Baie Comeau

I left the former work camp at Manic at 8:00 after a meal in the cafeteria.

 I had dinner with the owner of this Ural the night before.  A nice machine!

I expected a rainy day but only got 15 minutes of drizzle.  The 4 hour ride was like being in NC all kinds of trees, ups and downs and of course the dams!  I had to cross the face of Manic 2 on a high 2 lane old bridge over the gorge and it was full of potholes!  It wasn't attached to the dam but hung out a bit from the face.  I really didn't look ... I hate dams!  And the road was gnarly!  But the ride was beautiful with a few sections of road missing!  In fact, the north bound lane was 8' lower than my side due to it falling off for 100 yards.  So they were working really hard to raise the lane back up.  Looks like major storm damage recently. A couple of bridges were also missing.  Tomorrow I am booking some miles to get most of the way to Montreal and only 1 more night in Canada!

Last of the gravel, sand, and potholes! On to the slab!

The ride down from Labrador City was a tough day!  From Fermont to Fire Lake was the worst 60 miles of dirt I have seen with mostly deep potholes and sand with very large trucks flying over it.  I managed to stay out of their way by pulling over frequently and taking breaks.  I can see why there are crosses all over this road.

Then once to fire lake there was this beautiful stretch of pavcement in the middle of nowhere.  I stopped at the only place to stop after getting on the pavement, a gas station and restaurant at the truck service station and asked asked how long is the next gravel section, my french was not good, and the lady there said "no long, just 2 km".  Turns out it was 2 km to the gravel then another 60 miles of it!  but I enjoyed the pavement.

The gravel on this part was totally different with most of it packed dirt with sand and gravel around the edges.  I knew that my arrival would be interesting at Manic-5 but I was not prepared for the approach over a hill and down into the gorge!

The largest hydropower dam in the world!  The gravel road worked its way down the side of the gorge to the bottom where dirt ended and pavement begins for the trip home.

Just a couple of miles to the old work camp for the dam, now Motel L'Electric.  So here I am in the only lodging next to the largest power plant in the world and at 10:15 the power goes out!  How does that happen?  I visualize a new trainee flipping a switch and asking "and what does this do?" sending eastern Canada into darkness.  I am off to Baie Commeau today for a clean-up day and laundry.  Luckily today it is raining so hopefully all of the dust will get washed away, and the bugs too!

Labrador City and on to points south....Mavic-Cinq tomorrow night!

It was a beautiful day and an easy day of 3 1/2 hrs on the road.  The back is feeling better so the idea of taking it easy for a day was a good one.

A lot of just road today with a little construction.  Tomorrow I am not sure what I am going into so I will stop at the Quebec visitors center on the border 14 miles away.  I know that I have maybe 100 miles of gravel/dirt/potholes to get to Mavic 5, the largest Hydro Dam in the world and the motel that is there in the woods and of course gas.  Today I actually got Shell Premium for the first time in 10 days.  The bike breathed a sigh of relief!  It has behaved nicely on regular with the octane booster that they sell so I have no complaints.  A good nights sleep and should be ready for the 235 miles through this rugged portion of Quebec then it is pavement all the way home.  This is the turn south and I feel like I am homeward bound!  In 14 miles I will turn the clock back 1 hour to Eastern Daylight Savings time and continue on south.

Today is the day - 250 miles of gravel

Had a little trouble sleeping due to excitement and fear.  I noticed that all the motorcycle, very little, was going west to east and very few were on my side doing east to west.  Could find no answer for this.  I got up at 5:30 to eat early and go since I was planning on a 10 hour day.  But I couldn't resist the pic!

It was cool and expected some light rain, just enough to keep the dust down.  I learned alot the day before and 2 guys came in at 10pm last night after 3 flats and multiple repair attempts.  One on a Triumph Tiger and the other on a Honda St with street tires!  They were toast.  I gave them some energy bars and had breakfast with them before leaving.  Two things I learned from Bill Johnson who was sending moral support.  Soften the suspension and relax, no death grip.  I learned how to get the bike up on a plane at around 55 mph but at times I would hit deep gravel that was really scary!  Almost dropped the bike a number of times but kept going.  At one stop the Canadian Jays came down and visited Oswald.

He actually landed on his head but moved when I moved to get the camera!  Very cute.  It was a long, long 250 miles with numerous stops for construction since they are planning on paving this road over the next 5 years.  The bridges in many places are single lane and the road narrows to single lane in places.  The dirt road is a little more than 5 years old so they are still building it. 

At times I got up to 60 mph but for very short periods.  The heavy equipment slowed when they passed me but the smaller pickups blasted me  lots of rock flying and dust.  I got into Goose Bay after about 6 hours on the road and an average speed of 43 mph.  4 hours ahead of schedule.  

