Port Hope Simpson
Hope Simpson Portpcb-file="mw-headline" id="Present">Present< class="mw-editsection-bracket">[edit]
Port-Hope Simpson, 529 inhabitants, is a small village in the southeast of Labrador. Founded in the 1930' as a business city, Port Hope Simpson exported wood to Corner Brook pulp factories until 1948. Alexis River is a favourite spot for leisure fish. The deepwater port of Port Hope Simpson can be reached by the Trans-Labrador Highway, by land and seafar.
Coming from the northeast, take Route 510 from Cartwright (187 km). Cartwright Traffic Control has restricted service in Cartwright Traffic and nothing at all in Cartwright Junction. A 410 km long dirt track through Cartwright Junction between Goose Bay and Port Hope Simpson has no petrol and no service. Some of the amenities (fuel, meals, accommodation, bank, souvenir, airfield) are available on the way in the port of Mary's Harbour.
Another 62 km of dirt track (a whopping 222 km) continue to Port Hope Simpson. The Port Hope Simpson Airport (YHAIATA) is an airport with a 106 meter long take-off and landing strip, about 2 km southwards of the city. 931-2196. Comprehensive snowmobiling routes link Port Hope Simpson with Cartwright, Black Tickle, Charlottetown, Mary's Harbour, Battle Harbour, Lodge Bay and Red Bay.
Since Port Hope Simpson is now reachable by street, dependency on ferry boats has been severely reduced. Transport coming from the end of the roads arrive by ship at Goose Bay, Cartwright or Blanc Sablon and leave the ocean to the Trans-Labrador Highways. From Charlottetown and Port Hope Simpson M/V Marine Eagle offers a day-to-day northern connection to some small regional out ports without motorway acces.
Lewisporte, no longer calling Port Hope Simpson; services were restricted just south of Cartwright/Black Tickle and transport by car was restricted. A deepwater port with mooring possibilities, local runway, helipads, prepared snow mobile pistes, northern skiing pistes and accommodation cabins, ballast runway. Petrol and repair is available at P & K Sports and Automotive and Penney's pit stop; there is also a gas stop at Alexis Hotel.
Pitstop, 1 Trans Labrador Highway, ? +1 709 960-0499, Fax: Car hire, U-Haul HGVs, petrol stations with full-service garages. Alexis Hotel offers guided tours and excursions to discover the "Great Country" around Port Hope Simpson and runs various outdoor pursuits such as go-caching (find all ten go-caches and take a picture with the image found inside each one to get an Alexis Go-cache T-shirt), dogsledding (for half an hours or half a day), bingos (8pm Thursdays, all year round) and a photographic competition (the Photographic Discovery Circuit).
Pitts, Props and Prosperity and Prosperity Lunch Theater (7PM on Wednesday summer) commemorates the 1930' s and Sir John Hope Simpson's founding of the town. Alexi's 150 dog sledding races, ? +1 709 960-0228 (Alexis Hotel). Musher measure themselves against the harsh Labrador-winters. The Eagle River Dart Championship, ? +1 709 960-0240 (Port Hope Simpson Recreation).
Holy Easter, ? +1 709 960-0240 (Port Hope Simpson Recreation). LABRADRADOR Sno'Blast, +1 709 960-0228 (Alexis Hotel). last week-end in February. Eisbär dipping, ? +1 709 960-0228 (Alexis Hotel). Bath in the cold Labrador waters, followed by a nightly chat at Alexis Hotel; all competitors will be given a souvenir T-shirt.
Petrol stations (petrol and diesels, tires, repairs, hauling ), cabins and huts, angling gear, clothes, Polaris snow mobiles and snow mobile parts, sweets and memorabilia, warm teas and coffees, softservice, baked apple ice-cream cups. Airconditioned dinning room and Snackbar with a view of Alexis Bay. There' is a restaurant/lounge and a schnapps shop in the Alexis Hotel.
The Alexis Hôtel, 2 Alexis Dr, ? +1 709 960-0228. Hotels and travel agencies with restaurants and take-outs, meeting rooms, grocery stores, post office, souvenir shop, gas stations. Russell's RV Park (next to Port Hope hardware and building supplies), ? +1 709-960-0405, +1 709-960-0303. Small outer harbour 50km to Port Hope Simpson, small runway, few or no connections.
Ferries to other remote municipalities Snug Harbour and Århus. A small shrimp fishermen' community at Trans-Labrador 510, 50km south-east of Port Hope Simpson, 475 inhabitants. Mary's Harbour has a small runway with Air Labrador services and a boat to Cape Charles. Founded in the 1750', deserted 1960', the historic district of The Harbor National Historic District is a renovated fishermen's city on an islet accessible by a one-hour cruise from Marienhafen.
Boating to Battle Harbour at 9am every day and Mary's Harbour at 11am is uncomfortable as lodging in the island's historical building is costly ($225/person for entrance, returning by shuttle and staying in a communal lodging is the cheapest if you do not pay $2/foot for your own pier plus $15/person entrance.
The most other accommodations are $500 and more, and the Battle Harbour Boot is designed to exclude travel on the same day). The Riverlodge Hotel, 6163 Main St, Mary's Harbour, ? +1 709 921-6948, Fax: Continue northbound for half an hours between Port Hope Simpson and Cartwright, as most of Labrador (north of the small moribund fisher village of Black Tickle) uses AST/ADT (Atlantic Time).
The points between Port Hope Simpson and Forteau (included) use the timeframe of Newfoundland. Carthright ("Labrador") is 90 km from what is known as the "beaten track" on the Trans-Labrador motorway. In Cartwright Junction there are no service or propellant; Cartwright itself has gas and propellant, but no hotels, banks or servicepack. Trans-Labrador Highway further to Happy Valley-Goose Bay is 410 km of crushed stone without service or gas.