A fall and a bear

 The next leg from Port Hope Simpson to Happy Valley/Goose Bay is the long one. It's 260 miles, or as I recorded it 414.5km between the petrol stations. To get there I had to load up heavy with fuel, so the pic to the left shows my bike doing it's impersonation of a fuel tanker. The hot water bottle looking bag tied to the bars is fuel of about 10 litres of petrol. There's another bag of fuel with 8 or so litres in the black rucksack tied onto the yellow roll bag. In the end I made it comfortably, but it's a nervy time carrying fuel like that, particularly in your lap and I was glad the RCMP didn't see me.

This pic on the right was taken just after Cartwright junction and shows my planned stops for the next three nights. You get an idea of the road surface here as well. The verge can be very soft and you sink right into it, and the stones at the edge sometimes cover the whole road, so it's like riding on marbles.

As soon as you can it's best to refuel the main tank from the bags, as apart from the obvious less chance of things catching fire, it keeps the weight lower down. During one of these stops when the bike was parked as you see in the photo I was getting the fuel nozzle out of the pannier on the right, when I pulled up on the buckle and the bike just fell onto it's side in a slow motion sort of way that Del Boy would have been proud of. On adventure types bikes, as well as the knobbly tyres, bouncy suspension and larger fuel tanks, you also get pegs and levers that fold or are protected. I have none of that on this bike, so I had two or three seconds where I was just stunned. I'd seen the mirror fold in, so I knew that wasn't broken, but if the gearchange lever has snapped, then I'd need to ship the bike for repair or back to Ottawa.

First I had to lift it back up, and if I thought it was heavy in a turn with the engine off, it's much heavier when on the ground. Wet weight is 236 kilos, with fuel and luggage it's probably around 265, so 580 or so pounds. Picking up a bike was one of the things covered in my training years ago, and I've had some practice with my own bikes at home, so I managed it, but it was hard work. Once upright I could inspect the damage, and to my relief all that was wrong was a bent clutch lever, even the indicators were ok. I can still use the clutch, but the lever will need to be replaced.

Once I'd fulled up I continued on into Happy Valley. It was a long hard day and when in town I found a Burger King, so in I go looking for ice cream. They had none. Not that they had sold out, they just didn't seem to sell it. Outrageous.

I stayed in Happy Valley that night, which is the traditional town part, but there was more life in Goose Bay, which is the adjoining town, that's built up around the airbase used by 5 Wing. You can drive right onto the base, and I did by accident while roaming around, but I didn't see any planes.

In the hotel I asked the receptionist about the dump as you can see bears there. She told me where it was, and just to be sure I pointed to the road on the map and she nodded, so off I set. She was right about where the dump was, but wrong about how the map related to her narrative, so I was sent off the wrong way on the right road. After five miles of really bad gravel the road turned to sand so I stopped just as a couple of guys appeared on a four wheel drive buggy. Best I can describe it is as a beefed up golf cart looking thing. They sent me back the other way down that horrible road, which feels far less pleasant when you're just wearing a shirt and no gloves.

I'd rode up to the dump, got off, took off my helmet, went into the pannier and took out my camera, and only then realised there was a bear behind me. This is a North American Black Bear. They can run at 25-30mph, they swim for fun, they climb trees and are dexterous enough to open a latched door and open a jar.

I've done a similar thing when I went looking for kangaroos in Western Australia, and noticed them right beside me, but they don't have teeth and claws, nor do they eat people.

To give you an idea of how close it was, here's a pulled back shot with the bike in frame, and the bear to the right of the sign on the little ridge.

It's a small bear to be sure, but you suddenly realise that you are the on foot surrounded by trees, any one of which could be hiding more bears, or just one large hungry one.

There was a four wheel drive there and a pickup, fortunately neither were playing country music, but I was the only idiot on foot. You can't really tell from the picture, but it's getting dark at this point, so when the bear wandered back into the woods behind it, I decided to be sensible and head off too, rather than wait around for more.