Newfoundland Roads and Signs

[ghYHZ]

Here's some shots from a trip across Newfoundland last week.

Marine Atlantic Ferries link Nova Scotia with Newfoundland year'round across the 160 km Cabot Strait. Arriving at Port-aux-Basques (Port oh Bask) the Trans Canada Highway begins at the ferry terminal then its 900 km across the island to St. John's. I usually haul into the Tim Horton's at the east end of town for a half hour and let the 400 vehicles or so coming off the ferry clear out then you basically have the highway to yourself.......wide, straight and divided in several areas including the final 60km into St. John's.......North America's eastern most freeway.

[ghYHZ]

Returning to Nova Scotia I took the summer only ferry which departs from Argentia at the eastern end of the Island. It's a longer 400 km overnight crossing. Argentia is a former United States Naval Air Base. In the photo below you can see the "Canadian"  road on the left running parallel to the "American"  road.......which kept ferry traffic away the base. And the former US Guard Post.   

[ghYHZ]

And a few signs:











Premier Joseph Smallwood who brought Newfoundland into Canada in 1949 (it was a separate country previous) overlooks his birthplace from a roadside park.





Newfoundland is well known for some interesting place-names!

[Alps]

I had a lot of fun in that province. Always nice to see new views!

[Ian]

Heh heh, Dildo. Cool photos!

[oscar]

In another part of Newfoundland island, there's Dildo Run, flowing into Virgin Arm.  That helps the Dildo shopkeepers' claim that their village was named for something other than the "bedroom toy".

I just came back from a month in Canada, including several days revisiting Newfoundland island (but not Dildo and other parts of southeastern Newfoundland, which I covered pretty thoroughly in 2003), and four days on my first visit to Labrador.  After I recover from the trip, I'll post a few photos, starting with warning signs for a stretch of the Trans-Labrador Highway with no gas for over 400km (similar signs on Newfoundland island for routes 360 to Harbour Breton and 480 to Burgeo, but the numbers are much smaller).

[1995hoo]

Nice pics, thanks for posting. I visited the west coast of Newfoundland on a family vacation in 1982 and would like to go back someday, but I'm not sure my wife would put up with the drive followed by the ferry ride. Do they still search your vehicle for agricultural products and then wash it thoroughly when you leave the island?

[oscar]

Nice pics, thanks for posting. I visited the west coast of Newfoundland on a family vacation in 1982 and would like to go back someday, but I'm not sure my wife would put up with the drive followed by the ferry ride. Do they still search your vehicle for agricultural products and then wash it thoroughly when you leave the island?

They didn't on either of my visits to Newfoundland, in August 2011 and August 2003.  Maybe they've lightened up since you went, or maybe you were there when something was going around in Newfoundland that Nova Scotia didn't want spreading to them.  Also, for my latest visit I left Newfoundland island on the ferry to Labrador (via Blanc Sablon QC), and then left the province at the land crossing into Quebec at the other end of the Trans-Labrador Highway.  So even if they're doing ag inspections on outbound ferries to Nova Scotia, they aren't doing them when you leave NL through Quebec.

[ghYHZ]

In the second photo from the top, the building is the Agriculture Canada Inspection Station. Cars and trucks are washed including the underside to remove soil as they pass through. It's the "Potato Wart"  in soils that they are looking for.

My car was washed when I entered the Marine Atlantic Terminal at Argentia last week. They asked if I was carrying any plants with soil......No, but they even vacuumed the dust off the floor mats.

[mgk920]

In the second photo from the top, the building is the Agriculture Canada Inspection Station. Cars and trucks are washed including the underside to remove soil as they pass through. It's the "Potato Wart"  in soils that they are looking for.

My car was washed when I entered the Marine Atlantic Terminal at Argentia last week. They asked if I was carrying any plants with soil......No, but they even vacuumed the dust off the floor mats.

This is leaving Newfoundland, right?  Man, that place looks desolate!



Mike

[1995hoo]

In the second photo from the top, the building is the Agriculture Canada Inspection Station. Cars and trucks are washed including the underside to remove soil as they pass through. It's the "Potato Wart"  in soils that they are looking for.

