Successfully completed one leg of the journey to Blanc Sablon, where temperatures were suspiciously mild–around -1 to -5 C in the daytime. Enjoyed mostly clear blue skies all the way, and no breakdowns or accidents as I learn to make nice with my “snow machine” over 440km of varying trail conditions. As the big storm that hit southern Ontario headed up here we decided to leave Blanc Sablon a day earlier so we wouldn’t be stuck. That was over breakfast with some locals who argued whether we’d the forecast would be accurate or not. It may look like there’s plenty of snow and ice here, but the folks in Blanc Sablon talk like they’ve yet to receive a good pail of the white stuff yet. As Tony Dumas, motel owner/school bus driver/future mayoral candidate said: “The government done forget about us, so too has the weather.”

Weather is the big topic all over the coast and everyone has a story about the climate has changed over the past 10 years. I’ve collected more than fifty different such stories, with varying degrees of believability. But one thing is indisputable: the snow trail that connects the Basse Cote Nord is open for a shorter period ever year. In fact we had already begun our little expedition upon it while technically it was still closed. Whereas it used to be open by December, this year it opened Feb 9.

Was a good call to leave Blanc Sablon when we did, but we’ve been snowbound in Vieux Fort nonetheless. Today we hit the skidoos again and begin the return journey, hitting some of the towns we skipped coming up. Having only intermittent access to internet, and high speed is pretty much non-existent. Will file more back in Havre Saint Pierre.

To leave on a note of bad humour, I will share a joke a sealer told me last night (there are a lot of ‘em here, waiting for the government to announce the quotas for next month’s hunt).

A seal walks into a bar. The bartender asks “What’ll you have to drink?” The seal says, “Anything but a Canadian Club on ice.”

Ugh.