Triumph Over Labrador

This is going to be a thread about our recently completed trip up the Trans-Labrador Highway. From my house in southern Ontario it worked out to just about 6500 km exactly, completed in 14 days.



I would be on a 2006 Triumph Scrambler, bought new in 2008. My riding buddy Bruce was on a two year old KLR. We've known each other since high school and took our first bike tour together about 30 years ago, when we were in University.



The route would take us east to Baie Comeau Quebec, north, then east to Labrador City and Goose Bay. Then the coastal ferry south to Cartwright, by road to the ferry to Newfoundland and south along the west coast. Ferry again to Nova Scotia and then back to Ontario through ME, NH & VT.

We set out on Thursday, August 13. The reason for that date was to get to the ferry running from Goose Bay to Cartwright for the following Tuesday. It was critical that we made the ferry; it only runs once a week. If we missed it we would be turning around and be riding back to Quebec.

I left home about 8 am reaching Toronto to pick up Bruce about four hours later. We got as far as Cornwall ON the first night, staying at a new Super 8 motel. Distance for me on the day was 820 km.

Day two saw us navigate Montreal traffic at morning rush hour and later Quebec City, with huge traffic jams due to construction. We were roasting in 30+ C. temps, but would be glad of our gear when the temps dropped in Labrador.



We got to Ste Anne de Beaupre by late afternoon. Its claim to fame is a huge church built in 1875. This must have been quite the sight in rural Quebec when first built, it's impressive enough today.

Distance for the day was 411 km.

........................

This should be good,
looking forward to reading & following along..
BTW can you make the pix bigger?

All the usual suspects have gathered to watch, keep it coming.

Thanks for the hint on the pictures Rhodie; I was reducing the size so as not to be so large people had to scroll across to see them. When I was posting them they appeared full size, now that I've logged back on I can see how much they were reduced.

Day three had us continue up the north shore of the St.Lawrence to Baie Comeau, the jumping-off point for the actual Trans-Labrador Highway.



We got as far as Tadoussac by 11 am. This presented the first of four ferries that would be necessary to complete the trip. As it is officially an extension of provincial highway 138 there is no charge. To process the volume of traffic it was a model of efficiency. There were three ferries working a continuous loop; as one was loading another was approaching to immediately disembark the moment the dock was clear.

At St. Simeon the vistas along the St.Lawrence became quite beautiful. Unfortunately it was so hazy the pictures didn't turn out. Along this stretch we saw a bald eagle lazily circling low above, the way the turkey vultures do at home. There were lots of cycling and kayaking tourist operations along the road.

We got to Baie Comeau in mid-afternoon and relaxed for the day. A bit of light rain after supper was a hint of the weather that was following us. 428 km for the day; my total so far is 1659 and we haven't started the Trans-Lab yet.

Today the actual point of the whole exercise begins. We set the GPS units for Labrador City, the day's destination. They led us through Baie Comeau to a small side street that had this sign. It really doesn't seem to do justice to the task ahead.

This stretch of the Trans-Lab has several distinct parts. The first was a stretch of winding asphalt that would be a treat on a sportbike if not for the lousy condition of the asphalt.

At this point it bears mentioning the range of the two bikes. Ridden sedately, my Scrambler gets about 240 km to reserve. More usual is something like 215. Bruce's KLR is good for about 400km, so every opportunity to get gas would be a must for me. The gas can on my left passenger peg was not just for decoration as there was a 290 km stretch ahead with no services.


As we approached Manic 5, one of the largest hydro-electric projects in the world, the first gas stop appeared. 220 km to this point. A gas station, motel and restaurant, all from pre-fab buildings. Gas cost $1.30 a litre, as opposed to ninety-odd cents at home, with only regular and diesel available. This would be standard until until we got to Newfoundland itself.

As we rounded a corner, this presented itself:

A damned impressive structure, by any account. (couldn't resist)

Now the gravel began. The first stretch away from Manic 5 was so poor quality as to actually say "do you really want to do this?" A road of deep, loose and hilly over-sized stone marbles.