My car was washed when I entered the Marine Atlantic Terminal at Argentia last week. They asked if I was carrying any plants with soil......No, but they even vacuumed the dust off the floor mats.

I thought I remembered us driving through an inspection building where they did the washing. Obviously after this many years (coupled with my being a kid at the time) my memory of the facility itself is clouded. We're going to be at my parents' house tomorrow night after we take my mother out to dinner for her birthday, so after seeing your pictures I may have to root around to find their photo albums from that trip to see whether it's changed much in 29 years (our trip was in August 1982). Only thing is, my father used to take mostly slides, so I may not have any luck. I'd love to find some old pictures I could scan in to compare to yours.

One thing I remember is that the Trans-Canada Highway was massively ripped up for repaving in large stretches. The people there told us that was routine every summer due to frost heaves. I notice some fairly fresh pavement in some of your pictures, so maybe they're still repairing it a lot.

mgk920, the Island of Newfoundland is quite isolated. Incidentally, the picture he posted of the ag checkpoint in Port-aux-Basques would have been on his ARRIVAL in Newfoundland, since he said he left from Argentia, which is way east near the other end of the island. But you only go through the ag checkpoint when you're leaving the island, as you suggest (similar concept to when you're leaving Hawaii). His picture just happens to be taken from the ferry of the facility through which you pass on the way out.

[ghYHZ]

One thing I remember is that the Trans-Canada Highway was massively ripped up for repaving in large stretches. The people there told us that was routine every summer due to frost heaves. I notice some fairly fresh pavement in some of your pictures, so maybe they're still repairing it a lot.

The re-paving is just regular maintenance. Spring frost-heaves are not really an issue on the TCH or other main roads. Newfoundland highways have been significantly upgraded since the mid "˜80s in a deal between the Province and the Feds in return for CN Rail being allowed to abandon the costly to operated trans-island narrow-gauge railway. Until 1967 when the Trans Canada opened, you could not cross the island all the way by car and the railways along with coastal-boats were the only means of transportation. Cars could be transported on railway flat cars across the gaps in the roads.     

mgk920, the Island of Newfoundland is quite isolated. Incidentally, the picture he posted of the ag checkpoint in Port-aux-Basques would have been on his ARRIVAL in Newfoundland, since he said he left from Argentia, which is way east near the other end of the island. But you only go through the ag checkpoint when you're leaving the island, as you suggest (similar concept to when you're leaving Hawaii). His picture just happens to be taken from the ferry of the facility through which you pass on the way out.

That's correct. The building I passed through at Argentia when leaving the island was similar. I think I was singled out for a good washing as I had been on some back roads and the car was quite dusty..... to say the least!

Yes, some areas are rocky and desolate especially around the ferry terminals as they're out on points of land .....that's why Newfoundland is referred to as "The Rock" .  But away from Port-aux-Basques and up the coast as bit.....some pretty nice scenery with the Long Range Mountains in the distance (the northern reaches of the Appalachians)

[Alps]

Nice pics, thanks for posting. I visited the west coast of Newfoundland on a family vacation in 1982 and would like to go back someday, but I'm not sure my wife would put up with the drive followed by the ferry ride. Do they still search your vehicle for agricultural products and then wash it thoroughly when you leave the island?

They didn't on either of my visits to Newfoundland, in August 2011 and August 2003.  Maybe they've lightened up since you went, or maybe you were there when something was going around in Newfoundland that Nova Scotia didn't want spreading to them.  Also, for my latest visit I left Newfoundland island on the ferry to Labrador (via Blanc Sablon QC), and then left the province at the land crossing into Quebec at the other end of the Trans-Labrador Highway.  So even if they're doing ag inspections on outbound ferries to Nova Scotia, they aren't doing them when you leave NL through Quebec.

They did wash my vehicle upon leaving in 2010, though if there was an inspection it was brief/informal. I think they may have just asked questions.

[oscar]

I just came back from a month in Canada, including several days revisiting Newfoundland island (but not Dildo and other parts of southeastern Newfoundland, which I covered pretty thoroughly in 2003), and four days on my first visit to Labrador.  After I recover from the trip, I'll post a few photos, starting with warning signs for a stretch of the Trans-Labrador Highway with no gas for over 400km (similar signs on Newfoundland island for routes 360 to Harbour Breton and 480 to Burgeo, but the numbers are much smaller).

