Newfoundlog

[rubberdinghy]

Sweet!!!

Now tell punk to shut the hell up!

[secondtube]

The Man.

(thank you for providing some serious mid day work reading.)

[rubberdinghy]

Holy canoli, I posted my last smart-ass remark only to be invited on my return to 4 new Newfoundlogs...Jesus Christ Todd!!! 560kms plus in what six days? that's inspirational! and again thanks for all the logs...they are an unbeleivable read!

[paisley]

beautiful man, totally got me itching for travel

and making me hungry for some reason, I had to go put on soup half way through the read

hope ya have a super time in Labradour and checking out that Viking Camp

[PalacePrincess]

clapalong Newfie songs

mwahahahahaha, that would make a great album title. heck, i would buy the album because of the title alone, it wouldn't even matter what kind of music is one it.

an endless Bugs Bunny background of trees and mountains

haha, very nice!!

I still have plenty of wine to drink. I'm about halfway through, and I can fit it into my saddlebag now. It's too bad, I was hoping someone would ask about it so I could tell them, "I've got to get this plasma to St. John's right away," and bike off like a madman.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA....... gad that's great.

geez velvet, first you make me want to go sand surfing in peru and now you're making me want to get a bike. you rawk, thank you so much for sharing your lawgs. you should totally compile your peru, nfld, whatever-other-adventures-you-go-on-this-year logs (along with the philosophy & motivation behind it all) and publish a book..... fittingly titled -- of course -- coming alive in 2005.

thanks for the great read.

[PalacePrincess]

oh and p.s. $1.49 is a great buy for chunky soup. especially out there!

[meggo]

haha, awesome todd..

"I think my body is going through changes. Maybe I'm entering health puberty or something. I hope to hell that my voice changes."

out loud laughing.

[Douglas]

by far my favourite:

"I was giggling the whole time. It felt like I was on a huge ride at Disneyland. Flying up and down the Viking Trail and rarely breaking a sweat. I kept shaking my head and laughing."

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I can totally picture it!!! Thanks for including us in your adventure Todd! Hope your sorebumitis doesn't come back.

[Sunshine]

I want to be you right now!

[Im going home Donny]

Awesome Velvet!

Mabey you should put the new skin on yer ass?

Keep on keepin on bro.

[StoneMtn]

When I ride my bike,

I feel great 'cause everything is alright.

When I'm ridin' on my two-wheel-mobile

I'm gonna tell you now just how I feel;

Like a rock 'n' roll band, chuggin' away

Over hills and down alleys I can ride all day.

When I'm unhapy 'bout the way I'm feelin'

I hop on my bike for a little two-wheelin'

Mile after mile

I'm ridin' in a fine style.

I'm singin' every song I know.

I'm rippin' up the road

I'm tearin' up the street

I'm on my bike and I'm ready to go; go!

Because my heart starts thumpin'

When my legs get to pumpin'

And it gets me plenty of space.

Don't crowd me with your motorcar

(Ya man!)

Because I'm goin' pretty far...

[Velvet]

Newfoundlog, Stardate 081105

Packed all the gear up in the rain, which is an unpleasant endeavor, and bid my new friends farewell. I bought my ticket for the ferry ($14.75) and the nice ferryman waved me on early so I didn't have to wait in the rain.

The crossing was nice - I really like boats - but it was too foggy to really see anything, though I saw some whales spouting from the deck.

What are whales doing on the deck? What kind of crazy ship is this? If only I knew my port from my starbuck this paragraph could have been avoided.

Labrador.

Today's stats:

Time: 54.33

Average speed: 13.3

Distance: 12.18

Top speed: 48.0

Total trip Distance: 573.06

My first impression of Labrador (and noting today's stats I only really have a first impression) is rocky, windy, foggy, hilly, and isolated; unfrozen tundra. The twelve kilometres I rode this afternoon was by far the toughest, obviously exacerbated by a solid to-the-bone drenching. I unpacked the bike and dropped the stuff in my room and immediately set out for Point Amour, up the hill and about twenty kilometres down the road. And got about 200m before I turned around and came back to the hotel. Did laundry including my shoes, and listened nervously as my sneakers seemingly thrashed the inside of the dryer to bits. Went back to the room and soaked in the tub, a very rare thing for me to do. Clean and dry, I had dinner, followed by a dessert of bakeapple pie. Today is, after all, the beginning of the 26th Annual Bakeapple Festival in these parts, and a celebration of such subtlety is certainly seldom seen. The bakeapple is a tundra dwelling berry that is made into jams and jellies and syrops and pies and wine and whatever the hell else you could do to exploit a berry in this area and northern Newfoundland. It was some yummy pie too, maybe with a bit of an apple flavour to it, though that may just be the power of suggestion. Certainly a berry worthy of a festival.

