Canadian Maritimes

buckland

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Hello ... not a WTW area but some have done this trip. I have done PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. This summer a three week trip loop (see map hi-lighted). Northern Quebec, Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine to home western Massachusetts. Seafood heaven.

If anyone has done this or similar loop would appreciate the experienced knowledge. I use iOverlander and similar for "dispersed" or free camping.
 

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Rob - We have been to the Maritimes three times and plan to return in 2020. In 2017 we did a trip similar to the one you are planning, but did it clockwise rather than counter clockwise. We are fond of Canadian Provincial Parks and split our time between them and dispersed camping. The farther north you are, the easier it is to find dispersed sites. We often ask the locals where they camp. I would be happy to share the slide show/video that I made of our trip if you are interested, and also would be glad to answer any specific questions that you may have. I can almost guarantee that you will have a great trip. - Rich
 

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We went to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick a couple of years ago and all it did was to wet our appetite for more!
We are planning on a very similar loop in 2021 except we’ll be entering Canada West of your itenerary.
One thing I’m trying to figure out is what is the best time to go..i’d Like to be able to see the icebergs but want to avoid the bugs as much as possible.

Missing Link when was your trip? That’s some serious ice in that picture!
 
Rich, nice shot on the beach (what one?)...looks a tad chilly... what months? We did an 10 day trip to New Brunswick last summer staying on Grand Mana island and Deer Island both sites on the water. We have done Nova scotia twice (best place Meat cove up north) . I'd love t see the photos/slideshow. Is it online? IF not PDF? We live in the boonies ...no internet choices except tethering to our cell phone 2 bar. So not much data.
The road in Quebec to Labrador looks like a lot of fun. Really looking forward to it. I am sure to come up with more questions as time draws closer. We plan to go mid July into August. Thanks again
Rob

Here are a couple shots
 

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Know the seasons of bugs. April sea ice is there and the bergs flow in May. That is on the cusp of black fly and no-see-ums. Mosquitos join them as it warms up in summer.
Be sure to bring no ses um head nets and I suggest buying the screen material to velcro over the regular camper screens ( believe me no see ums are insidious). Also check if you are doing ferry from Labrador to Newfoundland in April it might not be running yet. There is a site that posts the opening of the sea ice for the ferry start.

https://www.penbaypilot.com/article/black-flies-mosquitoes-no-see-ums-all-commonly-referred-bloodsucking-gnats/13917

https://newfoundsander.wordpress.com/seasons/#8
 
Rob - They had experienced a particularly cold winter. That photo was taken on June 12th at a Lions Club campground in Fogo City on Fogo island. It cost $10.00 per night and the pic was taken of our campsite. I have the slideshow on YouTube. If I send you a link, will you be able to access it? If memory serves me, the road from Baie-Comeau (on the St. Lawrence River) north to the beginning of the Trans Labrador Hwy. is about 600 km. of good gravel (some paved) and the trans Lab. Hwy from Labrador City to Red Bay is another 1,000 km. of good gravel (some paved). All the details are easy to find on the internet, including how to pick up a free satellite phone for the Trans Lab. My wife and I concur on Meat cove. We camped up on the bluff there in 2003 and were smitten with it. SMBLOX - we were pretty much run out of Labrador in 2003 due to the black flies (that trip was in July) but were very lucky this last trip. Encountered more mosquitos and black flies in Maine than in NL or Lab. We bought full bug suits before the trip but thankfully, did not need them. Here are a few more pics. The ferry had a difficult time landing to pick up and drop off passengers due to the ice.
 

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We will be leaving home on June 21st to catch the ferry to Argentia on the 23rd. Working our way across and up to make our way home through Labrador. Figuring about a 4 week trip. Sounds like we might be hitting prime bug season !! We spent 18 nights in Nfld late Aug early Sept last year . Planned on spending more time and driving home through Labrador but due to a medical emergency at home we cut it short. Link, we also camped at the Lions park on Fogo but we ended up moving up behind the Lions hall because of the wind that night. We were the only ones there . WE can't wait to get back and finish our trip but I wonder if we might be going a bit early?? What do you think Link?
 
My wife and I have been been roaming The North Maine Woods with canoe for 30 years...just me longer. We are as accustomed to the 3 flying devils (actually 4.... green heads! ) as we will ever be. Drinking coffee through a head net just changes the favor. We also have a screen house that we set up if we are staying a few days in a spot.

That is a very cool idea about loaning out satellite phones....will want to hear more about that as so far haven't seen that in print. We went on a wing and a prayer in the upper Yukon....I would have felt better with an emergency phone.

