Creating a Cross Canada Overland Route

[deadly99]

I started this thread over on advrider. Initially the route was just going to be for travel enduro bikes but as things have evolved it would appear as if we are going to include 4 wheel vechicles as well. I am going to cross post this thread over here at Expedition Portal as I believe some of the folks here may be interested in this project? Enjoy the read, as stated it started out just for bikes but as the thread progresses over the next year or three you will start to see some vechicles you'll be more familiar with start to show up.

Ever wished there was a route across Canada? A group of us from www.ADVCanada.com have decided to do just that. Seems simple, or so we thought. I've started this thread to chronicle the making of a cross country route.

I hope you enjoy reading about our "making of" story as it unfolds.
Where to begin? Canada is huge.....9.9 million square kilometers! The population of Canada is only about 31 million and the bulk of that is spread across the southern strip of the country that borders the United States. What does that mean to us? There is a whole lot of wilderness up here and some damn fine riding. Given the scope of this project and the reason I suspect it hasn't already been done is that taking on a project like this is.... well a bit overwhelming. We've decided to take this project on in two phases. Phase one will be the Eastern half of the country. Our goal is to have this half completed by the fall of 2011 (yikes that less than a year and a half away). The other reason to start this thread is as a motivator. It will make it much more embarrassing and shameful to back out now that we've made it public knowledge :)

The goal: To make a route across Canada that can be ridden by dual sport bikes that are loaded with gear.
The route will primarily be gravel back roads. Some days will have sections of off roading and some will have sections of pavement. Wherever possible we are trying to have as little pavement as possible but it becomes unavoidable at times.


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[deadly99]

Where to begin? We've been working on this route now for the better part of a year. Good progress has been made. I apologize ahead of time as the posts I make will not be in the same order as the route will eventually follow. Also some of the posts and sections of the route will be done heading the wrong direction from the intended route. Just the way things have worked out as we explore new area's.

Lets start with the province of Labrador.
NOTE: this being cross posted so it's not in real time.....until I catch up to this thread :smiley_drive:

[deadly99]

Looks like there are about 8 of us who will be riding together for the next week or two. A couple of guys from south of the border that I haven't met yet and are on their way north to meet us Thursday in Ottawa Our plan is fairly loose but riding the Trans Labrador Highway is the first "tick" on the list. The TLH will more than likely be a part of T-Cat . Our thoughts are that having a nice "relaxing" 3-4 days of long gravel with little too no navagation will make for a nice break between Newfoundland and the Quebec/Ontario sections of the route. The TLH works with what we want this route to become, remote wilderness. Aside from a few towns there's not much up there

After the TLH we plan to take a ferry over to the island of Newfoundland. There are a few trails that we have researched and look forward to trying out. Newfoundland has a bunch of double track old rail lines on it. From what we can tell a few of these will make up a part of the T-Cat. Skibum69 will ultimately be creating this section of the route but we're hoping to ride as many of the possible sections he plans to add to it. The main rail trail is called the T'Rail and runs for about 900 km's across the middle of the island. We have a few other trails to try out (Burin ATV trail and a couple of other rail trails) while we're over there. Throw in some touristy stuff and some "pubbing" and it looks like a fun 17 day ride

Here's our proposed route for the next few weeks.


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In typical fashion I'm scrambelling to get the bike and gear ready. While changing my oil the other day the threads to the oil resorvoir came out with the drain plug. I tried a self tapping oil drain screw but couldn't get it to catch. I've now inserted a helicoil in it but it's still leaking (didnt get the hole drilled exactly straight ). Dan's coming over tonight and we'll try adding one or two brass crush washers and maybe some jbweld to try and seal it. New tires need to get spooned on then we're off. I had a bunch of other maintenance task scheduled for the bike (wheel and steering head bearings, wire in a usb charger and an inverter, etc) but it looks they'll have to wait until August when we get back along with the wife's never ending honey do list.

Last minute email are flying around in typical fashion. Who's bring what, where and when to meet, which route to take out of the city, etc The weather looks ...well ....not bad. Rain is a part of the scenery on the Atlantic coast and I'm sure we'll get our fair share

One of the things I'm looking forward to seeing is how Pelvis (Brian)makes out with his hammock From what I've seen in the north country the tree's are SMALL and we plan on cowboy camping for the most part. How the heck does someone use a hammock in a gravel pit? This could have a few funny stories. Quotes like " no I read on the web you can string it up between two ski poles " just makes me laugh. A 200 lb + guy who likes to sleep on his side, has back pain currently, heading out for 17 days of camping with a hammock. I can almost guarantee this will be good for a few laughs

I won't be updating the this report while we're gone (I hate the idea of sitting with a laptop while on "vacation" instead of meeting the locals and being in the moment and just enjoying where I am. Kudo's to those who do update their ride reports while on the road, but it's not for me). I will however do my best to take as many photo's as possible and update this thread when we get back.

[deadly99]

Well here I sit at work in my cubicle instead of hitting the road with the other 7 guys for the two week trip A series of mechanical mishaps have delayed me.

Had surgery two weeks ago which prevented me from working on my bike for a week and half (drugged and flat on my back). Started late last week to work and prep my bike. While doing an oil change I removed the drain bolt from the oil resorvoir and the threads from the resorvoir came out. Tried a few approaches over a few days and finally got it to work 3 days later (keep in mind I was/am still in some considerable discomfort and have a full time job and a crazy honey do list I promised to take care of before leaving on "another damn bike trip" ). A heli coil and a couple of crush washers combined with ALOT of loctite and finally got the drain plug to stop leaking. A quick test ride revealed that the countersprocket bolt was stripped and loose and the washer (with inside teeth?) was bent way out of shape and missing half the teeth. Jerry rigged something and got into town all packed up this morning and dropped by a fastner shop and got a new nut for the counter sprocket, yehaa I'll be good to go after working on the bike during my lunch break at work and ready to leave work early to meet the guys for our pre arranged meeting at 5 pm. But no! Rear tire is flat Okay I can deal with this ........ got the new nut on after bending the washer this way and that to get a couple of the teeth to stick (less than ideal but heck it's only got to work for 9000 km's). Got bike into a local shop to look at the back tire. Whats that weird grinding noise ? Damn I have no front brake pads left and the last bit just wore threw and is now grinding my rotor Callled local dealer and yes they have them in stock, Dan picks me up and we drive across the city where the cute young girl says oh I thought you said rear pads, we don't have front pads in stock, ARG ordered them and "guaranteed" they will be in tomorrow.

Emailed the group of guys that I will be a day behind and will catch up on Sunday in Churchill Falls (half way up the Trans Lab). Looks like a couple of long iron butt days for me (and Dan, thanks Dan ). Haven't heard back from them ..... hope they get my emails and don't wait around too long waiting for me


My fault? YEP To be honest I had written down and planned on some extensive maintenance on the bike, and was to do it 3 weeks before leaving so I didn't run into this kind of a situation. But being flat out on my back up until a week ago and under some crazy oxy cotton pills for a week and a half kind of phased me out a bit. Sorry ahead of time to the lads, I WILL be catching up and WILL be in Churchill Falls on Sunday at 6pm at the gas with Dan. So a couple of long days in the saddle ahead of me...gonna hurt like hell, still open wound from the surgery (still changing the dressing on it every 4 hours).

So...the adventure begins. A case of MANY very COLD beers tonight, a leisurely start tomorrow then ride like hell for a few days. Anyone ever done the Trans Lab rally style

Vroom vroom !
Wish me luck

[deadly99]

Back home a week early. Pelvis and myself came back with our bikes in a Uhaul (long story and it'll get told:) ) Martin, Chris and Renauld are on their way back now (scheduled, they were only going to be doing a week), heard from Dan last night by telephone. He's stuck in Corner Brook New Foundland. 6 fuel pumps later and he says he thinks he has the issue resolved. He made the earliest ferry reservation he could get (10 day wait) and is going to head to St Johns for the music festival.

The Trans Labrador Highway did not disappoint. A great ride, lot's of stories to tell and several pictures to show. This road will make a great addition to the route !

Give me a day or two to unpack, tie up some loose ends, upload some pics then I'll post a recap of the trip.

Teaser

Lost rad cap in engine
Lost all electricals on bike
Broke key in half unlocking seat to get at tools
Fuel pump blows
Exhaust pipe brakes in half near rear cyclinder
4 sets of rear brake pads wear threw
Crash resulting in no headlight, no more master cyclinder for front brakes, turn signals and a busted up front fairing
Another crash resulting in some cracks and scratches
A Chain streched beyond useable
A few tip overs
A case of mild hypothermia
Eatin alive by blackflies
Several rewarding cold beers
Flirting with a gay guy in order to get on a ferry
Rain, sun, wind, good people, fun road, great riding .....

[deadly99]

And another chapter begins in creating this route; a group of us had been planning this trip for some time. Every year a groups of us from Ottawa do an expedition type trip on our bikes. This yearly trip gets organized through our web site advcanada.com. Last year we went up into Northern Quebec and rode the Rue Du Nord and the Trans Taiga Highway. We had a great time and it was kind of decided that this year we would go and ride the Trans Labrador Highway across Quebec/Labrador. We've been waiting a few years for the road to get completed and it looked promising for 2010 to be that year. After committing to creating a route across the country this trip just sort of worked out two fold. One for our yearly trip and two to be a recon trip to see if the Trans Lab would work for the route. I was a bit sceptical due to the long paved sections before, during and after the TLH that would have to become a part of the route.

8 months of emails, a couple of pub meets and the group was finally made up. A handful of folks wanted to come, new job won't let me get away, family commitments and health issues prevented some familiar faces from joining us. Next time guys Half the folks who were coming were going to make a one week trip out of it and three of us intended to spend an extra week riding some trails around Newfoundland. Some guys from a local NFLD dualsport forum ( www.ridetherock.com ) helped us out with some route suggestions for the island. Kudo's to the members of this forum, a very helpful group of people who seem very passionate about sharing their part of the world. A great resource for anyone heading to NFLD. Because we intended to ride lot's of double track this had some impact of how our bikes would get loaded. Fast and light became the buzzword for the three of us as we planned our different packing strategies. Soft luggage for Dan and myself and scrapping a sleeping pad and tent for a hammock for Pelvis. What don't we need or what can we split and share between us became the topic of more than a few emails and pints over the winter months.
I choose a Gaint Loop system for my bike. A Great Basin bag and Fandango tank bag. The concept of keeping heavy items low and snug seemed wise. The narrow profile also was a huge draw for me, I've caught panniers on tree's, etc while riding double track and trails before and choose not to do that again. Nothing like having your bike ripped around 180 degree's while you take a header into the ruhbarb. The added bonus of no luggage rack (weight) and their products being waterproof made it a done deal for me. Dan choose a Giant Loop tank bag and a Wolfman setup for his bike. He wanted the luggage racks to help distribute weight off of the subframe of his ktm 950 se, this bike has a known weak subframe. Brian choose to go with hard panniers for his 800 gs but kept his weight down by minimizing his gear. I'll let them speak to how their setups worked out for them as the report gets going.

The other three members of our group were all riding 1200 gs's. Chris I know from several local rides as well as from last years trip to Northern Quebec. Renuad I had only just met while planning this trip. Martin hails from Toronto, bought a 12gs adv last Novemeber and had never ridden on gravel before. So there we are, 6 of us with different bikes/setups and varying degrees of riding skills and experience. To say everyone was keen/excited/nervous to get going is probably an understatement. We all have jobs, families, etc and are just working type folk. Getting a week or two off from our lives is not always an easy task as I'm sure most readers of this forum can relate to.

Day one had me and Dan driving around town doing last minute preps to our bikes and gear. Sadly after crossing many obstacles to leave on time my brake pads were not going to be in until early afternoon the next day. Bummer! Last minute emails and the result was Dan and myself would leave a day later than the other four guys and we'd catch up along the way. I like to ride fast and so does Dan so this didn't seem like it would be an issue. Fast you say? Ya I know it's not for everyone but it's the way I ride. I love the enjoyment of being "in the zone". Riding gravel roads requires concentration, add speed and it demands more concentration. This is what I find relaxing oddly enough. One thing to focus on, what's in front of you. Your movements become automatic, 4,5,6,5,6,5,4th gear becomes reflex. No thoughts of home, job, kids, etc. Some folks ride bikes as a means to explore and see new places, I ride bikes because I love riding bikes. I enjoy the road as much as the scenery and people. Sounds odd to write but heck it needs explaining I think. When I see something out of my pheripheral vision I stop and enjoy the moment. I don't race to get places, more like I ride fast between breaks. I'd rather sit with my bike off and enjoy the silence that the wilderness has to offer and then giver like crap to the next place that grabs my attention. I don't think one way is better than another, just preference and personality that decides how we ride. So the four guys headed out while Dan and myself enojyed a few cold beers and one more night in town. After all of the stress of trying to get my bike up and running over the last few days, a good nights sleep might be just what the doctor ordered.

I got an email that night from Pelvis that they covered a few hundred km's that evening and had setup camp East of Montreal amd that all was good with them

[deadly99]

Well it was day two of the trip and I'de yet to twist the throttle. I drove my car into the city and meet Dan and we loaded up our bikes, again.


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"They'd better have my damned brake pads in or I'm going to freak" kind of mentality going on. Thought I'd get a bomber sleep the night before, instead I lied in bed worrying that I'd get delayed again. A quick call to the dealership ( Wheelsport in Orleans, Ottawa) and they said they were sitting on the counter, yehaa !!! We hauled over to their shop, and changed the pads in their parking lot. Like anytime you have a fully loaded bike in a public place, we answered some questions from folks going and coming to the dealership. "Where to","where from", etc



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Dan and myself finally hit the road at 1:30 pm. The forecast showed rain behind us but blue skies where we were headed.


