Back to Trout River

The overnight rain had mostly stopped by the time we had our morning coffee. But was still drizzling a bit we we went for our morning showers, still damp enough the we dried the towels in the campground laundry dryer. They weren’t going to dry in the van today. Since it was still gray and wet we decided to move on today, planning to make it to Gros Morne NP.

The rain continued to abate as we drove north and we stopped in Corner Brook for a few groceries and lunch. It was not as we remembered. The traffic was terrible and all the store parking lots were practically full, barely space to park Speedy. We also needed Diesel and Propane, but the crowds were too much, so we continued up Route 1 to Deer Lake were we could just drive in, fuel up and be on our way.

With all our fuel tanks filled it was on to the Trout River Campground in the national park. Somehow we had forgotten that it was a long hilly drive off of the main road to Trout River, 54km off. We finally got here at dinner time and found a site for the night. We thought about two nights, but rain is forecast and it has already started sprinkling as I write. We realized that we have already done the hikes here and they were not all that interesting…less so in the rain.

Coincidentally, we were at this campground exactly five year’s ago today. According to the Speedy Journal entry it was sunny and warm. In fact it was sunny and warm for the first two weeks of our trip to Newfoundland.

It has been so wet that we have done virtually no birding in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, but there is an invisible Swainson’s Thrush singing away outside Speedy and we saw a Yellow-rumped Warbler on our after dinner stroll. It has been mostly roadside crows and ravens and some gulls along the shore. We did see our first moose of the year. It was fortunately moving towards the woods not the road as we went by.

Our Speedy hiccup of the day is that the house batteries do not seem to be charging much via the alternator. The house batteries are down to 12.3 volts and should be fully charged after all day driving. With all the rain and clouds the solar panels don’t supply enough current to charge up the house batteries. They can usually keep up with daily usage when it is sunny.

They should be drawing a fairly significant current, but only seem to be getting 10 amps or less. I think the alternator regulator is shutting down when it senses that the engine battery is topped up. It is also limiting the voltage to about 13.3 volts which is a bit low for charging. I’m considering bypassing the battery separator and just wiring the engine and house batteries in parallel for a day. It is abit of a pain to do so as I have to disconnect the engine battery, move the terminals, reconnect and rest the clock and radio each time. We will be searching for a powered campsite tomorrow.