Conditions rapidly improved and we made it to the gas stop at Relais Gabriel, 96 km later. I topped off, and we had a snack. The first black flies showed themselves, and although they swarmed, they weren't doing much biting.


The dust for the next couple of days would be fierce. We rode up to a kilometer apart to allow the dust to settle a bit, otherwise it was like riding in fog.



Then, out of nowhere, a stretch of asphalt began. It shows on the map as "Gagnon", but all that remains are some town streets with curbs and sidewalks. Apparently there was a mine here that went bust, so when things closed down they packed up all the pre-fab buildings and removed the town. Very weird, really.

The poorest condition road of the trip followed the end of the pavement. Loose gravel, lots of turns and washouts marked only by road cones. We heard later on that a car had gone through a guard rail, down an embankment and the driver was airlifted to St. John's.


This train was at least a kilometer long, so a bit of an enforced break. Here the road was punctuated by multiple level crossings for the railway that carries out iron ore from the mines at Labrador City.


Eventually we came to the mine itself a huge, sprawling open pit on one side of the road, with what must be hundreds of acres of tailings on the other.




With this sign in sight we knew the end of the day's ride was near. 260 km from the gas stop at Relais Gabriel and we were nearing Labrador City. A total of 600 km for the day in 9.25 hours.

​

Great stuff!!!

This is a good one.

Cracking ride over some truly impressive country.
Bet you are pleased with your sensible farkling and preparation.
BTW did you notice any left leaning bias, due to useful fuel cell?
Thank you for taking your time to share your adventures with us.

No effect on handling from the gas can, Rhodie. It probably just balances out the weight of those Scrambler pipes on the other side. It was low as well, so worked out just fine.

We had been watching the weather channel each night, what had been unseasonably warm now turned downright cold. We woke up to 8 degrees and light rain. I had on a t-shirt, long sleeved shirt, fleece sweater, BMW jacket with thermal liner and nylon rainsuit over top. That was just enough for comfort.


We picked up a complimentary satellite phone at the Wabush hotel (Labrador City's twin). These are provided free for 24 hrs, with a refundable credit card deposit by the Newfoundland and Labrador dept. of transport. Nice peace of mind, even if it's not needed.


We arrived at Churchill Falls, 248 km later for a snack and gas. The rain had let up shortly after Lab city, and we were into choking dust again. The road varied from washboard to smooth and straight with speeds in the 65-90 km/h range. There were lots of maintenance parties out with graders so the soft spots required extra care.


The next section was the one I was most concerned about in terms of fuel. Heading east out of Churchill Falls it's about 290km of gravel, spruce trees and black flies, with nothing else until Goose Bay. My gas can fabrication was designed with this stretch in mind.


Part way along a sign said "rough road ahead". It turned out to be a 20 km stretch of pure washboard. The longer travel suspension on Bruce's KLR handled it OK, but it gave grief to the Ikons on the Scrambler. The relentless hammering had emulsified the oil in the shocks, so they had zero damping. I reduced speed to about 45 km/h and rode standing up. It got so bad I stopped the bike to see if the seals had blown.

A long, smooth section followed and the shocks recovered damping in about an hour. As we approached Goose Bay, with 37 km to go showing on the GPS, a lovely ribbon of fresh asphalt appeared. They hadn't even painted the pavement markings yet.


A few minutes along when this sign appeared it occurred that we had reached the farthest point the road would take us from home. And, we had officially survived the Trans-Lab with no mishaps.

Distance was 544 km for the day, now a total of 2803 for me.


As the picture shows, the dust had been fierce. The nice folks at the hotel got a hose out to rinse the worst of it off. Due to the low speeds I got the best mileage of the entire trip with 252 km to reserve. I rode into town without touching the supply in the can.

It was Monday afternoon at 4:30 pm and the ferry was Tuesday at 5 pm, so we had a bit of R&R.


A ride around town and we located the dock for tomorrow's departure and had a look around the air base. It was a huge base before the end of the cold war, with several of the European NATO countries maintaining a presence to practice low flying over the expansive wilderness of Labrador.




Looking back from whence we came.

