Seeing North America

Up early to break camp and we are off to the ferry by 6:30. It was in the forties overnight with rain. We are loaded onto the ferry after all the cars and pickups. We pull into the hull of the ferry where the cars and pickups are not to be found. They are loaded onto another deck level so we end up near the front of the ferry.

On deck we find a table near the bow of the ship. We want a good vantage point for spotting icebergs and whales. A family with three kids sits near us and Wells engages them with conversation. The weather continues to not be great for spending time outside so we are all looking for icebergs and whales. Visibility improves and degrades as we push towards Newfoundland though the weather. It’s a two hour crossing and the kids continually spot whales that none of the adults can see. Maybe one was a whale but the rest we think are white caps. Finally, we see a very small iceberg and the nine-year-old yells, ‘’An iceberg!” Being so small Wells insists it’s and ice cube and the girl retorts with, “it’s an ice cube berg.” It was a fun crossing with the kids while their parent enjoyed their break from kid interaction being exhausted from getting up at 3:30am to do their longer drive to the ferry dock.

The ferry docks and we head down to our rig where we are the second vehicle unloaded. Our goal for today is to get to the Corner Brook area about 200 miles south to purchase a new RV battery. As we drive south along the route known as the Viking Trail we recall exploring many of these places two years ago on our last trip to Newfoundland. The road passes along the coast through fishing villages and Gros Morne National Park. A mountainous area with spectacular fiords.

We arrive at the place to purchase a battery then get groceries. Now it’s time to head to an area where we have not explored on our last trip. Baie Verte is where we head. Newfoundland’s north shore is a series of peninsulas sticking up from this huge island. They vary in length from maybe fifty miles to 300 miles. This creates a coastline worth exploring for the culture, history, and beauty. We set up our camp in the middle of Baie Vert where we can readily explore in all directions.

Overnight the wind blew and the temperature hovered in the high forties. Our sleep was great as we think of our friends back home dealing with the extreme heat. The morning brought drizzle but it cleared mid-morning. We head north 12 miles and find a trail head. We hike along the coast for a couple of hours. We aren’t on the beach so the trail follows the contours up and down. It’s a beautiful place to hike. After two hours we turn around and hike back to the truck.

After lunch at the local bakery we head south into Quebec for more whale watching. Back at the trailer we break out the grill and enjoy grilled potatoes and chicken thighs. We are heading to bed early with our alarm set for 5 am to catch the morning ferry to Newfoundland.

A lazy morning around the campground. We finally pack up the camper head to the dump station and then a shower finally on the road around 11 am. For the past few days we’ve scouted northward from Pinware Provincial Park so now it’s time to scout south into extreme eastern Quebec. On the border of these two provinces we stop at a Labrador Visitor Center gathering information about the general area. There we are told there is an accordion player performing tonight at the visitor center. We set up in an RV campground just up the road so we plan on attending the performance tonight.

This part of Quebec is accessible from Labrador and Newfoundland or via water in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. First stop is Blanc Sablon in Quebec but on the border with Labrador. This is where the ferry to Newfoundland Island leaves. We have reservations on the ferry for Monday morning. Instead of rushing past Labrador we are slowing down and enjoying what we experience.

A few miles south of Blanc Sablon is Quebec’s largest Atlantic Puffin colony consisting of 15,000 nesting pairs. The two islands where most of the colony nests are a bit too far away to see the puffins well and certainly too far to photograph them. While watching with our spotting scope and binos we spy some Orca Whales along with a few more icebergs. In closer to shore some loons fish and call.

We drive south along the coast for another 20 miles to an interpretive center for the history of the coast’s native people and early Basque fishermen to more recent inhabitants. The road dips down to the coast and shore where the small villages sit then cimbs several hundred feet to highlands with stunted grow with rocks strewn everywhere. The same is true to the north in Labrador. We come across an old Labrador saying that makes perfect sense, “God created Labrador in six days and on the seventh day God threw rocks at it.”

Before supper we head out to fill one of our propane tanks which emptied this morning. We get around a week to ten days on a 20 lb tank using it for cooking, refrigeration, and hot water.

At the campground we cook supper, clean up, and walk to the concert. It is mostly locals with a scattering of tourists. This part of Labrador does not revolve around tourism as do many parts of the Newfoundland Island. It’s a fun time and we head back to the camper for the evening.

We head out at around 8 heading north back to Marys Harbour. We spot another black bear along the highway but it was quick enough that we didn’t get any photos. We are on the day boat to Battle Harbour with six others. The ride to the island is a bit more than an hour. It’s rough enough that we’re in the sheltered cabin. We learn each other’s names: Viv and Dave from Corner Brook in Newfoundland, Lee and Linda originally from the Saint Johns area in Newfoundland but now living near Toronto, and Sharon and Mick from northern Florida.

