La Poile, Newfoundland : Try #1

bad dog

Observer
Our goals were simple :
1) be safe
2) don't wreck the trucks
3) don't make a mess
4) have fun

The crew was Jim & John Newell in "Olive" the G-Wagen and Dwight Elliot and I in our trusty Jeep, the "Bad Dog".

Ideally, we wanted to try and push as far in towards La Poile as possible without breaking any of our cardinal rules. Keep in mind that no one had ever driven to La Poile. The ONLY way to get there is by ferry or helicopter. From our research, two things seemed abundantly clear:
1) There was a VERY high probability that we would not make it through the bogs that formed the headwaters of the La Poile/Bunker Hill, Garia and Crabbe.
2) If we couldn't find a quad track to lead us through, we probably would get stopped by either bogs or in-penetrable woods (see rule #3).

We began assembling gear and packing the trucks in preparation for a week to two in the back country of Newfoundland. Key to our load-out was keeping the load reasonably light while carrying enough fuel, food and water. We assumed that given the bogs we would have to negotiate, there probably wouldn't be any opportunities for taking on clean water once we got out of the Crabbe's River valley.
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Day #1 :

We had a night crossing booked from North Sydney to Channel Port Aux Basques (PAB) so I had a leisurely start to the day. Jim & John were not that fortunate as they had to do a last-minute re-build on their winch when a quick check determined it was no longer functioning. It turns out that the brushes had seized and once they were loose, all was well in the world again.

We met at Dwight's as it was on the way and then trundled casually up the #7 heading generally North. It was "all adventure" from the get-go so we had to stop in Sherbrooke for iced coffees and panini's. We got to North Sydney, where we lined up for our ride across Cabot Straight on the MV "Highlanders". It was 2300 when we got on board so we had a quick drink at the bar and went off to our cabins for a snooze.

The night crossing is excellent as long as you can get a cabin. Spending 6-7hrs in a half-reclined seat is just way too much like air travel.

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bad dog

Observer
Day #2 : "Hamburgers in Paradise"

Our ferry arrived right on schedule at 0720 NDT. We opted out of breakfast onboard in favour of an extra 1/2 hr of sleep. Our plan was to hit Timmy's on the way out of town ... unfortunately, most of the ferry passengers seemed to have the same idea. :( We went for Plan 'B' : off to the St.Christopher Hotel for brekkie (In my case, eggs & fish cakes!). Once we were working from a solid dietary foundation we headed off to Austin's place to drop off our doors. Thankfully, he saw us coming as we drove right by his house. We were dropping off the doors to unload 110kg of dead weight. Seemed like an Ok idea in theory and the weather forecast was strangely positive. Heck, what could go wrong, eh?

Austin lived in La Poile (AKA "Little Bay") so we asked him about access. As with pretty much everyone we spoke with, he was very nice but pretty firm on the idea that not only does no one go there overland without snow but that it would be impossible. Meh.

We headed out of town for the ~1hr drive to the St.Fintan Irving station. This would be our final fuel stop.

Dog Food (AKA "gas") :
- 70 litres (in tank)
- 40 litres (on rear rack)
- 30 litres (on roof rack)

Water :
- 20 litres (in Sceptre can)
- 15 litres (as ice in cooler)

I've really got to say how awesome the Sceptre cans are. They are light, rugged as all get-out and very well engineered. The pour spout for the jerry cans is amazing. A complete 20 litre can empties in 15-20 seconds and you don't spill a drop thanks to the utterly ingenious vent system.

Anyhoo ... liquids added an additional 150kg which more than made up for the doors but we would get lighter with time.

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Stocked, we found the trail head, aired down and headed in-country. The scenery started pretty fast as we were travelling along the North side of the valley. We stopped for a quick lunch and continued across to the South side of the valley.

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It turns out that this area was developed by Bowater for logging a couple of decades ago but it didn't pan out. You drive along very well engineered road beds and bridges and then everything just peters out ...

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Things got interesting pretty fast.

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We made a bit more progress over the next hour but it was pretty clear that we were not going to make the next 10km to Berteau hill today. We back-tracked to a level spot and set up camp.

