8 Days, 3393 miles...another Goose Bay ride report...

8 Days
3393 Miles
5460 Kilometers
2 Countries
2 KLR 650's
300 Pictures
2,234,345,793,931,909 Black Flies
43 "Come in on the Road Eh?"
43 "How is it?"
97 "Parlez-vous anglais?"
97 "Eh little beet"
1,495 Mazda Miatas
1,875 Songs on my Ipod

Pre-Day 1 - Planning

Tom and I (TomN on here) decided last year at CroMag that we wanted to take a nice "adventurous" trip this year. While we both dreamed of Alaska, unfortunately that much consecutive vacation time was not in the cards. So, we decided on the "next best thing"... No....not Mexico, but the Alaska of the east....Labrador. Specifically we wanted to ride the Trans-Labrador highway all the way to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. We only had about 10 days maximum to do it so our plan was 5 days up, 5 days right back down the same road, instead of doing the ferry thing. Boring I know. Well, the trip came up on us QUICK.

For those who don't know, here is some background info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Labrador_Highway
http://www.amxfiles.com/stoneji/97trip/tlh_notes.htm
http://www.amxfiles.com/stoneji/97trip/tlh.htm

Pre-Day 1 - Packing

I managed to pack REALLY light. I only have softbags on my KLR and a dry bag for behind me. I went out to Cabelas and bought a few things I was missing, a new smaller sleeping pad, a stove and some odds and ends that added up to way more than I expected.


I tried to pack as small as possible.

Here is a "short" list:
Tent - Eureka single wall Apollo 2
Sleeping pad - ThermaRest proline
Sleeping pad – Slumberjack small 30degree bag (really more like 45!)
Home-made First-aid kit
Extra batteries
1 8oz "Slime" for tube tires
Some extra zip-lock bags
50ft of Camp rope
Toilet paper
Shampoo
Toothbrush & Toothpaste
Deodorant
Bug spray and lotion max DEET
Small camp towel
Bug face net
Powerbars
Oatmeal
Small fruit cups & snacks
Snow-peak mini camp stove
Titanium cup/pot set
Fork, knife, spoon
Fire starter sticks
Butane weatherproof lighter
Headlamp
GPS
Cell phone
Ipod
Hat
4 t-shirts, 5 socks, 4 underwear
1 fleece
1 long-sleeved shirt
1 Pant-shorts
1 Sandals
Camelback
Bungees
Riding gear



All packed up







Packing re-cap - I think next time I will pack even lighter. I took just enough clothes, but I took way too much food. I could easily pick up what I packed each night at the gas station...Even in the wilderness. I will also pack my clothes differently, and Ziploc them by day instead of all shirts in 1 bag and all socks in 1 so it's easier to re-pack the dirty clothes. I did this on the way home after a repack and it worked out much better. All in all, with everything packed, I still had more than enough room in each bag. Nothing was stuffed in and my bags weren't even "expanded"


Day 1 - Friday afternoon


NJ to Taconic State park, Copake, NY
175 Miles
2:49pm to 7:39pm
4 hours 50 minutes

Route:
206 to I-80
Some fun back roads
17 to I84 to the Taconic parkway to Copake, NY

Tom had to work half-day on Friday so we decided to leave around 2pm. We met at a Pizza place that actually proved a little difficult to find as the GPS was way off, and so was the name! But we did, and I had a few slices of Pizza waiting for Tom to get there....



Tom arrives....we leave around 2:45ish



We decided that Friday was just a very short "get out of town" day and we would setup camp about 150ish miles away, in Taconic State park.



The entrance to the park


"We have bears here so keep your food in your car"....Great.

We were not at all impressed with the campground. I didn't take any pictures, perhaps Tom did and I'll insert whatever missing pictures at a later time but it sucked.