There are day tours which we are doing as well as overnight guests who are housed in many of the village buildings. We discover the overnight trips are a two day minimum with food and lodging runs more that $1,000. We are happy with our $110 per person day trip.

We are here at Battle Harbour for five hours with a guided tour starting at 1:30. Battle Harbour is on a windswept island. The harbor is along a tickle. A tickle is a channel between two salt water bodies. It makes a protected area for the boats while the village is sheltered from the prevailing winds by the rest of the island. There are no trees on the island just exposed rocks and low vegetation. We hike around the island on a loop trail. As we walk we spot two icebergs along with a minke whale. We see the two Marconi radio towers that created an important communication hub in the early 20^th century. The vistas from the trail are stunning. Next along the trail we find the site of a small plane crash where three lost their lives in 1975. Much of the wreckage remains resting there. We arrive back at the village and enjoy our lunch before we meet for the tour.

Battle Island is a preserved fishing village. The last year-round residents were in the 1960s. As time passed the church and other buildings started to fail. A group of local people from Marys Harbour raised money and volunteered their skills and time to restore the church. The church is the second oldest church in all of Newfoundland and stands proudly today. From the local efforts to save the village Parks Canada took over the island and continues to preserve and protect the island. Our guide, Nelson, grew up on the island and was married in this church 22 years ago today. The church is hosting another wedding next weekend.

Nelson takes us from building to building talking about what happened in each. He speaks many words that make no sense to us but then he stops and asked if anybody knows the word he just used. For example, anybody know what a tickle is? He was a master at telling the story even with his thick Labrador accent. As he talks about the history he points out the house he grew up in. He was born here but early in his life his family stopped living here in the winter. His stories include the plane crash back in 1975. Three people took off from the village and flew around the island heading to their next working site. They ended up crashing on the other side of the island. Residents had no clue the plane crashed Two boys, 10 and 11, discover the crash three days later. As we soak that in Nelson tells us he was the 11-year-old.

The tour finishes and soon it’s time to board for our return trip to Marys Harbour. Mick and Sharon are heading to Pinware Provincial Park where we are staying so afterwards we join them for conversation and wine. We may see them somewhere in our future travels.

After sleeping in until after 8 am we enjoy a lazy morning with coffee and breakfast. We take off to explore some of the towns north of here. These are the same towns that we drove past yesterday while pulling the trailer. As we travel north we see Brett camped off the road getting ready to hop on his bike.

Our first stop is Marys Harbour about 70 miles north of our campsite. We are curious about Battle Harbour a restored fishing village run by Parks Canada (The National Park System of Canada.) It’s on an island off the coast of Labrador. Traveling past Marys Harbour yesterday we did not see the village. It’s off the main highway. It surprised us how large it is. There is a school, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a nursing home, and much more. We learn more about the restored fishing village which one must take a tour boat to so we sign up for tomorrow. After a short hike to a nearby hill we head south to Red Bay. Basque whalers stayed here in the 1600’s. They took advantage of how Labrador and Newfound form the strait where right whales were easy pickings. The Basque stayed for several months each year killing the migrating whales and rendering them into oil. There are parts of a shipwrecked Basque whaling ship and scale models. Red Bay is a picturesque harbor community. After exploring there we head towards the campground.

We are traveling along the route we’ve been told one sees lots of bears and foxes here. Since leaving Quebec several hundred miles ago we’ve spotted a few birds and one squirrel. We finally see a black bear and manage to get a few photos.

Back at the campground we fix supper and play cribbage. We plan on leaving at 8 in the morning to get on the tour boat to Battle Harbour.

Little traffic passed on the highway as we camped for the night. The squadron of mosquitoes were lapping at our windows but we are fully secured from attack. Our defense lines hold and we get a good sleep although we both show battle scars from previous attacks.

Our RV battery is not holding much of a charge. Just parking for the night drains it to the point of being almost useless. Thus we are using our small and mostly quiet Honda generator more than ever. Without a working battery we are unable to fill a cup of water from the faucet without using the generator. We plan to purchase a new battery in Cold Brook which is the “Big City” in the western side of Newfoundland. The real city in Newfoundland is Saint Johns home to close to half of the residents of the Province.

Stocked up, drained and loaded with fresh water we continue towards the coast. A few comments about this part of the journey. It’s 405 km to the next gas station which is the longest dry stretch we have every done pulling our trailer. Our mileage various due to many factors including wind direction, road surface and speed. On average we expect 11 miles to the gallon but it can be as low as 9.5 or as high as 14 mpg. We carry extra gas slated for the generator and if we run short on the road. To make it to the next gas station without dipping into our reserve we need to average above 12 mpg. We hope not to expose ourselves to the onslaught of mosquitos and now black flies while we refuel roadside. The road continues paved for the first 100 miles then its gravel for the next 200 miles.