Jim & John got dinner started with Jimmy Buffet playing so we dubbed this "Camp Burgers in Paradise"
Dwight cut down a dead tree and "junked 'er up". Quick work with the axe and we had a nice fire to keep the few bugs at bay. Captain Morgan and I made sure no one went thirsty (hydration is very important) and took up my post guarding the fire.

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A great day on the trail. We were encouraged to head to bed when a light rain started.

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to be continued ...
 

96Delica

Adventurer
Can't wait for the rest, I loved all the little trials I saw when I was there. Newfoundland is amazing!
 

spencyg

This Space For Rent
Subscribed. Our recent trip to Nova Scotia had us craving more....Newfoundland is next on the list and your trip report isn't changing our minds ;)

SG
 

bad dog

Observer
Day #3 : "You Can't get There From Here"

Last night, right on cue, the wind whipped up and the rain hammered in soaking pretty much everything. Yay!

We made breakfast in some light drizzle. It looked like the day might actually clear a bit so spirits were high in spite of the cold wind, soggy clothes, sleeping bags, etc.

Taking the doors off didn't look like such a great idea any more.

We worked our way through breakfast and packed up the tents during a brief lull in the drizzle. Just to show we knew how to close the barn door after the horse had all bolted ... we covered up our gear with the very nice, dry tarp we had stowed in the back of the Jeep. :(

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The sky continued to brighten as we headed off to try get on a bare ridge to our North in the hopes that we could get out onto the hard, rocky barrens to the East of us. Curiously, we found a screen-grab of Google Earth was very useful in giving us an overview of the various trails. This was because the printed topos did not have most of the smaller trails and our various GPS units were difficult to use to get an overview of the surrounding country while still seeing trail info. Ideally, having a rugedized laptop with the area cached in Google Earth would allow you to pick off elevations as well as lat/lon.

We found the right trail and worked our way up onto the ridge. We then found ourselves in a small bog on the wrong side of a pond. After getting "Olive" unglued, we walked the small trails to find that they all lead to great shooting nests but not one lead us around the pond. We also found that the area was a strange mix of steep terrain and small bogs. Very picturesque but tough to traverse.

Turning around was an exercise in balance and we worked out way back to the main road. More out of "what the hell" than anything else, we tried a branch to West leading into the Long Range Mountains. It had a branch that may have headed South but the bridge was totally shot and the brook was un-cross-able without major roadwork so we continued to curl up to the North while climbing a ridge looking down onto the Highlands River. Great views but the direction and terrain was not going to help us get to La Poile.

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The sun was out, the weather was mild and we were getting close to feeding time. We decided to head into the back side of Bill Shears Pond and find a place to camp and re-think our plans. On the way in, we ran into some nice folks in side-by-sides who were very adamant "You'll never get them in rigs in there!". We found this odd in that they were sitting in what amounted to a glorified golf cart on 25" tires while we were sitting in a fairly capable truck sitting on 38" tires. Simply stated ... getting in was no real issue. We found a nice, level site looking out over a pond and got to it. Job #1 was digging out all the soggy clothes, sleeping bags, etc and get some sun on them while it was light.

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We set up or tents as soon as things got the least bit dry-ish. The next job was dinner. As we were having Italian, the red wine seemed appropriate. We scarfed down a big load of spaghetti with meatballs and spicy Italian sausage then sat back to enjoy the fire, moon-rise and discuss "where-to-now?".

The Northern route was blocked by a wiped-out bridge over a small gorge, the Southern route ended in bogs & dense forests. We had failed to find the elusive quad track in-country. There was still a desire to make the destination so we discussed the possibility of the first approach route which was North from Ilse aux Morts, then East across Garia Brook and then South to La Poile. We decided to head into PAB, camp in a camp ground, get a hot shower and ask around a bit. We now had purpose and sleep came quickly in anticipation of new scenery.

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Awesome!! Also, that is a fantastic Jeep! Probably the most decked out Jeep I've ever seen. Did you even bring doors along? How were/are the bugs?
 

bad dog

Observer
Awesome!! Also, that is a fantastic Jeep! Probably the most decked out Jeep I've ever seen. Did you even bring doors along? How were/are the bugs?


Many thanks!