Here's a start on my Labrador photos, with the "next services" signs with big numbers on them (even though in km rather than miles).



The one above was taken on the Trans-Labrador Highway just north of Port Hope Simpson.  410 km is about 255 miles, so this tops the "next services 244 miles" sign north of Coldfoot on Alaska's Dalton Highway.



This one is from the north end of NL 510 (newer central/southern section of the TLH), south of its junction with the original TLH (NL 500) west of Happy Valley-Goose Bay.  392 km is about 244 miles.

The number on the second sign is smaller than on the first one, because the second one is 18 km west of the gas stations in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.  But it actually should be more alarming.  Heading north from Port Hope Simpson, gas is available off NL 510 in Charlottetown via NL 514 (about 50 km/31 mi. from PHS, including a 25 km one-way detour from NL 510), and in Cartwright via NL 516 (about 200 km/124 mi. from PHS, including an ~85 km one-way detour).  Heading southbound from NL 500, the only way to get gas in less than 365 km/227 mi. (via the detour to Cartwright) is to turn back.  

[1995hoo]

.... We're going to be at my parents' house tomorrow night after we take my mother out to dinner for her birthday, so after seeing your pictures I may have to root around to find their photo albums from that trip to see whether it's changed much in 29 years (our trip was in August 1982). Only thing is, my father used to take mostly slides, so I may not have any luck. I'd love to find some old pictures I could scan in to compare to yours.

....

I didn't get around to this over the weekend, so maybe sometime in the next month or so while my parents are out of town on vacation and I check in on their place occasionally for them. When Ms1995hoo and I went to Nova Scotia in 2008, some of the places we stopped were ones I remembered quite well from 1982, and some of them hadn't really changed a bit. I suspect the same is even more true in Newfoundland.


Turning to Oscar's pictures–what kind of vehicle were you driving and how many spare tires did you bring?

[oscar]

Turning to Oscar's pictures–what kind of vehicle were you driving and how many spare tires did you bring?

I drove a full-size Nissan Titan pickup truck.  I brought two full-size mounted spares (one the standard one under the pickup bed, the other strapped inside the bed).

My Prius would've saved a lot of money on gas, and I think it could've handled the Trans-Labrador in good conditions even though it's mostly unpaved.  But it was pothole-strewn on my first day there (unpaved stretch from Red Bay to Mary's Harbour), due to the remnants of Hurricane Irene, and I'm convinced my Prius would've been torn apart by the rough road unless I waited for the graders to kind of smooth out the road the next day.  Plus, the Prius' one space-saver spare (with hardly any room for an extra full-size spare) is close to useless on a gravel road like the TLH, even though I wound up not having to use either of the spares in my truck for my entire trip.

One other note:  I borrowed a satellite phone from the provincial government (picked it up at L'Anse au Clair at the southern end, turned it in at Wabush at the northern end), which it routinely makes available to travelers on the TLH, in case they need to call for help.  Not that I'd rely on that in lieu of two full-size spares -- emergency road service is hard to come by, and your AAA/CAA card probably isn't worth squat unless perhaps you break down near a major town.  Unlike some other remote Canadian highways, like QC 389 south from Labrador City, and the James Bay Highway in northern Quebec, there are no call boxes along the TLH.

[1995hoo]

Thanks for the info. The odds I'll ever make that trip are probably close to zero because I know my wife will never be willing to do it. (I previously expressed doubt that she'd put up with the amount of driving to reach the Island of Newfoundland, but I can say with no doubt at all she'll NEVER be willing to to the Trans-Labrador.) So I like seeing all your pictures of it, and it's nice to know details like vehicle type and such just because it helps me get a practical sense for the trip that pictures alone don't always give.

[ghYHZ]

My Prius would've saved a lot of money on gas, and I think it could've handled the Trans-Labrador in good conditions even though it's mostly unpaved.....

I did the Trans Labrador last year in my Corolla and really had no problem. Had a couple of spares with me but didn't need them.......not even a rock-chip!

Here's a link to that trip report:

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=3594.msg79396#msg79396

Back to Goose Bay this weekend for work but we're flying in........no fun!