James Bay Road, Northern Quebec

[mike h]

Just got back from a trip to the end of the James Bay Road in winter, interesting experience. Put up a series of webpages here:

http://www.purplelizard.com/james%20bay.htm

[mountainpete]

Mike - I have only had a chance to scan through the pictures, but it looks like you had a great trip! I'm looking forward to sitting down and reading through it all later tonight. Well done!

[dieselcruiserhead]

Mike that is great.. I am sure you have seen the web site and trip (which I believe is semi similar - coming from this total outsider?)
http://imageevent.com/moosecreekmaple/translabrador2005;jsessionid=1gcedelkn3.zebra_s

Also, I forwarded both the past one months ago, and now your current one, to my old man.. We are NYers originally (I went to UVM/Burlington VT) but he lives in Montreal now... He is very interested in pretty much all of the related issues, from Quebec Hydro to all of the above... We have been lusting after the idea of taking a very similar trip as well.. He has been I believe as far north as hudson bay by vehicle.. Also has done some neat exploring of the rural tundra and deforestation for mostly toilet paper from Manitoba...

[mike h]

Andre,

I had not seen that link - gorgeous power wagon - we did essentially the same drive a few weeks earlier; we were back in the States on July 4, 2005. We drove the eastern shore of Labrador to Cartwright and ferried from there.

Thanks for the link, I need to spend some time looking at it. I dearly love the old Power Wagons!

m.

[Scenic WonderRunner]

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Mike.........AND....... "DCH"...........for sharing!

This is getting my adventure blood a flowin'...........!:safari-rig:

Great pics and stories!


...............:friday:

[Rhode Trip]

Thanks Mike. Is it possible to see a larger image of the map of the Route du Nord area? Looks like you were very lucky with the weather!

[mike h]

Sure - click on it and a larger version will appear. I added some other maps on page 1 as well. One of these days I'll make some maps specific to this journey.

m.

[RedDog]

Fantastic! Beautiful photos. Thanks very much. I've forwarded the link to a good friend in Drummondville who spent last summer out here exploring the Rockies with me in my Jeep. She'll love it.

[smbisig]

cool, thanks for sharing!

[Rhode Trip]

Thanks for the map info, Mike. I appreciate your comments about the Rupert river. That's the impetus for my planned trip this summer, to experience the Rupert before it is diverted. The power of those great northern rivers is amazing...you feel it in the air. I don't know if you got the chance to explore the Churchill river when you were in Labrador, but it is now an eerie place.
Above the falls:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i261/rhodetrip/DSC01905.jpg

These falls are 245 feet, higher than Niagara falls, but now just a trickle:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i261/rhodetrip/DSC01901.jpg

And here's the gorge that's left:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i261/rhodetrip/DSC01899.jpg

Gotta run those air conditioners, though, I guess.

[dieselcruiserhead]

MIke I posted your link in a thread of his over on the 4BTswaps.com forums, which he also thought was pretty cool.. Here is the link, Paul is very nice, from my neighborhood originally (the Adirondacks/High Peaks area)...

http://www.4btswaps.com/forum/showthread.php?t=426

[Christian P.]

hey, that's where I am from!!!

great pictures. Almost makes me want to move back home....

We used to ride dirt bikes over there in the summer time.
You can ride for days without seeing anyone!

Christian
www.2aroundtheworld.com
www.pbase.com/2aroundtheworld

[mike h]

rhode trip - we didn't take the time to fully explore the churchill falls river, we stopped for a while along the road, but didn't explore deeper. Your photos make me want to return just to hike up that old riverbed.

When the Rupert goes dry like that it will be very interesting to walk the riverbed, not sure what I expect to find, but I'd like to hike along it. I'd rather it wasn't diverted at all, but I think Rupert's fate is in the hands of HydroQuebec now. Your photos of Churchill really show how different those bedrock river bottoms are, the vegetation cannot reclaim any of the banks after the water level drops, that's pure Canadian Shield.

m.

[Christian P.]

Mike,

I just spent 30 minutes looking at your pictures. I love living in San Francisco but I miss the open space and the feeling of being alone that you get over there.