I left the doors in Port Aux Basques

The almost total lack of bugs was a very pleasant surprise for all of us :)
 

bad dog

Observer
Day #4 : "Table Mountain"

After some discussion, we agreed that the Crabbe's River approach to La Poile was not going to work. We had not been able to find the elusive "quad track through the bog" and we weren't ready to start a logging operation in support of cutting in a new roadway. Time to pack-up and head back to the TCH. But then what?

We tossed around a few ideas and confirmed that we still wanted to try and make the full trip if we could. Our best bet was still as we discussed last night : North from Ilse aux Morts, then East across Garia Brook and then South to La Poile.

Done.

We added in lunch at the "Medium Stop" in St. Fintan (really bad inside joke : Irving runs truck stops called "Big Stop" but St.Fintans wasn't very big ... seemed funny at the time), then a bit of sight-seeing off the top of Table Mtn. where there was a trail heading East. If we made any progress East, we would camp the night and then push on or we would head back down as a 'Plan B'.

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It was a cool morning but bright and sunny. breakfast went fast as did the pack-up. We were surprized by how long it actually took us to get back on pavement. Turns out its way more fun driving in than driving out. :p We stuffed our gobs at the Irving Station and then got ready for the drive to Table Mtn. For me that meant ear muffs and getting out my old ski mask ... the no doors thing is not as awesome on the highway as on the trail.

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We had a quick rest stop at the sea-side about 8km from the turn-off. The was cool as it turns out you could easily see the beach from the top of Table Mtn.

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The drive up to the top is pretty easy as long as you take your time. We were both in low range to keep the tranmission temperatures down below 125C as we were still both pretty heavy. The view was awesome ...

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Ok, so where was that trail heading off to the East ...

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We called it quits after I got fairly mired, got out and then hit a patch of bridging intended for Quads that we did not want to destroy and could not find a way to get around.


Note : Our plan for bogs was as follows :
1) Push in with the first vehicle as far as you could
2) Winch forward using a tree or rock as an anchor
3) If in trouble second vehicle winches you back out

This was an excellent plan as long as there was a tree or rock to use as an anchor ... out here ... there wasn't. This meant there was an ever increasing possibility that we would get two trucks stuck in the same bog ... that would suck. Jim started talking about an Anchor Plate that he uses at work ... could have used a couple of those alright!




I got turned around, daylight was waning so we worked our way back down and decided on J.T Cheeseman Provincial Park even though I found this nice gully just off the trail. :p Got to admit the hot shower and flush toilets were very nice.

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This is a must see park. The Park rangers are the nicest guys you'll ever meet and the park is super-well-maintained. Even the outhouses are spotless. We got set up, tucked into our G+T's and Butter Chicken for dinner and had a nice relaxing evening. Tomorrow we were off to try our luck on the barrens.

to be continued ....
 

spencyg

This Space For Rent
The provincial park system in Canada is amazing. We were disappointed when we re-entered the states and had to stay at one of our own State Parks ;) Awesome trip so far. It is easy for some to get disappointed when a theoretical route (or routes, in this case) dosen't pan out and backtracking is required. For me, this is all part of the excitement and you guys clearly have the same mindset.

Doors-Off was an....interesting choice :snorkel:

SG
 

bad dog

Observer
The provincial park system in Canada is amazing. We were disappointed when we re-entered the states and had to stay at one of our own State Parks ;) Awesome trip so far. It is easy for some to get disappointed when a theoretical route (or routes, in this case) dosen't pan out and backtracking is required. For me, this is all part of the excitement and you guys clearly have the same mindset.

Doors-Off was an....interesting choice :snorkel:

SG


Parks : I agree completely. The National and Provincial Parks in Canada are great. There are some older/newer and better/worse maintained but generally, they are all a safe bet for a pleasant, quiet spot to spend a night or two. I don't have a lot of experience with US Parks so I was a bit surprised by your comment. What is the main issue - maintenance?

Route Uncertainty : We all knew that this trip was a bit of a long-shot and would have a very big "let's see what happens" component. Definitely way more fun than travelling to a fixed agenda :)

Doors : Amazing how some things seem like such a good idea in theory ....
 

richmondbob

Adventurer
We got set up, tucked into our G+T's and Butter Chicken for dinner and had a nice relaxing evening.

Being of (East) Indian descent, I love seeing other offroaders/campers make their way over as I'm cooking up Tandoori chicken and other Indian fare to go along with potatoes and regular camping food.
 

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