I met up with a group from ME just up camping and riding around.  4 on bikes had been reduced to 3 due to Rick's wife totaling her BMW F650 the day before on the TransLab.  She was knocked out and medics were there in a flash.  She got up but the bike didn't.  The RCMP was right there and one of them went home and got his truck driving 100 miles to pick up her bike and take it to Goose Bay.  She was ok with some scrapes and the RCMP said very few walk away from accidents on the TransLab.  Saturday Night the RCMP came over to the motel on his back with a backpack loaded with beer and chips.  What a super guy!  The guy with the white beard in the picture was living there at the motel is a pilot for a water tanker for fighting forest fires.  He flies in low on a lake and scoops up water to dump on the fires.  The guy in the black shirt facing the camera is the RCMP.

We ordered in Pizza and sat up late talking.  What a nice bunch to meetup with, Andy, Nevin, Rick and Sara.  We left after Breakfast the next AM and rode together Churchhill Falls where I planned to stay for the night to rest my back and on to Labrador City tomorrow.  We also met 2 guys from Quebec going the other way.  A great evening.

Sorry to see them go!  Forgot a picture of Sara!

She is already thinking of what bike she wants.

So it is back on the road tomorrow by myself and will be in the States in 4 days heading to Anna and Tony's house.  What a trip, the Canadian people are the best!  But, I do want a steak when I get back, Omega3 overload!

Heading home sort of!

TransLabrador Hwy......the gravel

Well, today starts the gravel!  I left L'anse au Loup at 9:30 and arrived at Port Hope Simpson at 1:00 pm.  The gravel was 100 miles and it was like riding on marbles.  The trucks are huge and they run at 60 mph.  Luckily they have slowed down for me when approaching but the dust is huge!

The bike floats like I am slalom skiing and at times it feels like it will low-side but so far I am fine.  I finally relaxed my death grip and relaxed my hands as I became accustomed to the gravel.  I lowered the tire pressure from 38/40 to 30/32 so I would have a better footprint for traction.  There is no premium fuel here so I added an octane booster (jet fuel) so the bike should continue to run well.  It is now that I wish I had the TKC80 instead of the TKC70 so I would have better grip but the 80's would have been shot by now and the 70's are ok and I will get home on them.  

Goose bay tomorrow after 250 miles of rocks probably 10 hours on the road due to construction zones.  Oswald gets waves but has seen no relatives.  Also, no bears, caribou, or moose!  Hoping to get a good nights sleep tonight then the long day.

L'anse au Loup, Labrador, my last ferry crossing, I think!

The miles must be adding up so I am taking an extra day here to rest and walk around a bit.  The ferry was quiet but the ship was a rust bucket!  Loading was good and the cafeteria had ok food at reasonable prices.  After the crossing I went down to the lowest level where the bike was and apparently the bow door we loaded through didn't have a good seal.  There was water all around the floor.

I thought this was my last ferry crossing but there was one more in Quebec.  Met a guy on the ferry that just finished the TransLab and we laughed about how stupid we were to do this alone.  Then we congratulated each other.  He was heading to Minneapolis and I to NY to visit friends.

The bike started so I was outta there!  

And the required picture!

I had trouble finding a room in Red Bay and the lady at a B&B referred me to Barney's B&B in L'anse au Loup a few miles short of Red Bay.  The lady running this raised 8 children here and now has 23 grand & great grandchildren.  They all live within a short distance.  We talked for 2 hrs this afternoon about what it is like to live your life in this small town.  There are only 2 places to eat, the bakery(which serves sandwiches and soup) and Fast Freddy's which serves fried cod and hotdogs and hamburgers.  I have now eaten at all of the restaurants!

This is a pretty little town

  

I intended to take a rest day since my next road day will be on 80 miles of gravel from Red Bay to Port Hope Simpson.  This will be a good shakedown ride to see if everything is tight before my 250 mile dirt ride to Goose Bay.  The last gas station is also in Port Hope Simpson.  Then Saturday the long day on the rocks!  

Mary runs the B&B and is 83 years old.  She has been running this for 40 years!  This is her last year she thinks but she loves it.  She has an ATV and a Skidoo like everyone here and she loves taking off on either one of them.  A very active 83 I would say.  She says that the weather never stops her from going out!

There are parallel roads to the paved ones all across this Province for ATV's and Skidoos so they don't have to be on the highway.  Mary has made this a very enjoyable rest day and tomorrow I should have better WIFi.  

OF Note:  On my second day Mary told me that I better get on home because winter comes early in Labrador.  Two weeks later a blizzard hit and closed the Trans-Lab for a number of days.  I came close to spending the winter in Labrador!