Friday 7-28, was a travel day – we were prepared to assault the Trans-Labrador Highway (TLH) from Red Bay north to Happy Valley – Goose Bay west to Labrador City. Then on Quebec Rte. 389 from just south of Lab City south to Baie Comeau on the St. Lawrence River; we’d be doing this over the course of a few days with stops along the way. Following the number 1 rule of traveling in Labrador, especially on the TLH, “ALWAYS fill up your tank when you encounter gasoline!”, so we did, along with the 2 spare cans we brought to hold another 4.6 gallons of gas ‘just in case’. We debated getting a satellite phone as the Canadian Government loans them out to travelers for free, if they have any in stock. We both have a SAT SOS feature on our phones, so we decided against getting one at least for the first leg of this journey, which is L’Anse au Clair to Northwest River (our B&B just north of Happy Valley – Goose Bay). We topped off the tank in Port Hope Simpson and drove north. The scenery is tremendous, huge, vast vistas, unbroken planes for miles, thin to full forests of mostly black spruce and a mix of other firs and some deciduous trees as well. The wildflowers along the roads sides here are as plentiful and beautiful as any we’ve seen in the other provinces. No more l’aplines, but a number of pink, yellow and white flowers and pink-colored grass. I kid you not, hopefully the picture does the color justice. We had never seen pink grass before and to see it surrounding a bunch of pink, bell-shaped flowers is quite a sight.
We were about 250 km out of Port Hope Simpson, halfway to North West River, amid all the flora-gazing, we were also looking for moose, or caribou, since we are constantly warned about them, when Mary spotted a black bear in one of the cut-out areas alongside the road, left over from when the road was built. Scot got a few pictures of it, from behind mostly, because you can’t just slow down quickly and get the photo. The bear didn’t look at us like the moose did back in Gros Morne.
We arrived in North West River about 7pm and made our way to our B&B, the Red Wine Inn (guess who booked us at a place with a name like that?). We met Marlyce, our host, and were able to leave our trailer in front of her garage’s driveway so we didn’t have to haul it around or worry about it and ate in for our dinner. Interestingly, Marlyce and her husband live in the garage while renting out the house as a B &B. It was very comfortable – and highly recommended. One block from the beach and the few buildings which make up the town. We played Mille Bornes some more and Scot continued to lose to Mary some more. We took some time to blog and read before we called it a night. It was nice not having to set up the camper in order to go to sleep. We left the TV off so we could still pretend it was camping even though there were beds and a refrigerator involved.
Saturday we had the 2nd “B” part of B&B – scrambled eggs with orange slices, toast with butter and jam and ham slices browned on both sides, not bacon but a good 2nd choice. Marlyce is a great cook! After, we worked it off walking around town, down by the beach, and along the beach for a couple kilometers. We then ran out of town and beach to walk upon. We paid a visit to the North West River Historical Society Hudson River Company Museum. NW River a site of the Hudson Bay Company (c.1670), and the preserved building that is the museum was the company store of the Hudson Bay Co. (c.1820). History brief: NW River is an island. It was only reachable by boat until 1959 when a cable car system was installed to carry people over the river, a maximum of 6 passengers at a time. A second car was added in 1974 to increase the passenger traffic going each way. In 1981 a bridge was built to replace the cable cars and one of the old cars is on display in the yard of the museum. The town was inhabited by the First Nation – Indians who traded with the Hudson Bay Co and trappers.
One of the main attractions of this museum is a large collection of musical scenic models. By this I mean a model of some facet of everyday life or people in NW River and Labrador in general or of historical scenes/events that occurred. These dioramas are animated; when a switch is flipped, they move, play music, etc. There are more than 100 of these dioramas; one could get lost here for hours looking and listening to each one. A local NW River resident makes the models and has done so for 50+ years. Even though he moved away 20 years ago he still comes back every year and brings the museum 1 or more new dioramas. The museum devotes a lot of time to the pioneers and Innu (Indians) that worked and lived in NW River and put it on the maps, from those in the 18th century to those in the 21st.
