Day 7 – Mid 2

After an early start (Oh look, another 1250 GS in Black) the first stop was Gagnon, a company town for a mine that was shut down, and the town was eventually torn down. I was hoping for a ghost town to explore, but apparently it was shut down, and the few portable remnants (Stop Sign) disappeared shortly there-after.

This was probably the hardest technically of the biking this trip, with a 108km or so of gravel between Fire Lake and Labrador City. The area around Fire Lake looked more like a giant mine. Every hill looked carved up, the railroad cross-crossed the road itself a dozen or more times. It was fun, challenging and the point of the trip. On the other hand, the preview of the road from the gentleman last night was exaggerated, there were not massive ruts or anything else resembling danger to the two-wheeled.

Shortly before Labrador City, I entered – Newfoundland & Labrador with the big sign welcoming me to the Big Land. This was followed by many more signs telling you what you can’t do while here, the most annoying to me being the intra-provincial alcohol trade restrictions. Like, does anyone ever get caught for these rules?

Stopping in Labrador City, I found a nice coffee shop and had my first “espresso” drink in a few days. When you’re addicted to caffeine like me, any coffee will have to make due. Also stopped at Canadian Tire to replace the mosquito head net that I think I lost and some firewood since it was a cool day and I expected the night to be cooler still.

Many more hours on the road, weather was very windy which makes riding a challenge but at least there was no rain until later. I pushed a bit past my expected camp spot to make the leg tomorrow a bit shorter and found a nice spot, again, on water, with a few nice features, like level terrain to park, pitch a tent and sheltered somewhat from the wind. I set up the tent and started the fire with the wind making everything a bit more difficult, and then, the rain started. Intermittent showers accompanied by even more wind all through the evening.

An elderly couple from Brockville, ON pulled their camper into my roadside spot and we chatted for a bit. This apparently is the Labrador way, use the many service roads (Electrical System) or remnants of highway construction (Hills carved for materials with a flat spot left behind) to park your camper.

Two more freeze dried meals and I think I’ve finally figured out why they all taste so bad. To get the shelf life (3+ years) they don’t have any fat (since fat degrades over time) in the dish, meaning the flavour is completely missed on eating it without fat to help amplify it.

I watched Foundation S2E2 that I downloaded yesterday just for that TV in a Tent experience. Meanwhile, the wind shifted and now the tent was attempting to become airborne so I moved it to a different sheltered spot and proceeded to have the best night of sleep all trip. I was out!