I bailed on the plan to hitchike to Point Amour after dinner because I was two hours from dark and a thick fog had replaced the rain. I opted for some Jeopardy (okay, now it really seems a half-hour later in Newfoundland) and a beer in the bar. But of course this changes things.

I'd like to get up there, but to do so in the morning would mean to skip the 8am ferry in favour of the 1pm one, getting me started towards L'Anse aux Meadows at 2:30 in the afternoon, with a treacherous 50km (here to Point Amour and back to the ferry) already in my legs. I have to see L'Anse aux Meadows Saturday if I'm to catch the bus south on Sunday morning. It's about 140kms from the ferry to the Viking settlement and I want to get close to my destination so I can spend a lot of time there before heading back to camp at the bus stop.

Whatever, I only rode an hour today and I get to sleep in a comfy bed tonight so I'll have had a good rest. I'll see how I feel in the morning and what the weather looks like. The wind is irrelevant because to go to Point Amour I would have to go both ways so one way bad, one way good. If I do go I'll do it with my bike still clear of gear, and try to make it back here in time to pack up and checkout.

Now about that bed...

[Dr. J]

Newfoundlog, Stardate 081105

The crossing was nice - I really like boats - but it was too foggy to really see anything, though I saw some whales spouting from the deck.

What are whales doing on the deck? What kind of crazy ship is this? If only I knew my port from my starbuck this paragraph could have been avoided.

ha good one! thanks again Todd for bringing us along. It's a great read and i love biciyle trips where I don't have to pedal

May the wind be at your back, my friend!

[Freeker]

Great work, remember don't get eaten by any icebergs. You can only see 10% of them, thay are not to be trusted.

[Velvet]

Newfoundlog, Stardate 081205

I'm into graveyards, always have been. I like looking at them, I like hanging out in them, and I make a point of checking them out when I'm abroad. Interestingly, every graveyard I pass in Newfoundland has fresh (or plastic) flowers on every single grave, every time. The reason I was so hell bent on getting to L'Anse Amour/Point Amour is because that's where the oldest known burial site in North America is (Love Cove used to be called Cove of the Dead, but they changed it). Plus the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada is there too but whatever. 7,500 years ago a twelve year-old boy was buried here in a pit with artifacts and fires burnt, then it was all covered up to create a rocky mound. Think of it, almot eight millenia ago (isn't that almost pre-agriculture?) something happened to make this kid get buried here. Maybe he was a sacrifice, maybe he was a king, maybe he was their Jesus. I wonder what the requiem sounded like? So I wanted to see it.

I woke up at 7:30am and was on my bare bike before eight. The wind was blowing fiercely, but primarily at my side. Coulda been better, coulda been way worse. The twenty kilometre ride took me 50 minutes. I burnt an offering at the mound and got slightly overwhelmed and fifteen minutes later I began the most brutal bike ride I've ever had. The wind had shifted to be in my face and it was BLOWING man. The whole ride I never saw a tree as tall as me and how could one be with wind like I did see? I'm telling ya, unfrozen tundra. An hour and-a-half later I'm back at the hotel. I get into the room and take of my jacket and I see that my pants are drenched to the top of the legs with sweat that poured off my upper body. I was amazed, and I grabbed the hair dryer. Hit the internet across the street and got a very disappointing Greco double donair which I devoured in my room. Grabbed another shower (I took two showers and one bath during my stay), packed and hit the road with 45 minutes to get to the ferry, eight more kilometres against that fierce wind. I made it, last one on and I slept most of the ferry ride I was so exhausted.

Fifty kilometres on the dial so far today and I had a big stretch before me.

I got off the ferry and again headed into the wind, but at least this was just Newfoundland wind and not the Labrador variety. Finally, after giving it the silent treatment all morning, I finally spoke to the wind. "Fuck, wind!" is what I said. Then I said it again. The wind wasn't liking it one bit neither. After about an hour of us arguing (and me losing) I finally pulled over and rationalised with the wind. I shared some pot with the wind and explained how far I had to get today and I'm not asking for much, but if you could just lean a little bit more that way so I could have at least an hour of good sailing, boy would that help me out. The wind agreed and I made good time for the next couple of hours.

I made a point of stopping at Marjorie's Bridge in Flowers Cove. Back about a hundred years ago a man named Patrick Burke got his son William to help him build a bridge across the swamp. They built a simple walkway about 100 feet long, creatng the only dry link to Flowers Cove. William's daughter Marjorie grew up with the bridge as a part of her life, but as time marched on and the highway was built along with roads and bridges the little walkway fell into disrepair. Well, about ten years ago at the Flowers Cove annual Fun Festival, little old Marjorie got up on stage and said her greatest wish was to have her grandfather's bridge rebuilt, and y'know what? The town rebuilt it and I think that's terribly romantic. I walked my bike across Marjorie's Bridge and imagined how happy it must have made her to walk across it again that first time.

