The Road Home

Goose Bay, Churchill Falls, and a Stretch of Real Bad Road

The Google Maps graphic above shows the route of my circuit of Northeast Canada. Point (D) is the jumping off point at Quebec City. I travelled counter clockwise from there out and around the Gaspe Peninsula (Gaspesie) back down through New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, and the ferry to Channel Port au Basques, Newfoundland. Then to point (B) Fogo and Twillingate Islands, where icebergs go to die. I Doubled back from there to Deer Lake — the crossroads (and choke point) of Newfoundland — and up the west coast to L’Anse aux Meadows. Then I took the Labrador Ferry and up the southeast coast to Mary’s Harbour and the long drive to Happy Valley - Goose Bay. Point (C) is Churchill Falls — just south of the 54th parallel — the northern most point of the trip.

I arrived in Goose Bay from Mary’s Harbour on June 11th and started the long trip home from there on the 13th.

Camping at the Northern Labrador Chamber of Commerce - Photo Tom T Traywick

My original plan that brought me as far as Goose Bay was to park my motorhome there and book a cabin on the coastal ferry for a 5 day trip up the coast to small villages along the way to Nain, and back to Goose Bay. There is no highway access to any of those settlements in Labrador north of Goose Bay so the ferry is the only game in town but for bush planes. The ferry operator, Labrador Marine, estimated that the service schedule would commence weekly on June 15th — it sounded iffy — and I had a meeting at the Illinois State Fairgrounds on June 27th — and I just was ready to head for home.

I took on groceries, fuel and propane, dumped waste tanks, did laundry, and walked two blocks to one of the best meals of the trip at Mamattuk. Had the Arctic Char and it was delicious.

I left Goose Bay on the 13th.

I Boondocked at the tailrace of the Churchill Falls reservoir on the 13th and 14th. I hiked and rested and watched the locals fish as the mountain rumbled when the turbines cranked up. Churchill Falls is the company town of the Churchill Falls Generating Station, one of the largest in the world, and a joint venture of Newfoundland Labrador Hydro and Quebec Hydro.

The road home began to bear around toward the southwest at Churchill Falls. The Trans-Labrador Highway (500) took me 175 miles to Labrador City — for water, groceries and fuel — and to Quebec Route 389 at Fermont, QC where I boondocked in a city park. R-389 runs 567 km from Fermont to Baie-Comeau, of which 171 km is unpaved. The worst section was at the northern end by the iron mines which limited my speed to less than 10 miles per hour for short periods. The smoothest safest unpaved section was from the Manic-5 dam north along Manicouagan Reservoir — it would not take much preparation to make this stretch ready to pave. From Manic-5 to R-138 at Baie-Comeau R-389 is all paved.

At Manic-5 I took the tour provided by Quebec Hydro and had my own private guide because I was not proficient in French. Her name is Mahyna.

Mahyna and Me - Photo by Mahyna

At the end of the tour a couple of men who had taken the tour with the French speaking guides, saw the patch on my fleece and spoke to me in perfect English asking me if I was from Yukon. I said no that I had spent $11,300 to drive to the Yukon from Carolina to buy the shirt. They got a good laugh and commenced to tell me how much they love coming to the South Carolina coast on vacation.

As I look back on the this last part of my trip, I would suggest to future travelers that they be sure of why they are taking that route. From Mary’s Harbour, Labrador to Baie-Comeau, QC is 1014 miles of boring monotonous road of which 282 miles is very good road and 107 miles is real bad unpaved road. If you are a hydro power station junkie, or you really want to visit Goose Bay-Happy Valley, or you just want to check it off your bucket list — then by all means bite it off and chew it up. An alternative to consider — there is a ferry from Baie-Comeau across the St. Lawrence to Matane, QC.

R-138 from Baie-Comeau along the north shore of the St Lawrence is very scenic and pleasant and passes through some nice small towns and villages. I passed by Quebec City and Montreal and was welcomed home by the Border Patrol at Thousand Islands on June 22nd.