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Following the Ottawa river on our left for a while. It felt REAL good to finally be on the road. Bike was running well, we were both smiling and it finally sunk in, we're off ! Cranked the beatles in my mp3 and started to put some miles down. Damn hard not to be cheerful with Paul McCartney singing about yellow submarines. The Fab Four go down for me as the best sing along, happy go lucky road tunes.

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A quick stop jusy before crossing the border into Quebec. Of course at a Tim Hortons for a quick shot of the bean. Ask any Canadian, they must put something in there because it IS addictive.


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Not much to say about the afternoon. We were flying. Rode past Montreal and Quebec City, dodged some traffic, applied the "any road is twisty, some just need more speed" philosophy. Once past Quebec the scenery improved dramatically. For me Quebec has a very European flare to it, every town seems to have a beauty of an old church in it, streets are narrow and of course everyone is speaking a language I know nothing about except a one liner "many large beers please". This is the same line I know in spanish and both have done me well over the years. More than one fun experience and a good story have been the result of knocking on a door and presenting the person on the other side with a large goofy looking white guy repeating his "line" and smiling. Maybe another time I'll take a trip down memory lane and share one of these experiences, lol

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About 100 km's short of Tadasoucac we stopped at a campground. It was about 7 pm, we'd made about 650 km's, good start for our first day. The campground was a petting zoo slash campground. All sorts of odd animals, deers of various sorts, lama's and a bunch of ones I have no name for. I have REAL mixed thoughts about caging up a wild animal but I'll spare you my thoughts ;) Got our tents setup, lit a fire, drank some beers and wine and just enjoyed being underway. Spirits were high, it was a warm night, zero bugs and things were going well. A great day on the bikes :)



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The Quebec flag "fleurdelisé". Folks from Quebec, for the most part, seem real proud of their heritage. By the time you get out here it's not uncommon for people to speak zero english. Most Canadians speak rudamentary french, if you don't a french/english dictionary may make your stay more pleasant. It's always more enjoyable when you can converse with the locals.



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We setup camp in the sunlight and got everything put together just before dark. I always prefer to get off the bike at least an hour before dark. Setting up camp, cooking dinner, getting a fire going, etc just plain sucks for me if it's already dark out.



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The tent I am using in the Tenere from Nomad Tents. It's freaking fantastic It weighs in at about 11 pounds so it is certainly a bit more weight than I am used to for a tent. It does pack small though, I store it in the grey dry bag on my rear rack. I'm 6'2 and it's just....well....humane to be able to stand in a tent. The vestibule is big enough for others to hang out in during inclement weather or to work on your bike. Can't say enough good things about this product. If you have a bike with good suspension then a few extra pounds doesn't become noticeable.



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A few pints and a bottle of wine later and the day ended. We got an email from Pelvis and the gang. They were camped out at the Manic 2 dam along the Trans Labrador/Quebec Highway. Yehaa, they are within striking distance Maybe we'll catch up tomorrow.




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[deadly99]

Day three began uneventful...for me. The showers were about 2 km's up the road, no way was I walking first thing in the morning. I tried, I even pushed my bike down the hill to avoid starting it near our camp spot. I guess an uncorked Akrpovic's sound carries. Sorry Dan


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Bikes packed and ready to hit the road. The weather report looked decent for the day. A few showers but nothing crazy.


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Today would be another day of pavement. I'm usually not too keen on riding slab, especially watching my new tires get chewed BUT today the scenery more than made up for the lack of gravel. Following the North coast of the St Lawrence river there was always something to keep the mind occuppied. The hills got bigger, great views of the water and the small towns were right out of a postcard.


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In the photo below can you read Dan's lips? I think they are saying something like "stop taking photo's dumbass this truck is about to ram me"


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[deadly99]

Did I mention the nice scenery today? This area of Quebec is called the Charlevoix region. Highway 138 (which these pics are from) follow the north shore of the St Lawrence River. This wasn't the first time I'd been up this road but the scenery doesn't get boring. If you have the time there are a few cool things to do along this road. Some of the towns make for nice stops, there's whale watching trips, tons of art galleries and so on.


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In the above photo you can see a ferry. It cuts across to the Gaspe Bay area and makes for a different approach to this area. If I'm not mistaken there is also a ferry from Baie Comeaux over to the Gaspe. Depending on which direction you are coming from or heading too these ferries might make sense to take.



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Along this road there is a "free" ferry, well I suppose our tax dollars pay for it, you must take. It drops you off in the small town of Tadoussac. This town has a few small restaurants and a gas station. Worth the stop in my opinion, pretty cool little town.



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It was in Tadoussac that I decided to check the level of coolant in my bike. Red lights, etc had been causing the bike's heat to sky rocket. Well this is normally a 2 second procedure. Remove cap from coolant resorvoir, check level and fill if needed. Well it needed but my butter fingers screwed me again. The freaking cap goes flying off my "nub" and into the fairing somewhere with an obvious "ping" sound. Nub? Ya I'm missing a finger and I'm going to use it as an excuse. I don't get a handicap sticker to park or any other perks from it so I'm going to use it now as an excuse. Well there is one added benefit to only having half an index finger, when using a drive through I balance a dollar or two dollar coin (loonie or toonie for those non Canucks) on the nub and put my hand out the window. Each and every employee go for the grab then pull back, then go for the grab again then pull back again. Small things amuse me So we thought the cap was in the upper fairing, took it off and no dice. Behind the gas tank...nope Then Dan spots it, I get a skinny little stick and almost reach it.....then `ping` off it goes and you can here it ricochetting around the inside of the bike. Finally found it in the sump guard. Unneeded BS. Always happens during the hottest part of the day, and ALWAYS with a crowd watching.



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I think during this next stretch both Dan and myself hit the wall. I was trying real hard not to fall asleep at the bars. Maybe the build up of the last week, the high speeds yesterday that came to a crawl today with having to go through small towns and red lights Who knows but we made Baie Comeaux and we were both beat. Energy drinks and coffee, that`s what was needed before heading north up the Trans Lab


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And finally what we came for. The first 200 km's of the Trans Lab is paved sadly...BUT it is some seriously fun twisty roads. A great ride from the beginning to the Manic 5 dam where the gravel begins


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Manic Two dam. This is where the other guys had camped the night before. Our goal was to make Lab City today and potentially catch up to them. The sun was shining and we were making good time, enjoying the scenery and really enjoying leaning the bikes over. Very little traffic and 200 km's of twisty roads.



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The land of electricity. The reason for most of these northern roads


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Starting to feel like your getting somewhere when you see these signs



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Made it to Manic Five dam around 5 pm and decided to call it a day. Rain was just around the corner and the temps began to drop. 300+ km's of gravel just wasn't on the plate for the evening, heck this is supposed to be a vacation. Asked the lady at the pump where the camp ground was and she pointed to a field Then she says for an extra 20 bucks each we could have a room Room it was, hot shower and some good eats.



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I decided to take the sheepskin of the bike to keep it dry. Well...the key broke in half in the lock My spare key is twisted on a 45 degree angle and barely fits into the ignition and the key is butter soft, no biggy except i need to take it out to open both of the gas tanks every time I'll need fuel. What are the chances of this key not breaking ? Really? ANother dam issue to worry about. Can a locksmith even copy a key that's this bent out of shape.....

[deadly99]

Woke up to rain We knew it was coming and here it is. Ah well, less dust right. Today the gravel starts...finally I've been looking forward to this road for a few years now, seems like every year they were saying that this is the year the road gets completed, well 2010 and it's finished.

Just around the corner from our motel is the Manic 5 dam. It's BIG



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It always seems odd to be in the middle of nowhere and then to see something man made. Mines or dams.....the scale of these operations in the north country always blows me away.

Hit the road and it wasn't dissapointing. Fast and fun. The rain would come and go. One valley would be dry then the next one would be hammering rain. Every time you'd come over a rise you'd be crossing your fingers.


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The shoulders were VERY soft. Almost got caught a few times hugging the inside corners of some turns. Took a while to break the habit.



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About 50 km's in I had a HUGE pucker moment. Coming down into one of the dips (valleys) I just about went down at speed. The sand builds up deep in the dips. The water then turns the sand into very thick concrete like stuff. The bars got yanked left and right a few times before finally getting stuck at the stop on the right side while the bike kept going straight, front wheel plowing through the stuff. I had to stop and let the old ticker slow down.



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Approximately a 100 km's from manic 5 is a middle of nowhere gas station. We stopped to fill up and have a quick coffee. Spirits were high, we'd learned to slow down in the "dips" and Dan had himself a religious moment. He cranked his new to him steering dampner up and was nothing but grins. I NEED to get one of those. He'd just straight track right through the stuff that was trying to rip the bars from my hands, I was very jealous.



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Filled up, helmets on and ready to go. Turn my key, everything lights up, hit the start button and hear a whiz, pop, whiz, zap then everything goes dark. WTF !. Turn the key again and nothing. Wave Dan down and explain I'll need his tools as mine are "locked" away under my seat with a broken key stuff in the lock. I take the skidplate off and get access to the battery (please keep in mind this is in the rain, lieing in the mud ). Tighten up the terminal post nuts and a few other odd's and end's. Reach up, turn the key and everything lights up, yehaa, something must of been loose. So we repack the bikes, get geared up, high five and jump on the bikes to leave. Turn the key, everything normal, hit the start button and whiz, pop, whiz, zap again. ARG! take off gear, remove gear, get Dan's tools, remove skid plate, get acess to the battery and sit and stare....hmmmmm.....I'm no electrician and I'm not really sure what to do. My gps is hard wired to the battery, it's the only electrical item not being run through the bikes charging system. Remove the battery leads and gps wires and the bike starts right up. I suspect a wire got rubbed one too many times and was exposed and coming into contact with something metal somewhere. Who cares, bike is back up and running. Bit of a pisser as I was hopeing to make a nice gpx file for the route but that can be done after the fact I suppose. When the weather gets better I'll take a few hours and try to properly find the issue and rewire the gps.

Back on the road. The weather was adding a cool factor to this part of thre road. The clouds were hanging down real low. As you'd cross a "mountain" you'd be up in the clouds, coming down the other side you'd either break free from the clouds or have a valley that was pissing rain.



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Quick rest stops in area's where it wasn't raining. Drying gloves off One more advantage to an uncorked exhaust.



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Out in the middle of nowhere we were surprised to find a beauty of a stretch of smooth pavement. Normally I'd be dissappointed but in today's rain it was a nice welcome relief. If memory serves it was about 80+ km's long. The sun even came out at one point, weird weather.



http://64.136.20.22/2820316_l.jpg


The section after the pavement leading to Labrador City was a fun ride. The road criss crosses the railroad tracks and the road was FUN. Up, down and side to side.



http://64.136.20.22/2820317_l.jpg


http://64.136.20.22/2820318_l.jpg



http://64.136.20.22/2820319_l.jpg



http://64.136.20.22/2820320_l.jpg



And we made it, finally out of Quebec and into the province of Labrador. A first for me and Dan. There's always something exciting about getting somewhere new.


http://64.136.20.22/2820323_l.jpg


A classic :victory:


http://64.136.20.22/2820322_l.jpg

[deadly99]

I a'm not going to cross post all the dribble and whatnot from advrider but if your bored there is a bunch more info on our thread over there, as well as posts from other folks who were along for each ride. Once I catch up to real time with this thread I'll begin to include some of their stuff as I post into this thread.

I will include some of their photo's though as they were having there own ride which nincluded some memorable moments for them. Some good some scary.


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_sXoEJexBHJE/TFd3ebfMOtI/AAAAAAAAAwg/zEc7Iu0mvgo/s800/P7250033.JPG


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_sXoEJexBHJE/TFd3gzZB3lI/AAAAAAAAAwg/ZsU5NBINT-k/s800/P7250034.JPG


http://lh3.ggpht.com/_sXoEJexBHJE/TFd3pLd3kTI/AAAAAAAAAwg/eyCUnhIQEug/s800/P7250037.JPG


http://lh3.ggpht.com/_sXoEJexBHJE/TFd3qiqJcaI/AAAAAAAAAwg/n7q3GHLndGo/s800/P7250040.JPG

Chriss does an endo and crashes at 50 mph :Wow1:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_BiO6170Q9Gk/TFNrgb_aigI/AAAAAAAAFUo/QXW3oCRAY3A/s640/DSCF0218.JPG


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_BiO6170Q9Gk/TFNr0xACtVI/AAAAAAAAFUw/MtODlsjQ67E/s640/DSCF0219.JPG


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_1DQBPgeog0o/TGGNWLSyhpI/AAAAAAAAAHY/ewN7KRRV5lk/s800/SNV83148.JPG


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_1DQBPgeog0o/TGGOCC-ikgI/AAAAAAAAAH4/0iug_2I7vq8/s800/SNV83156.JPG



http://lh3.ggpht.com/_1DQBPgeog0o/TGGkfeuEiaI/AAAAAAAAAKA/Szz3YZrNTBA/s800/SNV83177.JPG


Flat tires, black flies, tons of rain and a couple of crashes. The fellows ahead of us were having a great time :ylsmoke:



http://lh4.ggpht.com/_BiO6170Q9Gk/TFN5giVOdlI/AAAAAAAAFYQ/JYkNp_gBRWQ/s640/DSCF0227.JPG


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_1DQBPgeog0o/TGGk5k3kryI/AAAAAAAAANE/L2M6YEJfRww/s640/SNV83224.JPG

[deadly99]

Rolled into Lab City and fueled up the bikes and went searching for somewhere to have lunch. Somewhere with real food, you know the type, something hearty and healthy, fuel for the body type of food.



http://64.136.20.22/2820324_l.jpg



After a couple of quick cell phone calls to our families and friends we hit the road again. On a side note, only Bell phones work in Labrador, Newfoundland and northern Quebec. Fido, Rogers, etc get zero coverage.