We setup camp, basically on the side of a rocky hill, very shitty place to pitch a tent. Tom is on fire duty and is failing miserably and blaming it on the wood. 2 packages of fire starter sticks later, he seems to have FINALLY got it going and he realizes that we are in the wrong camp spot and have to move...DOH!! So here we are, carrying our already pitched tents to another camp spot while Toms fire is just starting to get going....late and pitch black, and a bunch of noisy people, we decide to get to bed. Soon as we fall asleep, it starts raining and pretty much rained all night........

Day 2 - Saturday



Taconic State park, Copake, NY to Victoriaville, Canada
356 Miles
7:19am to 6:15pm
10 hours 56 minutes
Avg speed 33mph

Route:
22 to 7 in through Vermont
to 4 to 100 all the way up to Canada
we crossed the Border via 91 then took some back roads to Victoriaville.

We woke up in the rain, showered, cooked some oatmeal for breakfast, and headed out by 7:15. It was pouring when we packed up and headed out. No biggie, we were excited.





Stopped about 1pm for lunch on rt 100 in Morrisville, VT

I know some people like road food pictures, so here it is...



Angus cheese steak for me and some greasy fries and a chicken wrap for Tom……





We pushed up on and it just started POURING. 0 visibility. We get to the boarder soaking wet and were greeted by what I hoped every female in Canada looked like…no picture though. It was a quick boarder crossing and no pictures due to the crazy rain.

We JUST cross the border, and it was like Canada said “You cross La border now we must blow both of your KLR’s le Fuse’s at the le Exact. Same. Time. Ehhhhh?”.

It just so happened to happen, in a parking lot of a closed for the day motorcycle shop as we were checking out map out! At least the rain let up. For a minute.







We pushed on through the rain the rest of the day and decided to hotel it that night. When getting the room for the hotel it was our first encounter with not speaking French. No worries, it seems that every French Canadian "Eh little beet" of English. Not once did someone say no and not once did someone say yes….just “Eh leetle beet”.

Dripping wet we got a room, leaving a puddle on the floor of a somewhat fancy hotel.



[IMG]http://rtimko.smugmug.com/photos/180215896-M.jpg[IMG]

Pizza hut for dinner, no pics but imagine some wings, some bread, and 2 personal pizzas.

We hear from another motorcyclist who parked in front of the hotel shortly after us that the weather the next 2 days was going to be clear. GREAT, because today sucked for riding not too many pictures. 1,491 signs for “Moose” crossing and NO moose sightings…VERY disappointed.

Day 3 – Sunday


Victoriaville, Canada to Baie-Comeau/Manic 2
402 Miles
7:05am to 7:57pm
13 hours 02 minutes

Route:
Pretty much 138 to 389

Well, this guy was right in saying blue skies!





Lots of back farm roads like this in the beginning



Not too many other cars out on these roads yet…



Crossing the St. Lawrence river….





Quebec



Finally nice weather! Although a little chilly as we start to hug the water all the way up…







We hugged the water…then all of the sudden we stopped….ferry.











It was about lunch time by then, so we skipped all the restaurants right after the ferry and went down the road a bit and came across this place for lunch…nothing special just burgers and fritas.





As you can see, I ate healthy this trip…


We stopped for a rest at this place...I have no clue the significance, but there was a pink dinosaur so it must be important.







So we arrived at Baie-Comeau at ~6pm and stopped at the vistors/information center where we got some great information on the Trans Labrador highway. For 5$can. you can get a pretty detailed map with all the information you need. Our plan was to hit Manic 2 and setup camp then come back into town for food/gas. We got a little lost because we missed (TOM missed!) the turn off but managed to get to the start of the highway and to manic 2.





Great campsite at Manic 2.



We had a warm welcome



Not bad to wake up to that the next day.



So we setup camp and then went back into town in search of food….only to come up with nothing but some fast food. I forget the name of the fast food chain but it was pretty much horrible…

We had cell phone reception though! Well I did…(Verizon)

Now, the road from Baie-Comeau to Manic 2 is about 15 miles of nothingness but paved twisties. It is the first 15 miles of the Highway. On the way back we were flying around a turn and come to a sudden stop of traffic which is VERY unusual for this road to even see another car…flashing lights at the top. After a few minutes we see a flatbed with a crashed up car on it. As we move on we see where it went off and I’d have to say I’m glad it wasn’t me, the ditch was way big. Not sure if it was a Moose avoidance or what.