Nice to see someone using a "different" bike to do a trip. What do you think of the scrambler? Is it up to this sort of trip? Comfort ok? Did you have to make any mods to the bike, or are there mods you wish you had done?. Nice trip!

Shepp,

The mods are pretty much what you can see in the pictures. Handguards, windshield, Honda CRF shift lever, Suzuki RM footpegs, ATV gas can mount, Triumph gel seat, Ikon shocks and luggage. I detailed the mods some time ago on the Scrambler thread in 'Beasts'.

The only shortcomings were the small tank that necessitated stopping for gas every 225 km and the stock length shocks don't have enough travel for the rough stuff. The bike purred like a kitten for the whole trip, 0 oil used. Can't ask much more than that.

Day 6 was to be pretty laid back, waiting for the coastal ferry, Sir Robert Bond. Cold and rainy again, so after a bit of souvenir hunting we got to the ferry terminal early and cracked out a couple of books to pass the time. Check in started at 2 PM, vehicles lined up at 3, boarding at 4 and departure at 5.

We had made reservations for important stages of the trip in advance, with the rest left to chance. The ferry was reserved with a two berth cabin, as it was an overnight trip leaving Goose Bay at 5 pm and getting to Cartwright at 6 am the next day.

As we were waiting for the ferry, a pair of KTM adventures with Georgia plates showed up. We had seen them around town earlier in the day. We chatted to the riders who turned out to be Jim and Aussie Darren from the 'Labrador or Bust' thread.

They had 990 and 950 Adventures looking like they were kitted out for the Dakar. Jim had done a solo ride to Terra del Fuego and Darren had done Alaska so there was some serious adventure riding cred here. They had done the Baie Comeau-Lab City & Lab City-Goose Bay legs in two days each. When we told them we had done them in a day apiece I think we got a bit of cred for ourselves.

Another interesting rider we met was Bill from Grand Rapids MI. He did the Trans-Lab solo on an Aprilia sportbike. Kudos Bill, that's all I can say.


The Sir Robert Bond is not a drive-on, drive-off ferry, so all vehicles had to enter, do a u-turn, and then back into place. This lengthened the loading process considerably, however having a watertight bow would be a worthwhile consolation with some of the weather they see.

The Bond does a coastal circuit to the remote Labrador communities that have no road access, as well as bridging the gap in the highway between Goose Bay and Cartwright.


Our cabin was small, but at least we had one. Our American compatriots hadn't reserved one and went on the standby list, waiting for a cancellation. As we swapped stories in the bar that evening Bill got word he scored a quad berth, which he shared with his fellow travellers.


At 0430 the PA announced the kitchen was open for breakfast and fifteen minutes later we were told docking would take place in a half hour. Dawn was breaking as we got onto the road in Cartwright at 0600, separating from our fellow riders.


There was a light rain as we set out and the temperature was something less than 10 C. There was a steady flow of vehicles that were making their way south from the ferry.


We stopped for pictures at the point where the final stage of the Trans-Lab is slated to open. This will create a road link from Goose Bay to the south shore of Labrador, bypassing Cartwright. The locals confirmed that next year when the road is opened, the ferry will cease the Goose Bay-Cartwright run.


After 225 km we arrived at Port Hope Simpson for gas, a snack and to warm up. The Labrador flag flies everywhere here. Its colours represent the blue of the sea, the green of the forests and the white of the snow. A spruce twig is for the tree that is found in every part of Labrador.


By noon, due to our early start, we were as far as Red Bay. In the 1980's when I was working for Parks Canada I had heard a lot about this discovery of a Basque whaling settlement from the 1500s.


We went through the site, marvelling at how men in a small boat could think it was a smart idea to harpoon a whale that outweighed their vessel by a factor of 100. It made our Trans-Labrador ride look like child's play by comparison.

By mid afternoon we were settled in our seaside cabin in Forteau, conveniently located across the street from a gas station, restaurant, and general store. 479 km today, with pavement beginning at Red Bay. We'd reached the end of the gravel roads


We went for a short ride (17 km) to scout out the location for the next morning's ferry across the Strait of Belle Isle to Newfoundland.


