Barko1
Senior Member
Ok so this trip was not West but it was a giant journey to a remote and wild territory! While I still have my Grandby this trip was taken with a 9.5' Lance, concession to my wife who appreciates a bath and shower.
The camper was mounted on my trusty 1999 F250 that has hauled my Grandby around but the Lance adds a good 1000# and pushes it towards the limit. Anything bigger and I'd think about a dually. The top heavy nature and crummy departure angle does restrict where I'll take it. I added giant Helwig swaybars on the rear, it helped, have nice Firestone Destination 285 E rated tires, Bilstein shocks, and Goodyear air bags, but it still weighs a lot. I try to keep on top of the maintenance, just replaced the glowplugs on the 7.3, and had synthetic oil in it so I could stretch the change interval some.
Three years ago I took the Grandby to Newfoundland to visit Memorial University in St. John's, they paid my expenses (-: but this time I would have to buy all the fuel. The other thing that is different now is that the Trans Labrador Highway now connects from Baie Cameau in Quebec up to Labrador City, to Goose Bay, and then down to Red Bay and Blanc Sablon Quebec where you catch a ferry to the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. Before a couple years ago you couldn't do this drive, needed a long ferry ride from Goose Bay and around the East coast of Labrador.
My previous trip was in the early fall, better for bugs but no chance of seeing icebergs so I planned an May/June trip. Well plans got shifted some, I was visiting friends and stopping in Wisconsin for a wedding reception so I left Southern New Mexico the Friday of memorial Day weekend, and it was getting hot. Anyway I have grow tired of hauling across Oklahoma on my way to the Midwest so I headed North and spent night 1 at Cimarron Canyon State Park in New Mexico as I could get a reservation. From there I had to get across Kansas and the parks there wanted multiple nights for a reservation because of the holiday and I wanted electricity because it is often pushing 100 degrees in that territory. Camping in the Rockies is so much better!! Anyway I found a municiple park where I could camp for free, electricity was by quarters in a meter but a storm had come through and it was cool enough. Next night was lewis and Clark State Park in Missourri, then a State Park in Illinois where then charge extra on the days before and after holidays, again, camping West is so much better. Anyway I spent a few nights at a nice public park on a lake in Illinois while visiting and then a night "camping" in the suburbs of Chicage before a couple more nights in Southern Wisconsin visiting. Typically lake Geneva would be much busier but cool wet weather thinned the crowds. Fianlly it was time to head out on the real destination. We (my brave and tolerant wife Sunny) headed North and found a great Lake campsite North of Green Bay.
Of course we had 2 dogs along.
We started getting some bugs in Wisconsin and Michigan but nothing too bad. Next night we went further in to upper penisula of Michigan, right on the South shore of Lake Superior and poised for an early crossing into Canada. We had health certificates for the dogs as required but no one seemed interest so we headed East across Ontario on the North side of Lake Huron. Previously I had discovered how overpriced the Ontario Parks were but had few options. I hate spending $40 but they get you on admission fees and then camping fees. Night one there was the start of the bug attacks. The later departure had given the black flies and mosquitos time to multiply so any outside activity of more than a few seconds required headnets and bug stuff. This made hauling the inside toilet across the country almost worthwhile. Just stepping outside for a moment to heed the call of nature could lead to some nasty bites.
Headed to Quebec. private camping there is in highly developed "camps" where most people park their trailers for the season, or seasons, and come on weekends. The have storage sheds and screen houses, etc., not what we might call camping but I guess they enjoy it. We made a stop at old Quebec, what a pain getting around there in my fat rig but we found a place to park and escaped after a short visit. The ride NE from there along the St Lawrence Seaway is very nice, better that I had anticipated. There is a very impressive Fiord, some overpriced camping, and plenty of bugs. Of course it is basically against the rules up there to use English in any sort of signage, not the most hospitatble but...... Baie Cameau is the jumping off spot for heading North on 589 throough Quebec and on to Labrador City which is a booming mining area. Along the way are the hydrp power stations
Crossing the fiord:
Manic 5
The road North was great, most paved and like Alaska the dirt sections can be better than the pavement.
Saw this guy
But what we saw more off were porcupines, I think I spotted 6.
