Epilogue

So in the end, this was a great trip for me. Much of it was about the “journey”, actually travelling through these remote areas, viewing the scenery and getting a view of life from another perspective. Though it would have been nice to have had someone to take the trip with, being on my own made things a lot easier and less stressful in many ways. I'm also really glad that I decided not to take my trailer. First, it would have been too big for just me, and it would have made a lot of the drives more difficult. I didn't really have any issues with my camping set up during the first part of the trip, and I have to say, living out of my car for the final 4 nights of the trip worked out REALLY well. I guess this proves that proper planning really pays off!

I took some really nice hikes, had a lot of fun riding my bike on both the mountain biking trails I rode, as well as on some of the bike paths too, saw a lot of beautiful scenery and met some really nice people along the way.

In total, I drove 4689 miles over 14 days. Unfortunately, the day after I returned home, my car developed a major problem with one of the front brake calipers and I had to have some repair work done. Fortunately, this DIDN'T happen during the trip!!!

The only part of the trip that I wasn't thrilled with was the day when I drove from Labrador City to Quebec City. In addition to Route 389 being a difficult road, there was also more traffic on that road than on many of the other drives I did. In some cases, I would get behind a really slow moving vehicle, which was frustrating, while at others, there were cars that were behind me, that were getting frustrated with me. I always made an effort to move to the side of the road so that cars could pass me, but in most cases, other drivers in front of me would not extend the same courtesy.

Once I got off Route 389 and onto Route 138, I was expecting things to go better, but as I described, they didn't. In hindsight, I definitely would not have continued from Baie-Comeau to Quebec City on the same day I drove from Labrador City to Baie-Comeau.

As the Canadian government continues to pave some of these roads, and make other improvements, driving the “loop” through Labrador will probably become somewhat less of an adventure. I'm really glad I got the chance to take this trip, but I don't know that I would ever do it again. I would definitely go back to New Brunswick, and Fundy National Park as well as Newfoundland, but I can't say there would be any reason for me to go back to Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia or Labrador.

I have been in all 50 U.S. States, and now, I've been in 6 of the 13 Canadian provinces. When I originally started planning my travel through Canada several years ago, I had drawn up a plan to visit 12 of the 13 provinces on one trip. The 13th province, Nunavut, cannot be reached by car, and is so remote and difficult to travel to and through, that I did not attempt to include it in my plan. That original plan was a 56 day expedition, that would cover 14,190 miles, and that was just the “point-to-point” driving, and didn't include any additional driving once I arrived at a destination.

So, now that I've completed the eastern portion of that journey, maybe the next adventure will be to do the rest of it … I guess I'll have to wait and see!

Day 14 - Quebec City

After waking up and going through the morning routine, it was time to head into Quebec City for some sightseeing. Fortunately, it was a beautiful morning, so I was looking forward to walking around the “old city” of Quebec, or Vieux Quebec.

It was about a 10-15 minute drive from the campground to where I needed to go. The road followed the shoreline of the St. Lawrence River, and there was a nice park and bike trail that ran alongside the road. As I got closer to the “city”, I started to think about where I would park. I drove around for a while, and didn't really see any “good” options. Then it occurred to me, why don't I park in one of the parking lots in the riverside park I had been driving past, and then I could ride my bike back to where I wanted to be. This seemed like a pretty good idea, so that's what I did. It worked out great. I parked the car and then road about a mile and a half on the bike trail back to the heart of the “lower town” of the old city of Quebec. I locked my bike up in front of a museum, figuring that would be a pretty safe place, and then started exploring on foot.

From what I had read, the Quebec City is the only existing walled city north of Mexico. It's a very pretty area, with mostly old buildings, many of which I'm sure have been refurbished, but it still has a very old look and feel to it. The Chateau (Hotel) Frontenac is located here and it's a beautiful buliding, though unfortunately, they were doing a lot of work on the exterior so there was a lot of scaffolding and such covering it up.

There were lots of shops and cafes and the area definitely had a lot of “old world” charm to it. There's also a fort within the old city, though I didn't bother to go into the fort. I walked around for a few hours, but then some clouds started to move in and I decided I would get on the road again. I made my way back to the car and started driving towards Montreal. At this point, I decided that I wasn't going to go to Montreal, and that I would just head to Lake Placid today, one day earlier than originally planned.

