Alone in Goose Bay

Monday 7/28

Realized I was far enough north for the northern lights. So I looked it up, and Saturday and Sunday had potential. I got up and roamed the campground just before 1am. The final result was a bathroom stop and exercise. And seeing far too many campground lights. Clearly electricity is free with the campsite.

In the morning, the weather was cool enough for my coffee and oatmeal to be bug free. Packup also went easily. I separated the tent and fly again to keep the tent dry. Headed back to North West River to the Interpretation Center. It was free, but so good I made a $10 donation. Partly because they offered free coffee and a place to sit with a view.

The big surprise is that the 2024 Alone winner came from. Goose Bay, and his gear wes the special exhibit. Very cool surprise, as Anne and I love the show. Apparently, his wife used to work at this museum. I spent a few hours going through the sections and watching some videos. Then, I spent a bit more talking with the docents.

I feel like I didn't say anything about the Labrador Heritage Museum yesterday. It had some interesting items, but half of the museum is room full of mechanical dioramas. I took a few videos of them in action but should have taken a photo of the room full of them.

Leaving Happy Valley/Goose Bay I stopped to top off fuel and lunch at Timmy's. The next fuel is 400km east, which is my full range. The fuel stop gaps have been increasing, but this was the first where I put 5L into the fuel bladder. A little over half of it's 2gal capacity would give me an extra 100km.

After 150km, I pulled over and added the bladder to my main tank. Tried without the nozzle first. I had hopes of leaving the nozzle behind on future trips. But it will never be left behind, as I spilled a lot. The catch area around the cap works great. All of the spilled fuel didn't coat my bike and hot engine. It poured out a hose by my right foot peg. I was happily adding fuel when I saw the spouting liquid! Even with the spill, the bike"s gadge read full and got me to the destination, still reporting 70km of range.

The landscape changed on this long segment. I stopped multiple times to capture some of it. No wildlife sightings today. The view expanses got larger, and the trees became less dense.

I reached Port Hope Simpson after that 400km stretch. Post refueling, I went to dinner on the bay. There is one local camping option that should be OK to tent. There is nothing on the iOverlander app for the next 100km, and that option doesn't look great. So dinner and then try the free spot by the river.

Dinner at Alexis is very good. I may come back to the hotel if the beach campsite doesn't work out. I am finishing up dinner around 8pm.

It's nice to have it light after 9 pm. A few minutes west of town, I crossed a timezone that makes me 90 minutes ahead of NH time. Now, the GPS estimated times matched.