By now we were back into country where campsites were whatever you found by a lake or a river or in the woods, much better! A nice grey fox trotted by with a rabbit in his mouth. Wasn't too concerned about us, looked quite pleased with himself.
Saw these signs, means you are getting pretty far out there. Not as far North as Alaska or Prudhoe Bay but it was light out for much of the night.
Typical view of the landscape:
Typical tourist photo, except not many tourist up this way especially in early June:
Tourist season is really July and August, still cool/chilly. I think the coldest was just below freezing, my diesel fired up without issue. By now the bugs had subsided, still some but not the angry hordes we encountered in Ontario and Michigan. The sparse traffic was mostly work vehicles, hydro power in Quebec, mining and hydro in Labrador. You can borrow satellite phones along the route but I never bothered. Labrador is working hard on paving the road so there are sections under construction, dirt sections, old road, and some new.
Camping next to the road on one of the beautiful rivers:
At this spot we met a traveler from Sweden. He was in his home made truck camper on a diesel toyota. The camper popped up using pneumatics, he was heading across Canada and section by section hoping to get around the world. He had no heater on board, I think he left early to warm up.
Here is another campsite
Got to keep your eyes out for good spots. This was back from the road (there aren't any sideroads) and the white stuff that looks like snow is some type of lichen, covered everything. You can see thet here bugs are not an issue. There is only one Provincial Park campsite in Labrador and it is hundreds of miles from where this was. Again my theory that there is an inverse relationship between the cost of the campsite and its beauty, we never spent a penny to camp in Labrador
And the people are so friendly. This at a Ford dealer gas station in Happy Valley. Happy Valley is where the civilians lived adjacent to Goose Bay which was /is the military airfield, very busy in WWII. Of course the cost of fuel in Canada is typically 1.33 per liter of regular, X 3.8 = 1 US gallon. At least diesel was about .03 cheaper per liter and in some places in the midwest it was .30 less per gallon than the regular. The gas station was nice enoough to let me use there water hose to fill up the 20 gallon tank.
That's it for now. Love Labrador! If you want to read a bit look for "Into the Labrador Wild" about the 1903 Hubbard expedition, good stuff. And this route we took led us to where they set out on their fateful journey.
The camper was mounted on my trusty 1999 F250 that has hauled my Grandby around but the Lance adds a good 1000# and pushes it towards the limit. Anything bigger and I'd think about a dually. The top heavy nature and crummy departure angle does restrict where I'll take it. I added giant Helwig swaybars on the rear, it helped, have nice Firestone Destination 285 E rated tires, Bilstein shocks, and Goodyear air bags, but it still weighs a lot. I try to keep on top of the maintenance, just replaced the glowplugs on the 7.3, and had synthetic oil in it so I could stretch the change interval some.
Three years ago I took the Grandby to Newfoundland to visit Memorial University in St. John's, they paid my expenses (-: but this time I would have to buy all the fuel. The other thing that is different now is that the Trans Labrador Highway now connects from Baie Cameau in Quebec up to Labrador City, to Goose Bay, and then down to Red Bay and Blanc Sablon Quebec where you catch a ferry to the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. Before a couple years ago you couldn't do this drive, needed a long ferry ride from Goose Bay and around the East coast of Labrador.
My previous trip was in the early fall, better for bugs but no chance of seeing icebergs so I planned an May/June trip. Well plans got shifted some, I was visiting friends and stopping in Wisconsin for a wedding reception so I left Southern New Mexico the Friday of memorial Day weekend, and it was getting hot. Anyway I have grow tired of hauling across Oklahoma on my way to the Midwest so I headed North and spent night 1 at Cimarron Canyon State Park in New Mexico as I could get a reservation. From there I had to get across Kansas and the parks there wanted multiple nights for a reservation because of the holiday and I wanted electricity because it is often pushing 100 degrees in that territory. Camping in the Rockies is so much better!! Anyway I found a municiple park where I could camp for free, electricity was by quarters in a meter but a storm had come through and it was cool enough. Next night was lewis and Clark State Park in Missourri, then a State Park in Illinois where then charge extra on the days before and after holidays, again, camping West is so much better. Anyway I spent a few nights at a nice public park on a lake in Illinois while visiting and then a night "camping" in the suburbs of Chicage before a couple more nights in Southern Wisconsin visiting. Typically lake Geneva would be much busier but cool wet weather thinned the crowds. Fianlly it was time to head out on the real destination. We (my brave and tolerant wife Sunny) headed North and found a great Lake campsite North of Green Bay.
