seems to indicate gas is available in 100 or 210 kilometers. The first 150 miles or so the road was paved. Surface quality varied from smooth and good to rough and poor. The road is mostly curvy so we never are traveling very fast. Every so often we come to a one lane part due to construction and traffic flow is controlled with a stop light that counts down the seconds until it turns green. Traffic is sparse and we arrive at one of the stop lights that is counting down from 490 at our arrival. We realize we have several minutes to wait so we file out of the truck and walk around.
We know up ahead is a large section of gravel road but we are still on pavement when signs warn of a long downhill. As we approach the bottom there are a few buildings but looming above us is a large dam. We are at the base of this huge concrete dam structure and at the same time the pavement ends. The road ascends a hill that is probably the steepest climb we’ve taken with our trailer. The highway sign indicates it’s an 18% grade. Our truck and trailer negotiate it with no problem but we considered putting the truck into 4 wheel drive but the climb did not require it.
Pavement end and we begin the gravel section of maybe 100 miles. The quality of the surface varies from fair to very poor. Plus it’s raining. For roughly a ten mile stretch we are in four wheel drive due to the slippery and very messy mud. Our clean Airstream is anything but clean. Traveling slowly we hit some very bumpy sections. We pull over for a stretch. Checking the trailer we discover the door has fallen completely off our fridge with ice tea and milk spilled over the floor of the trailer. Everything was spread across the entire floor. After a few words that are not associated with polite conversation we clean up the mess and are back on the road. Checking the trailer again after several more miles of bumpy road we find a repeat performance of the door totally dislodging. Again the language and again we clean up the mess. This time we break out the heavy duty tape and tape the fridge door securely.
We had passed the 100 km and 220 km spots for gas finding the next spot. It is the most expensive fill up we’ve every had at $1.77 / liter for a total of $127 and change. You can deduct about 20% taking into account the conversion to US dollars.
The entire day is filled with rain showers some heavy and others light.
We are now pulled over on a small gravel spot on the side of the road about an hour or two from Labrador City. Maybe the word gravel is a poor choice and the spot is better described as more muddy with several puddles. In order to go into the trailer we needed to take off any outdoor footgear so not to totally trash the trailer. It was a rough travel day and we were beat. We decide to set up the generator to charge our trailer battery so out among the hordes of mosquitos Wells goes. After coming inside again many of the horde follows him in. After a rousing game of cribbage and a quick supper we hit the bed only to find out the horde has been waiting for us as they begin feasting. It was an uncomfortable night for too many hours as we battle for keeping possession of our own blood. For some reason we looked at the current problem and not the root cause. At 4 am Wells got up and discovered the root cause. We successfully killed many of the mosquitos but did not realize there was a continuous supply. Our Airstream door does not seal tightly but the screen door completes the seal so insects cannot get in. Wells had not closed the screen door portion fully so no matter how many mosquitos we killed more continued to get into the trailer. Wells closes the doggy door or in this case the mosquito door and the problem is solved. We then sleep until almost 8 am.
Seeing North America 