The ride from Lab City to Churchill Falls is approximately 300 km's. The 50 km's outside of Lab City are paved and the rest was a nice fast and fun gravel section. We made short work of this section, really flying along, foot out around the corners type of riding. I had a blast The rain was intemittant and the low clouds and fog made the scenery kind of spooky.


http://64.136.20.22/2820325_l.jpg



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We were to meet the rest of the group at the gas station in town at 6 pm. We were half an hour early and went and explored the town. No offence meant but Churchill Falls is ****. Compared to Lab City with it's clean look and facilities Churchill has nothing. One crappy gas station, one over priced hotel, one bar that was empty, etc This town only exists to house people who work on the hydro facility. If you have the choice stay in Lab City or Goose Bay and only use this as a gas stop. Anyways.......we waited and the guys didnt show up, it started raining hard so we checked into the local hotel and looked forward to a warm meal and a couple of cold beers. The restaurant doesn't sell alcohol SO a hot meal and wet ride down to the gas staion for a six pack and we retired to our room. Got an email from the other guys saying they were making real slow progress and had pushed on to Goose Bay. no worries we'll catchup tomorrow sometime.


http://64.136.20.22/2820338_l.jpg


The gas station runs an accomodation business. 88$ for an apartment, beds for two but you can crowd in and the rate stays the same. Maybe a good option for larger groups?



http://64.136.20.22/2820341_l.jpg


We drove around in the rain but couldn't find thids place but might be worth looking into if you plan on spending a night here. No campgrounds in town but you can camp out on the church grounds. Didn't look appealing to us in the pouring rain though.


http://64.136.20.22/2820340_l.jpg



Well that finishes off day four of this ride. Roads were fun and demanded concentration. Scenery was excellent and all in all we had a great day, made good mileage and had a few good laughs and a few moments of frustration as well.

[Christian P.]

Wow. Thank you so much for doing this.

I am originally from Quebec and use to ride my dual purpose all over Northern Quebec. Now I have to go back!

[deadly99]

Wow. Thank you so much for doing this.

I am originally from Quebec and use to ride my dual purpose all over Northern Quebec. Now I have to go back!


No worries, lot's of good stuff to come. The name of our website (currently advcanada.com) is going to change and the site is going to be upgraded and changed to reflect a more "overlanding" type of theme as opposed to just bikes.

This route is certainly not a 4x4 hardcore offroad route, but rather a primarily gravel road route across the country. There are a few technical (optional) sections mind you that shouold throw some excitement in for folks who'd like that. Our goal is that a stock suv (awd) could complete the route. Might want some good AT tires, etc In total the route is shaping up to be about 15, 000 km's.....thats a bloddy long drive. So realistically if you want your vechicle to still be driving after you finish the terrain has to be somewhat tame.

Anyways, thanks for the kudo's :26_7_2:

[deadly99]

Woke up early the next morning and eager to hit the roads. The rain was still coming down with moments of only drizzle and fog. Stopped by the gas station and filled up my aux fuel solution. I had a 10 liter Dromedary bag with me. The next stretch was to Goose Bay and was approximately 300 km's. We were hoping to get there by 11, have a Tim's lunch then push on down the new section of road. Plans never work do they

Today we had planned to ride a gravel road up to the top of the Smallwood Resorvoir (280 km return) and see how far north we could get up some atv trails we had heard about.

I was a bit bummed the guys hadn't waited for us in Churchill, but on the other hand given the weather, atv trails would probably not of been a good idea in the middle of nowhere with loaded bikes. Dan and I discussed why they wouldn't have stopped. At first I was a bit pissed off, heck we'd just busted our butts to make the meeting time, stood around in the rain for an hour waiting and all that crap. After a warm shower, hot food and a cold beer the frustration had disappeared. Maybe they are really struggelling with the road conditions and or weather. Better safe than sorry I suppose, if they were having a hard time with the main road (TLH) perhaps a day of backroad exploration wouldn't be a wise choice. I tried to put myself into their shoes and came to the understanding that they most have known we would be disappointed but thought it was still the better choice to push on and try to make the ferry in Blanc Sablon. Turns out they did make the good choice.

So dan and I headed off down the TLH hoping to make quick work of this section and both mumbeling about the Tim's that is three hours away.

Well after about 70 km's I catch up to Dan and he is coasting and hitting the start button on his bike, clutch in. He comes to a stop and I ask what's going on. He shrugs......I can tell he looks pissed off and grumpy...hmmm....



http://64.136.20.22/2820342_l.jpg



We try to start his bike but it won't catch, well it does once, idels real low then stalls. I notice dan was driving with his choke part way on. Hmmmm...does this mean it would have flooded or ? Well we decide it's flooded, so what to do? We try the regular approach to a flooded bike, twist throttle hit starter for a few seconds, then release throttle and let it turn over until it catches. Well it doesn't catch. We should pull the plugs to see if they are fowled. Dan has a spark plug wrench (CJ Designs I believe) but we don't have a socket wrench to fit it We try using vise grips and other odd contraptions to get it to work but no go. A few more tries of the start button and the battery fails. Cables? nope

So we wait, and wait and wait. A nice drizzle to keep us company. Black flies are out in full force and they seem very pissed off. Not much traffic at this time of the day. We take turns flagging down the vechicles as they pass asking for a boost, no one has cable or won't admit they have cables. One dude in a truck says "ya but they are buried in the back and it would be an inconvience to get them" and burns off leaving us in a spray of gravel


I'm not sure how long we sat there for, a couple of hours at least. I spent alot of that time with my jacket pulled up over my head, lieing in the ditch and waiting. I must have left an ear exposed at one point because it got bitten to heck. Swelled right up nice and puffy. Black flies EVERYWHERE, in your ears, nose, etc. I will NEVER live somewhere with blackflies like this.....EVER!

Finally an older guy pulls over and says he doesn't have cables but can help us out. Says he will be back in a bit and takes off up the road. About 20 minutes later he shows up, with no cables....BUT says he told his mechanic to come see us with his tool truck The guy must have been a big wig on the road crew to have pulled that off. I forgot his name but cheers to you man

The tool guy shows up and we discuss what's been happening. He let's us use his tools and we get the spark plug off and were very surprised to see it was bone dry. WTF not what we were expecting to see. Hmmm....so starved of fuel. We charge the battery and turn the key, hold on I didn't hear the fuel pump pressurizing. Sweet! Dan has a spare fuel pump he got for free from someone on the web just for such an occassion. Hells Bells baby we're back in business




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Me...sick of the black flies and tired out and we have barely gotten going.




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I had a nice chat with the mechanic. 35 years old and having a tough go of life. He's from Newfoundland and says there isnt much work there. Alot of his buddies went of to work in the oil patches in Alberta and all but one came home broke and with a mean drug habit, he says he'd rather live on welfare than go that route. I can't blame him. Keep in mind this fellow is a master mechanic, licensed and all that other stuff. He works 28 days on, 6 days off. They charge an arm and a leg for him to share a trailer with a bunch of other road crew guys. no tv, no staellite reception, no phones, etc He's married and has a kid and doesn't get to keep in touch for a month at a time. They work 16 hours a day for 6 days a week. Sunday is a rest day, you only work an 8 hour shift. CRAZY His take home pay is just under a 1000 bucks a week. He tell's me his wife told him just before leaving for this "tour of duty" that she is leaving him and taking the kid. Imagine that brewing in your head for 28 days. I guess the fellows that don't work and sit around on welfare scoop up the other guys wives while they are away. My freaking heart was going out to this guy....BIG TIME. Through all that he was happy and chiper. He wasn't complaining just telling me the way it is up there. The guy even gave us a few tools fwe might need from his truck....solid guy indeed. Dan gave him a bit of green backs to have a pint or twenty that night and we bid him bon voyage and hit the road again.



http://64.136.20.22/2820358_l.jpg

[deadly99]

And it started to rain...big time rain..cold rain driving in sheets. It had been raining for some time but not like this. The kind of rain that soaks threw any type of rain gear in seconds. Bummer I don't have alot of photo's from the rest of the day but I'll do my best to tell the tale.

The rest of the ride to Goose Bay went by fast, no lolly gagging, just riding hard with next to no visibility at times. It's hard to enjoy yourself when the weather is like this. The road was in decent shape, a bit muddy at times but nothing that really slowed us down.

When we got to the pavement stretch near Goose Bay you could feel your spirits rise. We hadn't ate breakfast and left at 6:45 am. We thought we'd be at a Tim's within a few hours and had decided to hold tough. SO when the pavement came I gave her some good throttle, yehaa...warmth and coffee on the horizon The speed limit dropped from 80 km/h to 50 all of a sudden and sure enough there's a police car coming the other way. We make eye contact...damn.....what to do, a quick look shows I'm doing about 130 km/h in a 50 zone.....hmmm.....hmmm...crack the throttle and let him hear the roar from my exhaust. Bold choice, quick decsision. Play dumb and say I didn't see him if he spins her around or he'll just say screw that I'm not chasing this guy. Yehaa he didn't chase........but....Dan is behind me...sorry Dan What was I to do, turn around and pass him to get to you to warn you? No sir. So on I pushed into town and found the Tim's. It was 3 in the afternoon. Instead of three hours it took us over 8 hours to get here, no food, no coffee. Soaking wet and very cold I stripped down and order lunch. Half an hour later dan shows up......again sorry Dan. Yes he got a big ticket, the cop informed him half of it was for "your buddy on the white bike". Dan happy? NOPE

[deadly99]

The obligatory sign coming into Happy Valley

http://64.136.20.22/2820359_l.jpg


Rain rain and more rain

http://64.136.20.22/2820360_l.jpg


SO me and Dan have a serious non fun chat. Our ferry leaves the next day at 3pm, we need to be there by 2pm at the latest. If we stay in Goose Bay for the night there is no way we'll make it tomorrow. Not the end of the world but it means we won't catch up to the other guys and Pelvis was to join us for a week of riding around NFLD. I can't do that to him, we'd both been quite excitied about the trip and we'd had many garage beer nights talking and planning the trip together. So the only we'd make it would be to push on and do at least half of the new section of road in order to have a fighting chance of making the ferry. It was raining VERY hard and it was very cold. Dan wanted to stay in Goose bay and I wanted to push on. a wee bit of tension between friends So we came to an agreement, we'd push on and do the new section of road (about 400 km's) and not stop until we came to a motel. No way did Dan want to camp in the rain in the middle of nowhere and I kind of agreed with him. We'd had a long day already and both wanted a warm shower and a hot meal. So at 4 pm we left Tim's and headed to get fuel. Filled the bikes and my aux fuel bladder and made our way out of town and found the new road.

[deadly99]

The new section.......


It was in great shape, fast and smooth for the most part. There is a bridge that is worth mention ing shortly after beginning. One of those metal grated surfaces that makes the bike a challenge to keep going straight.

We came across the section that was still under construction, about 18 km's long. It was in rough shape, very muddy. 1st and 2nd gear type of terrain.

After this we started making good time again. A quick stop to fill up my fuel tanks and we were off again.


The more it rained the bigger the potholes became. Some were about 6 feet across and the depth varied. Due to the muddy water you couldn't tell if they were 2 inches deep or 18 inches deep. As we were racing along up on the pegs the deeper potholes would rip your legs right off the pegs. A few pucker moments indeed.

All in all the new section is in good shape, had it not been so slick from the rain it would have been a nice ride.

My fuel light came on.....well we must be almost there. I get about 40 km's out of reserve on my bike, I know I've run it dry before (another story for another time ). After 10 km's of being on reserver I see a sign post that says 94 km's to Port Hope Simpson. I stop and wait for Dan. He asks what's up and I relay the sad info, I'm not going to make it. Dan says his fuel light has been on for the last dozen km's as well. Dan "guesses" that his will go longer due to the shape of gas tanks which are aftermarket and says he has 2 liters of spare fuel on board. With no choice in the matter this becomes the plan. I'll ride until I run out, Dan will continue on and IF he makes it to town and IF the gas station is still open he'll come back and bring me gas. This will mean a couple of hours sitting on the side of the road wondering if he'll come back.

Did I mention it was cold? Dan was getting concerned for me. He has a heated vest and grips where as I have notta. I was wet right threw and freezing. My lower lip started to go blue, my teeth were chatterring and I couldn't use my fingers anymore. Dan had to do my zippers up on my coat as I couldn't make a fist anymore. I was using only palms on the grips as I couldn't get my fingers to bend anymore. "**** Dan this isn't looking good". When I run out I'll quickly setup my tent on the road and get my cook stove out and try to warm up the inside. I have one change of dry clothes left and my sleeping bag should be dry.

So off we headed, it was starting to get dark. Why did our bikes get such crappy fuel mileage I can only guess. We knew fuel was going to be an issue but our math showed we would have some to spare. Other than the construction zone I had been keeping the bike in the bottom of 6th gear the entire way, low on the revs trying to limit my fuel consumption. This meant riding pretty darned fast around corners in the mud with bad vsisbility. I think maybe all the potholes and loose mud created drag, also the front/side wind that was gusting played a major role as well.

I think you can imagine what was going on in my helmet. It wasn't pretty at all I rode, crouched down behind the windsheild staring at my odometer. I saw Dan run out behind me along the way and thought "crap no way is 2 liters going to get him the rest of the way". My bike just kept going and going. Doing the math every 30 seconds in my head trying to keep my frozen brain concentrating on how far I was from town. I saw 85 km's on my odo, 85 km's on reserve ! I may just make it ! Now I am not a religious man, more of a Darwin fellow but I prayed to God. First time in my life outside of funerals. "Come on buddy, I don't ask much, 5 more km's is all I need" kind of a prayer. No sooner had I said amen then I ran out of gas. Lights out, almost dark, hadn't seen a car in a long time and don't suspect I will until morning. Dan is somewhere behind me probably out of gas as well. SON OF A B&TCH, you've got to be kidding me. How far to town? 5-8 km's based on my math. 2 hour hike in mx boots in the dark and freezing cold. Do it or set up camp?