Back to camp we were greeted with another friend…the ever talked about “Black Fly”. Now, when you think fly, you think house fly so I was happy to see these flies were much smaller, like gnats, however the minute you stop moving, 1,349 of these things swarm you. You can be anywhere, in the middle of the road stopping to take a leak, and they find you. I have NO CLUE how they find you but they do.



I took over duties as Fire Starter due to Tom being pretty much the worst fire starter ever.





Day 4 – Monday


Manic 2 to Labrador City
360 Miles
6:30am to 6:21pm
11 hours 51 minutes

Route:
The only road.

Now starts the real “ride” report….

We were kind of excited. The weather was great and we were hitting up the hundred miles of paved twisty sportbike dream. Not another car in sight. Nothing in sight. It started to feel pretty remote at this point.





We arrived at Manic 5. The section of road between Manic 2 and Manic 5 is all paved and a great road. Most motorcyclists we are told just ride this, and turn around….as the dirt starts here.



This guy kept pestering me for food.



We met 2 other adventure riders. They were just going to Gagnon and back though which is not too far down the road only a few hours. Both on BMW’s

Manic 5

Grader – They seem to be grading closer to the Manics…this one was at the very start of the road.


Now starts the dirt/gravel


The road conditions were OK. Basically a gravel road. If you have ever ridden in gravel before you know the bike is just naturally squirrelly. I was doing about 65-70mph. Tom was taking it a little slower, so I would go ahead…stop to take pictures and wait for him.



Some parts of the road got REALLY potholed, or really sandy/deep, and I wouldn’t recommend anything other than 50/50 tires…More on that later. I’m not experienced as most, but I felt comfortable at any speeds for “most” of the road. You just have to realize that by most, I mean a few hundred miles….which leaves a few HUNDRED that I wasn’t completely comfortable with.



I have a bunch of these pictures, but they all kind of look the same…..won’t waste your time. The road was still damp so the dust wasn’t so bad. More on this later too…

At he next gas stop which is between Manic 5 and Labrador city, we stopped and had lunch. Now…when I say gas stop. Think, building in the middle of NOWHERE with a gas pump and a kitchen. If you can’t go more than ~200 miles without filling up for gas…don’t attempt to ride the road. And if you can, fill up at EVERY stop.

So, lunch was whatever the lady cooked for the day…which was actually REALLY good.



Dessert, some bread pudding with caramel maybe?





you come across these things sometimes…or rather they come across you, at about 100mph



We met this guy coming in our direction who gave us the lowdown on the rest of the road. He was flying and said that he makes it from Goose Bay to Manic 2 in one day! We thought he was NUTS!



A one lane bridge a long the road…


Then, after a few hundred miles, of dirt/nothingness, you suddenly come across nothingness….but….pavement….

This is Gagnon. It’s almost directly between Manic 2 and Labrador City….it USED to be a town. NOTHING is left but the road and sidewalks. You can see where the driveways were, etc. but nothing else. It’s almost alien like in the middle of nowhere. We stopped and the silence out there is absolutely creepy. But, you can only stop for a few minutes before the black flies find you!!!



The last I guess 60 miles to Labrador city is dirt and where it gets the squirrelliest. There isn’t a few hundred feet of straight road, the conditions aren’t that good and you’re constantly crossing railroad tracks….and every so often a huge truck would come plowing through.

Avg. speed is 40mph here.





After a long day of riding……





So here we are at Labrador city…about 1300 miles so far, and the tires are doing pretty good.




