Newfoundland Mountains Ride

[BruteForce]

We staged around 10am at the first "WARNING" sign, ~2000 feet outside the Lakeside/Military area and bombing range. Temps were 8F before the windchill and the fog/inversion layer was super thick.


The jets were thick as fleas above. We could hear them zooming overhead constantly, though we couldn't see them. Just as we finished unloaded our ATV's (both with Polaris Sportsman XP 1000's), we heard and felt the first concussive blast, though we didn't actually see the explosion.

We had to traverse ~12 miles of county road that went right through the bombing range. Oddly, we saw cattle inside the fencing of the bombing range, but couldn't figure out how they got in there. There was a shephard out there watching over the herd, so despite thinking it odd, we continued onward.

After leaving the bombing range, we connected to the train / GSL causeway and proceeded west. The causeway was littered with old steel rails, rail ties and other hazards. Additionally, the snow had been packed down hard and formed into a nice ice layer, making sideways movement fairly easy if you flicked the handlebar the wrong way.

We stopped at the GSL pumping station just in time to hear a very loud train coming in from the East. We heard it LONG before we saw it and it took ~10 minutes for the train to reach us.



The pumping station seems to be rusting as the aqua blue water in what looks to be a man-made canal seemed covered in huge rust spots:



We departed the pumping station and continued what felt like 100 more miles to the West in temps at ~50mph felt like -15F. We arrived at the Newfies to see a fairly deep amount of snow. We were frozen, so we gathered some brush, applied some "wetfire" and got a fire going sufficient to warm us up.



Cold, cold, cold and very desolate.

After lunching on some hot burritos, we returned back to the trucks.

[rockgremlin]

I love the Newfies. Fair amount of mining out that way back in the day.

[BruteForce]

I had a SPOT-X and SPOT Global SAT phone. Here are my three SPOT check-in's..

[BruteForce]

I love the Newfies. Fair amount of mining out that way back in the day.

I was quite impressed with the "mining/blasting" that was done to harvest material for the causeway. The amount of rail/material still sitting out there is uncanny. We had to cross the remnants of the rock harvesting area before hitting the causeway. Quite impressive. Wish I would have stopped to take a photo, but my fingers and toes were numb, so.. :)

[accadacca]

Very cool expedition, but damn cold. Lol

[Sombeech]

I think my nose got cold just looking at those shots

[twotimer]

Would have liked to see some shots of you guys on your machines.

[BruteForce]

Would have liked to see some shots of you guys on your machines.

It was literally so cold that my Samsung phone kept freezing up and locking up. Nobody wanted to take gloves off to use the camera(s). Furthermore, we both had to pee and trust me, the amount of thinking that went into yanking out the man parts was considerable. Ever get frost bite on your man-part?

[jdn1221]

Ha, now i’m glad i didn’t see your invite to the ride until it was too late. I do want to go out there but i have no problem waiting for a bit warmer weather.