The new section.....SLICK :Wow1:


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_sXoEJexBHJE/TFdeaQvEF9I/AAAAAAAAAwg/GHzgL2eONkE/s800/P7260059.JPG

[deadly99]

Well I'd decided to setup camp. I was simply to cold and tired to push on. No sooner had I came to this choice when all of a sudden I see headlights coming from the North. Hell I hadn't even see a road back there. This real nice fellow drives up in a truck and says he saw my headlight go out and thought I'd maybe had an accident. I asked if I could siphon a liter of gas from his truck and he says he can do one better, he has a gerry can with 4 liters in it.

Yehaa! I put a liter in my bike and explain that Dan is back behind me somewhere. No worries he says. As he's heading back to give Dan some gas Dan's headlight comes around the bend. Unbelievable ! After getting such crappy gas mileage both our bikes go the distance on the last couple of liters. An honest offer to buy this guy beers at the hotel later that night and we're off.

One more turn in the road and voila ! The lights of Port Hope Simpson across the bridge at the bottom of the small hill. I can't believe I was going to camp a 15 minute walk away from town.

Damn were we stoked. High fives and loud cheers !!!

Got to the hotel and the lady says she is full but to hang tight for a minute. A few minutes and Pelvis comes out of the restaurant. Hells bells baby we're warm and food and beers are only minutes away :)

The small hotel was full so I threw my thermarest of Pelvis's floor, spread my gear out to dry, got changed and hit the bar. Damn fun night. Got to meet the guys I had barely met and in Martin's case had never met. Did a bit of bench racing, had some average at best food that went down as if it was fine cuisine. Beers and whiskeys and beers and more whiskeys until only Pelvis and I were left. Eventually they got sick of us and closed the bar.

Pelvis is a tequila guy and I'd brought a special bottle just for this occasion. A friend brought the bottle to me from his home town in Mexico. It did not dissappoint ! Thanks Huey !

A bit of background. Pelvis is on a personnel quest...to get drunk in every province and territory in Canada. Seriously. He's even flown into Nunavut with a case of beer for a day. Well, Labrador was the second one left and I feel we didn't disappoint :). Late night doing shots until it was empty and then I passed out with a big warm smile on my face....or something along those lines I think ;)




Woke up the next morning and had the first relaxed start of the trip. Breakfast, repack all my gear now that it has dried out, even lounged around drinking coffee. The hotel in Port Hope Simpson is...well.....really....a bunch of portable's strung together. Warm and dry ? Yes Cheap? Nope



http://64.136.20.22/2820361_l.jpg


I think some of us were feeling a bit groggy this morning

Pelvis....



http://64.136.20.22/2820368_l.jpg



Chris, eager and keen as always



http://64.136.20.22/2820369_l.jpg


Martin...if I was a betting man I'd say he was looking forward to the end of the gravel


http://64.136.20.22/2820370_l.jpg



A look in the daylight at the hotel. It looked like paradise the night before



http://64.136.20.22/2820362_l.jpg


Had a look at the damage the beemer bike's had occured. Scratched, dented and broken but still rolling along


Now....I am not sure how to even approach this subject without offending anyone. The folks of Labrador and Newfoundland (from what little I saw and I hate to generalize but this needs to be said) are some of the kindest and most friendly people I have ever met while travelling. Real salt of the earth type of folks. BUT.......a percentage of them have what I can only describe as "The East Coast Glaze". I sincerely am not trying to be rude or to offend anyone but it seems like a small percentage of folks out this way have a "far away" look in their eye. The staff at this hotel seem to have this unique characteristic. Like when they put a menu in fornt of you then just stare off into outer space for...well forever until you snap your fingers and get their attention. Something in the water? Not enough gene's in the pool ? This seems to only affect a small percentage of the population from what I saw but it seems to come in clusters. Go and have dinner and a night's stay in Port Hope Simpson and you'll see what I mean, it's kind of spooky, like a weird sci fi movie or something Stephen King would better describe in one of his books. On the ferry, on the rock, heck even in Nova Scotia we encountered these clusters of folks. Again, not trying to offend just felt it needed to be said. The majority seemed like real quick, smart everyday folk.


Perhaps someone local to the area could add some input here? was it just us who noticed this? Is it a real issue and just never spoken of? Were we dreaming...was it too many miles in the cold rain that messed up our heads and we were the odd ones?
__________________

[deadly99]

We all fueled up and hit the road. First day in a while that it wasn't raining Still damp and misty but not raining.


http://64.136.20.22/2820371_l.jpg


It was good to finally be riding with everyone. No more rushing to catch up, no more dakar rally speeds, just cruising and enjoying the vista's. This section of the road was my favourite, I suppose I'm biased based on the weather and whatnot but finally the tree's started to dissappear and the views were what I was hoping for. Very rugged terrain, rocky and windy. Really felt "out there" and "up north".


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Renaud packing everything but the kitchen sink



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The winds REALLy picked up for a stretch. A strong cross wind only added to the feeling of being out there. It was quite strong and from other ride reports I've read of the TLH this wasn't unique for us to encounter.




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Don't buy whatever gloves Pelvis had



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Yehaa First view of the Atlantic Ocean. Mixed feeling for me, excited to get to the coast but a bit bummed that the gravel was going to be over.


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[deadly99]

So we got to the end of the gravel. My bike had been making a heck of a rattle for the last hour or so When we got to the small town where the ashpalt starts I got off to have a look. My exhaust pipe had cracked right through just where it comes out of the rear cyclinder. This was causing the bike to run bad, overheat and casuing a heck of a noise. Renauld had a few o clamps and I was going to get a soda can and rig something up, no worries. Then a local tells us what time it is...**** we forgot about the time change. We now barely have enough time to catch the ferry. Given my bikes condition I take off for the ferry leaving the other fellows changing brake pads on one of the GS's.

The asphalt ride to Blanc Sablon was great. Nice road, fun twists and excellent scenery. The small fishing villages are fantastic, right out of a post card.


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I did not realize that we would be entering Quebec again along this road. Of course I could have guessed a town called Blanc Sablon was french.



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Now I also did not realize how small of a town Blanc Sablon was going to be. For some reason I just assumed it was a small city. Ferry and how many times the name had been spoken due to it being the last stop in what we thought would be Labrador. Blanc Sablon is wee, not much there if you were thinking along the same lines as us.


http://64.136.20.22/2825751_l.JPG


In the backtground is downtown Blanc Sablon in the above photo


We got to the ferry, checked in and got in line. Worth noting is that you don't really need reservations for this ferry. The lady at the counter told me they would never leave a bike behind I like that attitude. Driving a truck? make a reservation ! Blanc Sablon doesnt look like the nicest spot to get stuck in, beauty scenery for sure just not much else to do.

http://64.136.20.22/2825752_l.JPG


So.....................

Not exactly sure what took place here. Dan was trying to get his rain pants off, a nice stranger saw him struggeling and offered to help.



http://64.136.20.22/2825759_l.JPG


So............................ somehow they ended up in this position. As everyone was staring I blurted out (yes I have no control over my tongue)..."Hey Dan, bet you didn't think you'd find love in Labrador". Renaud spit his drink out, Dan's face went red, the stranger looked..well...shocked and embarassed...and me...I had water rolling out of my eye's I was laughing so hard. At this point I hear someone ask how it tasted and this just set me off laughing again. Man if the stranger is watching I am truely sorry to have such a laugh at your expense, but damn was it funny. Dan.....what the hell was going on?



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Got on the small ferry (it's about a 1.5 hour ride) and tied down our bikes (they provide straps).



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Had a walk about deck as we took off. If I couldnt ride bikes I'd ride boats, I love being out on the water.


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Met this fellow from the Toronto area (forgot your name, sorry). He was riding a vstrom and had also just finished the TLH. He was two days ahead of us and said he had percet weather, nice and sunny and dusty. He'd said he did the museum and stay in red bay and mentioned it was great. We'd met before at a few riding events in Ontario. Cheers, see ya next time, small world


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[deadly99]

So.....a hard decision was made. I decided on the ferry to end this trip short and head home. This was not an easy choice for me by any means. A few factors lead to me to this choice. The surgery I was recovering from was acting up and the idea of being "out here" and having it kick in again and needing a specialist scared the crap out of me My bike was running like crap and needed work. My budget for the trip was blown to hell because of hotel sleeps instead of camping (no regrets I hate camping in the rain when a hotel in nearby) and bike repairs, I was catching a cold (runny nose and sore throat) and this was not a good thing for a recovery from said surgery, we had done the TLH and that was one of three ticks for the trip and the only tick for most of the fellows, the weather forecast showed one good day then another week of rain on the island, my wife is trying to get her business up and running and I promised I'd have the construction phase done for her but left before completing it (yes she was pissed), I have alot of trips left to come and the extra bucks not spent could go towards this, next year SkiBum69 will have the Newfoundland section done and I'll come back and ride it with him.

So a hard choice was made, not one I was proud to announce but one I felt needed to be made.
__________________




After getting off the ferry pelvis and myself headed south to deal with the ferry situation while everyone else headed north to the viking museum. Having a photo of a viking on my bike (ya not a real one but hey) was one of the ticks I wanted on this trip. I'm a geek at heart and love anything to do with swords and medeval times Pelvis had no more rear brakes and was scraping rotot and I believe he felt he'd had a good trip and was willing to join me for the drive home...thanks Pelvis Would have been a long drive home by myself.

We had been hearing rumours of how crazy bad the ferry situation was. Four of the guys had made reservations for two days later leaving from Port Aux Basques but we (Dan, Pelvis and myself) hadn't as we figured we would do it once we got to the island and looked at the weather, the calendar and how we were feeling. So we called the ferry terminal and were informed the next opening was 3 weeks away Jeepers this just won't do. We chatted with a few other bikers at some gas stations and they were telling us tales of people waiting in line for 9 days on standby Jeepers this won't do either. The newspapers were telling how the next day the local trucking companies planned on blockading the ferry terminals so no one could get a ferry As I understand it a broken down boat and bad weather had screwed uo the schedule big time. Also a coouple of big trucking companies booked every available commercail spot on every ferry for the summer and then would cancel at the last minute if one of their trucks wasn't going to be on it, this was really screwing the small trucking companies over. In years past it used to be a first come first serve...but the government in all their wisdom implemented this new reservation system and it sure didn't seem to be working out. So without many choices we headed south down the island and figured we would see what we could do.

The drive down the highway was absolutely gorgeous. Breaking waves on our right as the sun set over the water horizon, nice granite looking rock faces on our left, very little traffic and a very smooth road with some nice bends. Picture perfect.



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We spent the night in a small town called Rocky Harbour which is tucked into the bay on the left of the above photo. I needed to get on the web and see what I could do about the ferry situation. Nice hotel, good food, cold beers (yes this was Pelvis's last province/territory to complete his list, CONGRATS on fullfilling your dreams Pelvis ) and the lady at the concierge let me use her computer.

We tried phoning the ferries but a message simply said we are too busy, try another day please...WTF ! I logged into their site and was greeted with all red x's showing every ferry was full except for tomorrow at 6pm...well I quickly picked two people and a motorbike, then i realized that meant they would think two people on one bike, I added this to the shopping cart and went back to add another bike/person but the ferry now showed full. Screw it I went to the shopping cart and hit buy, the price dropped and the bike was removed. Screw it I hit pay and got a reservation for 2 passenegers with no vechicle. Went back to the site and it now showed that ferry as full and no other ferries as having a spot open (even for passenegers for the next 2 weeks). So good/not good news. The plan.......SMILE...it's hard to get mad or deny people with big grins


Woke up the next morning and had a great drive down the rest of the island. Have I raved enough yet about how beautiful NFLD is?

Heck they even brag about how clean their washrooms are at gas stations



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We stopped off the highway to get gas in this small town. The local kids all showing off doing wheelies, etc The lady at the pumps says "you must be roasting".....I still had the liner for my coat on, windy and about 15 degrees celcius...she informs me it was the warmest day so far this year Coming to NFLD, bring warm clothes, summer is a relative term


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While driving down the road I spot this guy in the middle of nowhere and spin her around to have a chat.


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Meet Joe. Joe has been walking for a year and a half. He left Victoria BC in the fall of 2008. A real cool guy and he had made a real neat rig. Perfectly balanced, nice sun/rain cover etc. Joe only plans one day at a time and if it rains he stays put. Wow what a difference than the last week of my life. I was very envious of him at this point. Real interesting fellow to say the least, if you see Joe, stop and say gidday Of course I had to take his rig for a spin



http://64.136.20.22/2825770_l.JPG



When we got to Port Aux basques we headed straight for the ferry and got in line to get our tickets. Now.....Pelvis isn't always the most smiley guy I re-enforced to him to just keep grinning. We got to the front of the line and played dumb with the sweet gal. "But I picked two motorbikes on the drop down", "well then I'll just pay the difference", "well no worries we'll wait and get the next boat". Boat full, no way, next one, full no way, etc She says hold on I'll get my manager, this grouch of a lady comes up (yes I understand these people have been yelled at all day everyday by pissed off people but seriously that isn't my issue is it, cheer up my taxes are paying your salary ) and says right out of the gate, no way no chance in fact I don't even want to see those bikes cross this line. ARG..."keep smiling Pelvis". The sweet heart in the ticket booth leans out and says "Just drive, ignore her when she screams and drive right by the food and immgration people, DO NOT stop. There is a building down on the left where people can complain. I'll phone ahead and tell them you are coming." Smiling worked. A quick thanks and vroom. "Hey, stop those bikes" Vroom


When we get to the complaints department you can tell people are pissed off and have been waiting a LONG time. "keep smiling Pelvis". This over the top gay fellow seems to be in charge and is telling his employee to keep telling people the boats are full, nothing they can do about it. He looks up and down the line up and spots me and Pelvis smiling like idiots (the only people smiling in the whole place), leans over to the young girl and says something, she replies "Susie from up front called and said these two would be coming here". Well he looks us up and down, winks and rolls his eye's in that gay I'm checking you out manner So without breaking the smile off my face I wink back.....wow shivers up and down my spine, I can hear pelvis freaking out behind his perma grin, lol The fellow tells the yound lady that me and Pelvis will be getting on the next boat and winks as he walks away Hells bells baby, we're on. Not only that but he gives us a cabin with two beds, a tv and a private bathroom

[deadly99]

We had a few hours to kill so we drove back into town and hit up a Canadian Tire to do a "get home job" on my exhaust.