There was a lot of traffic on the road, but at least this was a “real” highway. As I got closer to Montreal, I had to exit the highway I was on to connect with a different road. Traffic was now crawling, and it took almost an hour to go 14 miles!!! I was now on highway 15, heading south, which would connect with interstate 87, once I crossed the border back into the United States.

It took about half an hour to get through the customs and immigration station at the border, and I was finally on my way once again. I arrived in Lake Placid at around 6:00 pm. The journey was over!!!

Day 13 - Labrador City to Baie-Comeau …

Today I would be leaving Labrador and driving Route 389 in Quebec to the town of Baie-Comeau. It was a 365 mile drive, that was expected to take about 8 hours. From everything I had read, this road would be the worst part of the trip.

After waking up and eating breakfast, I headed out for today's journey. The first 20 miles or so were on a paved road, and all was good. I crossed into Quebec and shortly thereafter, the paved road ended and it was back to a gravel road. The road essentially followed along a rail line, criss-crossing the tracks many times over the next 30 or so miles. There were some very sharp curves on this stretch and I was starting to understand everything I had read about this road.

Finally, after about 30 miles of this, I reached a mine at a place called North Fire Lake and the road was once again paved. It had been raining the entire morning, and it was nice to be back on a paved road. This continued for about 90 miles until I reached a “town” called Relais-Gabriel. There was pretty much nothing here but a gas station and restaurant. I stopped to fill up with gas and continued on. Shortly after that, the pavement inexplicably ended, and it was back on the gravel road. For the next 20 or 30 miles, the road wasn't too bad, then, everything changed …

At this point, for the next 15 to 20 miles, the gravel road became very hilly with lots of very sharp curves. There was construction going on throughout this stretch of the road, and it's very obvious that they are realigning and straightening the road to remove all of the very sharp curves. I finally reached the “Manic-5” dam, and once again, the road was now paved, however, the hills and sharp curves continued all the way to the end of the road in the town of Baie-Comeau … it was like being on a roller coaster.

It seems pretty apparent, that Route 389 was built from Baie-Comeau as a construction and service road for the dams and hydro-electric plants that run along the Manicouagan River, and was never really intended to be a “through” road. There are five dams on this river, with “Manic-5” being the northernmost, which would explain why the road is not paved north of that dam. From what I've been able to find, it sounds like the road was built by the hydro-electric and mining companies, for their purposes, and as I mentioned above, was probably never intended to be used as a through road to get to Labrador. Now that this has become the case, it seems that the Canadian government is working towards improving the road to make it safer.

After reaching Baie-Comeau, which was my planned stop for the night, I realized that I had passed back into the eastern time zone, so it was an hour “earlier” than I realized. At this point, I made a fateful decision … It was only about 250 miles to Quebec City, and by having “picked up” an hour, it appeared as though I could arrive in Quebec City at about 7:30 if I decided to continue, which would give me more time in Quebec City the following day. This would also give me the option of spending some time in Montreal on the following day, which was not part of my original plan, if I chose to do so. Since I was now back to “civilization”, I figured why not … the road shouldn't be a problem now, so off I went.

As it turned out, the road while paved, wound its way up, over and through the mountains that form the coastline of the St. Lawrence River. It was a two lane road that passed through a lot of small towns along the way, and there was a fair amount of traffic heading west towards Quebec City. The weather was also awful … it was raining on and off, and there was a lot of very dense fog, making visibility somewhat limited. This was going to take longer than I thought!!!

After driving for a while, there was an electronic sign board that was in French only. I didn't understand what it said, but there was one part that read “de 1H”. I started to wonder if this meant “1 hour delay”, or something like that. Shortly after passing the sign, the road widened to two lanes in each direction, and went down a VERY long and steep hill. The left lane had signs indicating that no trucks were allowed in that lane. Suddenly, the westbound traffic in both lanes came to a dead stop! I had no idea what was going on. After a couple of minutes, I turned the car off and started to look at the maps that I had, and I realized that the road appeared to go through a small river that fed into the St. Lawrence River. I started to wonder if there was a tunnel or something, and maybe there had been an accident in the tunnel. After sitting for a while, suddenly, a “wave” of traffic passed by in the eastbound lanes, and shortly after that, we moved forward a couple of hundred feet. I could also make out red and green “traffic lights” that were positioned above the lanes off in the distance. Maybe they were alternating traffic through one lane or tube of the tunnel.