So Labrador city is strange. A few hundred miles from anywhere, and by a few hundred miles I mean a few hundred miles of…..dirt. And here is this city with a wal-mart, McDonalds, etc. So we pull into the wall mart to see if they have fuses for Tom and we come across these guys…They were with a group of 6 that went to Churchill falls and back. They apparently rode some other route…more offroad on railroad tracks? Anyone know about this route? Id be curious to see it mapped out or GPS routes. Well he said they had 7 flats in 70km and 1 KLR had a rear shock blow out. I think there were 5 KLR’s and 1 GS.





He recommended a dinner place so we headed off to get our Emergency Sat. phone at the local hotel and then get dinner.







Dinner was OK, we were the only people in the place and the 2 girls there didn’t want to be there and had no clue what they were doing.

We had to go about 6 miles backwards to the campground. We got there and it felt like there was just a family who lived in a trailer and rented out campsites….Hubby was out fishing so didn’t get back until later so we didn’t have firewood until later. They had a shower trailer that was nice, but no electricity so showered with a flashlight. Some drunkard old guy chatted up Tom while I hid in my tent. Amazingly I had cell phone reception!!!!!!! In the middle of nowhere!!



No pictures of camp, but I made a kickass fire again…Tom manned it while I showered. Time for bed…to Goose Bay tomorrow…..







Day 5 – Tuesday


Labrador City to Goose Bay
350 Miles
5:30am to 3:00pm
9 hours 30 minutes

Route:
The only road.
Now from here the road is 100% dirt rather than having a little pavement break in the middle.



It turns grim and rainy, fast.



road gets soft and wet…very mushy.


The road is OK, since it was wet, there was no dust, but hitting the pothole puddles sucked bad…and being COLD and wet sucked. It felt freezing.

Now, between Lab. City and Goose Bay is 1 town. By 1 town, I mean not even a square mile of town called Churchill falls. These towns/gas stops are mostly based on the power lines/power plants it seems. Before entering Churchill falls where I’m eager to get some food, I come around a corner, and BAM right in the middle of the road, pretty close to me is a HUUUUUUUUUGE black bear. Now….I’ve seen bears in zoo’s. Those bears in zoo’s had NOTHING on this bear. I was shaking….I tried to get my camera out in time, but by the time I got it out and snapped a picture, he was gone…this alone made my trip though. I’ve never seen a bigger bear.

Gas stop in Churchill falls.


It was raining again….I have some more pictures but they all look like a dirt road in the middle of nowhere!!

So, about 70 miles from Goose Bay, a trucker stops me in the road, and says be careful there has been a motorcycle accident about 25 minutes away. He had no teefs so I thought he was crazy and just wanted to talk…but 25 minutes later we came across this.



Now, you have to figure, he saw it….25 minutes went by, then we saw it 25 minutes later….so almost an HOUR and the ambulance was still there!!! God knows how long they had to wait for the ambulance. But 70 miles outside of goose bay is about 1.5 hours with the road conditions. That sucks. Reality check as 70 miles is close as far as I was concerned. I don’t know if they had a 911 sat phone or not. Both riders on KLR’s and apparently 1 had a get off and was hurt pretty bad. Looking at his tires I can see why. There is no way I’d attempt the road in street tires. Anyone know this license plate/Rider? And if he is OK?





Well, after 1700is Miles, we made it!!!!!!!!!!!



The ambulance was JUST passing us…



Checked into a hotel and got the VIP suite (it was the only one left!)

Went out to dinner. Steak.




Goose bay a small town, not much there to see…no pics. Just imagine a small town. Haha.


We did some laundry, watched some TV and went to bed.

Day 6 – Wednesday


Goose Bay to Manic 2!
679 Miles
5:24am to 9:15pm
15 hours 51 minutes

Route:
The only road.

What can I say, the weather was great, we just kept on going!!! 679 miles in 1 day and most all of it was gravel. The whole road in 1 day!!!



Better pictures on the way back as it wasn’t rainy.



Ouch…following too close behind Tom with the gravel kicking up… still worked though…






Lots of this…












It was a dusty day…..


No pics of camp….it was Manic 2 again, and we went to bed….