The break

http://64.136.20.22/2825777_l.JPG


The tools


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The after


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While doing this Pelvis notices my chain guard is all bent up and inside the spokes of my rear wheel. Well that explains some of the rough running behaviour my bike has been having for the last 20 minutes. I cut out the chain guard and WOW is my chain loose. I had tightened it a few times during this trip and prior to leaving and wasn't having any issues. When they start to go they go fast I could almost remove the chain from the sprocket by hand. We tried getting a longer bolt to replace the tightening bolt, contemplated placing a nut between the bolt and plate but in the end none of these solutions would work for a 2000 kilometer ride back home. Screw it let's have a coldy and some food and just get on the boat, we'll deal with it on the main land.


You can see in this photo where the chain was slapping. Rubbing through the mudguard and getting dangerously close to the rear wheel. Also started rubbing on the spring of my rear suspension.



http://64.136.20.22/2825799_l.JPG


A quick burger and beer in town then off to the ferry. I sincerly felt bad for the guys on bikes who were in the standby lane. They didn't get on this ferry, god knows how long they ended up waiting in that parking lot.


Tieing down the bikes (they provide tie downs)



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A great boat, hit the bar up before heading down to crash in the cabin and watch some tube.


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Adios NFLD, I WILL BE BACK



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Got a last minute room in Nova SCotia as our ferry came in at something like 2am. Luckily it was less than a mile or so from the ferry. Chain was bouncing all over the place. Crashed for the rest of the night and got on the phone first thing in the morning to see what I could do aboout getting some parts. Well, I could get a new chain delivered in 3 days. My back sprocket looked like it would make the ride home but the front was in rough shape. Past point, past hooking, starting to crack from the loose chain jumping I assume. So stay in Nova Scotia and visit a friends friends who was willing to come pick us up, buy a 380 dollar chain and wreck it on the drive home on the worn sprockets OR get Uhaul and get the hell out of here?



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Sure enough the minute we head out it starts pouring rain and winds of up to 90 km/h the radio was saying. I'm not a big cage fan but damn the heat and windsheild wipers were real nice Not much else to say, am 18 hour drive home without anything to write about. It was real nice to get home and start planning the next trip Two more weeks and I head out with some guys to do a section of route we've planned heading to northern Ontario. Time to order some parts and give the beast some serious tlc



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[deadly99]

And what happened to the other guys? Dan spent a week in Newfoundland, went through 6 more fuel pumps (jerry rigging snowmobile pumps onto the bike and vapour locking the cyclinfer;s everytime he stopped and forgot to turn of the fule lines), got rained on alot but generally had himself a good time by the sounds of things. The other guys went north up the island to check out the viking museum, spent a night in gros Morne park camping then headed home uneventfully.

All in all it was a great trip. Has the weather of been nicer the Trans Labrador would have been fun and dusty. But this is the way the cards played out...you dont always get to pick the weather when your on a trip. We made the best of it and in the end we all felt a certain sense of accomplishment which was great.

So that's the Labraodr section of the route. One lllooonnnggg road. I think it's about 2300 km's long of which about 1700 of it being gravel. A very cool place in the world for overland travelling in my opinion. Lot's of wilderness, some nice scenery, great people to meet along the way, etc

I need to get back to work now but I'll post up another province soon

:smiley_drive:

[HMR]

All in all it was a great trip. Has the weather of been nicer the Trans Labrador would have been fun and dusty. But this is the way the cards played out...you dont always get to pick the weather when your on a trip. We made the best of it and in the end we all felt a certain sense of accomplishment which was great.
RIGHT ON!

Looking forward to the rest of your adventure.

[The Adam Blaster]

This is a fantastic project, I'm thankful that you guys have taken on such a daunting task, and especially thankful you've decided to include us "4-wheelers" in your plans and records!

I have barely read any of this thread yet, but I wanted to jump in quickly and say that Canada's population has topped 33 million now, we can't have anyone thinking we're only 31 mill!!! lol

[deadly99]

This is a fantastic project, I'm thankful that you guys have taken on such a daunting task, and especially thankful you've decided to include us "4-wheelers" in your plans and records!

I have barely read any of this thread yet, but I wanted to jump in quickly and say that Canada's population has topped 33 million now, we can't have anyone thinking we're only 31 mill!!! lol

33 ! Who are the new people :bike_rider:

[deadly99]

Here comes the Ontario section or what we have completed of it so far. Grab a beer or three...it's a long read.

The route for Ontario begins at the Quebec/Ontario border in the city of Ottawa. Ottawa is a city of approximately 1 million people. The decision to have the route cross a major city was made soley based on we felt folks may need a break from the boonies and also to get access to parts/tools/mechanics, etc by this point in the route.

About 50 km's of ashpalt will bring the route out "into the country" and some gravel roads, eventually bringing them into the town of Merrickville, Ontario.

Scotch Line coming into the town of Merrickville, Ontario.

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The route has intended spots to spend the night. Of course this bases the route on a schedule, some folks will find the schedule much to fast and others way to slow. Nothing we can do about that I suppose. The places to spend the night are being choosen based on things like campgrouns,motels, laundry mats, beer stores :), restuarants, grocery stores and so on. Merrickville is a small touristy town and seems to have most of what is required for a nights stay.

This is the first installement where the route splits into the main route and the technical route. I'm not going to differentiate between the two in this thread but if something looks a bit too "serious" for your vechicle or skill lvele, know that the section your looking at "may" be on the technical sections. make sense?

[deadly99]

The route takes some gravel roads and a few short jeep trails before ending up in a town called carelton Place, Ontario. A short section of gravel/jeep roads ...

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leads past the town of Almonte and follows a nice double track through the bush

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before ending up on this powerline (NOTE:technical section)

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[deadly99]

Some water crossing are inevitable. Nice on a hot sunny day not so nice when it's cold.

Depending on rain the water levels can change. Use common sense and walk what you can't see, always a good rule on thumb :ylsmoke:

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Good example of too deep ....


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Please remeber not every photo here will be on the route. Some days we got stumped and deadened, some days the terrain just became unsuitable or trails led us in the wrong direction.


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I don't want to give the wrong impression...this is the go around or "main route" past the hydro lines


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Back to the good stuff


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Flat tires, like taxes and death are inevitable



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Off the hydro line for a stint around some bogs before getting back onto it


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More flats .....


http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad311/KLR_Rider_23/P8280006.jpg

[deadly99]

After a fun morning of hydro lines the route gets back onto some backroads. Now based on the feedback I get from other forums I guess not everyone has sweet backroads like these where they live :victory: These are roads, with houses on them and school buses that pick up kids in the morning. do NOT be surprised to think you are way out there and feeling very hardcore and the voila, a mini van defeating the odds and driving down these "roads" with the kids in the back watching freaking Dora or some other crap on the dvd players. :bike_rider: Laugh now, if you ride this route you WILL run into this situation. It is a bit humbeling to say the least ....


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One more short "technical optional section"

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Back onto the main route which leads into a town called Ompah, Ontario

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Ompah is a recommend night's stay. This day will have been a challenging onwe for folks who take the technical sections. For folks on bikes...you WILL be wet and muddy. There is no one spot that is really stand out difficult, more just a whole lot of it.

Ompah has a gas station, a campground, a burger/fry stand and .....hmmm.....did I mention the gas station ?:D

[deadly99]

Just to be clear, one doesnt just look at a map and find a route like the one posted above. ALOT of work went into creating that section...ALOT of fun work :smiley_drive:

Here's a few more random pics from the first day in Ontario on the route, again not all of the photo's show terrain that made the "cut"

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http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad311/KLR_Rider_23/P8280004.jpg

[deadly99]

Here's a video one of the lads put together. It was one day of riding some of the trails ..... it gives a good idea of what to expect I think.


YouTube - Ompah Dirt


Some more random pics from the day one in Ontario


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So why so many pics from this section? Well it's my backyard so to speak. I wanted this section to be just about perfect and one of the highlights of the route. I hope we accomplished it. Truely it will be a fun day for folks. The main route will not dissapoint either :bike_rider: Did I mention a stock suv would need AT tires ? Same goes for bigger bikes travelling the main route, you WILL need knobby tires.

[4307]

All I can say is... VERY VERY Cool!
Subscribed, I don't ride bikes but this is one impressive adventure.
The minivan, kids, Dora dvd part gave me chuckle nuts. I've seen similar, but this was a couple. the gent was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts, flipflops and a wheeling a Toyota Trecel, traveling down a severely washed out logging road. The couple stopped and asked if the road led into town... LOL. The only people we saw in a week of camping. The look on our faces must have been priceless. :Wow1:
I couldn't believe they were running that road, and made it look easy... :smiley_drive:

[deadly99]

All I can say is... VERY VERY Cool!
Subscribed, I don't ride bikes but this is one impressive adventure.
The minivan, kids, Dora dvd part gave me chuckle nuts. I've seen similar, but this was a couple. the gent was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts, flipflops and a wheeling a Toyota Trecel, traveling down a severely washed out logging road. The couple stopped and asked if the road led into town... LOL. The only people we saw in a week of camping. The look on our faces must have been priceless. :Wow1:
I couldn't believe they were running that road, and made it look easy... :smiley_drive:


Thanks for the kudo's. This is a very quiet forum :coffee: Writing these up takes alot of time, so it's great too know someone is appreciating it :friday:

[Rocket Ship]

I've seen the minivan thing before. But usually it's a Chevy Cavalier in Quebec. There's always that moment of "How in the hell...?"

One time, I came across a beam axle sitting in the road. Huh? Over the next rise was a minivan with no rear wheels. Sometimes it doesn't work out so well.

[geovalue]

Great write up, stay safe and travel well
Janet and Tom

[deadly99]

A few more random pics from Day One in Ontario section of the route be fore I jump into Day Two of the route for this province.


http://64.136.20.22/2728559_l.jpg


This is the K and P railtrail and is a part of the main route. The technical section doesnt utilize this trail but does cross it once. Wherever possible we are trying to have the Main and the Technical routes criss cross each other and stay somewhat close.

http://64.136.20.22/2728561_l.jpg


Some pics of the backroads on the Main Route


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A few pics of some of the sections along the Technical Route


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Early season exploring



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[deadly99]

Great write up, stay safe and travel well
Janet and Tom



Thanks :ylsmoke: I'll be out in ALberta in a week and a half doing some "exploring" for the route. Hopefully the fall weather holds up for another 2 weeks. I won't be on a bike but in a truck for that trip :victory:

[geovalue]

Thanks :ylsmoke: I'll be out in ALberta in a week and a half doing some "exploring" for the route. Hopefully the fall weather holds up for another 2 weeks. I won't be on a bike but in a truck for that trip :victory:
Too bad we are also on the road and not in Canada currently as we would have loved to offer you a hot shower and a comfy bed. Hope the weather holds out for you to enjoy the Rockies

[Christian P.]

this is so awesome. I had started a similar exercise in Quebec several years ago.
I am not sure if you have that portion covered but I know that you can go from Quebec City/Charlevoix all the way to the border of Ontario. You should not have too many problem linking with the road that goes to Labrador.

[deadly99]

Here is a report on one day in particular while exploring for Day One Ontario. Some of the pics may be redundant as up to now I have just been grabbing pics in no particular order for this day of the route. Enjoy the read as we didn't all enjoy this day :cool:


So not all day's go as planned

A group of us met at, where else but a Tim Horton's I swear there is something addictive they add to their beans.

A gas fill up before heading out


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Some slab to catch up to the route


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Re run a section of the route just to see how others feel about it



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The backroads in Eastern Ontario are FUN ! Arcol, Hydro Line rd, etc


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The ADV salute...or he just doesn't like me Oh wait this is early in the day, he doesn't hate me yet.....it must be the adv salute


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Richard's first day of off roading on his 800gs, what a first day ... lol


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It always surprises me when your riding on one of these roads and you run across a mini van full of happy little soccer kids with Mom driving and she's all smiles. Yes these are roads, not trails. Ontario is fairly liberal in what they call a road around here


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Around this point in the morning we headed over to a snowmobile trail that would push the route further west. A great little trail that went up/down/left/right and I was thinking hells bells baby, this trail will work out fine Then a steep rocky decent that leads into a water crossing with a soft bottom A couple of the fellows indicated that they wouldnt be able to go back up the decent. No worries as the water was low and we all made it through with no issues. BUT this trail would have to get removed from the route. After some serious rain or a typical spring thaw, the water crossing with the muddy bottom and rocks and logs in it just doesn't fit the bill, too bad, we 'll have to re route another day.



