La Poile, Newfoundland : Try #1

[bad dog]

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.

This was the first trip where did tried "theme nights". :chef:

We're going all out on the next trip with a full Indian dinner and Bollywood music in the background!! :jump:




We hit on a couple of great tricks for awesome dinners in-country :

1) Prepare all dishes in advance as it is way easier to bring something that only needs to be warmed up than it is to bring all the fresh ingredients, spices, oil, pots, pans ,etc. (obvious but had to be said)

2) Get containers that are the right size for 1 meal. For us that was 6 servings. (2 guys ate a LOT)

3) Freeze the containers solid before you leave. They actually help keep the fresh stuff cool as they thaw out. Dry stuff thaws faster than wet so soups get served on the last days.

4) Do fresh prepared meals the first 2-3 of days, frozen stuff for the next 3-4 days then you are into cans, freeze-dried or dry stored foods.


Breakfasts were sort of "pot-luck" and lunches were totally ad hoc. Each of us took on feeding the whole gang for a couple of nights. This reduced provisioning overlap/wastage and made it easier to plan.

Going with a theme avoided weird combos like spaghetti and hotdogs.

 

[spencyg]

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?

Not so much maintenance although that is part of it. The US based state park system is just more scattered in terms of available services. One state park camp site might have convenient flush toilets and showers, while the next one 30 miles down the way is just pit toilets. You can't really count on anything ahead of time just by knowing you're entering a state park system. National parks are a bit different and I think more consistent.

SG

 

[bad dog]

Day #5 : "Beach & Barrens"

Super quiet night, no rain, hot breakfast ... what a start to the day. We packed up and rolled out of the park via a road that seemed to skirt the shore line.



As we cleared the trees, we were met with this ...

There was an immediate shock to find a white sandy beach in Newfoundland but here it was!

We then found the road/trail that lead towards PAB. It was a piece of the "T-Railway" system that runs between Argentia and PAB. We met quite a few quad folks on the ferry that had made the loop.

We ran through PAB and must say that the town was looking very good. Lot's of nice houses, new neighbourhoods, etc. The Alberta and Hibernia money is certainly finding its way back home.

We found our way onto the road to Rose Blanche after a couple of tries and found the start of "the Mine Road". This is a really well maintained road that leads deep into the back country. The scenery is really breathtaking. Very stark but still beautiful.

This was without a doubt my favorite part of the trip so far. I had never been in terrain like this and was really hoping we could find our route further in towards La Poile.

We continued along the road all the way in to the old Gold Mine.

There is still active work going on ... all on the geology and exploration side.



We pushed in to the North off of the main road and were quickly met with more boggy ground.

We found a bit of solid ground and hiked the quad trail leading East. There was a LOT of bog and no trees to winch to. This seems to be the right area to head East but this was not the spot. We retreated to the trucks, set up camp and started talking about what we will do different next time. Dwght even conjured up a load of dried wood for a fire. Quite the trick in the middle of this barren landscape.

 

[Wilbah]

THIS is an awesome post! Love the range of places you went. Beautiful pics! DEFINITELY a place I would love to visit! Thanks so much for posting this!

 

[kojackJKU]

awesome. That is only one small section of the Island. There is MANY MANY KMS of different terrain here. The island is huge and there is lots of backcountry here. We are gone almost every weekend and a couple of times per week wheeling around here.

The trip looks like a success even if it was a failure to La Poile.

 

[bad dog]

Day #6 : "Room with a View"

Friggin' cold!


That was the though going through everyone's head as we slowly crawled out of our warm sleeping bags. We had established a very smooth, workable pattern to our days : wake, eat, pack, drive, get stuck, drive, set-up, eat, sleep. In between there was ample time for reading a bit of a good book, telling a good yarn or venting about some minor irritant back in the 'real world'. Today was a tough day ... from here on in, we would be slowly re-entering that 'real' world instead of pushing out away from it.

Meh.

We had sunshine, hot coffee and a lot more trail to run before then.

We decided to air up and do a bit of touristing(?) and drive out to Rose Blanche. It's a very pituresque town. Not much else to say as there was a $5 fee to walk out to see the historic lighthouse ("You want $5 for what!?!?") so that came off the list out of principle ... then there was the tea Room - closed.

We drove out to Barachois Falls (no fee there) hiked out, took a bunch of pics and had 'kaffee und kuchen' or 'high tea' in the parking lot there. Met some travellers from Ontario who were on their way back home.

Driving back to PAB we noticed the Dog was being pretty mischievous ... taking random runs at passing cars and trying hard to roll-over and play dead in the ditch. Kinda scary! I started thinking we had destroyed a ball joint or bent a link so we pulled over for a look-see. Dwight worked the wheel back and forth and I checked for loose joints ... all was tight and looked good. I stood up and was just about to tell Dwight to stop when I noticed the hood of the truck seemed to be moving back and forth! Not good. Back down on all fours and I saw that the lower connection of the front track bar was cracked in two different spots. We gingerly drove back to PAB. It was 1700. Not a good time to look for a garage. Jim & John G-Wagen headed back to Cheeseman Park to set up while we looked for a shop that was still open.