Like I said previously we used to take our motorcycles, pack up some gears and go off road on 2-3 days expeditions. You really need to spend quite some time over there because you can get lost very easily. There are so many dirt roads in the summer. We would get gas from the Indians communities...but sometimes we would have to put our bikes in the trailer/hotel rooms in order to keep them...gosh I miss that. I will always remember this one time in July, we had to stop and sleep in a remote fishing camp...because there was a snowstorm!!!

People always dream of the African Desert or the Australian Outback, but I often think that it's more adventurous to go up North in Canada.
You can be as remote as you want, there's no tourist and so much to explore.

let's try to keep it this way...

Also, I would like to point how people over there get by with ordinary cars...even minivan...the ambulance is not even 4x4. It makes me crazy sometimes when i see everyone in the Bay Area driving a SUV because they go to Lake Tahoe once a year...and yet they don't even know how to use it..

:roost:

Christian
www.2aroundtheworld

[mike h]

Mike,

Also, I would like to point how people over there get by with ordinary cars...Christian
www.2aroundtheworld

Agreed. Everyone ran Blizzacks or some dedicated winter tread, and we did not see a single modified 4x4. Very few Jeeps, but we did see several FJ Cruisers. Most commonly American full size crew cab pick-ups, followed by minivans. We saw a few new Mustangs and Chargers, as well as Scions and Versas. All completely stock.

I was looking for opportunities to return and do some trail-style 4-wheeling, but people I talked to said that didn't really exist. Graded road or no road. Similar to Maine, most of the lowlands are bogs, and nothing drives through a bog.

I considered taking our Subaru, and in hindsight it would have done just as well, if not better, than the Pathfinder. I prefer the Suby AWD on snow and ice, but chose the Pathy simply for the ground clearance in case we had to deal with deeper snow. We were really lucky with weather, and only had a few occasions where the snow was 8-12 inches deep, and I think the Suby would have ripped through that with no problems.

Given the gas situation, a VW Tdi with a touch of rally-prep would be ideal up there!

m.

[mike h]

2aroundtheWorld - when you say you ran dirt bikes up there, on what sort of roads/trails? I asked about 4wd trails, but no-one seemed to understand. They said only winter roads, and after thaw you could *maybe* take a 4wd quadrunner to some areas, but only to get to a fishing spot - no real point-to-point style traverses. The locals all get around the bush by boat in summer.

Is there a trail network that 4wds could access? Or would that be a Camel Trophy style muckfest of winching locked and loaded rigs all day?

My personal "Holy Grail" expedition would be to connect the Trans-Taiga Road to the Trans-Lab, but everything I've read clearly states there is no way to do that by vehicle.

m.

[Rhode Trip]

2aroundtheWorld - when you say you ran dirt bikes up there, on what sort of roads/trails? I asked about 4wd trails, but no-one seemed to understand. They said only winter roads, and after thaw you could *maybe* take a 4wd quadrunner to some areas, but only to get to a fishing spot - no real point-to-point style traverses. The locals all get around the bush by boat in summer.

Is there a trail network that 4wds could access? Or would that be a Camel Trophy style muckfest of winching locked and loaded rigs all day?

My personal "Holy Grail" expedition would be to connect the Trans-Taiga Road to the Trans-Lab, but everything I've read clearly states there is no way to do that by vehicle.

m.


There seemed to some logging roads that would provide limited backcountry access in the greater Labrador City area where there is some forestry business. Also as you proceed south into Quebec along Route 389 there may be more opportunities.
I would expect the Route du Nord to offer at least a few similar instances. Did you notice any...granted in winter they are probably difficult to spot.

Another "Holy Grail" I have heard there is a road into the interior from Deception Bay...that's around the 62nd paralell south to some mines, Im not sure of its length, its just a haul road.

[eleblanc]

Old thread revival!

I did the same tripp in the summer of 1999. My brother in law was in charge of Air inuit (the air carrier owned by the inuit) at the airport of radisson. So we had a nice place to stay for our week there.

