So everyone thought I was nutz to go cycling in Northern Europe last winter. So now the confession, that was infact just a test ride for bigger things…..
Three weeks in Northern Scandanavia with shops and towns most days and a cycling partner was a nice “safe” way to learn the lessons needed to be learned for extreme winter travel. Now its time to knock it up notch.
The rough plan :
- Fly to Labrador city in (you guessed it) Labrador, Canada. Possibly one of the least populated states in the developed world. I still need to find out if Canada airlines will allow my bike on the last leg.
- The first week will be a gentle ride to Goose bay to get back into things and get acclimatized.
- From Goose bay I’ll be one of the first cyclists to attempt the Trans Labrador highway in winter (it only got finished in 2009). This is remote and unforgiving wilderness at the best of times but in winter will be extra interesting. From goose bay to the first civilization is 400km (if you can call Port Hope Simpson civilization). This would normally be about 6-8 days journey on the gravel road. I will need 2-4 weeks to do this leg in winter.
- The remaining 200km of trans lab to Blanc Sablon I’ll see a village every other day.
- Leg two : A ferry from Blanc Sablon, hopefully to Natashquan where the road starts again, but I suspect this ferry isn’t running when I’ll be there so may have to use a plan B via Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Via plan a/b I’ll cycle to Quebec or until the road gets too busy with trucks or when my time runs out if leg 1 has taken a long time.
- The remainder of the trip is a little woolly and will be mainly using trains (yup I like long train journeys too) to visit friends in Ontaria and Alberta(while I’m in the neighborhood). Then will fly home from Calgary.
Departure December/January depending on my work. Trip duration 10-12 weeks. Weather : Cold, windy and white.
#Icenutz pt 2 is go !!!
Lets just hope there isn’t too much snow this year 🙂
Very cool! Ha ha, cool, get it? I guess you’ll be sick of that joke soon, if you aren’t already. We’ll be following with interest. People are very friendly there, so you’ll certainly get lots of support from the local folks. And, just to be pedantic, Labrador is part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, not a state its own right. We Canadians reserve the word ‘state’ for south of the border 🙂
Thanks for bringing my ignorance to my attention 😉
I thought labrador was a dog breed, you know those friendly ones. All jokes a side, sounds like a great plan, stay warm and take lots of pictures.
Hi Shane,
I rode the Trans-Lab in October of 2012 and had a great time. Took a sidetrip up to Schefferville and from there found a way to ride trails into Nunavik.- If you wanted to ad a “first” to your list of winter accomplishments, consider Nunavik. I’m confident I was the first person to ride ther,so certainly no one has even attempted to do it in winter before.. If you’re looking to add local favor to your present route, consider the train ride up to lab City from Sept-Illes. Tshiuetin rail, the first native owned rail-line in North America, offers passenger service between Sept-Illes and Scheffervile. It stops at little native settlements along the way. They will carry your bike for free and you’ll learn a lot about the country on the 14 hour ride, since essentially all the passengers are Nascapi or Innu people. The train has a stop just east of Lab City.
When you’re done with the Trans-Lab, consider taking a shot at the grand-daddy of all roads in winter: an in-and-back-out again ride on Route Transtaiga in northern Quebec. Much more difficult and dangerous than the Trans-Lab.
Good luck
Thanks Bill, That must of been some adventure taking trails up to Nunavik, I suspect something like that would be quite impossible in winter… Given the extreme nature of travel in winter in Labrador I suspect its smarter to stay on something resembling a main road.
I’d also considered the train back up to Lab city but I have no need to go back there as I’ll be heading west. The Transtaiga was one of my first ideas but after reading some horror stories about how much logging traffic there is on the JBR in winter decided it best not to head that way. I don’t mind a challenge or adventure but life is too short to cycle on busy trucking routes…
Cheers
“That must OF [sic] been some adventure”
I do not recommend such an adventure to someone capable of confusing a preposition with an auxiliary verb.
BTW I cycled the Trans-Taïga in August of 2012 :-p
Luckily I keep my blog to cycling (mainly) rather than concerning myself with trivialities like the English language, Latin or others 🙂 My “adventure” in Canada is poorly written here >>> http://wintercycletouring.com/category/canada/ :-p