December 8, 2010
Part 3: Labour of Love
Part 3 of 4
[Click here for Part 1; Click here for Part 2.]
Huggy stares into the great unknown…
… In the morning, the guys woke me up with a surprise shoot. Let me set the scene: Mike and Tyler roll up the door, with the sun blazing and the record light flashing red. I don’t think People Magazine will be calling me anytime soon for their “50 Most Beautiful People,” if they ever see this footage. HD camera + sleeping Huggy + blinding sunlight + rough night’s sleep = Huggy Ogre!
It wasn’t long before we got sorted and on the way. Today we had to reach Labrador City/Wabush, by night fall, with stops in Gagnon, Mount Wright, and the Labrador border along the way. Not that hard when you consider it was only 268km, but we had a lot of TV to shoot with many stops and passes along the way. Filming is a lot of “Hurry up and wait!”
Gagnon was eerie; it’s the definition of a ghost town. Pavement, curbs, driveways, sidewalks, and sewer grates but, no housing or structures whatsoever. Turns out the mine that employed everyone in town went bust sometime in 1985. Since everything was pre-fabricated, they packed up and left!
We carried on, reaching Mont Wright, a gigantic iron ore mine, in late afternoon. I pulled over and was astonished to see that, due to the high iron content in the water, the lake next to the mine was completely red! At this point I was starting to get pretty fatigued and this shoot was tough. After non-stop riding for the better part of two hours my face was frozen. Who cares, right? Yes, but a heck of a lot harder to do a good job on the camera when your mouth can’t move and simply enunciating words becomes a chore. Just ask Sloth from the Goonies.
At kilomtre #570, we hit Labrador and the start of the Trans-Labrador highway. All that effort just to get to the start! We stopped at a gas station to get some fuel. The attendant took one look and knew we weren’t natives. After telling him we were looking for Morley at Hewlett Minpaco, he offered to drive over and show us exactly where it was. Now THAT is Labrador hospitality!
Just in case Huggy had any “accidents,” Morley asked him to sleep on the floor.
After touring the shop and chatting with Morley for awhile, I struck a deal for food and accommodations. Morley would allow me to sleep on the showroom floor for the night, and he would provide a large pizza and chocolate milk. In exchange, I would shine up all the Yamaha’s in his showroom. I was very thankful for this when I woke up at 5am and saw on the outdoor sign that it was -3 degrees. Why pizza to eat? I figured it was something that didn’t require a fridge and I would be able to eat the leftovers in the morning. You gotta be resourceful when you don’t have many resources!
Brownie and Tyler made their way to the shop in the morning and we set off. Today was a high mileage day. Shooting was the least of the three days but travel was nearly twice as much as we did in the previous two. The goal was to reach Frenchie’s Service Centre in Goose Bay, over 560km away, by dark. Again it’s not that difficult simply riding the distance, but when you factor in a slow moving UHAUL, a couple different shoots, and cold weather, the hours go by quickly.
Looking at this pic, we should note that the 2012 Super Tenere is only available in blue and black, not silver as shown here. Tennies will be available at Canadian dealerships June 2011!
The air was still chilly and as the kilometers increased so did the numbness in my hands. The gloves I had were not exactly made for this type of weather. To compensate, I rode ahead while the boys grappled with the dirt road in the UHAUL. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I would pull over and warm my hands with the exhaust or hold them together in my coat. After 15-20 minutes, I would see the UHAUL off in the distance with a trail of dust behind it. Push on!
Believe it! This raging river of rock was once a raging river of WATER.
We stopped just outside of Churchill Falls while crossing the Churchill (sort of) River. I was quite conflicted by this. On the one hand, it’s a shame to see something of such natural beauty be completely changed by man. On the other, it provides a source of income to those living in the area and power to Quebec and New York. I stared at the remnants of a raging river, reduced to a wide expanse of rock with trees on either side. It really put into perspective the amount of water that the hydroelectric plant requires. How much water, you say? The reservoir provides storage area for over 1,000,000,000,000 cubic feet of it, covering 5,700KM2!
We did a shoot outside of Churchill Falls, another at the top of the reservoir, fueled up and made our way down the homestretch. Goose Bay here we come!
There’s still more road to go…. Check back soon for the final installment of Huggy’s Labour of Love!
For more photos please visit: facebook.com/yamahamotorcanada and visit the photos section.
The season premiere of A Motorcycle Experience will be on Saturday, March 5, 2011 at 11:30AM EST. All shows are broadcast on TSN.
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I saw a new “secret” Yamaha in an obscure garage that had a Yamaha emblem on an engine that was EXTREMELY large and was completely smooth. No pistons showing and completely enclosed. The frame was like nothing I’ve seen anywhere on the web. Rear tire was as big as I’ve ever seen.
December 14th, 2010 at 7:07 pmThe mechanic was mad I saw it, and when I asked “over a hundred HP?”, he said “way more”. Do you guys know what it was?
We have no idea what bike you could be referring to, Gerald. Even if we did know what it was, we wouldn’t be able to tell you until we launched it officially.