Alright, back to work.

I was heading for the turnoff to L'Anse aux Meadows, which is where I intend to catch the bus on Sunday. According to my map there is supposed to be a campground there, and my plan is to get a site for two nights, ride into the Viking settlement without gear, stay my second night at the campground and catch my bus in the morning. The every-five-kilometres billboards for St. Anthony (twenty kilometres past my destination) lied to me all day making me think I was twenty-five kilometres closer than I actually was. The wind had decided to stop playing with me and went away.

Finally (finally!) I get to my turnoff, and there's no campground. Because I've been banking on the campground I've let my water supply diminish so I can't camp on the side of the road. So I end up hallucinatory with exhastion pedalling to within four kilometres of the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, going through the most beautiful scenery and into a glorious sunset all the way. I even had a great staring contest with a rackless moose just ten feet off the road.

Dig these stats:

Time: 8:31.21

Average speed: 21.2

Distance: 180.45 (wowsers)

Top speed: 56.5

Total trip distance: 753.51

If I don't die in my sleep I'll see the Viking stuff tomorrow and get back down to the main road and camp out waiting for the bus. I'm halfway done my trip kilometre-wise, so I think I might alter my course a little.

But for now I think I'll sleep for eternity. I'm spent.

[bradm]

"I shared some pot with the wind..."

I think there's a touch of Native American in your narrative voice, Velvet.

Keep up the logs; I'm enjoying them immensely.

Aloha,

Brad

[StoneMtn]

Velvet should work for Tourism Newfoundland.

[Velvet]

Newfoundlog, Stardate 081305

I'm Danish. Okay, my grandmother was Danish, making me a quarter Danish, but it's the only heritage of mine I know of, so if pressed, I would consider myself a Dane.

The Vikings are my people. And just over 1,000 years ago my people set up camp and L'Anse aux Meadows, which is today the oldest known point of contact between Europeans and North America. Nobody is quite sure whether or not Leif Erikson himself was part of this outpost, but we do know he discovered these lands for my people, and that he named the place Vinland. The port was used as an outpost for explorations southward and, based on the smithing tools found at the site, was likely used for ship repair.

I arrived at the entrance to the site around noon to find three large male moose grazing about 150m away. "The Vikings must have been happy to see all the moose here," I overheard a tourist say. Not so, I thought smugly, as I had read the moose pamphlet at Gros Morne. Moose are not indigenous to the rock, but were introduced to Newfoundland from New Brunswick in 1904, and they seem to have proliferated quite well.

Mosquitoes aren't native to Hawai'i, they were brought there in the 1800's on some ship, by accident I presume. Now how did these moose get here?

The site my people picked for their settlement is pretty, if a bit harsh. What remains are mounds where eight huts used to be, and several years ago the tourism folk built four replica buildings out of local material (including wire, I noticed. Cheaters). I learned a lot about iron work and divorce practises from the bearded, costumed period employees and checked out the site extensively. Strolling amongst the mounds was the most gratifying. Walking the same path where my people walked, both of us a hard journey from home. I felt a little like Steve Martin in 'The Jerk' when he hears white-people music for the first time.

I went back to watch the moose a bit more. The were still grazing, though they eventually each laid down, holding their massive antlers up as the rested. Now I know why you don't see them much in the afternoons. When the lay down they look a bit like all the dead, windswept trees you constantly see dotting the landscape.

I slowly made my way up to where I could catch the bus. I was against the wind the whole way but I didn't care. I knew I was in for a short day and I took it easy. I even stopped for a great lunch and had my first real meal. Hot chicken sandwich with mashed and veggies and lots of gravy. Devour.

I met some kids from St. Anthony today and they all play guitar. Turns out the closest music store is Cornerbrook, about 500km. St. Anthony is a town of 3,000. I asked where bands play and I guess somebody has a garage that people go see the bands play in when they wanna do a gig. They asked what guitars I owned and their eyes lit up. Rock and roll isolation.

Today's stats:

Time: 2:12.45

Average speed: 16.3

Distance: 36.18

Top speed: 52.5

Total trip distance: 789.70

The bus takes me to Deer Lake tomorrow, it's stopping at this campground to pick me up. I don't know when I will arrive so I'm not sure where I'll be sleeping tomorrow night, but I'm sure it will be nice.

I'm currently entertaining myself with the map planning devious travel plans. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.