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On we go


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Now keep in mind that we have spent alot of time researching these trails before we go. Paper maps, internet sat maps, locals input, etc. Well the route was GOING TO follow this snowmobile trail and bring us across a big void in the map. Looked great from all the research we did. After finding the trail it had private No Tresspassing signs on it. Bummer, but we figured it's probably only one section of the trail across some famers fields and we should be able to find a go around to catch up to the trail a bit further on. A bit further on and we come to an atv trail climbing up over the bank. Logic suggested that this trail would cut across to the main trail and this is what local's must use to get a round the closed section. WRONG

100 feet into the trail and we came to this



http://64.136.20.22/2742672_l.JPG



Full of rocks, tree's and VERY slick mud. Seems like everyone wanted to turn around...but me. I now apologize formally to all who were involved. Bad call, big time ! So off I go, get stuck, bury the bike and end up dragging it across the last few feet (not easy with a 500 lb bike). Look back and see faces like this



http://64.136.20.22/2742667_l.JPG


That's the look of "this is a bad idea".

Looking up at the trail, yes that is the trail



http://64.136.20.22/2742669_l.JPG


Oh before I forget, a local on an atv came up on us and promptly turned around. This should have been a BIG clue. Well I was born stubborn and kept thinking ya but the trail will get better just around the bend, this is still doable WRONG !

What followed was around 2 hours to cover 3km's of trail. The black earth was some of the slickest ground I've ever ridden a bike on. On level ground you would be stuck, tire just spinning away, get a buddy to push type of terrain. Add to the that the fact that I don't think this trail had been ridden in YEARS. How many tree's were across the trail? Dozens. Did I bring my saw? Nope How many bikes tipped over? Every damn one of us. Were the bugs bad? CRAZY bad (and I normally don't complain about bugs). Was it hot? about 36 degrees celcius with 100 % humidity (think sauna temps) And finally how many people liked me at the end of this trail? ZERO

As stated above I do formally apologize, this section is now known as the trail from hell and will NEVER be ridden again.

After completing this section everyone split up, pissed off and went their seperate ways It was only lunch time and we had a huge day planned, ah well ......it was not too be. I seriously thought I was going to get lynched out there. Lesson learned the hard way but a lesson learned



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Do you see the trail? It's there...



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[deadly99]

A few more pics from "The Trail From Hell"



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Do you think me taking pictures during this fiascal made things any better



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Heat stroke, check
Piss off buddies, check
Add more to the route, negative

I have yet to see a couple of these lads again......this is NOT how all days of exploring go and yes I am becoming less stubborn everyday......but sincerly I believe it's that stubborness that is pushing me to finish this route. If I was just after "fun" I'd have given up a long time ago. Days like this one become fun about 3 months later around a campfire and a few cold beers :)

[deadly99]

this is so awesome. I had started a similar exercise in Quebec several years ago.
I am not sure if you have that portion covered but I know that you can go from Quebec City/Charlevoix all the way to the border of Ontario. You should not have too many problem linking with the road that goes to Labrador.

Quebec is an offroad meca :victory: We have routed the whole province and about 70% of it has been ridden/driven and will complete after one more one week rip out there (scheduled for spring). That province is beauty and I think alot of people will be surprised by the outstanding scenery and the quality terrain it has to offer. Throw in a foreign language and it feels like you are ina different country. Probably my favourite place to explore is Quebec. In the winter they have more groomed snowmobile trails than they do paved roads :sombrero: many of those trails become "doable" in the summer :ylsmoke:

[deadly99]

Too bad we are also on the road and not in Canada currently as we would have loved to offer you a hot shower and a comfy bed. Hope the weather holds out for you to enjoy the Rockies


Just spent some time on your site, very nicely done. Looks like the two of you are enjoying life to the fullest :sombrero: It's a small world, one day we'll bump into each other I'm sure, first bottle of vino is on me. My wife and I are making plans for a trip down through Central America next fall...who knows maybe our paths will cross :)

[deadly99]

This report is from back in the spring of 2010. Day one left off in a town called Ompah, Ontario. This report is from a trip to explore and route day two of this province.

Met up with Juames and Dan mid June to push the route further west then north up to a small city called North Bay. This section of the route had been examined in detail, many many times. Originally we were to route through a town called Huntsville. That portion of the route had to be re routed due to the G8 Summit taking place in that town We all knew about the G8 but somehow never put two and two together until 2 days before departure. I was a bit dissapointed as I was lookintg forward to some of the trails north of Huntsville that run along the edge of Algonquin Nation Park.

As usual we met up at a Tim's for coffee and to look over the maps again.


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Bikes loaded up for a few days



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This will become a reoccuring theme, blasting some slab to catch up to the route.



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A bit of gravel thrown in for fun on the way west



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Look out for these guys


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Some fun twisties



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We last left the route ending in the town of Ompah, Ontario. Ompah has a couple of nice campgrounds, a gas station/general store and a few other small businesses. This is a recommended gas stop on the route and would make a likely place to spend a night.



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Happy to be back on the route and making progress again



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The route takes some slab for about 20 minutes before getting back into some back roads.



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These backroads lead onto a long hydro line
44.739296,-77.320662

The hydro line seemed to be in good shape. I had done a trip a couple of weeks back where we rode a long hydro line/back road section that I was sure was this section. It only took about a few minutes to realize that this hydro line wasn't the one I thought we'd be riding. A quick look at the map again just to double check we were in the right place that we'd highlighted for the day's route. Yep this is the one we had pencilled in, ah well it looks long (50+ km's) and so far it seems to be in good shape ..........



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A nice gravel base, well travelled, looking good



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Things started to get wet. Water crossing after water crossing. The good news was that they all seemed to be gravel based and the water level's never got over the front tire.




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Some of the water crossing got real dark and murky. A red tint to the water from some mineral in the ground I suppose. Looks cool but a bit unnerving when you don't know how deep they were. We did due dilegence and pre walked a few of the more suspect one's just to be on the safe side.

Juames takes one for the team Heck once your wet your wet, you can't get more wet




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Dan getting a big kick out Juames getting wet......his turn will come



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[deadly99]

And on we go.


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These are the one's that make you nervous. Weeds on the side, trail going off into the bush and turning a corner so you can't see how far the water keeps going.



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At this point I starting to think that this is working out pretty damn well. Lot's of water, but this should be close to high water level's and we haven't come across anything that doesn't have a gravel bottom or is too deep.


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The water crossing with the large rocks in them require a slow and steady speed. Just enough so you bounce up over the rocks but not soo much that you'll endo. Going to slow will lead to a tip over and you come to a stop and loose momentum. But there are so many of them that we are all in a groove and doing fine.



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My turn to walk one You just have to know that at some point your luck will run out. Better safe than sorry.



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I don't have a pic but I think this is the one Dan decided to cool off in after a tip over ? Never a camera around when you need one eh Dan



Now don't get me wrong, this trail wasn't just water crossings. There were also some very fun dry sections.




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Just as things were going well, we check the gps and maps. Looks like another 6 km's until we pop out onto a road again. yehaa almost there ! Minutes later we come over a rise and are greeted by this view.




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A quick conversation is had..... where is the trail? That can't be it ...that long dark watet section....it's got to go out and around in the bush and we just can't see it..... well let's head down and find out ....


If it wasn't for the unknown "where does the trail go now feeling" this would have been a nice vista. I love when the trail your riding dissappears from your line of sight in the horizon.




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Well down we go. Loose rocks, steep and I can't help but notice that it doesn't seem like many vechicles came down here. Grass growing out of the middle of the track .... hmmm .......

Get to the bottom and are greeted by this view



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A quick look around and I can see a fire pit, old spark plugs, old rubber belts from a truck and other signs that some one spent the night here working on a vechicle. Sh1t, damn, arg. Juames goes and checks the inevitable, slick mud bottom and about 20 feet in he sinks to past his knee's

Damn we were so close to the end of this trail. Did we go the wrong way somewhere ? A quick check of the map shows that we are on the right track.



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Why is that everytime I get stuck it's at the hottest point in the day, humidity jumps, and the bugs come out for a feeding frenzy. I guess being down low here out of the wind and right besdie a swamp explains it, but still ..........

Ah crap we're going to have to ride back up that steep hill covered in loose rocks I don't see this working out too well for us.

[deadly99]

Got to the top of the hill looked back and saw this


http://64.136.20.22/2787072_l.JPG



What you can't see is Dan in almost the same position further down the hill. Why pictures make hills look lame is beyond me but this one was fairly steep and the rocks were very loose. A bit of pushing and grunting and we all got back under way to retrace our path.



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And yes I put the camera down and helped out

Riding through all the water was much easier when you have confidence of what's under it.

After some debating over the maps we found another trail that lead off the hydro line. This enabled us to keep apart of the hydro line in the route




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Check out the BIG bug in the above photo :ylsmoke:



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Part way along the side trail (which turned out to be fun and fast) I had a quick chat with a local guy who has a hunt cabin in the area and know's the lay of land fairly well. I mentioned we had come from the hydro line and he laughed and said "you didn't make it did you, that swamp gets deep". Looks like we made a good call on turning around. he did however mention that there is a go around but it involves riding up and over and through a large boulder garden. He laughed when I asked if it was doable on our bikes. "I did see someone do it on a bike but it was a small little dirt bike". Enough said for us, we're here to make a route for bikes packed with gear, not to create the world's hardest enduro course.



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After a few miles of the new trail we came across this and I thought ah come on



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It appears as if the bridge is just getting some work done to it, yehaa...finally the route is progressing



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Came across this little stream which was great to cool off in.



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Rolled into the small town of Flinton Ontario. Not much here but a small general type store with a sweet lady who makes soup and sandwichs. Great food, I'd highly recommend stopping in when you come through here. real salt of the earth type of folks. Heck she even felt bad about overcooking my grilled cheese and apologized and offered to make me a another one at no charge. This is why I enjoy travelling through these out of the way places, the people are golden.



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After lunch we broke out the maps and figured out how to get back on track. It looked like there were some gravel roads heading back to where we wanted to be. Sadly it'll involve a few short paved sections but it's the best we could come up with. Sometimes a bit of slab just to get the wind running through your jacket can be a good thing

Off we go....we make it about another 30 km's down a gravel road and stop at a stop sign. I take off and ride another 20 km's and wait at the next intersection...where is everyone? Wait an appropriate amount of time then start retracing back to where I last saw them. You can't help but think one of three things has happened.
One: Someone had an accident
Two: Someone had a mechanical
Three: I went the wrong way and now the epic how do we find each other again begins

Well turns out it was option two. Juames bike has had an electrical glitch of some sort and has no power. When I get back to them his bike is stripped of gear, seat, fairing, etc Much poking and prodding and trying this and trying that and we came up with either the battery is toast (he just put a new one in a month or so earlier or he has a short that draining the electrical system). Lucky for us it was the KLR and not one of the KTM's. A KLR doesnt require a battery to run. The ignition runs off the stator A few attempts to get it bump started and away we go...only to see it die again another 100 metres down the road. The petcock had been turned off when we were about to remove the tank

A group decision was made, do we camp for the night then find someone with an voltage reader in the morning or do we call it quits and head home. Well we decided to head home. Hard call indeed. The tipping of the scales was that two of us are married and getting a weekend off to go biking isn't something we get to do every week, so it was decided that it would be better to limp home, get the problem sorted out and return in two weeks to finish making this section of the route. (I know your thinking your married and you get to do this much biking? Well Mrs. Deadly either doesn't like me or she understands me and puts up with me taking off many times a year for bike trips....... I think....I hope...it the latter )

A stop for dinner on the way home and a few coldies to drown our sorrows in.




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There's something about having a cold one after riding with your buddies and recalling the moments of the day that simply puts a smile on your face.



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After a retarded session of trying to bump Juames bike and subsequently sweating out the bevies we headed home. Juames must have been cutting it close with his little to no headlight due to no battery before it got dark.



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Well another chunk of the route got completed, we had a good time and rode some fun terrain :sombrero:

[deadly99]

NOTE: after some input from local's to that area it would seem as if the go around we didn't attempt is "doable" and the rest of the hydro line is fine as well. The hydro line is known locally as Lingham Lake Hydroline as it popular with the Jeep/Rover clubs in the area. We will zip out there this fall or next spring and give it a whirl just to see for ourselves. This may become one of the technical sections on the route with the Main Route following the route we followed on that report.

Thanks to those who emailed and pm'd me in regards to this :smiley_drive:

[deadly99]

Plans were put in place to pick up the route where last left off.

Ordered some parts for the bike on Monday, supposed to be in by Wednesday :( spent three hours in the shop yesterday until closing waiting for the UPS guy to show and he didn't. The ktm order (others impatiently waiing as well including the shops mechanics) spent three days being loaded onto a truck then redelivered to the wharehouse each night..WTF.

Flanny to the rescue ! He let me come to his place and "borrow" a much needed rad fan. THANKS Flanny :). Ps....any ktm 950 fanatics are going to be impressed when they see his next "Flannymobile" , a true work of art.

Bike is packed and sounding mean again :). Food, smokes, cheap Indian whiskey are all on board, ready to ride....not a cloud in the sky :). I even have an hour to spare, time for a quick siesta maybe


Too bad you can't come Dan, I don't think we will be seeing much dust....rained almost 30 mm (3 inches?) yesterday and everyday before that for a week.......there's going to be mud and water crossings, not dust unfortunately.

Vroom vroom, talk to ya next week.

[deadly99]

Packed up the bike and headed out, sky was sunny and the forecast was looking good


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Met Chris and Jimmy at Timmies in Perth, Ontario. Caught up and went over the day's plan. Everybody seemed in good spirits. I hadn't seen Chris since we parted ways in Newfoundland a month ago. His GS was showing some impressive battle wounds from his high speed endo on the Trans Lab. Jimmy as usual had the maps out and the route highlighted and his gps loaded up with the intended route


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Hit the road to catch up to where we last left the route. This was also the spot where Frank would be meeting us. I hadn't met Frank before, I believe he read this thread, got in touch with me and voila...he's coming along. He self admitted his skills may not be what some others are. He rides a Harley ultra glide and just recently picked up a 990 adv and took a 2 day off road course, went and rode the Trans Lab this summer and then came and joined us for a few days of the TCAT ......