This continued for a while, and as I got closer to the traffic lights I realized it wasn't a tunnel, but a ferry!!! The highway had a section that had to be crossed by ferry … unbelievable!!! It took about an hour to finally get on the ferry, and then about 5 minutes to make the crossing to the other side. Perhaps it's time to build a bridge or a tunnel here!!!

I was now WAY behind “schedule”, and it looked as though I wouldn't arrive in Quebec City until about 9:00 pm. I continued driving, up and down the hills, through the fog and rain, when suddenly, traffic came to a complete stop again!!! Oh no … not another ferry! I looked at the maps again, and it was clear that this was not the case … there must be an accident or something up ahead. Nothing moved in either direction for about 30 minutes. There was an occasional car coming eastbound, but I started to figure that these were cars that had decided to turn around and go back to the town that we had just passed through.

Finally, I could see up in the distance that car lights were coming on, and people were getting ready to move … we were finally moving again. After about another hour of driving up and down the hills, through more fog and rain, I finally reached Quebec City. I found the campground I had made a reservation at and arrived at the office just before they were going to close, at about 5 minutes before 10:00 pm. They directed me to a sight and I parked the car … I had been on the road for 15 and a half hours … I was spent!!!

Fortunately, I was able to buy a couple of beers in the campground office … I made a quick dinner and then went to sleep. Tomorrow, I'd be going into Quebec City for some sightseeing.

Day 12 - The Trans Labrador Highway Day 2

Before I continue, there's one thing I should mention about Labrador that I had forgotten to mention previously. One of the things you'll read, if you read anything about Labrador, is that the black flies are a real problem. I can now tell you from first hand experience … it's true. In any wilderness areas, the moment you get out of the car, you are completely swarmed by these beasts!

Anyway, now onto today's drive. I'd be travelling from Happy Valley-Goose Bay to Labrador City, a distance of about 325 miles on paved roads. There would only be one town on the way, a place called Churchill Falls, which is the site of a major hydro-power plant. The drive time was expected to be about 7 hours.

After waking up and getting dressed, I made breakfast, filled the car with gas, and then headed on my way. Unfortunately, it rained from Happy Valley-Goose Bay all the way to Churchill Falls. When I arrived in Churchill Falls, I topped off the gas tank and continued to Labrador City. Fortunately, as I continued westward, the weather started to improve. The scenery here reminded me a lot of the scenery you see when you travel through interior Alaska. Lots of rolling hills, small lakes & ponds and some small mountains. Unfortunately, I didn't encounter any wildlife on this portion of my drive.

When I arrived in Labrador City, it was pretty early, so I found a local public library where I was able to recharge my laptop and access the internet for a while. After leaving the library, it was time to find a place to stay for the night. There was a Walmart that was part of a small shopping mall. Walmart allows RV's to park in their lots in most locations overnight, so I assumed that this would be a good place to “camp”.

From what I could tell, it seems that pretty much everyone in Labrador City works in the hydro-electric and/or mining industry. Virtually every vehicle you see is a pickup truck of one kind or another, and they all have amber lights and flags on them. There was a Tim Hortons donut shop in the mall, which had a drive through, and there was a line at the drive through the entire time I was there. I had also passed a McDonalds which also had a drive through, and there was a line there as well … they really seem to like their coffee here!!! I'm assuming that they must run multiple shifts, probably 24 hours a day, at the mines. The trucks were flying through the parking lot constantly … the level of activity was fascinating!

There was a restaurant in the mall, along the lines of an Applebee's, and I thought about going there for dinner, but ultimately, I decided to just stick with what I had brought along for the trip. At this point, I had gotten pretty organized with regard to cooking in the car, so I made dinner, and then read for a while before going to sleep.

Tomorrow's drive would be another long one, taking me from Labrador into the province of Quebec.