Across the river is another town, Sheshatshiu, the indigenous community (literally just over the bridge). The First Nations people are developing more economic sense and being able to make more investments in business in their territories thanks to programs supported by the CN government. The First Nations own the closest gas station to NW River and Sheshatshiu. We went there to fuel up. Scot rolled up to pump 3 and there was a sign posted on each pump, the same sign, telling one that, “If you have Status use pumps 1-6, if no Status use pumps 7-8. Mary went in to ask what is meant by “Status” and she is teased by the 3 indigenous teens running the register. They ask her is she is brown? Thinking she’s being teased Mary says, “Yes, I’m darker than you.” (which at that time she was). Then one of the girls tells Mary and the other 2 kids that “today” Mary has status since she is with her (the girl). Mary comes out and tells me it is OK to pump, so I do. As I’m pumping, I see the price per litre is much lower than what’s advertised on the marquee, $1.506 on the pump vs $1.692 on the marquee. As we go to pay it is kind of awkward at the register but is sounds like “status” means one of the First Nations people, brown skin people, not either of us, but they honored the lower price. We paid up and got out of there before someone changed their mind. we were a bit embarrassed when we thought about it…but knew we were innocent by reason of ignorance.
We headed to the Provincial Indigenous Interpretation Center, but it had closed before we got there, so it was back to NW River and its only diner at the convenience store/restaurant, where, as it happens, their card reader was down and so only cash was accepted. Not wanting to make another trip to Happy Valley-Goose Bay. We pooled our funds and were able to afford dinners of a fast-food nature, with a couple bucks to spare. Back to the B&B for more Mille Bornes, where I actually won a couple matches, and our own drinks. We did laundry, packed up, and got ready to roll as we expected a 8–9-hour day of driving across Labrador on our way from North West River to Labrador City.
Sunday 7-30, was a travel day from North West River to Labrador City, with fuel stops in Happy Valley-Goose Bay (30km ahead) and Churchill Falls, about halfway between Goose Bay and Lab City. Breakfast was French toast and sausages with maple syrup! French toast was fluffy and delightful. Not long out of NW River, 10km or so, Mary and I hear some noises like something hitting under the carriage, which is common on these gravel roads and with Jeep-tires, we carried on. About halfway between NW River and Goose Bay Mary suddenly feels the brakes going soft, pedal down to the floorboard and the jeep slowing but not enough, and we hear something louder hit the ground and we quickly roll to a stop. We get out and look and see brake fluid on the pavement under the left rear of the Jeep and the caliper hanging off, touching the road but still attached by the brake fluid line, the piston in the caliper part was missing too.
A gentleman going to NW River stopped within a minute of our pulling over and offered advice and to send help if he saw someone coming our way. We thanked him. It took a few minutes to determine the piston was gone, no telling how the 2 bolts that held the piston cradle to the pads cradle got loose and both fell off at the same time, allowing the part to fall off, piston fall out and brakes to go soft. As I was getting out some tools, the gentleman from before, Leyon (Leon) Williams, returned with some vice grips, brake fluid and copper wire, which I had just gotten out of my tool kits also. We clamped off the hose with the vice grip to stop the fluid loss, which it did. I used my length of copper wire to wire the vice grip to the frame, out of the way of the tire, and Leyon’s to wire the caliper to the frame as well. With those in place, some brake pumping and adding more fluid got the brakes in good enough shape to get us the 15km to Goose Bay to look for a repair shop, on a Sunday in middle-of-nowhere Labrador.
Leyon knew of a place and called the owner since it was Sunday, and he knew the guy wouldn’t be at work. The owner made no promises. Leyon was super helpful and friendly, showed us an old, abandoned campground nearby where locals still go and use, including him and his wife, who is staying there for most of the summer. There’s no water or power hookups, or bathrooms or laundry, but it is a free place to camp for a night(s). We politely declined, deciding it would be better to keep our stuff together especially since the roads in/out of the campground were terribly rough on the Jeep let alone the camper, and us with only 3 brakes working. We made it to Goose Bay, got a hotel room and made ready to be at the repair shop when it opened Monday morning at 8am.