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After meeting Frank we hit the road. The route begins with some asphalt twisties and some gravel roads.



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The route then gets on an old rail line and heads north to the town of Bancroft. For the most part the rail trail is fast and smooth, a few sandy sections but nothing to really be concerned about. 80- 100 km's in ;length if memory serves, so a couple of hours depending on your speed. Some nice scenery, blah blah blah I really enjoyed this trail, nothing demanding just a stand on the pegs and enjoy the ride.

NOTE: The main route will take a gravel road (it's a good one) that paralell's this trail. Due to legality reasons I don't believe trucks are allowed (still looking into this, some swear it is, some say it isn't.


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Entering the town of Bancroft. I really like the fact that some towns around this area really embrace bikes/quads/sleds as a form of tourism. This particular trail goes right into the middle of town. You can see the trail on the right side of the road, I wish every place on earth had trails like these



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A quick scoot down mainstreet for some gas and beer. Yes in this area of Canada you can only buy beer in one place, The Beer Store. It's government controlled and more times than not it's not open on Sundays and closes at 6 pm on Saturday nights, plan accordingly



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We slabbed for a dozen miles down to a provincial campground called Silent Lake Campground. Like all government run campgrounds, it's clean and whatnot. During peak season the gal at the front informs me a reservation is a must do.



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Yep, they also rent yurts by the night. 90 bucks, sleep six. Not bad if it's raining and you don't feel like setting up the tent. Don't quote me on this but I think the gal said they have about 70 of them and plan to build more.



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Setup camp for the night, got a fire going. Drank way too much cheap Inidan whiskey, just kind of happened, all of a sudden I realized I was slurring, ah well, it was a fun night shooting the ****, bench racing and whatnot.


The check in office



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Ate a god aweful dinner. Never again do I eat boil in the bag freeze dried crap. I had a few bags left over from previous trips and as I was on a budget I decided to bring it along. To those who actually enjoy this crap.....:eek:

[deadly99]

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Stephen joined us at some point in the evening, he couldnt get the Friday afternoon off work. He rode the "route" from Bancroft to the campground........I'll let him tell his tale



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[deadly99]

NOTE: This next post is written by Stephen and reflects his take on the day


Well, Friday and me being the only person who couldn’t get the day off work I ended up getting a late start to things. I work in Arnprior so I rode my bike so I could leave right away and make my way to Bancroft.



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Taking the nice scenic back roads through Calabogie I came across some wild dinners.. err. I mean wild Turkeys and some beautiful lakes where I just HAD to stop and take some ‘glam’ shots of my bike...



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Later I rolled through the beautiful town of Bancroft and topped up my fuel for the next day’s ride. After that I thought I’d take some “back trails” to the campground. Well that was a mistake! I got about 2km down the trail and came to a short little water crossing with a culvert near the far end. Little did I know that it got super deep just as you got to the culvert. The next thing I know my front wheel is 3 feet in the air then my back tire hits the culvert and I slam down on my skid plate. I start to tip over but I save it before all my gear gets dunked in the water breaking off my right side mirror in the process. Now my bike is beached on the skid plate with the back tire floating in 2 feet of water. I'm alone, fully loaded, no one knows where I am and I'm about 3Km down this trail. Not good.



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After much rocking and huge roost of water I finally get enough traction to get up the other side. At this point it’s getting late and my GPS says I’m less than 500 meters from the campground. Only a few more hills and I’m there! I hop back on and come to a gnarly steep climb. I gear down and gun it, dodging rock and sliding in the mud with nary a foot dab to get me to the top and that’s when I see the mud hole. ARG!!!! This thing was big, deep, and cris-crossed with 4-wheeler tracks. It was that thick mud that sticks to everything. The sun was almost down and I was tired so I said “Screw this” and turned around.
The culvert water crossing was easier in reverse and I made my way back out to the main road where I eventually found the proper entrance for the campground and met up with the rest of the guys who were enjoying beers around the campfire.




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Yes, that's a marsh-mellow.

I busted out my brand new Henessy Hammock and set it up for the first time (I did do a test setup at home but I’ve never slept over night in it). Everything went up well in the dark and joined the team for beers around the fire.



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I had a little more adventure than I had hoped for on the way in but I had survived. Later on I heard that the other guys were planning on taking that route but they were too tired from the earlier riding and were glad that I “took one for the team” and scouted it out for them. Little did I know that this wasn’t the last one I would “take for the team” before the weekend was out…

[deadly99]

NOTE : Franks take on the day

I got back from the TLH at the end of August so when I heard about this ride, I signed up thinking it would be a nice follow up to the TLH. Just a small ride - 3 days, no big deal. So I headed out from Kitchener at 9:30 intending to make it to Tweed, about 10km south of the meeting point by 1:00. The RDV was at 2:30 but I had to cross Toronto on a Friday so a contingency was in order.

Toronto traffic was flowing so I got to Tweed by 1:00, filled up, bought a lighter - didn't think showing at a campground without a lighter would impress my travel mates. That would be almost as bad a planning to eat camp food all weekend and not bring any utensils.

I met up with the guys and we left at 2:30 sharp. I was a little apprehensive because these guys were on a mission and I didn't want to slow them down too much. They assured me they were not on a clock. We drove to the Hasting Heritage Trail and I was starting to feel pretty good. The 990 just loved that kind of riding. The ride to Bancroft was only about 75km but it gave me the opportunity to get my sea legs - or so I thought.

It was a beautiful day and setting up camp by 5:30 was really nice. A few beers, tales of adventures past and future, and everyone turned in. I was feeling pretty good about my decision to tag along. I didn't take any pics on this ride so I'll be relying on the other mates to provide the colour of the ride.



NOTE: Chirs's take on the day


Ted's covered most of the first day but I thought I'd throw in a couple of pix-

Typical section of the old rail bed.. firm gravel, gentle curves and hills, excellent scenery, a real pleasure to ride! Hardly any soft sand or endless sandy whoops, barely any water splashes, and no loose boulder strewn climbs. A nice way to ease into the weekend.



http://lh5.ggpht.com/_sXoEJexBHJE/TJfveI8ZSmI/AAAAAAAAAxE/kZZGBvbvGkQ/s800/P9170004.JPG



Frank and Ted talking KTM stuff. Jimmy the Map Man figuring out the next section.


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Ted has not used the tent since the Trans-Lab trip and completely forgets how to assemble it. Not to mention that the elastic cord inside the poles is broken so he has to put together a dozen small sections, carefully thread it through the sleeve just right otherwise it all falls apart. Plus some parts are missing. Or broken. Something about gear falling off his KTM at high speed in the middle of Labrador.

Happily we stopped to camp at around 5pm and had a few hours of daylight to get set up, drink some beers, swap stories and get the tent up. Jimmy kept managing to walk into the guy wires. Bets were placed on whether Ted's tent would still be up in the morning

Frank, Jimmy and Ted discuss strategies for tent assembly..




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[deadly99]

The plan for today was to ride from Bancroft to Kinmount for lunch then continure on heading north through Haliburton and end of in Hunstville for the night.

The morning's agenda had some gravel roads and one double track road called North pencil Lake Road. I'd ridden this "road" early in the year and remember thinking that it would be great to include on the route. At the time I was chasing a group of primarily smaller bikes and we were travelling with no gear. I recall thinking it would be "doable" albeit a bit of a challenge with loaded bikes

The night before I let the guys know about the terrain. I didn't recall any one feature that stood out as being terribly challenging, but rather alot of small features (rocks, water crossing, etc). There was one water crossing that was more than likely going to have to be skipped but there is a bypass atv track up and around it. I was hoping I had over talked it and it would end up being much easier than I had warned them about, usually riding a bike over tough terrain is easier if you havent psyched yourself out, but I didn't want to end up in a situation where everyone looks at you with hatred in their eyes thinking "what an asshat for bringing us here". Better that everyone knew what they would be up against.

So we packed up early in the morning after brewing some beans and having a bite to eat. Seriously, people eat that freeze dried crap and enjoy it? I had an egg/ham and other unidentifiable ingredients. omlet. The eggs were brutal but doable, the ham on the other hand just freaked me out. I forced down about a third of it just to get something into the belly as I had a feeling the day would present a few challenges.


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The pace was slow as I had to stop at every intersection to write down info for the roadbook. About 20 kilometers of pavement before we got on a fun twisty gravel road. The roads were wet with puddles....hmmm....last time I road this road it was very dry...a sense of things to come was creeping into my mind.

Turning off the gravel road onto Pencil Lake Rd



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Looking up the where we were headed. Wet sand and puddle's......they must have recieved some rain lately .......



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Like I was saying, most of the road looks like this, or at least some of it does Nothing crazy but enough washouts, rocks and whatnot to keep you on your toes.



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Then the "puddle's" got a bit bigger




http://64.136.20.22/2858265_l.JPG


Hmmm....I don't recall this many water crossings. The water had a weird algae on it that prevents you from seeing the bottom. Given the nature of the terrain I knew that there were some big rocks in some of them, couldn't help getting that feeling that " it's just a matter of time before I hit one and take a swim". How many of these were in a row? A dozen or so maybe.


Chris becomes the first to get wet




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Not long after we got to the "big one". I was kind of hoping we could just ride threw it and not have to mess around with the bypass. Pulled up and we were greeted with this



http://64.136.20.22/2858269_l.JPG

[deadly99]

You can see on the right side of the photo above a big rock, the bypass climbs up and over it. Everyone had a look and a poke to see how deep it was. doable? Maybe but with a loaded bike and on a multiday trip I really wasn't interested in watering out my bike. Go around it would be :ylsmoke:



http://64.136.20.22/2858267_l.JPG




I don't want to talk up this go around too much. On a small bike it's not a big deal. On a big bike with the proper amount of clutch it's not a big deal. On a mx bike it wouldn't even be worth talking about. On a big bike with gear and varying degrees of offroad experience....it's a challenge for sure. We all decided that we should walk it first and see what we would be up against........




The trail climbs a hill that is a bit steep in a section or two. It's atv width so it was obvious the panniers would have to come off the bike bikes as width would be an issue. Keep up the momentum and it would be no big deal. A few ill placed tree roots could be dodged and voila, you would be up on top.

A couple of us rode up with no issues and waited near the top to see how the others would make out.




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Chris coming up on his big gs Almost made it before getting hung up on a root.

A little help from the lads and he was on his way.




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I'm not sure why pictures sometimes make hills look mellow. This one sort of gives an indication of the angle this short section is.




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Stephen heading up.




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Chris doing shuttle duty with his panniers.



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Once you get up on top there is a funky little section of rock, maybe 200 feet long. Trials riding when it comes to the big bikes



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Frank looking proud



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Then down a couple of switchbacks on the other side before regaining the trail.




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One more tip over for Frank...didn't see it happen...exhaustion ?



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[deadly99]

The crack you don't hear is Stephen's pannier hitting this tree. He also lost his lock buckle on a tree on the way up. The other two lads with apnniers took them off, I think I would recommend taking them off



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The rest of the "road" was excellent. Lot's of big "drive on" rock sections, some ledges, lot's more water crossing. 1st and 2nd gear type riding.



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A dozen or more of these, some you go up, some you go down. Fun technical type stuff.




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Riding first has it's disadvantages. We walked and poked alot of the water crossings. One of them looked innocent enough. Slow in first gear then I suddenly feel the front end drop. Quick with the kill switch Look back and wave the lads up to come give me a hand. Chris checked the depth in front of me and looked like it didn't get much deeper and was only deep for another 10 feet or so. atv stuck and dug a trench maybe? This is the only photo I have of it (I believe someone else got a few good ones). You'll notice my engine, foot peg, etc are below water line



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[deadly99]

More water, more rocks, more fun



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Finding the shallow line



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Eventually things dried up and the track became fun and fast again. At one point we came a cross a bridge out and a small water crossing to the side of it. A couple of lads on vstroms were there having a look. They had a video camera going as we rode by. One of the lads said they stopped and chatted with them and they said they were inmates at the asylum (advrider.com).....?



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After finishing this "road", going from memory here but it's about 25 kilometres long and took us about 2 hours I think, we rode some very fun gravel twisties to the town of Kinmount for lunch. Real rollercoaster roads. A few hills with steep drop off's guarantee you will get some airtime Even the big GS left the ground. Have fun (Salmon Lake Road ), if I had my way we would have spent hours riding back and forth on that one road, but we had other promising roads/trails to get to. I'm not a wheelie guy but my front tire certainly didn't get the same mileage as my rear

[deadly99]

NOTE: Franks view on the morning

Let the noob chime in here... Ted did sow the seed of awareness the night before. But as he described each challenge of Pencil Lake Road he always ended with "...but it's doable". I came to understand that to this crowd all trails fell in the binary classification of being either "doable" or "not doable". The obvious qualifier "by whom" was always conveniently omitted. So when we got to this crossing, and it was deemed "not doable" I had to see for myself as I had already seen the bypass. I had heard the "doable" pronouncement on the bypass and was desperately trying to determine that they had jumped the gun on the "not doable" verdict of the crossing. While I was still hoping against hope I heard the sound of Ted's 950 eating up the trail.

"I guess we're going around".


What was "couple of switchbacks on the other side before regaining the trail" for Ted, Chris, Steve, and Jim was some of the trickiest riding I'd done on the 990 to that point and I kept thinking, "holy **** I can't believe I'm doing that, holy **** I can't believe I'm doing that, holy **** I can't believe I'm doing that." Then as I came to the last 5 feet of the trail, nothing too different from what I'd just done, a sharp turn to the right I looked ahead and thought, "Holy **** I can't believe I just did that", looked up, hit a rock, and went over. So "loss of focus" caused that particular one.

Fortunately Jim was there to help pick up the bike...again.

