Manic Cinq (Five) - Wilderness Oasis

After leaving the St. Lawrence seaway, we were really traveling in an area with few traces of human activity beyond the road itself and the massive power transmission lines. We'd already had a few nights along the trip where we wondered if we would end up spending the night in the car. As it got close to sunset, the map showed nothing much in the way of towns where we were. We began discussing how we'd stay warm in the car since we had not brought camping gear - sleeping bags, tents, etc.

As we were thinking about how we were going to manage our night, how far to drive, etc, we rounded a bend in the road and felt that God had really provided for us. We had reached Manic Cinq, a wonderful oasis for weary travellers. There was a gas station convenience store, a restaurant, and best of all a motel!

My barely adequate French got us a room and ice. We were placed in the upper set of rooms, and the lady wanted to be sure that I knew where to go. Since I spoke and understood French so poorly, she went outside and gestured to let me know how to drive up to our room. I could hear them chuckling about my French, but, hey, I could ask for a room, tell them I wanted to buy ice . . . there was SOME communication going on in French. And since, they knew no English, it was a good thing I knew a tiny bit of French.

We got settled in, ate dinner from our ice chest. Henry had been meeting neighbors in the parking lot. He came in and told me someone wanted to use our computer to make reservations for the ferry. (YES, in this remote location we had internet!!!!!!) When they came in, I started addressing them in French, wondering if we'd be able to communicate well enough for them to do what they needed. They immediately said, "English, English!!!!" Turns out they were from Wisconsin. And it was such a God sent blessing that our paths crossed here. They had been planning their Labrador - Newfoundland trip. They not only had information, but maps and official tour guide books from the provinces. And, they shared some of their resources with us!!!! Since we had not known at the beginning of the trip that we were actually going to go to Labrador and Newfoundland, I hadn't done my homework. We saw and enjoyed our journey through these provinces so much better because we met these great folks from Wisconsin. After talking with them and getting their reservation for the ferry booked, I got our ferry reservations booked as well. We would make the crossing a couple of days before them, because we were on a tighter time schedule.

The other neighbors lived in Churchill Falls, Labrador. They also spoke English. We learned a lot about what life is like in a company town in northern Canada.

Our accomodations were wonderful. The hotel is actually a series of modular units, brought in fully furnished, and ours appeared brand new.



The table and sitting area were great for the evening internet and meals. The beds were comfortable. Even the bathroom was nicely appointed.




In retrospect, it isn't surpising that there would be such a well equiped stop along this wilderness dirt road. This is the only land route to Labrador. It is a long way from the St. Lawrence to Fermont, Quebec and Labrador City. This is a much needed stop for rest, bathrooms, and gasoline.

Our fellow travelers warned us that there were no bathrooms between Manic Cinq and Fermont!

Our Wisconsin friends took a tour of the Daniel Johnson Dam and power generating plant. Regretfully, we knew that our time to see Labrador, Newfoundland and the other maritime provinces was short. But this way station truly out in the middle of nowhere holds a spot in my heart - friendly people, good night's sleep, a tiny piece of civilization in the northern wilderness. What a blessing it was!

North to Labrador

When we turned north from the St. Lawrence seaway, we entered a beautiful unpopulated area. The clouds had come in, so for the most part we drove the almost deserted road and enjoyed our surroundings. We knew that we would be going by the large Manicougan Crater.



The Manicougan crater has a lake filling the deeper parts. When we were on the edges, the terrain had steep almost mountainous hills to climb. The crater is so large, that you might not realize you were climbing the sides of the crater if you didn't know from the map. Skies were dark, gray and foreboding . . . so I didn't try to get any shots of the rim of the crater. In retrospect . . . I should have tried.

I had a few windows for photography. The scenery is peaceful sometimes flat, sometimes rolling hills, with many lakes that appear as you cross the bends in the road.



I can't resist trying to photograph rainbows. There is just something magic about seeing a rainbow . . . the beauty . . . the symbolism of God's promise . . . the wonder of the phenomenon itself . . .



As we drove along the road, the skies stayed pretty gray, I knew that doing straight photography would leave me with memory photos that wouldn't really show others the beauty of this area. But the in camera motion photography can capture some unique things even when the lighting is less than optimum.





