Every overland trip to Labrador begins with Quebec Highway 389. It stretches from the St Lawrence coast at Baie Comeau to the Labrador border. It used to be a very rough drive, but has over the years been smoothed out and is largely paved at this point….although I still appreciate the gravel bits.
When I drove it 8 years ago I was pushing to get to Labrador and did the whole road in one day…which didn’t leave much space for exploration. So the plan this time was to slow down a bit and experience it more deeply. It ended up being a bit of a mixed bag. The weather didn’t cooperate, and it didn’t feel quite as amazing as I had hoped. However, looking back, I did have some interesting times and in hindsight, I enjoy remembering the lows before the highs.
I was perhaps a bit stressed the first day, as the night before my pressurized water system had sprung a serious leak. I was able to get parts to fix it at the hardware store in Baie Comeau, but it was a reminder that I was headed into the remoteness and resources would be harder to come by.
The beginning of 389 is a fun twisty drive on smooth pavement. I’m pretty sure some spots have been re-routed since 8 years ago, but it was still enjoyable. It was decently scenic, but the sights were often pierced with hydro lines from the Manic dams.
The Manicouagan(Manic) River dams are the main feature for the first half of the road. A couple of them are visible from the road, including the Daniel-Johnson Dam of the Manic-5 Hydro station. (which I will just refer to as Manic-5)
Manic-5 is a sight to behold! The dam stretches across the view and fills the windshield as the highway actually drives right up to it before switch-backing up and around. It’s 702 feet high(541 feet from ground level) at its tallest point, making it the highest buttress style dam in the world.
This time I stopped and went on a tour. Unfortunately they don’t let you take photos inside, but I did get to go in the turbine hall and even inside the dam itself! They were supposed to have an English recording for me to listen to, but it wasn’t working so one of the guides went along with me and gave the tour in English(I was the only anglophone on the tour). It was quite interesting and I learned some new things about hydro dams. They also did take us up on top of the dam and we could take photos there.
By the way, if you’ve ever looked on a map of Quebec and noticed the large, circular lake; that’s the Manicouagan reservoir that this dam holds back. The circular shape is because this is the site of a meteor strike long long ago.
After the dam I started looking for a place to camp, ending up at a small spot just off the highway. It wasn’t a glamourous spot, but there was a view of a small lake, and a path down to the shore. It looked like hunters probably used the spot as an access point for ATVs.
I sat down by the water to watch the sunset… through the cloud of bugs. Bugs in Labrador and northern Quebec are notorious. They’re like the bugs of spring in northern Ontario, except they are bad all summer. I’ll be honest, the bugs were a bit of a constant damper on the trip, although the weather did drive them away sometime(more on that coming)
The next morning I woke up to rain, so I deployed the awning ready to settle in. The rain died down and some blue skies began to show, so I decided to pack up and continue up the road. Of course, as soon as I was rolling it started raining again, and didn’t look like it would stop.
I got gas at Relais-Gabriel(for 2.45 a litre!) and then decided to setup camp again. There’s an old camping site near the gas station, by the reservoir. It’s quite abandoned now, although it’s hard to tell if it ever was anything more than just a few cleared campsites. The road in was a bit rough too. However, it was a much nicer spot than previously and the bugs weren’t quite as bad. I setup the awning and dug in for the rest of the day.
The rain did let up and generally it was just cloudy for the afternoon, with the occasional shower. I probably could have continued on, but I had already been thwarted once, so I stayed put.
These rain days are really nice on a longer trip as a forced day of rest, but when it happens at the beginning it’s just boring. There was no cell service either, so I just read, played some Civ on my switch, and went for short walks around the area when it wasn’t spitting rain.
The next morning it was still kind of rainy, but at this point I was done with sitting around, so I continued on and drove the rest of the highway to Labrador. It ended up being rainy off and on for the rest of the day…
One small point of interest was the ghost town of Gagnon. It was a company mining town in the 60s and 70s. At its peak, 4,000 people lived here. There was a drop in iron prices in the late 70s, and as more mines opened further north, the company decided to close the town. As is typical with these company towns, the entire town was razed. So there isn’t much left. There are some overgrown paved roads, and the highway itself still has a boulevard and crumbling cement curbs.
From the Fire Lake mine onward, the road is gravel again and very industrial feeling. It zig-zags over the railway, on which iron ore is transported to the coast. It was raining and muddy, and I managed to get stuck behind a tanker truck for a long stretch. I also had to wait at a railway crossing for a long ore train.
The Mont-Wright mining complex is impressive. Apparently the actual mount is no longer there…it’s been mined away and they are working on 2 nearby hills. This is the biggest open pit mine in Canada. I recall hearing that this area is one of the larger concentrated iron deposits in the world…but I can’t find anything to back that up. The mine area felt like a place I shouldn’t be loitering…so I didn’t get a ton of photos. It was also still raining lightly.
Not much further was the Labrador border, then Labrador City. I didn’t stick around, although I feel like the area could warrant some exploration some day.
I decided to push on and make it closer to Churchill Falls for the next chapter. That night was in a gravel parking lot by a river(that I couldn’t see through the trees). Wild camping in the Jeep isn’t always at glamourous locations, but it’s not like there was a campground option either.
Thinking back over these 3 days, I actually did see some interesting sights. The rain and the bugs put a bit of a damper on things. I often find that the beginning of an epic trip doesn’t quite live up to my expectations. Yet, looking back, these sort of days are very unique and interesting in their own way. It’s easy sometimes to be disappointed that life isn’t going quite the way we wanted…and miss out on the adventures that are actually happening.
The Narrow Twisty Road 