Tour du Nord II: St. John's Newfoundland Feb 17-22

[NHRef]

Make Informed Travel Decisions

It's now time to have snow tires installed and to prepare to drive in Winter's worst. Changing weather patterns and fluctuations in temperature at this time of year can lead to periods of snow covered or icy conditions on our roads.




Maybe I'll put the Hakkepellitas on after MoP on Sunday . . .

[JR9907]

Is there a list somewhere of who is going on this trek?

[squid]

Quote: Originally Posted by JR9907

Is there a list somewhere of who is going on this trek?

Mapped list w pics
http://www.frappr.com/tourdenordhudsonbayorbustiii

[NHRef]

Quote: Originally Posted by squid

Mapped list w pics
http://www.frappr.com/tourdenordhudsonbayorbustiii

Is that "perma link" perma like in permafrost? What kind of snows run well on permafrost?

[Oldpaint]

I'm planning to be there and am pretty sure that I have a co-driver/navigator. I also have the luxury of being able to spend extra time on this trip being unencombered by work demands.

[Oldpaint]

Tire Rack is sending my Blizzaks, I now have a tomtom, a co-driver, so I wanted to get the destination discussion resumed.

Gros Morne was mentioned. There is camping there year round.
http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/nl/grosmor...t/visit1_E.asp
I don't have winter camping gear though.

St. Anthony might be interesting. It has hotels and b&b's.
http://newfoundland.worldweb.com/St....els/index.html
This destination is 2 hours closer than St. John according to the tomtom.
It is close to where the vikings landed (although everyone in the Boston area knows that they first landed on the banks of the Charles river in Cambridge)

[DUCTTAPE]

As of yet, no list. Sorry, I have been swamped at work.

I have NO great desire to spearhead. If someone would like to take point, I can be great follower



d

[MinorRoadsKill]

Quote: Originally Posted by DUCTTAPE

As of yet, no list. Sorry, I have been swamped at work.

I have NO great desire to spearhead. If someone would like to take point, I can be great follower
d

I'll take point.

I've actually been looking into it a little bit the last few weeks. I think that geography is important, which means either heading to the most northerly or easterly part of Newfoundland.

So, I'm going to do a write-up on both for ArcticMini.com, which I've been neglecting in favour of 'real' work the last few months. If we want, we could even do another poll.

I do see a bit of a problem though: I started with a bias, and the more I look into it, the more biased I get.

I've previously driven the Viking Trail (north), but not all the way to St. John's (east). Naturally, I'd prefer to go where I haven't been before, and always wanted to see the sun rise on North America at the end of the Trans-Canada Highway, hence my initial bias for east.

I loved the Viking Trail in the summer, but the more I look into it, I've only confirmed that virtually all the attractions are closed no later than Oct 10. This includes the best parts of Gros Morne, the viking site at L'Anse Aux Meadows, the Port Aux Choix Historic Site (a tiny peninsula of tundra, the southern-most chunk in North America), and the attractions in St. Anthony's. While most outdoor attractions are also closed with the end of the tourist season in St. John's, the best remain open, and of course facilities are greater in the city in any case.

The trouble is, it may or may not matter that everything is closed on the Viking Trail. There were hardly any open 'attractions' in Radisson last year, and all of us who stayed to tour around on the Sunday had a total blast.

So I'm wondering if it wouldn't be best if I had someone else advocate for the Viking Trail. They and I would each be responsible for a page talking about the route, but overall the effort would be collaborative, not a competition.

Ross

[Oldpaint]

I'd rather go to St. Johns also but I wanted to point out St. Anthony if the Northern Penisula was a serious contender.

Onto an obvious suggestion. If Ducttape would edit the title with a date then this could be stickied.

[squid]

I consider 30 minutes snowshowing up a hill to take a picture
to be an attraction.

My impression was Gros Morne was a winter tourist destination, Cow Head,
Shollow Bay, et al but I defer to local knowledge.

Gros Morne links
http://nemini.org/Forums/viewtopic/t.../start=80.html

[NHRef]

Ross, will the route take us through the northern end of US Rt 1, Fort Kent ME?

If not, will it be much of a diversion?

[NHRef]

Ross, will the route take us through the northern end of US Rt 1, Fort Kent ME?

If not, will it be much of a diversion?

[MinorRoadsKill]

Quote: Originally Posted by NHRef

Ross, will the route take us through the northern end of US Rt 1, Fort Kent ME?

If not, will it be much of a diversion?

The short answers are no, and yes. The long answers are maybe and not so much.

For everyone else's reference, Fort Kent is on the north-western border of Maine and New Brunswick.

Given that most people are coming from New England, I would expect that the desired route to New Brunswick will be via I-95 to its terminus half way up New Brunswick, or more likely, shave about 30 minutes by turning onto ME-9 at Bangor and crossing near the ocean at Calais/St. Stephen. This is the exact opposite side of Maine from Fort Kent, so going to Fort Kent would be several hours away. Having said that, Maine is not really that big a place. If you took the all-I-95 route, you'll pass within 90 miles of Fort Kent at the closest point. So a side-trip there would be about 3.5 hours round-trip extra over the Calais route. For variety, you might try the NB side (TCH) one way, and ME highways the other.

BUT...
If I were setting out on this trip from Ottawa or Montreal, the fastest (mostly-freeway) route is the Trans-Canada, which follow A-20 in Quebec before making the big right turn onto R-185 at Riviere-du-Loup to enter the Maritimes. When the QC/NB border is reached, Fort Kent is only about 40 minutes away. However, there is an alternative that is even better for Fort Kent. About 30 miles before the 'big right turn', taking Quebec's R-289 crosses into NB and reaches the St. John River (which forms the border with Maine) within a few miles of the bridge to Fort Kent. I took this route in 2003 and found it to be virtually the same distance, but being a more minor road it added about 30 minutes (agressively passing logging trucks will cut this to almost nothing though).

Coming from southern NH, taking the TCH is a considerably longer route to the Maritimes than I-95. Still, if you're set on it, then I'm probably your best candidate as a passenger. That's because I could meet you on the way, and it would arguably even save me an hour or two vs. meeting someone further south in NY / NH / MA.

Well, this answer has gotten long enough.

Ross

[NHRef]

Just curious . . . Good friends live in Ft Kent (he was my "best man" almost 30 years ago), so it would have been really cool (cold) to have a bunch of MINIs show up at his house.

I'll never forget their wedding (high Mass) and reception (incredible bilingual chatter - much of it slang French not at all like I had in high school, beaucoup beer and dancing).

BTW, for anyone who has been to Key West, Ft Kent is the northern terminus of US Rt 1.

[dogpaddler]

I've been following this thread and it sounds like a blast! I wish I could go...