I survived my ride up through Quebec, Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Bunswick, and then back into the states. It was a good time. Labrador is a beautiful empty space still. There was around 1,000 miles of gravel road all in all. Mostly straight road too. It's like going from my house in CT to Chicago or Georgia.. That's a long stretch of gravel road. And in the middle you have to take a 14 hour ferry ride since the two sections of road that are built don't meet in the middle yet.


You can see the general route in the map on the previous post below. This post will just be a few photos and description. When you get onto the Trans Labrador highway the road is paved for a while but it turns to gravel at this massive hydro electric damn called Manic 5. It's big...

The road itself is well maintained in the gravel sections but for a bike the maintenance ends up being the most dangerous part. They re-surface the gravel with large grading machines and it leaves big areas of loose gravel that can cause you to lose control really easily if you're not careful, and sometimes even if you are. I think everyone that I talked too who road the TLH on a bike had at least one close call.


The majority of the Trans Labrador is just straight gravel road with some hills, some wide turns and lots of scenery. Lakes and black spruce make up most of what you see. Although there can be long periods where you don't see much since it's either raining and foggy or it's dry and dusty behind a big transport truck. I had a few wet days but overall it was pretty nice. I was also riding solo most of the time so I wasn't following another rider kicking up dust when it was dry.

The first section of gravel road is not technically the Trans Labrador Highway since it's not actually Labrador until you reach this sign. It was a wet day that day but the sun came out to light up the bike and sign nicely for this photo.. From there on out it's the TLH and a short ride to the capital, Labrador City.. It was a weird place to ride into, complete with a Walmart and Tim Hortons amongst other conveniences just dropped in the middle of this huge wilderness. It's 150 miles either direction on gravel road to the next nearest town and there's a walmart there. A little surreal.


The road continued west through the pines to the twin towns of Happy Valley and Goose Bay where you can catch the ferry that bring out to the mouth of the bay and the town of Cartwright. Here the TLH continues as a gravel road to the south end of Labrador eventually winding along the coast. It was a windy and often rainy time. The remnants of a hurricane came through and caused nearly two days of ferry cancellations. I had some time to go explore the area with some other riders and it was some beautiful coastline.


At the end of the TLH you have to take a ferry over to Newfoundland (or a long series of ferries back towards Quebec on the mainland) and it's more pavement but some beautiful areas as well. I forget now if that fishing village photo was on Newfoundland or Labrador but it was a lovely spot. A little climb up a mini-mountain and you get that view looking back towards the village or a full panoramic view out to the sea.

Once on Newfoundland a few of us went to Gros Morne which was beautiful although rainy when we were there. We then headed west and took a side trip up to Twillingate, a little coastal village on the north coast of the island, and then back to the south east to St Johns. Here I went to the easternmost point of North America. Cape Spear, Newfoundland.
Coming back east from St Johns I rode the main highway across Newfoundland for a long time and then branched off on a poorly mapped road that cuts across the island including about 60+ miles of gravel road again. It was one of the nicest parts of the ride. I was solo, on a poorly marked road, just winging it. It followed the side of a large lake and then along the banks of the river that fed the lake coming down through the mountains. Just great.

From there it was another ferry (four total) over to Nova Scotia where a few of us rode the Cabot Trail around the tip of Cape Breton before splitting up the next day and heading back to our respective homes. It was about two and a half weeks of riding for me. A good time
more photos here
http://picasaweb.google.com/alcontrast/Labrador#