The kind folks at Canadian Tire directed us to Spencers so off we limped.

Wow! Those guys do customer satisfaction REALLY well. They were almost ready to head home to wives for dinner and a cuddle when we showed up. They listened to our tale of woe, got us up on a hoist, welded up the cracks, checked to make sure it was safe and sent us on our way. They are the BEST!

If you are ever there, ask Frank Spencer about his mini-van dragster

 

[bad dog]

Day #7 : "Last Tango in Port aux Basques"

Woke up to the sound of rain ... ugggh ... went back to sleep. Light drizzle and the sounds of guys getting coffee on. Yup, time to get up. Today was a bit of a lazy day, hot coffee, breakfast, sit around the fire and chat. Maybe even time for a bit of tea. Dwight heads over to my trusty Coleman and set the whole thing on fire ...

He claims demonic possession of my stove ... I say he'd better stick to burning wood, he's got that down pat



After we get the inferno under control, we check out Jim's awning prototype :

We discussed how his awning could be expanded now that he has worked out the support and stowage issues.



>>> Science Time <<<
Did you know that Cheezies burn like gasoline! We found some stale ones in the bottom of the food box and chucked them in the fire to see what would happen. Holy Crap!


We finally packed up and wandered into town for a few games of pool in Lukey's Boat.

Then it was off to the ferry for our ride back to Cape Breton. When we got to the Agriculture Canada Inspection Station (an unhappy man in a coat) we were informed that due to the state of our trucks we were "a problem". We apologized and said that if there would have been a car wash of any sort in town we would have used it. We were ushered to "the inside lane" where miscreants and very dirty types are sent. There we were met by undoubtably the happiest young lady in all of Newfoundland. She blasted the mud off of our truck with a huge fire hose all the time smiling like she was the luckiest girl alive.

We were on our way back.






I had the time of my life thanks to the great guys I had the good fortune of spending time with.
Thanks guys.



Time to start thinking about what we'll do different when we get back.




Now you're really running with the DOG.

 

[live2travel photography]

Great adventure report. I had planned on making up that way earlier this year and my plans fell through. This post has me eager to get up there next year and complete the adventure that was lost. Thanks guy

 

[k9lestat]

Great story

Sent from my QMV7A using Tapatalk

 

[andysgreenxj]

trip report

First off, thanks for sharing your trip with us...looked like an awesome time! I've been wanting to make an epic trip similar to ths for quite some time, and was wondering if you would post the route that you took, so that I can plan a trip for next year... I'm about 2/3s the way to having my expo trailer done, and figure it woud be great to take it on an epic trip for its maiden run(will test it out on some local trails first ). Approximately how long were you guys out there? Again, thanks for sharing... :coffeedrink:

 

[bad dog]

First off, thanks for sharing your trip with us...looked like an awesome time! I've been wanting to make an epic trip similar to ths for quite some time, and was wondering if you would post the route that you took, so that I can plan a trip for next year... I'm about 2/3s the way to having my expo trailer done, and figure it woud be great to take it on an epic trip for its maiden run(will test it out on some local trails first ). Approximately how long were you guys out there? Again, thanks for sharing... :coffeedrink:

GreenXJ,

Our GPS tracks zig-zag all over the place so turning them into something sensible would take a lot of editing. We spent most of our time North of Port Aux Basques (PAB) and East of PAB.


North :
Crabbe's River is almost exactly 100km out of PAB on the TCH. The route we took starts just North of the river. More or less right across the highway from Crabbe's River Campground.

Table Mountain is a stone's throw outside of PAB. It's the really big flat mountain on your right



East :
The Mine Road is pretty easy to find as well.
Look up these coordinates on Google Earth :
N 47° 36' 25"
W 058° 59' 29"

That's the start of the road. The Mine is right at the end.



If you would like any specifics about the trail condition, terrain, bridges, camping spots, etc. just PM me and I can help you out.
Should you find yourself near Halifax, I'd be happy to let you know about some excellent spots around Nova Scotia as well.



I'll post a couple of overview images tonight.


All the best,
the 'Bad Dog'

 

[richmondbob]

This trip report just keeps getting better. Only problem is it's making me miss the Rock more.

 

[bad dog]

Here are a couple of images to show where were where ...

Here is an overall view of the SW corner of Nfld.

This is a larger view showing Table Mtn.

 

[zzz150]

hey guys awesome trip!! i have yet to get to nfld, after having done a 21000km trip this summer from ontario to the north west hitting a lot of great remote places the east is next..

 

[bad dog]

hey guys awesome trip!! i have yet to get to nfld, after having done a 21000km trip this summer from ontario to the north west hitting a lot of great remote places the east is next..

Lot's of great spots in Atlantic Canada.

Happy to recommend some great hikes, campgrounds and trails. Great areas for wilderness camping in Nova Scotia and double for Newfoundland.