Today is the day that will
determine whether or not we will make it through the TLH. I booked a room close
to Blanc Sablon, QC and it should be around 415 miles to get there. Well, about
300 miles of it is dirt road and there is no service before Port Hope Simpson,
which is about 255 miles from Goose Bay.
Paving of that stretch has
started and soon you’ll see weekend warriors rolling up there asking “what’s
the big deal with this trip?” I mean we had it easy enough, a photographer on a BMW R100/7 who we met in Lab City did the TLH in 2010 when the highway opened and
it was all gravel – yikes!
Warming up on the first 40
miles of new pavement after Goose Bay and the fun begins. And it lasted,
lasted, lasted and lasted …
They are doing a great job
keeping the gravel road in shape, however they do it by grading it constantly,
which means shaving of the hard surface filling the ditches and creating some
sand traps for bikers. In the video you see some of them at work and what the
result did to me – didn’t go down but close to.... "ACHTUNG BABY!"
The surface and thickness of
loose gravel changes constantly, while we are “flying down the road” with 50+
miles at one place I only dare to do 35 mph at others. Our two bikes are almost
identical except for George reading about the gravel stretches and came on
Heidenau and Conti knobby tires while I brought my Michelin Anakee – a tire
that is 90% road and 10% off. Surface that worked for one didn’t work for the
other but overall George did much better and of course that was entirely due to
the tires.
Port Hope Simpson was a
major milestone on the trip, gas for the bikes, lunch for the riders and I
bought a “I survived the Trans Labrador Highway sticker” hoping I was indeed
alive to put it on.
Just outside town we were
stopped by a black bear in the middle of the road, of course my GoPro was out
of battery and I missed the first wild bear I saw. In the interest of keeping
the language clean in the blog I save you my personal review of that product
and what I think about that company.
We later learned that the
bear population is very strong and they are very active which creates some
problems. During the day two pick up trucks crossed our path pulling bear
traps, one we saw on the side to the road, hoping they were about to release
one, but no.
A fisherman we met later
shared pictures of a cub and its mother on the road checking out his vehicle,
sniffing the tires and showing no regard for the passenger. Maybe
skipping the idea of camping by the road wasn’t that bad after all.
Here are some impressions
from the Goose Bay to Port Hope Simpson stretch – 410 km without any service.
George booked a room in Red
Bay, so after him kissing the asphalt this time we split and I rode another 54
miles to a Blanc Sablon in Quebec 5min away from the ferry where we had no
reservations and they couldn’t be bothered to pick up the phone when you called.
On the way there I passed
during sun set some of the most spectacular roads and if the GoPro for once
worked I would share it. I was running late and finally stopped to curse the
battery life, the remote control and still changed the battery and started the camera.
In L’ans au Claire was a humongous iceberg of the
coast. Well humongous for someone who never saw an iceberg before. I even
thought it was artificial first since I couldn’t believe the size…and guess
what? By the time I got there – yes, the camera battery was dead again.
Finished the day with a
sandwich from the gas station and a six pack that I shared with some Canadian
riders who did the TLH.
Alarm set to 5 a.m. and a
picosecond later I was asleep.
Odometer reading
Today: 416.2 miles
Total: 1786.9 miles
