26.   Having travelled to Southern Harbour many times in the last couple years and having gone on many ATV rides out there, the old Lead Mine Site at La Manche, Placentia Bay has quickly become one of my favourite riding destinations.

25.   Leaving from Southern Harbour it's not a long ride as you can access it via local trails and the "old road", but we opted to take the long way around today.

24.   Terry and Joe were on the Honda TRX 300, Captain H. his Yamaha Grizzly 660 and I of course was riding Project Foreman.

23.   Leaving from Meghan's Gas Bar located on the Trans Canada Highway next to the Southern Harbour turn off, we crossed the highway and headed in the landfill road. There is a trail at the top of the landfill that leads directly to the old railway track, now known as the Newfoundland Trail-way Provincial Park.

22.   Turning East we travelled along the track stopping here and there at a couple small ponds to try for a trout.

21.   Heading east again the Trail-way crosses under the Highway via culvert. At the far end of the culvert there is a trail on the Right Hand Side that leads directly to the "old road" where many cabins are situated. Once we reached this road we turned right and rode for about 2.5km where we came to a fork, the left takes you down to La Manche and the right takes you across country back to the Highway about one kilometre east of Meghan's Gas Bar.

20.   Heading down the trail to La Manche there is another fork, keeping left will take you to the old lead mine site where you can still see the piles of mining tailings, the right trail takes you to the former fishing community which was completely resettled by 1966.

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18.   This Lead Mine is one of the oldest in the province.  Discovered in 1855 it was up and running in June of 1858 operated by an American company along with British mining engineer H.T. Verran (who was the first Mining Engineer to work in Newfoundland).

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14.   The mine operated under numerous owners up until about 1930 and none of them were overly successful. Today, among the piles of rock we could see the remains of horizontal shafts, trenches, boilers, and part of an old railway tram.

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12.   For ATV's, the path to the beach offers a tricky decent over loose rock, and therefore a tricky ascent on the return trip.

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4.   At the eastern side of the mine site there is a great trail that heads inland to a beautiful pond. The trail is very technical in places with deep mud and a couple steep ascents.

3.   Leaving the mine site and heading down the other fork to the Community Site we were greeted by a large grassy field where houses once stood, and another rocky beach.

2.   This is a great place for a boil up for lunch and is a nice destination for camping.

1.   All in all its a was a great trip. The area is beautiful and while it's a pretty easy ride there are also challenges for 4x4 ATV's if you wish to take some of the side trails. It's a really unique destination and has an awesome history as well.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith