The only way to get to Minipi Lodges is by float plane. It’s usually a de Havilland Beaver or an Otter, the two iconic bush planes of North America. You could probably walk, but it would take you all summer and then you would have to fly out anyway.
Someone actually did walk across Labrador. I bought an excellent book on CD in Goose Bay entitled “Lure of the Labrador Wild” by Dillon Wallace. It chronicles the tale of a small group of men who tried to walk across Labrador around 1903. You will just have to read it to find out what happened… but it wasn’t pretty.
So like I said, you are going to want to take a float plane. If you have never been in one, you owe it to yourself to go to Minipi and find out for yourself what it’s like. On the way you can look out the window and you will see for yourself why you wouldn’t want to walk. Labrador floats. There is almost as much water as land… maybe more. And the part that looks dry probably isn’t.
Then you have the black flies and mosquitos… oh well, you get the picture. The land below you as you approach one of Jack and Lorraine’s lodges is an incredible sight. There is always a chance you could spot a moose… we have. But the first thing that may occur to you is that almost all that water below you has never been fished! Oh my gosh! Wouldn’t that be something.
I know you couldn’t land a float plane on most of those potholes and small lakes. I suppose you MIGHT be able to land, but you probably wouldn’t take off again. Only the largest lake systems are fished at all. But trust me, there is more than enough water and more than enough opportunities to catch big Brookies from the bodies of water you CAN access.
The flight from Goose Bay to the lodges is a fairly short one and it’s only done when the weather is good… which it is most of the time. Pilots are forbidden to fly when visibility is bad. This is for YOUR safety as well as theirs, so don’t argue with the pilot. I think the Beaver is my favorite aircraft. They are rugged, fun and comfortable… at least to me. I don’t like the idea of hiking across Labrador anyway.