While the lakes tend to look the same as you go down the road and I know that lake photos can also have a "sameness" from one lake to another. I wanted to try something to make a lake image that would stand out as memorable. I think this attempt, a motion blur enhanced in Photoshop with Topaz artistic filters makes a pleasing image of one of those lakes along the way.

Canada's Hydro Power

As we drove east through Canada we kept seeing these huge power transmission lines - usually three abreast (rather than the two seen here). Huge swaths had been cut through the native forest going up and down over the mountains. We wondered where the lines were going to and where they had come from. As we drove north through Quebec toward the sparcely populated Labrador, these huge transmission lines were still going - even though we were heading away from the populated areas. We were puzzled . . . we couldn't quite figure it out.

At the Anticipation World Science Fiction Convention, there had been a panel about how successful Canada had been with hydro power. We discovered that we were on the road that linked a number of huge dams with this amazing power grid.



The Daniel-Johnson Dam is the largest multiple arch and buttress dam in the world. It is the second tallest dam in Canada. 214 meters (702 feet) and a length of 1,300 meters (4265 feet). (Stretching two miles long, Buchanan Dam on Lake Buchanan is the longest multiple arch dam in the United States. It is only 145.5 feet high))

In doing some research about Canada's hydropower I found this online brochure from Canhydropower.org

From that brochure I learned that:

Canada first used water to generate electricity in 1881 at Chaudieres Falls. In 1965, the world’s first 735-kilovolt power transmission line ever built, about 600 kilometres long, linked the Manicouagan and Outardes generating stations to the metropolitan areas of Québec City and Montréal. It was one of the ten major engineering feats in Canada during the 20th Century, a breakthrough that allowed electrical power to be transferred long distances across Canada.

Canada generates most of its electricity with water for five main reasons:
1. water is abundant,
2. the technology is efficient,
3. the service life of stations is long,
4. the cost is competitive
5. and the electricity produced is renewable and clean.

Apparently, hydropower converts 95% of the rivers energy into electricity, while the best fossil fuel plants are only 60% efficient.

Only China produces more energy from hydro than Canada. The top countries in order of production: China, Canada, Brazil, and the United States.

This brochure says that there is still more potential areas for Canada to produce power from water. At the science fiction convention, the consensus was that probably hydro was already tapped out. The beauty of hydro is that it produces "clean" energy. But, I can see issues with habitat loss along the power grid transmission lines with the need to keep the area deforested. I'll talk more about Churchhill Falls, but they totally rerouted the river at Churchhill. I don't know whether migrating fish go up that tremendous waterfall or not, but certainly placing dams on other rivers can impact fish migration. In Washington state they have fish ladders around some of the dams. In the United States there has been a lot of resistance to building new dams and a lot of study as to what existing dams have done to riparian zones.

These major hydroplants are in areas largely unpopulated - and for the most part I think it is wonderful that this technology is being developed. It is amazing to me that these large generating facilities provide power not only for Canada but also for the northeastern United States.

Quebec's Road Signs

While there are international graphic based road signs, we found several interesting road signs as we drove through Canada. I was always amused by this one - warning of moose. For one thing, we've seen moose warning signs in other places along our travels and usually the moose are elusive and we don't see any. So when I see a moose crossing sign or a moose warning sign, my first thought is "Promises, Promises." Because I like opportunities to see moose.

However, one of our fellow travelers was worried about traveling at night, because there have been so many fatalities in Labrador and Newfoundland from car/moose collisions. They are the largest species in the deer family. You have to realize that a moose's antler rack is 6 feet wide, they are approximately 6 feet tall and can weigh 1,800 lbs (almost a ton). So hitting one would do serious damage to a car and its occupants.

We did see moose in a few places on our trip - after dark on the Chapleau Crown Game Preserve and one rainy evening out of St. Anthony, Newfoundland. Fortunately we did not have any close encounters, but there were plenty of these signs warning us of the possibility.

