March 29th – St. Johns, Newfoundland
Apr 1st, 2018 by rallyadmin
It’s not raining in the morning but it should be. It’s cold windy and very wet. The temperature is just about 32°F and it would be snowing if we weren’t next to the ocean. It’s oing to be a long day, 900 kilometers, but the road is good and we have a goal.
All of us have been up the Dempster in the Northwest Territories and at the end of the MacKenzie river in the tiny town of Tuktoyaktuk is one end of the Trans Canada Trail. The other end of the Trans Canada Trail is in St Johns. That’s where we are headed.
The road is long but fast and open. We stop for a chinese lunch in Bishop Falls. Take some pictures en route. Marc G can’t resist stopping in Dildo, NL for a typical MG photo op atop Rabbit 2.0.
We arrive in St. Johns by following the Trans Canada Highway (TCH) to the end at km zero. The kilometers have been climbimg down for the last few hundred kms and we’re looking for a monument or at least a sign signifying the end of the TCH.
Nothing. The TCH just ends at a landfill, a very large landfill. Here nothing but a landfill. We must have missed something. In Tuk, there’s a large monument with a very stylized logo. Surely, they must have something at the end if they have something in Tuk.
Jeremiah texts his wife and asks here to do a Google search for the monument. She finds one. It’s at the Railway Museum(?). It turns out that there is no monument for the end of the TCH (well, except for the landfill.) But the there is one for the end of the Trans Canada Trail.
We search around the waterfront for the Railway Museum. Pass street upon street of brightly painted row houses built on the edge of the cliffs falling into St Johns harbor. And finally find the monument. It’s not as impressive as the one in Tuk but we now have pictures of both ends.
It’s getting dark fast and we have to find a hotel for the night. There’s a Sheraton just a kilometer away. We check in and immediately head out for dinner at the Yellowbelly Ale House & Pub.
A very long day. Tomorrow we turn around and do it again. And then head for St. Barbe to cross to the mainland, weather, sea state and ice pack permitting.
Obi-wan