The Canadian URal/Dnepr Riders Group
(CURD)
 PROUDLY PRESENTS

THE 2009 TUNDRA RUN

"The Loop"

BAIE COMEAU, QUEBEC TO HAPPY VALLEY/GOOSE BAY, LABRADOR....AND BEYOND!!!!

JUNE 13-20, 2009

If you got to this page then you've likely already seen the plans for the 2009 Tundra Run.  This page outlines the details of alternate second half to the event.  Many folks will be coming from Ontario and other places west, and because of that and limited vacation time it is not feasible for them to continue on past Goose Bay.

This is not the case for me, and because this is a once in a lifetime event for me I decided not to stop at Goose Bay, but instead I will continue along the, as yet unfinished, TLH to Cartwright and then down to Quebec, across to Newfoundland and into Nova Scotia, where I will hit the Cabot Trail before returning home to Halifax.  Below is the outline of my alternate days 5-8 of the event.  I will be putting on longer days during this part of the trip, although I'm hoping to hit more paved roads than on the trip from Baie Comeau to Goose Bay.  Keep in mind this section of the trip won't be at the relaxed pace of the first half.  There could be ferry schedules and long distances that we're trying to do with tight time frames.

The Route:

Day 5, and we depart from part of the crew to continue on along the TransLabrador Highway.  I can't say for sure how long of a road this is, because as I type this it does not yet exist.  I suspect the ride from Goose Bay to Cartwright will be in the 400km to 450km range, the longest day of the trip so far. 

UPDATE:  This section of the TLH will not be complete, which means that a ferry will need to be taken out of Goose Bay to Cartwright.  This is a 13 hour ferry ride that leaves Goose Bay on Tuesday at 5:00pm, the same day we will be arriving. This means that Day 5 (Wednesday) will actually start in Cartwright.

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Day 5 will have us leaving Cartwright and heading for Blanc Sablon, Quebec along Highway 510.  Here's another map with some good information regarding the road from Cartwright to Blanc Sablon. MAP.  Once we reach Blanc Sablon, Quebec we'll be catching a ferry across to St. Barbe, Newfoundland.  We'll spend Wednesday night in Blanc Sablon and catch an 8:00am ferry to Newfoundland on Thursday morning. This will be a 410km day, with a majority of it being on gravel roads, although this will be a bit more poplulated that the previous stretches once we hit Port Hope Simpson.

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Day 6 and we will be arriving in Newfoundland via ferry at around 10:00am.  We'll leave St. Barbe and head for the next ferry at Port Aux Basque in order to get to Nova Scotia.  The route from St. Barbe to Port Aux Basque is about 568km.  The hope is that this is a paved road, otherwise that is going to be one hell of a long day. 

The ferry doesn't leave for Sydney until 1:30am on Friday morning, so we'll have over 12 hours to get there, but still 568KM is a long haul.  For those that don't want to push it, there will be another ferry on Friday morning at 9:30am and again at 12:30am Friday night/Saturday morning.  We'll be well into the trip by then and it might not be a bad idea to take 2 days and catch the ferry Friday night.

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Day 7 or 8 and we'll be arriving in Sydney, NS via the ferry from Port Aux Basque after a 7 hour crossing.  We should be arriving in the morning, be it Friday or Saturday.  There will be a detour through Cape Breton that will take us around the Cabot Trail.  No sense in getting this close to the great roads of the Cabot Trails without going around it.  The map shows us stopping in Truro, I figure this is where the final group will break off.  I'll be heading down to Halifax while others will be heading back to Quebec or Ontario, or even the US.  The route from Sydney to Truro is about 530KMs.

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The Loop

Ferries:

Goose Bay to Cartwright

Blanc Sablon, QC to St. Barbe, NL

Port Aux Basque, NL to Sydney, NS

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