No doubt, this is far, i mean far, really really far. I did it one drive from Montreal to Radisson. I mean far, when the sunset is around 10:30 pm....mid july. Is that far enough north for you?

Like mentionned the size of the La grande project is mind blowing. but at first you don't see anything big, since it is underground. when you arrive near the evacuator you see on one side the reservoir and the other....well mountains...where the f**k is the river? pull your binaculor out because it is like 1-2 miles west..lol. The main damn is not concrete, no, no, it is a huge, very long pill up of rock between two montain to close the valley. and then there is like 30 other dams to prevent the water from flowing out of the reservoir like up to 30 km away. Took 10,000 workers, 10 years.

The tour by hydro quebec is a must. Luckly for me i was able to take pictures inside. The overhard crane is soooooo big that there is a second crane on the main crane just to be able to lift the 12" diamter steel cable and 1T shackle onto the main overhead crane.:yikes:

When i visited the place the workers were on strike and no one,i say no one was there to operate it. Everything is fiberwired to montreal and monitor there. The control room, Similar to a nuclear power plant, was without anyone.

One thing i remember was the control station at the entrance of the road in matagami. There was a couple with a old westfalia, license in Florida, about 60-70 years old, arguing over the counter if they'd go all the way up there. The lady didn't thought it was a good idea, but the poor man really wanted to go, it was funny and sad....

I had the opportunity to be there with someone who new the place, we went at the garbage dump watch all those bears. We went fishing and caught many of them.

Being there i couldn't think of not taking the time to go see the baie james, i mean i wanted to see the sea. So we took off and drove to chisasibi. There we crossed the LG1 damn, nothing compared to LG2 but a respectable concrete damn. You will see a picture on my site during the construction (picture of a picture). The hydro building was not locked and empty, so we toured around. (the security is very tight now i heard).

Then on the road before chisasibi there is a control point, the locals in the village are not allowed to bring alcool in town. But the guy was nice and realized we weren't local. At least not in my Audi A4.

Once in the village roads signs are in Cri, looks like chinese writing...So after a quick tour of the village, in my quest to reach the sea we continu west. Took a few tighter roads and we were finally there!!!! Ouha it was windy.

Other then the hungry big flies it was a memorable tripp and would do it again. This time i would go east to the other LG3, LG4 damns.

Oh, when we arrived there the next morning there was a couple from Radisson getting married, and guess where? in the evacuator, you know the steps. About 30 folks with the priest all air lifted by the SQ (local police) chopper on to one of the steps. All the rest stayed on the deck where tourist can go to see the evacuator.

Sorry for the thread hi jack, i though i'd share on the same subject. And of the small pictures, back in 99 the only thing i had was a Sony mavica 640x480.

After a week there we drove down to niagara and back to montreal. My lady was newly pregnant, now 9 years later and with 3 daughters i'm anxious to see them old enough so we can take off and do this again.

Link to the album
http://www.ericleblanc.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=4718

http://www.ericleblanc.com/gallery/g2data/albums/Famille/baiejames99/MVC-147F.JPG

[eleblanc]

2aroundtheWorld - when you say you ran dirt bikes up there, on what sort of roads/trails? I asked about 4wd trails, but no-one seemed to understand. They said only winter roads, and after thaw you could *maybe* take a 4wd quadrunner to some areas, but only to get to a fishing spot - no real point-to-point style traverses. The locals all get around the bush by boat in summer.

Is there a trail network that 4wds could access? Or would that be a Camel Trophy style muckfest of winching locked and loaded rigs all day?

My personal "Holy Grail" expedition would be to connect the Trans-Taiga Road to the Trans-Lab, but everything I've read clearly states there is no way to do that by vehicle.

m.


I'd love to get to schefferville, and i have been thinking about it for the last 4 month. Some guys on www.klr650.net did it on bike on the rail road (80km). You need to drive to churchill fall then north west to a rail station, then there, the only way up to schefferville is the rail road. Too many river to drive up there. But trees are no abundant so you can basicly drive anywhere, but swamp and rivers would stop you. Anyhow if i cannot get my truck transported on the train i have things figured out, 10 psi some spares and voila! Perfect fit! Gotta love the 40!