Of course we had 2 dogs along.
We started getting some bugs in Wisconsin and Michigan but nothing too bad. Next night we went further in to upper penisula of Michigan, right on the South shore of Lake Superior and poised for an early crossing into Canada. We had health certificates for the dogs as required but no one seemed interest so we headed East across Ontario on the North side of Lake Huron. Previously I had discovered how overpriced the Ontario Parks were but had few options. I hate spending $40 but they get you on admission fees and then camping fees. Night one there was the start of the bug attacks. The later departure had given the black flies and mosquitos time to multiply so any outside activity of more than a few seconds required headnets and bug stuff. This made hauling the inside toilet across the country almost worthwhile. Just stepping outside for a moment to heed the call of nature could lead to some nasty bites.
Headed to Quebec. private camping there is in highly developed "camps" where most people park their trailers for the season, or seasons, and come on weekends. The have storage sheds and screen houses, etc., not what we might call camping but I guess they enjoy it. We made a stop at old Quebec, what a pain getting around there in my fat rig but we found a place to park and escaped after a short visit. The ride NE from there along the St Lawrence Seaway is very nice, better that I had anticipated. There is a very impressive Fiord, some overpriced camping, and plenty of bugs. Of course it is basically against the rules up there to use English in any sort of signage, not the most hospitatble but...... Baie Cameau is the jumping off spot for heading North on 589 throough Quebec and on to Labrador City which is a booming mining area. Along the way are the hydrp power stations
Crossing the fiord:
Manic 5
The road North was great, most paved and like Alaska the dirt sections can be better than the pavement.
Saw this guy
But what we saw more off were porcupines, I think I spotted 6.
By now we were back into country where campsites were whatever you found by a lake or a river or in the woods, much better! A nice grey fox trotted by with a rabbit in his mouth. Wasn't too concerned about us, looked quite pleased with himself.
Saw these signs, means you are getting pretty far out there. Not as far North as Alaska or Prudhoe Bay but it was light out for much of the night.
Typical view of the landscape:
Typical tourist photo, except not many tourist up this way especially in early June:
Tourist season is really July and August, still cool/chilly. I think the coldest was just below freezing, my diesel fired up without issue. By now the bugs had subsided, still some but not the angry hordes we encountered in Ontario and Michigan. The sparse traffic was mostly work vehicles, hydro power in Quebec, mining and hydro in Labrador. You can borrow satellite phones along the route but I never bothered. Labrador is working hard on paving the road so there are sections under construction, dirt sections, old road, and some new.
Camping next to the road on one of the beautiful rivers:
At this spot we met a traveler from Sweden. He was in his home made truck camper on a diesel toyota. The camper popped up using pneumatics, he was heading across Canada and section by section hoping to get around the world. He had no heater on board, I think he left early to warm up.
Here is another campsite
Got to keep your eyes out for good spots. This was back from the road (there aren't any sideroads) and the white stuff that looks like snow is some type of lichen, covered everything. You can see thet here bugs are not an issue. There is only one Provincial Park campsite in Labrador and it is hundreds of miles from where this was. Again my theory that there is an inverse relationship between the cost of the campsite and its beauty, we never spent a penny to camp in Labrador
And the people are so friendly. This at a Ford dealer gas station in Happy Valley. Happy Valley is where the civilians lived adjacent to Goose Bay which was /is the military airfield, very busy in WWII. Of course the cost of fuel in Canada is typically 1.33 per liter of regular, X 3.8 = 1 US gallon. At least diesel was about .03 cheaper per liter and in some places in the midwest it was .30 less per gallon than the regular. The gas station was nice enoough to let me use there water hose to fill up the 20 gallon tank.
That's it for now. Love Labrador! If you want to read a bit look for "Into the Labrador Wild" about the 1903 Hubbard expedition, good stuff. And this route we took led us to where they set out on their fateful journey.