Having determined tomorrow's plan, what should we see but Jim and Darren on their KTMs. We figured out we would all be on the 1030 ferry to the island the following day.

We returned to Forteau and Bruce had the idea of picking up something from the store for tomorrow's breakfast. When we got there, it was five after six and the store closed at six. We inquired in the attached restaurant at supper, and the lady said she could have the owner open the store for us, if only we could wait a bit as he was also the chef and the dinner rush was on. The hospitality of the residents is from a time gone by.

Tomorrow: south to the Rock and warnings of Hurricane Bill.

Great RR, not nearly enough with Scrams in em.

Leaving Forteau for the ferry, it was foggy and wet.


As we waited for the ferry, James and Darren showed up. We had been told we didn't need a reservation for this one as motorcycles are easy to fit on. The non-reservation line did take longer to get through, as the reservation line was processed first.


The weather started to clear as we set out. We saw large whales on the east side of the ship as we crossed, followed by smaller black whales(?), about the size of a large dolphin on the west side.


The weather was overcast again a couple of hours later as we approached the dock in St. Barbe. We bid James and Darren goodbye again, telling them we were going to look for a motel somewhere around Cow Head, a town near Gros Morne National Park.

The wind were stiff out of the west on the ride south, with occasional showers.


As we approached Gros Morne the tops of the mountains were lost in the clouds, but they were spectacular nonetheless. The motels were full in Cow Head, so we continued south to Rocky Harbour in search of a place to stay.


Rocky Harbour is in the heart of Gros Morne, and appears to be a popular spot to stay for visiting the park. After getting settled in to a motel directly across from the harbour we set out for an exploration of the area and some pictures. It was an easy ride of 258 km for the day.


Gros Morne is a UNESCO world heritage site and the scenery was spectacular, even if half obscured by clouds.

Our room was at the back of the motel, and as we rounded the corner to pull up to our room I laughed out loud in my helmet as we saw James and Darren's KTMs. We were quite a way from where we said we would be, and in spite of all the choices we all settled on the same place. They said they had seen Michigan Bill in town as well, and invited him to supper.

When we had all left the ferry back at Cartwright, Bill had stayed on board for an extra day for the trip all the way to Lewisporte NF. In a huge coincidence we had once again all converged on the same spot. We enjoyed dinner together at another restaurant "where the locals eat".

We had all been following the weather on TV, as hurricane Bill was threatening to disrupt ferry service to Nova Scotia. Bruce and I had confirmed reservations on tomorrow's Saturday daytime ferry; Bill had booked for Sunday and James and Darren (who were pretty much travelling without reservations) tried to get reservations but were told that they couldn't get on until Monday.


Morning dawned sunny and warm with a great view from the front of the motel.


We took our time heading south, drinking in the scenery. On a more leisurely schedule, the Gros Morne area would be worth spending several days itself.


That afternoon, we arrived at Port aux Basques and stopped at the tourist information centre and asked about a place to stay. They recommended a small cabin in the outport of Isle aux Morts. With directions in hand we set out for our last night in Newfoundland and Labrador.

443 km today for a total of 3983 for the trip thus far.

The cabin was a four-plex on the shore in Isle aux Morts and was the first disappointment in all the places we had stayed. We made a point of using old style non-chain, pull-up-to-the-door motels wherever we could. The majority had been right on the water and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend any of them until now.


Although it was clean and in a very picturesque setting, it was an old building with a definite slope in the floor, and the water was chocolate brown. Not risking the water, we skipped showers and used the drinking water we had packed for the Trans-Labrador Highway.


There was an interesting local fisherman's home museum, and although we arrived at closing time the curator insisted on opening back up to show us through. Once again the Newfoundland hospitality shone through.


Bruce had a knack for always asking the locals for the best place to eat, and we had also done very well in the dinner department. A little restaurant in the next community of Margaree came highly recommended. We were warned it opened at four and if we got there later than five we might not get a table. Hedging our bets, we got there at four thirty and true enough the place was packed by five.



We did a bit more exploring of the ports east of Port aux Basques and packed it in for the night.

It appeared hurricane Bill was far enough off our ferry would get to Cape Breton tomorrow.

Awesome.

It was mild with very dense fog when we got up on Saturday, August 23. We had reservations on the 11:30 ferry, with check-in an hour and a half before.

Due to the heavy fog we gave ourselves lots of time to travel about 15 km to the terminal. Check-in was simple with the reservations, you pulled up to a toll-type booth, gave them your name and they handed you the ticket. I made a point of telling the attendant how hospitable everyone had been in her province.


We were standing about, passing time with others in the motorcycle lane, and when I turned around, the MV Atlantic Vision had appeared out of the fog. It was invisible when we first pulled up.

This is a huge ship, with five vehicle decks. Built in Kiel, Germany in 2002, it ran a route in the Baltic for a few years. The walls are still covered with directional signs in German, Russian and two other languages I didn't recognize. The ship is now under charter to Marine Atlantic for the Sydney - Port aux Basques run.


As we were strapping our bikes down, one of the deck hands said not to worry, it would be a calm crossing. The calm before the storm at it were. The prediction for hurricane Bill to make landfall in Nova Scotia was tomorrow. Given that four ferries were integral to the trip, we had carried our own tie downs, which worked out for the best.


When making the reservation, I noticed that cabins were available at a substantial discount during the daytime runs. The entire ship was quite luxurious compared to the Sir Robert Bond and the cabin turned out to be a very good idea. It was equipped with an ensuite bathroom, so the first thing we did was take the showers we skipped in Isle aux Morts due to the scuzzy water.


Both of us were cleaned up and feeling human again by the time the ship pulled away from the dock.


There was still a lot of fog when we caught our last glimpse of Newfoundland receding into the distance. Contrary to my expectation, there was a warm breeze on deck for the entire crossing and the water was indeed calm.


We passed on the fancy restaurant (by comparison, the food on the Bond was high school cafeteria quality) and got a light lunch in the cafeteria.

During the roughly seven hour crossing we alternated time on deck, naps, and reading time in the cabin. BTW we both brought books, I highly recommend it as it gave something to do for the waiting-for-ferries downtime. All-in-all a pleasant passage.


The weather was clear, warm, and sunny as we reached Sydney, NS at 7 pm local time. Bruce had made a reservation at another excellent mom and pop motel west of Baddeck, and we arrived before eight. Today comprised only 101 km of riding in addition to the ferry crossing.

WOW - this is making me take a second look at the Scrambler as a great all-around bike - just sold an 07 Tiger but DAMN that Scrambler looks good kitted out for distance travel! :eek1

After another great meal at a local restaurant recommended by the woman from the motel, we had spent the previous evening glued to the weather channel.

Morning dawned foggy and wet (we were used to that by now) but the forecast was for it to get worse, not better. We had originally set the day aside for a ride around the Cabot Trail, one of North America's motorcycling must-dos. With great disappointment we decided to forgo it in order to be spared the brunt of the hurricane.

Hurricane Bill was to make landfall in Nova Scotia before noon, and the problem was we had to ride directly toward it for about two hours before we could turn west to New Brunswick, the only avenue of escape.


As Bruce and I were in front of the motel, putting our helmets on, I heard the sweet snarl of an Aprilia V twin. It was Michigan Bill again, crossing our path for the third time. I did a jumping-jack wave and he pulled into the parking lot. Bill had manged to get on the overnight ferry, which turned out to be the last one off the island with service cancelled for a day as the hurricane approached.

With everybody suited up, we rode together for a time, then Bill peeled off behind us.

By the time we crossed into New Brunswick on the Trans Canada Highway, it appeared we were skirting the worst of the storm by riding counter-clockwise around it.


We reached Fredericton NB in the mid afternoon and decided to call it a day with 623 km on the clock. At another excellent local motel we set about drying out and tended to a bit of minor bike maintenance.


It was here that I discovered that some point on the Trans-Lab had taken its toll on the Scrambler in the form of a dented front rim.

As the skies cleared once again we took an evening ride into town to see a few sights in historic Fredericton.

Tomorrow: The way home.