Day 11 - The Trans Labrador Highway Day 1

As it turned out, my car “camp” was actually fairly comfortable, and everything worked out very well. After I woke up, got dressed and ate breakfast, I headed over to the ferry office to get my ticket, and to use the bathroom!!!

After that, I waited to board the ferry. This was a MUCH smaller ship than the one I had taken from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. After I drove aboard, I went up to the passenger area and spent most of the time reading. The crossing took about 2 hours.

For those who don't know anything about this road, it's made up of two highways, routes 500 and 510, and kind of runs from the western border of Labrador and Quebec all the way to the eastern coast of Labrador, and then follows the coast south and west where it ends at the border with Quebec. The two highways combined are about 715 miles from end to end. From what I have been able to find, it was completed in 2009, and at that time, much of it was a gravel road. Since then, sections are being paved each year so that it will eventually be completely paved. The road is notorious for generating flat tires, and there are virtually no services at all along the route, with the exception of a couple of very small towns, most of which are along the southern coast. It is a “fill your tank” at every opportunity kind of drive, as there may be close to 150 miles or more before you reach the next gas station. Also, there is no cellular phone service along the route, except in a couple of the largest towns. The government of Labrador has a satellite phone loaner program so that you can take a phone with you in case something happens along your way.

So, with that said, my plan for the day was to drive from the ferry terminal to a small town called Port Hope Simpson. It wasn't a very long drive, only about 135 miles. The reason I had planned such a short drive for the day was because the next section, from Port Hope Simpson to the towns of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, was about 250 miles, and this was expected to be a mostly gravel road, and I didn't want to be driving this road at night. It's also well known for moose and bears to be encountered along the way.

Before I started the drive, I went to a hotel in the town of L'anse-au-Clair to pick up a satellite phone. Of course, they didn't have any!!! Oh well ... let's hope for the best. I headed out from there, and my first stop was at a lighthouse at a place called Point Amour. It's apparently one of the tallest lighthouses in Canada. What was really cool, was that for the admission fee of $6 (CAD), you actually got to walk up to the top of the lighthouse. It was pretty cool, and we saw a pod of whales while we were up there.

From there, I continued to the town of Red Bay. This was a Basque whaling settlement back in the 1500's. It's a pretty little town, and there was a museum, but it wasn't really all that interesting. From there I continued on my way through the town of Mary's Harbor and then I arrived in Port Hope Simpson. It was pretty early, only 3:00, and because Labrador is so far north, it's stays light until about 9:00 - 10:00. The road had been paved all the way to this point, which was kind of a surprise to me. From what I had read, I wasn't expecting it to be paved this far from the ferry terminal.

It was decision time ... should I continue on to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, or call it a day? The way I had set up the trip, the final day would be taking me from a town called Baie Comeau to Lake Placid. This was a drive of about 515 miles, and was expected to take 10 hours or more, depending upon how long it would take to get through US Immigration and Customs. If I drove to Happy Valley-Goose bay today, I could split that last day into two parts, which would also give me more time to spend in Quebec City. Decision made ... continue the next 250 miles to Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Much to my surprise, the road turned out to be paved much further ... I finally reached the construction zone where they were continuing the paving work towards Happy Valley-Goose Bay, but the good news was that the first 60 miles of the 250 were paved. It was now onto the gravel road. Unforuntately, for the next 80 miles or so, they were doing a lot of construction on the road ... widening it, and “shoring up” the sides, I assume in preparation for paving in the future. These 80 miles were brutal!!! It was like a moonscape. I was constantly worried about getting a flat tire, and you had to be on the lookout for huge potholes, not to mention moose and bears!!!

Once I finally cleared the construction zones, the road was MUCH better ... until it started raining!!! Gravel roads are VERY slippery in the rain! After a little while, I came out of the rain and the road was much better again. I had no idea how far I had to go until it would be paved again, but much to my surprise, and joy, I reached pavement again at about 190 miles into the 250 mile drive.

Driving the gravel road, was a harrowing experience. I can't imagine what it was like when the entire road was gravel. Given the progress they appeared to be making, my guess is that it will be completely paved, end to end, within the next two or three years, and this opportunity for adventure will be gone. I'm glad I got to experience it, but I'm also glad that my experience was fairly limited!!! (It's not completely over though ... when I drive from Labrador City to Baie Comeau, Quebec in two days, there's a section of that road that's supposed to be even worse than the Trans Labrador Highway!!!)