At the Happy Valley Information Center we asked about road conditions and the answer we got was “it’s open again.” Open again? We had no clue it had been closed. Turns out there was a wash out that is now repaired. It did not boost our hopes thinking the road would be a repeat of the road from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence northward to Labrador City which is in spots terrible. We asked if the road ahead was similar to what we had experienced before and were assured that it is much much better than the road in Quebec. Music to our ears, but is it true?

The paved section was excellent and the unpaved section was mostly good to very good condition. The speed limit in the good parts is 70 km/hour (43 mph) so progress is slow. We hit a sign “Road Construction Next 80 km (50 miles)” and progress slows way down. Every few miles we arrived at the next section of one lane traffic where we wait maybe 5 minutes or so to be waved onward by the flagger donned head to foot with protective clothing.  This included hard hat with mosquito netting and gloves. Protection designed to keep the insects at bay.

We slowly get past the construction areas and continue towards the coast. Then more construction signs but the crews have stopped working. Signs are still up but no stoppages. Then unexpectedly the gravel we’ve traveled on for so long changes to asphalt which was put down earlier in the day. This is many kilometers sooner than expected. We guessed it would only be a short stretch then back to gravel. This was not the case. The asphalt continued and we traveled on a perfectly smooth surface. It turns out there is no more gravel for the next two hundred miles to the ferry!

We pull over at a turn out and park for the night. We are soon joined by two tractor trailer trucks. Thankfully they pull in and turn off their engines. We sleep well.

We awaken to a cool and beautiful morning. The skies have some clouds along with blue spots. Plus there a bit of a breeze keeping the mosquitos at bay. We drive north making it to Fremont. Fremont and Labrador City are about a dozen miles apart. Both are mining towns with Fremont in Quebec and Labrador City in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. A couple of differences between these towns. Fremont is on Eastern Time, Labrabor City Atlantic Time. Fremont is totally French and Labrador City is almost totally English. We lighten our weight of the truck and trailer at a car wash leaving behind many pounds of dried mud. We picked up milk and gas and headed east. The road is paved and in excellent condition. After a few hours we pull off the road two hundred feet and set up for the night. We both look forward to a good night of sleep.

After a good night sleep we are on the road heading to the Labrador coast. Our destination for today is a provincial park about 40 miles north of the ferry. As we make our way towards Red Bay on the Labrador coast. From there the road turns just about due south. Until now we’ve been traveling mostly east. The landscape becomes rugged yet and isolated. Then way off to the left there stood a huge white structure. Both of us are thinking what is that and why way over there away from just everything. It dawned on us it was snow. A huge patch of snow sheltered from the south. Soon huge white patches appear frequently. Afterwards we asked locals how long will the snow hang around. The response, until the next snowfall.

We arrive at our destination, Pinware Provincial Park. We are at the entrance but there are no employees around so we are not able to check in yet. A cyclist, Brett, said the guy would be back in a bit. Brett’s doing is laundry at the comfort station next to the entrance. We decide it’s a good time to do our first laundry of the trip. We chat with Brett who is a dedicated long distance bicyclist. On this trip he’s cycling the Atlantic Providences now headed west along the route we had just traveled. His he destination for this year is British Columbia so he has many miles to go. Last year cycled in Alberta, British Columbia, The Yukon, and Northwest Territory including all the way to the Arctic Ocean along the Dempster Highway. In North America there are two roads that connect the Arctic Ocean to the rest of the continent.

The park person shows up and assigns us a campsite on the water with a fantastic view. He says it’s the best spot in the campground. We set up and are ready to explore.

Over the past several days we’ve battled mosquitos but along the coast it’s black flies. It’s what keeps people from visiting the Adirondacks in June. Here black fly season is July and August which we quickly discover makes being outside without full protection not fun. We head out to a nearby town and purchase two bug netting shirts that cover everything from just below the waist to the top of our heads. Out campsite being on the water is exposed to the wind so when it’s windy the black flies give us a small respite. We are here for the next few days so we are hoping for plenty of wind.

We called for ferry reservations and we secur one for Monday morning. We have plenty of time to explore the local area. We shower and enjoy a rousing game of cribbage then hit the hay.

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.

 

We awaken to a cool and beautiful morning. The skies have some clouds along with blue spots. Plus there a bit of a breeze keeping the mosquitos at bay. We drive north making it to Fremont. Fremont and Labrador City are about a dozen miles apart. Both are mining towns with Fremont in Quebec and Labrador City in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. A couple of differences between these towns. Fremont is on Eastern Time, Labrabor City Atlantic Time. Fremont is totally French and Labrador City is almost totally English. We lighten our weight of the truck and trailer at a car wash leaving behind many pounds of dried mud. We picked up milk and gas and headed east. The road is paved and in excellent condition. After a few hours we pull off the road two hundred feet and set up for the night. We both look forward to a good night of sleep.