Parc National Des Hautes-Gorges-de-la Riviere-Malbaie

Aug 13 - After visiting Grand Jardins, the next major park was Hautes-Gorges. This park is very pretty with a series of valleys cut deep in a range of mountains that are the highest rock faces east of the Rockies. A shuttle bus takes you from a central parking lot up a park road with several opportunities to get off for hikes through the beautiful forested mountains. We were headed to the uppermost stop where there was a lake with a boat ride up one of the gorges. This lake had many people out in canoes and kayaks exploring the area at their leisure. When we got out on the tour boat, we saw lots of people in their canoes and having picnic lunches in beautiful spots around the lake. We didn't have time to do canoeing this trip, but it sure looked like this would be a fun place to explore on your own. The concession had plenty of rental canoes and kayaks.

We wanted to take the 1 1/2 hour cruise on Le Menard. As a photographer, it can be frustrating when you have only a limited amount of time and you can't be everywhere during magic light. But you make the most of it. The dusk cruise would probably have given me better light, but we were very near where the whale cruises were and the whales were calling me. We missed the 11:00 boat and had to take the 1:00 cruise.



We had some extra time so I explored this building and the stories of the 1996 flood. I left my camera with Henry and took his as I went up the stairs and followed the trail to an overlook.



I was glad I didn't take my good camera, becasue not only were the stairs steep, but the trail was up and down over rocks and tree roots. But I was glad I had taken Henry's camera because the view from the overlook was spectacular.



If you look carefully, you'll see Henry at one of the chairs on the outdoor patio. I tried to get his attention to wave at him, but he was busy reading something on his iPhone. This visitor center has a little cafeteria where we had a nice lunch and a nice gift store as well.



While you see inukshuks all over northern Canada, there was an area along the lakeshore that had many of them all in one place.



The light and shadows created by the clouds made for some good pictures in spite of it being in the middle of the day.

Trying to catch up with Tweets & Blog

I had intended to keep up with my blog as I went on this trip, but at the WorldCon in Montreal, my intermittent computer problem decided to become a full time problem - it is hard to work on a computer when the computer works but the screen doesn't. So, Henry and I have been sharing the computer. Another issue - internet access has not been something we can count on. I've done some tweets - but even they do not show up as a steady stream - I compose them as we go using the Bird House app on my I-phone and then post a stream of tweets all at one time - not a perfect solution.

When we get home, I'll come back and revisit the highlights of this trip with blogs with photos, but here is a synopsis.

We headed north from Amarillo - going through Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario on our way to Montreal. After the WorldCon, we continued east through Quebec Province following the St. Lawrence River. We did whale watching at Baie St. Catherine - seeing Beluga whales, minke whales and humpback whales. We continued up the St. Laurence to Baie Decomeau heading north to Labrador. We saw the amazing hydroelectric system that Canada has built - including the amazing dam at Manic 5. At Churchhill Falls in Labrador there is another amazing underground hydroelectric plant utilizing the Churchill River.

Continuing southeast we ended up at Happy Valley/Goose Bay to take the Ferry to Cartwright. From Cartwright we continued south to the coastal fishing villages. We took the ferry from Blanc Sablon to St. Barbe, Newfunland. We have spent two nights in St. Anthony. Today we visited the Viking site- proof that the Vikings visited North America in 1000 A.D. We are hoping to go whale watching/iceburg watching tomorrow. That excursion was cancelled today because the wind was coming from the wrong direction making the sea too choppy for them to want to do the trip.

Last but not least, we have noted that Hurricane Bill has formed in the Atlantic. It has grown to a category 4 storm. Now you may be asking - why would the Meltons worry about a hurricane when they are so far north? Well . . . last time we were planning to visit Nova Scotia and take the ferry across the Bay of Fundy - we were told at the campground in a nice Scottish brogue, "Well, we had beautiful weather today, but tomorrow a hurricane is coming in." When we checked our satellite internet, sure enough a hurricane was coming in - and a Category 2 at that! The current storm path for Hurricane Bill has it crossing Nova Scotia and Newfoundland! We are not in the RV and we have weathered a hurricane at this point . . . but . . . I sure hope that Bill stays in the Atlantic and doesn't hit land ANYWHERE!!!! We are likely to still be in Newfoundland needing to cross a ferry about the time, it would likely decide to hit . . . so . . . we'll keep on with our itinerary and hope for the best. But I do find it strange that the two times I've been in this part of the world, that a hurricane has been part of the story!