We were in Meat cove way back so I am sure it is more popular. Did you have to maker a reservation ahead?

Thanks for the photos .... gets the excitement up even more!
 
We're headed up that way early Sept. and will get some fly fishing in, etc. No real destinations other than PEI, NB, etc. and will definately monitor this thread!
 
We did the counter-clockwise version of the Newfoundland-TransLab circle in 2010 and had a great time. We spent three and a half weeks in Newfoundland and then worked our way home via the Trans-Lab and Quebec. We left August 21st and arrived home September 29th. We were traveling in our van.

We had decided we'd take the Trans-Lab home from Newfoundland after learning they had just completed the section between Happy Valley/Goose Bay and Cartwright Junction the previous December. Completion of that last section meant the Trans-Lab could now be driven end-to-end.

A few things come to mind.... (in more or less random order)

- Decide how you're going to pronounce 'Newfoundland'

- The only part of historical New France still under control of the French government since the Treaty of Paris is The Overseas Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon and it's only 25K off the coast of Newfoundland. We took the (passenger-only) ferry from Fortune, NL with our bikes and spent two days on St. Pierre. We didn't have reservations for the ferry or a place to stay on the island. During the crossing we struck up a conversation with a local and learned her sister owns a B&B. When we reached the island, we had the tourist office call the B&B (Chez Ines) and a room was available. Ines was friendly and wonderful and gave us maps and local insights and made reservations for us at a nice restaurant, L'Atelier Gourmand. Oh là là!
The second day was a bit rainy so we spent part of it in the local library and the librarian recognized we were tourists and brought us a few English-language books about the island's history. Also- we even enjoyed such simple things as going into a hardware store or pharmacy to look at how different things are from what we normally see.

- Random Passage was a 2002 Canadian mini-series about the struggles of a colonial Newfoundland outport community. It was filmed near Trinity and the movie set can still be toured at New Bonaventure. We had bought the novel early in the trip and had been watching the DVD set each night so we greatly enjoyed the tour. I see the DVD set can be bought used on Amazon for about $10 if that's of any interest.

- The Maritimes have very rich music and theater traditions. Keep an eye out for any opportunities to attend plays and live-music venues. We loved seeing 'Terese's Creed' at the Rising Tide Theatre in Trinity (and wish we had been able to see other shows).

- We enjoyed sitting down to a Jiggs dinner one Sunday with local folks. We had seen a hand-written notice on a bulletin-board about the dinner being available and someone gave us directions to what looked like a long-closed gas station. The only sign (and it was barely visible) said 'Yes, We're Open' but it wasn't clear what was open. Inside were a six-seat table and two four-seat tables and all but two seats were filled. We were given a friendly invitation to the open seats..."if you don't mind company". And of course we didn't. It turned out to be much like a big family dinner back home.

- If you happen to be a fan of the Appalachian Trail, consider that its extension, the International Appalachian Trail, runs through eastern Canada to Belle Isle, NL. We walked a section of it in Gros Morne National Park. This older film about it is an eye opener but has a mistake at the end. It says more info is available at iatnl.ca but that should be www.iatnl.com.

- If you happen to be interested in geology, I see the IANTL web site currently includes an article about the Cabox Geopark Information Center at Benoit's Cove opening last November. Further searches led me to the Canadian Geoparks Network. Very interesting! We learn there are Geoparks and there are Aspiring Geoparks (i.e., under development). For us tourists, these are interesting geological areas to research further.

The UNESCO World Heritage sites are well worth a visit....

- Red Bay Basque Whaling Station in Labrador is very interesting historically. It's a European summer whaling station founded in the 1530s (!!)

- L'Anse Aux Meadows dates to around the year 1000. (!!!!!)

- Gros Morne National Park. We also took the tour boat at Western Brook Pond and were sorry we hadn't planned on hiking from the dock at the far end of the fjord.

(Those three are the well-known ones. The list of World Heritage Sites in Canada also includes Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve in Newfoundland and several very interesting sites in Nova Scotia.)

We also enjoyed seeing the reconstructed Marconi wireless station at Cape Race in southeastern Newfoundland. The wireless station relayed the distress signals from the Titanic some 107 years ago this month (and it was at Signal Hill, St. John's that Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic wireless transmission in 1901.)

.
 
Hello again Old Crow! That is a big drop of info! And greatly appreciated. It really is a different flavor trip up there and that makes it that much more interesting...another way of life. I keep thinking of the trips to the desert in contrast and how these places require such different planning...somewhat similar to the AK trip. Did you camp at the Res. Manicouagan? That is such a wild looking crater. It's huge!
 
buckland said:
<snip> Did you camp at the Res. Manicouagan? That is such a wild looking crater. It's huge!
No, sorry, we didn't camp near there. We had stayed in Labrador City the night before and that put us in that area at mid-day.

