As it was Forteau

Wednesday 7/30

It started raining last night around 1800. My schedule matched up perfectly. I had just returned to my already pitched tent from my gas and wifi outing. I quickly prepped the bike cover and entered the tent for the night. Goodnight rabit in the Pinware PP campsite across from me.

It rained a lot overnight, and I awoke a number of times. Made coffee and grits while packing. A red squirrel attempted to take away my morning trash from the picnic table. The road from the campsites to the shower was home to three more rabbits enjoying the morning beachside sun. Each wanted a brief race, but they all stayed in their lanes.

After I showered, I hit the road, looking for brunch. I found it at Dot's Bakery and Coffee Shop in L'Anse-au-Loup. On route, the clouds offered great lighting on amazing seascapes, roads and mountains. My phone seems fine since I removed the bad sim card. So, I was able to update yesterday's blog from a bug free table with eggs and coffee.

A side trip to the lighthouse at L'anse Amore was interesting. Especially getting to climb to the top and the model showing how it was constructed. Upon paying my entrance fee, the nice lady said "one senior". I almost corrected her, but I took the insult and saved $2 CA!

In Forteau, I briefly stopped at a gas station looking for DOT4 brake fluid. I noticed a small spot under my clutch slave cylinder. The resevoir indicated it was getting lower. So I have been looking for more before it becomes a problem. I continued along to get my ferry ticket to Newfoundland. Having no idea when it left, or if they would have room for me. At the ferry turn off, I saw a NAPA. Once I had a ferry ticket, that would be my next stop.

I was expecting to wait hours or days to cross. When I purchased my $18 ticket, she said loading was in about an hour. So I got in line to load. As the only motorcycle, I was first to load (lower deck).

Luckily, my cell reception lasted awhile on the ferry. So I was able to locate another NAPA in Newfoundland and some nearby free campsites on iOverlander. The most promising campsite is a school lawn. Parking, grass, and picnic tables. Brilliant.

Once off the ferry, I drove past the school on my way to NAPA. The school seemed like it would work. At NAPA, a sign on the door said "closing at 3pm do to power outage." It was 3:15. The door was open, so I went in and asked. He quickly rang up my elusive DOT4. The power went off a few minutes later. They said the power was off for the next 6 hours over a large area. So I decided I had time to ride south further and back to somewhere with power.

Not 100 percent sure of the given reference points for the power outage reach, I rode into Port au Choix. On the gps, I had selected Chinese food but stopped for some premium fuel to confirm that the town had power. Wu's takeout Restaurant was a bit sketchy, but I took the chance. It's not the best, but so far, I'm still alive.

That sketchy food primed me for the next sketchy move. The local free campsite seemed to be a remote part of town where people process firewood and dressed out wild game. It may be a little bit of a dump site, too. Clearly a cheap place to sleep.

But it felt too early to be setting up camp. So I explored town first. The town ends at a historical landmark. After hiking a couple kilometers I saw Phillips Garden. It is a pretty oceanside walk through interesting rock formations. On the way back I took another path, that seemed to have more signs of moose than human traffic. Thankfully, still no moose sightings ti report.

Now off to explore that dump/slaughter yard for a good campsite. Turned out to be as described, and more. It's a very large area, but most of it is solid ledge. Some very hard packed gravel. As well as stacks of firewood and some animal remains. After a grid search of open expanse, I continued deeper down the road. It went higher up and had fewer wood piles and no visible remains. I managed to find an almost flat mossy patch, where I spent 30 minutes trying to pitch my tent. It was far too windy. Klwind kept the black flies away, but made it impossible to assemble a tent. I pushed on, frustrated and heading deeper down the unmaintained road. After 20km of rough road, I was back on the main highway at 730 pm. an hour away from a known campground. Luckily 10 minutes later, I passed a River of Ponds Campground sign and secured site 11 for the night. Dead calm with moderate black flies. And 200+ flavors of solftserv ice-cream. Almond in a waffle cone is the answer.