The rest of the day was wearying, the weather was not conducive to being outside, walking was risky in our area, an industrial area with many trucks, lots of traffic and blind curves, bad enough in a car, on foot, a death march. We ate at one of the finer restaurants in town for lunch, the A&W, and reserved dinner for the Mariner’s Restaurant across the parking lot from the hotel. I enjoyed my turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, but Mary did not like her fish and chips that were more like fish nuggets and mash.
Monday 7-31, we were at the shop at 7:45 and by 8:00 we were speaking with Caleb at the counter about our problem and he was then discussing with his lead tech/boss. There was some hemming and hawing – and talented pleading by Mary, but the luck was in our favor. They had the part and a cancellation at 9:00 so they could do it right then said Riley the boss, the guy who spoke with Leyon the night before. We settled in and waited for magic to happen. We started talking with Caleb, who was about the same age, height and build as Aaron our Newfie friend from a couple weeks ago, and even had the same speech patterns and slang words. His father and mother were trappers for many years. His dad ended up getting a government job at the military base for better pay and benefits about 20 years ago. Caleb missed his hometown of Port Hope Simpson (pop. 403) where we’d last gotten gas. He also told us about the smaller town in northern Labrador where his girlfriend was from, you have to take a plane or boat to get there, where he’d be going ice fishing and trapping. He’d just gotten a Moose license which takes several years to get, as it’s a lottery system.
Caleb solved a mystery we’d wondered about during the entire trip. We’d seen large, neatly piled, evenly measured logs intermittently stacked alongside the road. There were no homesteads or towns near the piles and no look of thieves haven taken any away. As Caleb explained, the utility companies had piled the logs after cutting them down to build the electric poles across the vast expanse of Labrador. Unfortunately, they didn’t allow people to take the logs until they’d rotted to the point of being unusable. Therefore, they remained piled up.
The Jeep was ready to go by about 11 am but needed to have 50-60 miles put on it then brought back for torque check on the rear tires since they removed those when installing the new caliper and pads on both wheels. Almost as soon as we left the shop there was a rubbing noise and some drag on the brakes, so we took it right back and they had a go with it, finding and fixing a problem with the little used emergency/parking brake. Second time out no noise and an hour later we were back being retorqued then off again to check out, grab the camper, and get going. By 12:01 pm we were fully fueled, had our emergency gas and were on the road to Churchill Falls and Lab City! I forgot to mention that we decided the SAT phone was a good idea to have after all, so we stopped at the North Inn 2, sister to where we stayed, which just happened to be a pickup/drop off point for the SAT phones. No cost, just an ID check and a signature and our job to charge it up and we were away. We’d be able to return the SAT phone in Lab City, all very convenient. As it turns out, the phone was locked to 911 only, but we did not need it.
It was roughly 325 km (4-5 hour drive) from Happy Valley-Goose Bay to Churchill Falls (for gas) and it was now after noon. It was an additional 243 km from the Falls to Lab City, another 3.5 – 4.5 hour drive. The scenery was spectacular once again, with cloud formations and the openness, the isolation is beautiful and liberating to the soul and imagination. Pictures can capture a glimpse in time, but the naked eye sees it all in real time and the memory of the truly spectacular will remain strong.
We left at 12:01pm and arrived in Churchill Falls about 4:00pm, despite rough roads, several sets of traffic lights for construction sites in graveled areas, and the occasional slow driver. However, we had wanted to take the 2 km hike to the Falls while we were here, but our late departure saw that plan cancelled. It would also have been nice to see Leyon, who works in Churchill Falls at the Hydro station there as an engineer and maybe get a tour of his plant, which he offered the day he came to our assistance. But unfortunately it was not to be. The skies opened up just before we got to Churchill Falls. We gassed up as we’d planned for this stop. The gas tanks were above ground – very interesting.
It was another 3 hours to Lab City, we arrived just after 7:00pm at the drop off place for the SAT phone, did that and made our way to the 2 Seasons Inn in Labrador City for a nights’ rest, arriving at 7:30pm. We ate in their dining room, so we didn’t have to unhitch the trailer and Jeep. I had clam chowder which was rare to see on a menu here in eastern Canada, and Mary had chicken fettuccini, being very tired of Fish and Chips. The rest of the evening was uneventful as we plotted out next day’s travel to Quebec.
