Logistics:

How this tour came to be....

Rhona's goal is to bicycle in each Canadian province and Quebec and Newfoundland/Labrador were among the few still unchecked. Fortunately, she exempts Yukon and the Northwest Territories as they are not technically provinces. I started researching bicycle tours the summer of 2015 and discovered "Atlantic Canada Cycling" https://www.atlanticcanadacycling.com/bicycle-tours/newfoundland-bicycle-tour/ which provides luggage support for small group tours on the Northern Peninsula. Riders cycle unloaded bicycles while the company transports camping gear and other luggage. Most days the cyclists need to purchase their food on route and then cook it themselves at the campsite. The company's website provided excellent information and the pictures served to pique our interest on a Newfoundland tour. However, our participation in a soggy 2015 DALMAC in Michigan where the daily hassle of striking a wet tent each morning and then drying the tent and possibly sleeping bags each evening made us fear we would be miserable in the even colder and wetter Newfoundland environment.

Further internet research led me to "Linkum Tours" http://www.linkumtours.com/ which in addition to guided tours also designs custom itinerary tours although not specifying bicycle tours. In response to my email, owner Ed English replied they would design a custom self-supported credit card style tour for us. We asked him to plan for 50 mile average days and we would rely on his judgement on our route. Our plan was to fly into Deer Lake and then cycle north on the Viking Trail along the coast of the Northern Peninsula and then shuttle back to the airport.

He booked all of our accommodations which proved to be one of our best planning decisions. Throughout autumn 2015 we emailed back and forth as he and his staff fine-tuned details of our tour. It actually did not take long for us to settle on our tour or the price, but there was a slight delay on a final itinerary because we had to wait on the final ferry crossing schedule between Newfoundland and Labrador. We lucked out because of a favorable US/Canadian currency exchange so the prices for the accommodations proved to be much less than I anticipated ($2,200 Canadian per person).

We flew into Deer Lake and headed west on Viking Trail to southern side of Bonne Bay. Ferry ride across Bonne Bay to Norris Point. We returned to Viking Trail and north to the Ferry at St. Barbe. Ferry across to Quebec and north to Red Bay. Shuttle back to Flower's Cove. Northeast to St. Anthony then north to L'Anse Aux Meadows and Quirpon Island. Shuttle south to Steady Brook. Cycled south to Corner Brook. Shuttle back to Deer Lake airport.

Per Wikipedia, Rt. 430 is a 258 mile paved highway that traverses the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador. The route begins at Deer Lake and ends in St. Anthony. Officially known as the "Great Northern Peninsula Highway", it has been designated as the "Viking Trail" since it is the main auto route to L'Anse aux Meadows. The route passes along the western coast of Newfoundland Island with views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Strait of Belle Isle to the west and the Long Range Mountains to the east.

By Christmas our tour plans were roughed out so we survived the cold winter watching "The Republic of Doyle" a Canadian TV series on Netflix.

"Republic of Doyle" profiles the adventures of Jake Doyle, played by Newfoundland native Alan Hawkin, a quirky private detective. The series takes place on the eastern side of the island in St. John, but the scenery was great and we attempted to get a headstart on learning Newfie lingo, such as "fill your boot" which kind of means "give it your best shot".

This was to be a credit card tour but we were uncertain about how cold it would be at this northern latitude. After all, we expected to see icebergs and hoped not to see polar bears. We needed to be prepared for temperatures into the 80's but also cold and wet conditions dipping into the 40's. This was going to be our first flight with our coupled Co-Motion Speedster tandem.

Along with the two cases containing the tandem our panniers and other gear fit into a waterproof drylock style bag from our B.O.B. trailer (which we did not tow on this tour). We flew Air Canada from Pittsburgh to New York to Toronto and then on to Deer Lake. We were not asked about the contents of the cases at check-in but it was obvious that the case had been opened by TSA with no resulting damage on the trip to Newfoundland, but on the return trip TSA staff apparently had difficulty getting items back into place and forced the case closed with an item sticking out which damaged the item but fortunately not the case.

One of our two cases. On the return trip the TSA worker closed the case on the edge of the "Dave & Rhona" sign, breaking off the edge of the sign but not hurting the case. You can see how a TSA might struggle to get everything back in place.

I think in the future I will ask to be present to assist if the case is going to be opened. It would not have helped in this case to just tie the frame pieces together. We also relearned the lesson that more than two hours is needed for connections in Toronto even if luggage is "checked through" because of customs procedures. We arrived in Deer Lake after midnight which was even more fatiguing that it sounds because the Newfoundland timezone is 1 1/2 hours ahead of Eastern Time. We later asked Ed English the reason for the extra half hour which he seemed to explain as an example of Newfie quirkiness. It was easy to cram into a cab to ride to the nearby Holiday Inn.

We loaded all of our gear on rear Arkel GT-54 Grand Touring Rear panniers with an additional bag loaded on top and one frame bag. Looking back, we would have done better moving some of our gear to small front panniers. I anticipated the tour would be relatively level and consequently did not replace worn front brake pads on the Spyre disc brakes prior to the trip. I thought I had packed a spare pair but that got left behind somehow and we finished the last two days of the tour relying on the back brake. We rode 700 x 28C Continental Gatorskins and had only one flat. These are rugged tires but we might have done better with Scwhalbe 32 mm. We did not bring our Garmin GPS and did not need it, relying on downloaded Google maps on our I-phones which worked adequately even when out of cell-phone range. Our trusty long-suffering Bontrager wireless computer failed the final two days when the wheel magnet shook loose on a bumpy road.

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