Once I arrive in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, I found a spot to park for the night at a visitors information center building. There was a fancy conversion van with Oregon license plates parked there as well, so I figured no one would bother me. I got the car set up, made myself some dinner, and went to sleep. Tomorrow, I drive about 325 miles to Labrador City (at least it's paved the whole way).

Day 10 - Gros Morne National Park

Today I would be touring Gros Morne National Park and would then continue north to the town of St. Barbe, which was where the ferry to Labrador would be leaving the following morning.

I had planned to participate in a guided hike this morning in the “Tablelands” section of the park. This section of the park features exposed rock from the earth's mantle, which is apparently not commonly found. Unfortunately, I under-estimated how much time it would take me to travel from my campground to the hiking trail where the guided walk was taking place. I arrived just as they were heading out, so I quickly parked the car, grabbed my camera, and ran to catch up.

It was interesting to hear a park guide describe what we were seeing, from a geological perspective. Unfortunately, bad weather starting moving in, and since I hadn't had time to grab my rain gear, or my pack to keep my camera dry, I “bailed” on the hike and got back to the car before the rain starting come down heavily.

I then started heading North along the coast, stopping at several of the view points along the way. With the weather being a bit uncooperative, I was trying to “stay ahead” of it as best I could. One of the more interesting stops was at a point called “Greenpoint”. This is apparently a section of the coastline that was once the sea bed floor, but due to some geological force, probably plate tectonics, it was forced upwards and then “toppled over” so that you can now see all the layers of the sea bed floor over time as a cross-section. It was really cool to see all of the different layers and types of rock. This would definitely have been a great opportunity for a guided hike to hear a geological explanation of it all.

From there, I continued North arriving at Western Brook Pond, one of the most well known areas of the park. It's an inland fjord, surrounded by a glacial valley. Unfortunately, at this point, the weather had “caught up” with me, and the views weren't very good.

I continued my drive North, stopping at several other viewpoints along the way. Eventually, it was time to simply stay on the road to St. Barbe.

I arrived in St. Barbe at around 8:00 local time and searched for a place to park for my first night of “car camping”. I found a spot right alongside the ferry terminal and parked there. I then made the arrangements to convert the car into my “camp” for the night. I made myself a simple dinner and then went to sleep. I had to wake up early the next morning for the ferry ride to Labrador, and the start of the real “adventure” portion of this journey.

Day 9 - St. John's, Newfoundland to Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

Today's plan featured a very long drive from St. John's, Newfoundland, which is located on the Eastern edge of Newfoundland to Gros Morne National Park, which is located on the Western edge. The drive was going to be about 435 miles. I woke up early, packed up my gear, ate some breakfast and then hit the road.

About halfway into the drive, it started raining. It wasn't particularly heavy, but it was enough to be annoying. Fortunately, when I reached my destination, the rain had become more like scattered showers, and shortly after I arrived, it stopped altogether. Unfortunately, even though it wasn't raining, it was still very cloudy, so the views of the landscape weren't great.

The scenery in Gros Morne National Park is absolutely stunning. It was really a bummer that there weren't clear skies and sunshine. Nevertheless, I made the best of things. It was already pretty late in the day, so I decided to go the park's visitors center to get some information for tomorrow. I spoke with someone there, and they gave me a few ideas for some hikes that I'll take tomorrow. After I left the visitors center, I went into one of the small villages located right on the water called Rocky Harbor. There was a small hotel there that had a pub, so I went in for a beer. There was no one else there, so I finished my beer pretty quickly and left.

The weather had improved enough that I decided to backtrack through the park so that I could get some pictures from the some of the viewpoints that I had bypassed on my way in, due to the bad weather. After that, I found my campground and did the usual!

Tomorrow, I'm going to do a couple of hikes in the park, and then I head further North to the town of St. Barbe, which is where I'll be catching a ferry to take me to Labrador ... That's when the adventure REALLY begins, as I drive the Trans Labrador Highway through Labrador and into Quebec.

I don't expect to have any cellular or internet access after today, so I'll be posting the rest of the trip when I get back!