'WIld' is almost an understatement for that crater. 214 million years ago. Meteor 3 miles across. Crater 60 miles across. The fireball from it reportedly went as far as New York City and there's evidence of it's ejecta in UK rocks. And for me, here's the mind-blower-- it may have been one of a several. (Ever heard of 'paleoalignment'?) Wow.

I see there's an iOverlander freebie site there and maybe even a campground with showers and wi-fi (I saw another post that says it closed).

And I see there are the Uapishka Art Cabins in the KM335 area near one of the Monts Groulx trailheads. (And there are more photos in this Mont Provencher Climb post) . (I wasn't aware of them until today)

And tours of the Manic-5 generating station and Daniel-Johnson Dam

By the way, Churchill Falls (well north of there but on your way) is an interesting company town. Most people and businesses are employed by or related to the hydro station operator, Nalcor Energy. As I remember it we talked with someone about the fact that townspeople live in company-owned houses heated and lit by free electricity. The visitor center told us we could hook up to the electric outlets in a nearby parking lot for free if we liked. We took the hydro station tour and the station was incredible. It's built 1000 feet down into solid rock. The station is also controversial in that the great majority of profit goes to Hydro Quebec. They make $1.7 billion a year from it and Newfoundland-Labrador makes $63 million. That led to a Supreme Court of Canada case which was decided last November in Hydro-Quebec's favor and the contract can't be renegotiated until 2041. (See Churchill Falls Generating Station.)

The other interesting thing in Churchill Falls is the Donald Gordon Town Centre-- it has the town hall, school, swimming pool, ice surface, auditorium, grocery store, library, hotel, kitchen and restaurant, fitness centre, gymnasium and bank... all in one big building. Something like that can only be done in a company town, I suppose.

.
 
Hi Buckland

Enjoy that trip !

There is no greater sense of "getting away" than up through the Maritimes.

The brightest blue I have seen is an iceberg on a sunny day.

David Graves
 
Thanks David... i agree a blue hard to describe to someone. In 1979 i was traveling in S Chile.
Remote. Was crossing the Grey Glacier and at the base found a cave. Glaciers are loud. It took some time to summon the courage by I ventured in a hundred meters or so. I was blown away by the swirls and shades of a hundred blues. I took a few photos i still go back to.
My big decision us only whether to travel clockwise or counter. My wife pointed out if it was the later it would allow for more flexible return time doing the NS ferry to NL at the beginning. Makes sense.
 
Penner - I am no expert, but do not think that you are leaving too early. Your experiences will vary depending on when you are there but they will all be great experiences, I'm sure.

Rob - I will dig out the details on the satellite phones and post them here in a little bit. Basically, you pick up a phone at a hotel at one end of the Trans-Lab. Hwy. and turn it in at a hotel at the other end. You must leave a credit card imprint to get the phone and they are only to be used for emergencies. On the Quebec portion of the trip from Lab. City to Baie-Comeau, they take a different approach. Every so-many kms. along the road you come to a phone booth which may only be used for emergencies. You will likely have to walk long ways to get to the booth but it is comforting to know they are there.

Here is a photo of an iceberg that gives you an idea of the color that David Graves and Rob are talking about.

One addition to Old Crows list of places to see is the Glace Bay miners Museum in Nova Scotia. It is quite near Sydney (where the NL. Ferry is located and we found it fascinating.
 

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Granted these are 40 years old (old Kodachrome) ...it was freaky in there but a good memory. That white dot is the cave entrance.
 

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buckland said:
Granted these are 40 years old (old Kodachrome) ...it was freaky in there but a good memory. That white dot is the cave entrance.
Yowza... freaky indeed, and wicked colours!
 
Thanks searching for nowhere. I hadn't thought to but may. I enjoy travel writing...it is reflective of the days' musing as ones' mind drifts while driving or hiking. It is a time when there aren't any obligations other than the days necessities. My life at home has tons of 'gotta do's' and people who depend on me... so it is a real liberation.... on the road. Life unfettered.

I went to your blog and like the campsite map...that's good idea as I tried on the AK trip to share where we ended up but that is much better having the geo tags on a map.

Old Crow... that last post has great info...just got through reading the Mont Provencher Climb blog page. Certainly has that "way the heck up there" feel to these photos. I so enjoy being a long way from anywhere so the 'here' is all there is... and a lot of it. Thanks so much for the links.
 

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