Lot of riding that day we were doing 70mph all the way. Not really a lunch or dinner. Just snacks along the way


Day 7 – Thursday


Manic 2 to New Hampshire!!!!!!!
679 Miles
6:05am to 7:16pm
13 hours 11 minutes

Started out early in Baie-Comeau





Here we are waiting for the ferry again, we met another guy on a KLR who went to Manic 5. Nice guy



Something about a truck full of explosives on my ferry was a little uneasy!


Tom eating ice cream in Quebec…we rode through on the way home…



Quebec didn’t impress me much…but...the weather turned from cold up north, to HOT HOT 90+ hot so that didn’t help



Tom being a cry baby as sunblock gets in his eye….for the 1,343 time.


right before crossing into New Hampshire at the border..


Border we crossed at some small road. I’ll have to look at the GPS track to tell you guys where.




So, we pull up to this little border crossing and 2 guys come out like the Gestapo. Must be the most action they have seen all month. Well, he was serious as a heart attack. We were giddy we were on our way home and making kickass time and had a great trip and he didn’t want no joking around. Confiscated Tom’s Caribou jerky, but I managed to smuggle mine through. If there is an outbreak of mad cow’s, blame me.

Welcome to New Hampsha. Sign said Active Moose crossing next 19 miles..FINALLY I get to see a moose.

No. such. Luck.



Camped at Lake Francis National park (I think that’s what it was called). It was a small park and was filled when we got there, only 1 spot left that wasn’t really a spot….we took it anyways. I built another kickass fire and we went to bed.

This guy is back again




Tom planning out tomorrow ride. Since we were in New Hampsa already, and it was ONLY Thursday we figured we could change the route up a bit since we had planned on coming back Sunday night.
[IMG]http://rtimko.smugmug.com/photos/180236957-M.jpg [/IMG]

Not much for food that day, just some camp oatmeal and a mean shit in the morning.

Good night





Day 8 – Friday

[IMG]http://rtimko.smugmug.com/photos/180273574-M.jpg [/IMG]
New Hampshire to HOME!
572 Miles
6:14am to 9:12pm
15 hours

Well we figured we were WAY ahead of schedule and haven’t hit many interstates so let’s take some time and go to Mt. Washington and ride the Kancamagus…we figured we would camp near Bennington, VT and head home Saturday a day early.







Great weather up at the top…it was WARM!








I’ve been to Mt. Washington before, but I still love it…one of those little things that amazes me.

On the way down the road, Tom comes across a guy on a kawi cruiser bike…his bike is off the road in a ditch...but upright and stuck between rocks in a rut. He didn’t look too happy so I didn’t take his picture…at least he went off on THAT side of the road though.

Then we rode the kanc.

Beach goers it was hot out yesterday.



Wasn’t the part of the trip though…to much construction and too hot.





Lunch at Chili’s



Then…funny thing happened…we just kept on going….all the way home………





Closing thoughts….

The trip was GREAT. I wished we would have had time to do the loop to New Foundland and down through Nova Scotia….next time.

That ride is remote. If you want to get away from it all….and don’t want to do Alaska…that’s pretty damn close. It’s way more remote than you would think.

I am a music guy, I love music. This was the first time I listened to music on the bike ever….I love music even more. I was dancing on my pegs the whole way.

3,400 miles at sometimes wide open throttle and only burned maybe 1/3 quart of oil

Seeing the bear was a big highlight of the trip for me.

How many miles and no moose or caribou sightings!?!?!?

How many miles and NO punctures or flats or breakdowns…only 2 blown fuses.

I need a better tent…this tent is great to setup but the single wall makes it shitty to both pack when its wet and setup when its wet. You stay dry inside, but you have to wipe it down in the morning even on the inside. I need a double wall tent. My sleeping bag was ok. The sleeping pad was GREAT and small. My stove was excellent as well.

Jesus Christ……I almost forgot. I must have seen a MILLION Mazda Miatas in Canada….what gives?



THE END