Spring Causes Change of Plans On Quebec-Labrador Journey
Almost a year ago, in June 2023, Justin Barbour set out to canoe, snowshoe, and trek 3,800km from Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada down to the southernmost point on the island of Newfoundland. He wanted to finish in a year and has mostly stayed on schedule, despite some setbacks and a recent route change.
We last covered Barbour in early January when he exited the canvas tent in northern Quebec to hit the trail again. He’d stayed in place for a few weeks until winter froze the creeks, lakes, and rivers, making travel possible again.
Strapping on his snowshoes and dragging a traditional toboggan, he set off again on January 4. Heading south, he covered 207km over the next 38 days, eventually arriving at the small community of Schefferville.
Extreme cold and plenty of snow
From Schefferville, he continued across the border into Newfoundland and Labrador. Before he set off, Barbour told us that this manhauling stage might be the toughest section of the entire route.
From his occasional updates, his prediction looks accurate. Barbour reported extreme cold, with temperatures as low as -42°C, and some stormy weather.
“[I’ve been] blasted with several major snow storms…and nearly lost the tent to a sudden…wind squall,” he wrote in mid-February.
A month later, in mid-March, he took a break from Labrador’s interior. “After 230km in 22 days from Schefferville, I dragged the ol’ sled out to the Trans-Labrador Highway on Friday, just west of Churchill Falls,” Barbour wrote.
There, he reunited with his wife for the first time in four months, ending the second half of his expedition’s winter leg.
After a few days off Barbour was back in his snowshoes and marching south-east. “Atikonak Lake it is. Big Land skies! 424km to next goal. Tricky route ahead as wilderness tightens,” he wrote in a brief GPS update on March 27. His next check-in, on April 10, suggested things might be getting tricky: “Little Mecatina River now. But nature is heating up.”
Swapping out the snowshoes
Next came a surprise announcement of a major change of plan. Barbour had doubled back to the highway and traded in his snowshoes and sled for a bicycle.
“Been interesting times folks! Just solo bikepacked 1,150km across Trans-Labrador Highway…there’s a longer grind of a story to it. But in brief, spring struck hard, my river roadway for tobogganing burst open, and being too restless to wait a month for lakes to ice out enough for a canoe, I adapted. Pedaling in-between seasons kept momentum going and the expedition close to on schedule,” Barbour wrote on Facebook.
Now reunited with his dog Saku, Barbour’s next stretch will involve backpacking through the woods of Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula for 300km. He has roughly 1,000km remaining to his endpoint on Newfoundland’s southern coast. He hopes to arrive by July 6.
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