It was late afternoon when I arrived in Goose Bay/Happy Valley, twin towns at the far inland end of a 150-mile long inlet of the sea. Goose Bay’s main reason for being is as a military base. As another company town, the accommodations are quite limited and on the expensive side. Having arrived fairly early in the evening, I decided it was worth paying $155 Canadian (about $120 U.S.) for a warm room with WiFi where I could catch up on my blog and correspondence. But if I’m going to pay that much for a room, even one in the wilderness, I’m going to get my money’s worth out of it! I took several showers, slept late, and didn’t vacate it until a few minutes before 11:00 A.M. checkout.

Being near sea level, the Goose Bay area is a little warner than Labrador City. The limited number of deciduous trees actually even look like they will leaf soon, and there aren’t any mounds of snow around on June 6^th. Overall it seems like a slightly less inhospitable environment.

The road east to the coastal part of Labrador across the straight from Newfoundland island is another 300 plus miles. The pavement ran out about 50 miles out of town. The graded dirt and gravel road for the rest of the way until the small coastal villages begin was really quite good, so I can’t complain. I’ve experienced much worse unimproved roads in the American West let alone my travels to ends of the earth.

As I approached Mary’s Harbor on the gravel road I passed a stretch with a metal guardrail on the other side.  There was a black thing there…standing up beside the guardrail…..it was still as I approached. It sent a shiver down my spine and I didn’t think it could possibly be real. Before I could slow down enough and grab my camera (which I keep beside me on the seat ready to grab quickly), it proved it was real, dropped to all fours and scampered into the woods. This black bear didn’t come back out, so I didn’t get any pictures. The almost unreal image of a black bear standing erect on its hind legs against the metal guardrail is firmly imprinted on my mind, though.