[Im going home Donny]

garage rock...awesome.

Hey thats pretty cool you wound up in L'anse aux meadows-the legendary vineland!

Carvings from a rock in Westford, Massachusettes, identifying a warrior of the Gunn Clan w/his coat of arms has been carbon dated to 1396, allmost a century before Columbus arrived. The Vikings are believed to have explored Greenland, and the North American coastline, Vineland, Newfoundland and Maine, from that time, to about 800 AD. onward.

I'll show you some neat stuff about it all sometime.

My clan was there...so was our mutual bud Gregs...ha probably lotsa us when I think about it....lol we're all a bunch of cousins...gebus.

Neat dude. I hope you have pictures of this place.

Thanks for sharing your trip...very cool.

[Blurry]

Great reads Velvet - I feel like we're all doing this bike trip with you!!

Now how did these moose get here?

From what I was told, two moose were introduced in 1902 or 1903 and didn't make it....than they re-introduced 2 more a couple years later and, as you can see, they fared MUCH better!!

[Blurry]

Thought I'd share some Newfoundland photos to give you all an idea of Velvet's voyage (all photos taken by Mud)

Moose

Gros Mourne National Park

West Coast

St John's

DOn't know why they won't post......if you want to see you can go to the url's yourselves I suppose :crazy:

Edited August 15, 2005 by Guest

[backbacon]

DOn't know why they won't post......if you want to see you can go to the url's yourselves I suppose :crazy:

The url you have between the image tags doesn't end with a picture file extention (ie: ".jpg") You copied the url from the address bar but you need to right click on the picture and select properties and copy the url that is displayed in the properties.

Moose

Gros Mourne National Park

West Coast

St John's

[Blurry]

AWESOME.....those pictures look WAY better than the ones I put up THanks KK!!

[paisley]

very cool havin some relevent pics to accompany the currently evolving Velvet epic

cheers!

[Velvet]

Newfoundlog, Stardate 081405

Before I start I have to add a post-script to Newfoundlog, Stardate 081205. The night of that 180km ride I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and I looked up to see the grand Milky Way. Thy sky was just blanketed with layers after layers of suns, such thta it seemed there wasn't anywhere in the sky that wasn't pinpointed with light. Sometimes you really can see why it's called the Milky Way. And just as I gaped, the orangest, longest shooting star I've beheld entered the sky from stage left, careening in a slight arc almost entirely to the other end of the sky. It was like being in a really good Coca-Cola commercial.

So let's move ahead to the recent past, shall we? I waited at the side of the road this morning for the thrice-a-week Viking bus service between St. Anthony and Cornerbrook. Eventually I see a copy of the old nero bus cresting the hill. That was a blast. We tossed my bike in the back and me and the driver and one other passenger headed off.

I wonder if I will ever look at driving the same again? I giggled to myself as we went up hill after hill. I snickered at the wind, who was trying to be in my face all day, but the windshield was it's foil. For two hours it was just the three of us, and eventually, after stopping at every Irving gas station, we had a dozen or so passengers.

The bus ride reaffirmed to me that biking is the way to see this place. The ride was fun, but fairly boring. At 90km/h it's just trees and ocean flying by. At 22km/h it's brilliantly sculpted unique landscape everywhere you decide to look. And oh, the lakes! There's lakes and ponds everywhere, the likes of which I've not seen before. And when you cruise by nice and slow you can get a feel for just how breathtaking the scenery is. Take for example my moose sighting today from the bus with my moose sighting from the bike Friday evening. Today: "Hey, there's a...I'm pretty sure there was a moose right off the road there." Friday: "Wow, am I ever tired, will I ever get - hey, there's a moose. Right next to the highway. Okay, now she's looking at me. Eye to eye now, please don't chase me when I go by, please don't chase me. Hey, she's still staring at me, and thankfully not moving otherwise. Okay, g'night moosey!"

Need I type more?

Got off the bus around 5pm in Deer Lake, back at the TCH. It's 210kms to my next focal point, and there's no ue going any farther today. I decide to treat myself to a down-home B&B, I boogied up to the store for some beers and there's a guitar here that I intend to caress until it's bedtime. But right now I can just hear the chior singing in the church across the way for their Sunday evening service, so I'll let them have the floor for a while.

If you can call them stats:

Time: 22.58

Average speed: 14.7

Distance: 5.66

Top speed: 35.5

Total trip distance: 795.53

So now that I'm well rested I should be able to get cookin' towards Windsor-Grand Falls. I gotta find a Canadian Tire for more camping fuel and stock up on food, 'cuz I'm headin' up country. I stole a towel from the hotel in Labrador so I'm good for that.