[deadly99]

NOTE: Jimmies take on the morning

I'm pretty much a noob rider myself. Had never ride dirt before last year, and very little at all before that...so I found myself echoing Franks words a few times as I was riding up the 'go around.'

I think Frank was seriously contemplating riding the water crossing... after closer inspection it was deemed 'not doable' to cross without a boat. The water was above knee deep in some spots...with a very sketchy bottom of brown goo that was most likely just as deep...


http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq265/juames_photo/IMG_0203.jpg


After all was said and done...we all made it up and around. And I must say the Pencil Lake road is a MUST ride! If you haven't ridden it...do it!!!

[deadly99]

Note: Stephens view of the morning

I woke up after my first night in my hammock rested and ready to hit the trails. I had packed a nice IMP (Individual Meal Packet) of breakfast sausages for myself to enjoy. This isn’t your usual boil in bag. This is genuine Canadian military gourmet cooking. I had sausages, apple sauce, oatmeal, hot chocolate, juice mix, coffee, and a bun with jam all in a neat little package. I did have to warm some of it up but in the end it was a tasty way to start the day and get something warm in my belly.


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/5009333894_f5b39d695a.jpg



For those who are interested, the hammock worked out great. I had to get up and fiddle with the height of the foot end to make it a bit lower. I also was a bit concerned about my stuff. The only place to keep any of it was on the ground under the hammock. If there was a driving rain it might have gotten wet so I might pack a giant garbage bag for next time and just shove everything in that, then put it under the hammock.

Not 5 minutes down the highway from the campground we were on the trail, and what a trail it was! All snowmobile trails in the winter they were a good run of hilly twisty double track. Nothing too difficult but just enough puddles and interesting terrain features to not get bored.



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The trail.



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Frank stopped at an intersection.


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Chris waiting to find out which direction to go next.

Some of the puddles were bigger than others and needed a certain amount of caution when going through. So far nothing was too difficult and we made decent time on our fully loaded bikes.


That’s when we came to the big one. WOW. Ted had warned us about the big puddle we were going to have to face but I was confident that it would be no problem because of the “bypass”. Well that bypass is not the easiest option either. A decently steep uphill through the woods to get to a open section of lumpy rocks followed by a steep and twisty downhill back through the woods.


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/5008734467_d0086a6809.jpg


The big water hole

We checked it out thoroughly and concluded that it might be possible to do we all decided that pushing bikes across the bypass would be easier and quicker than striping a bike and trying to drain it of water.



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The decent. It’s hard to see but easy enough if you take it slow.

The bigger bikes walked their luggage across and the smaller bikes rode the bypass with no problems. Eventually we were all on the other side, safe and most importantly DRY!

Not for long…



As I was near the back of the pack we came upon the glorious sight of Ted up to his knees in water standing on his bike.



http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4133/5008740955_480de1176c.jpg




We all parked and proceeded to test the water with sticks to map out what the bottom was like. As it turns out there is a pair of ruts near the left side but the right side is only a foot deep. We would all have no problem getting across but there was still the matter of getting Ted unstuck.



http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/5008743249_6552e149b7.jpg


In the end, and with soggy feet, Ted was freed and we all crossed the puddle without any more issues.

[deadly99]

After finishing this "road", going from memory here but it's about 25 kilometres long and took us about 2 hours I think, we rode some very fun gravel twisties to the town of Kinmount for lunch. Real rollercoaster roads. A few hills with steep drop off's guarantee you will get some airtime Even the big GS left the ground. Have fun (Salmon Lake Road ), if I had my way we would have spent hours riding back and forth on that one road, but we had other promising roads/trails to get to. I'm not a wheelie guy but my front tire certainly didn't get the same mileage as my rear


Kinmount for lunch


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After lunch I think we all felt a bit tired. The late night before, the mornings trail and a hot meal certainly gave me the yawns. Just outside of town we jumped on the next trail. Another rail trail, fast and smooth. I really enjoy the just stand on the pegs, twist the throttle, get into a rythm type of riding.



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About half way down this trail I stopped to look at the signs. WTF atv's allowed but motorcycles are not. Who the feck made that dumbass rule? They must have had an issue with 2 strokes at some point in time. ****ty deal for us as this trail connected two spots on the route. We got the maps out and plotted a new route up to the next destination. It looked promising. As it would turn out the roads we assumed were gravel were paved, the gravel ones dissappeared into nothing. Well this wasnt the way this section is supposed to be. There must be other fun trails or old gravel backroads we could be taking. The decision was made to just hit the highway and bomb up to Huntsville before the rain came. I'll have to spend some time with the maps next week and find an alternate method to connect the towns of Kinmount and Huntsville....maybe one of you out there has a suggestion Shoot me an email if you do, thanks.



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Slabbing



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It started raining just as we were pulling into Hunstville around 5 o'clock. Everyone hit the liquor store to get out of the rain and pick up some supplies. After 5 minutes of everyone playing with their iphones and blackberries, it looked like the weather would clear up in a couple of hours. Frank opted to grab a motel while the rest of us heading to a campground just outside of town.

Setup camp, ate some dinner, had a bevy or two, dried our gear over the fire and put heads to pillows.



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The Nomad Tent's vestibule payed off again. Room inside to standup and change out of my wet gear, hang my gear up to dry, sort stuff out and whatnot. The extra few pounds are well worth it. This isnt the first time this tent has "saved" me from bolting to a motel in inclement weather.


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Another fun day indeed Sleep came easy that night.

[deadly99]

http://vimeo.com/15199945

A short vid of a few of the backroads.

NOTE: Pencil Lake Road will be one of the optional technical sections. The main route will travel gravel roads north around this section and offer there own excitement. Some great hills and twists for fun along with some great scenery.

[TurboChris]

Awesome write up and a great read...Thanks!

[deadly99]

Awesome write up and a great read...Thanks!

No worries, lot's more to come. Canada is a big wide country :)

Leaving Thursday for a fly and drive to BC (4800 km's away). I'll be doing a few select sections of the route on the way back to Ontario (time restraints unfortunately). Looking forward to driving the new to me truck. It's currently at Baja North getting some suspension, tires, lights on the front bumper, mount for spare, etc. Should be a fun rip through the mountains-prairies-forests, etc

Been on the bike for the last few years, having heat and wipers will be a novelty.

[Christian P.]

This is awesome. Will you be releasing some portion of the road soon or only when you finish the whole thing? Are the waypoints availaible?

Thanks

[deadly99]

This is awesome. Will you be releasing some portion of the road soon or only when you finish the whole thing? Are the waypoints availaible?

Thanks


Next fall/winter we will release the routes/info/etc for the eastern half of the country, the western half will be a year behind that. Evrything seems to be on time so I don't, at this point, foresee any delays.

[deadly99]

Day three of this ride had us up and at it early in the morning. Frank showed up looking well rested and ready to go. A quick pack up and we were off to the Timmies down the road for a warm cup of coffee....and a plumbed bathroom

The cool night had created a bit of fog for the morning but the sun was doing it's job of burning it off.


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The view from the Tim's. Huntsville is a nice town. If I were to take a break for a day or two while doing this route, I think this town would be a good spot for it. Laundrymat, motels, campgrounds, fast food, grocery stores and whatnot are all available. The town itself is a bit touristy, but hey...we're tourists aren't we ?


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The agenda for the day was to get on the Seguin Trail LINK

Ride this trail to where it meets the Nippissing Trail LINK

A side diversion to see the "Field of Screams" and finish this section of the route of in a small city called North Bay. Then slab back to Ottawa. A long day indeed.


We hit the road and got on what we thought was the Seguin Trail



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This trail ended all of a sudden....hmmm...this can't be right. Maps out, gps hard at work.....ahh...it starts over there....off we go to find "the real trail"

Well the trail was certainly more of an atv trail than an old rail line (too many twists and hills to be a rail line) but it was fin and went for about a half hour, and it was heading in the right general direction.


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The trail ended at a hudro line with no visible exit going forward. We tried heading left on the hydro line, a couple of water crossing later and we ran into a private land sign. We turned around and tried the other direction. What we didn't know.....was that Juames and Frank didnt see us go the other direction down the hydro line, they assumed we had gone back up the atv trail Well the way we went soon ended at another private land sign so we turned around. Where the heck did the rest of the group go? Stuck in the water crossing? nope...hmmm..is there another way out of here, looked around, nope. **** they must be headed back up the atv trail, and probably giving it throttle thinking they are trying to catch up to us.

So we were now two groups instead of one. We tried following tracks down the gravel roads, after a few T intersections we stopped, back tracked, left one of us at each intersection...you know all the tricks. Well they must think we are real asses for not waiting for them We sent them both a text message to meet at the beginning of the next trails section and we were off.

Passed a car in the ditch (must have happened 30 seconds before we showed up). The guy was busted up, VERY obvious that his hand and wrist were not "normal", the kid and wife seemed fine but were in freak out mode. Turns out they loived 5 km's up the road and their family were coming to get them and bring them to the hospital. Yikes, slowed down for a bit after that.

Eventually we found the Seguin Trail. shortly after heading down it we ran into a couple of atv's. They informed us that Juames and Frank were only 15 minutes ahead of us I noticed there quads were dripping wet, they informed us of a water crossing up the trail, "it's 18-24 inches deep with a loose rock base"...... yehaa! I tore off ahead determined to catch up. What a trail, a real beauty. whoops, you either love them or hate them. Well this trail had some real fun sandy whoops and I was tearing it up, feeling like Johnny Cambell But I'm sure I looked nothing like him Froint wheel was bouncing, back wheel skipping over the tops, just a real fun run for me. Made some real good progress, a quick stop at what I assumed was the water crossing, for a picture.



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Turned out to be no big deal, just lean back and twist the throttle, duck the wave and try to stay dry

The trail began to criss cross the paved road it paralels. I jumped on the pavement with the idea of meeting the lads at the meet spot. Well, one more quick section of trail had to be done as I was just having too much fun.

I got to the meet spot and there were Frank and Jimmy 20 minutes later Chris showed up ? Where Stephen? "He says he was going to ride the entire trail in case we missed them or something". Well done Stephen was what I waqs thinking, we'll have a solid gps track of the mornings route A quick look up the trail that we didnt ride.....and....it looked wet, real wet.......


Eventually Stephen showed up (bike looks very clean?).


Frank informed us he had to get going back to Ottawa right away as he had to pick up his passport and meet some friends. A handshake goodbye and he was off. Great riding with you Frank, we'll have to do it again one of these days

We hit the Nippissing Trail/Road and headed north.




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The further north we got the more the tree's had changed color.



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The Nippissing Road is a mix of gravel and paved sections, a nice scenic road, nothing tough about it but the scenery was great. It's termed the ghost road. The link above explains it's history. People take there ghosts very serious in this part Lot's of cool histort to check out if your riding this road, take your time, read the historical plaques and whatnot.




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We did a small side diversion, ended up on another short little atv trail....and eventually found the "Field of Screams". It's some retired art teacher, sorry I forget his name, who took up building these ghost creations out of concrete. 2-3 feet thick and up to 30 feet in height. He built ALOT of them. Had to stop for a few pics




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The "artists" house was real weird. Tell you what...when I retire I won't be spending my glory days building weird assed ghost creations, but to each his own I suppose. He also runs a conflicting "cheery" little veggy stand on Sundays beside his house.



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Given the time of day and the distance we were from home, it was decided to pack it and begin the slab ride home. Not a bad choice, it had been an excellent 3 days of riding, camping, drinking and whatnot. The route home was on some fun scenic roads. Through a couple of provincial parks (Algonquin, etc). We did a quick stop for lunch on route but other than that we just made miles. Got home just before it got dark, and I for one kicked back in the hot tub with a nice cold beer and a big smile on my face


Jimmy checks the gps one more time



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Lunch stop



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l in all I was very pleased with the route. A couple of area's need to be refined but as a whole I think this track will make a great addition to the route as a whole. Eastern and Southern Ontario WILL be a highlight of the route. Some folks could probably blast it in two days but my guess is most folks will take 3-5 days. 3-5 days of almost all double track Challenging in parts but "doable" for sure. This entire section will be done via roadbook. I really look forward to reading about others take on this section over the coming years. Anyone interested I'd really appreciate someone doing a beta run on it next summer just to ensure the roadbook works for them. Anyone interested in a few days trail ride in Ontario next summer shoot me a PM.

Well that's all from me for now, time to start planning the two sections left for the eastern half of this route. Northwestern Ontario looks promising with some nice long gravel roads, some fun looking logging roads, maybe a rail trail or two and sadly a couple of long ashpalt sections that seem unavoidable. Quebec had been routed and now just needs to be ridden, depending on the weather this fall I'm hoping to sneek off and complete a chunk of this province. Looks like the majority of Quebec will be gravel back roads with a couple of fun atv style trails just to break it up. Everything is pointing towards us finishing the eastern half by the end of next riding season and then we should have this route up for distribution shortly after.

[deadly99]

Franks version of day four of the TCAT, Ontario


Day three started early - I had to make sure I was showered and checked out in time to meet the guys at the campground by 8:00. When I got to the campground, we decided to backtrack into town for some Timmies. We finally got underway a little after 9. The fog was mostly burned off and the day was turning out to be mostly sunny.

Except for the slight diversion up the hydro line and its culvert adorned water crossing that we took in both directions, the riding was relatively fast. It starts with some nice gravel road till we meet up with the Seguin trail. The trail appears to be mostly sand fill on bog. This means that most of the trail consists of what is apparently referred to as "woops" with only a few water crossings. Woops are essentially inverted moguls (depressions instead of mounds). And riding woops is a lot like skiing moguls - well if you were wearing 500lbs skis. It is all about picking the line and letting your legs ride up and down while your head remains steady. In other words, its a lot of fun, but hard work. And the faster you ride, the more work it is. Unless, Ted tells me, you're going fast enough that you just hit the tops and don't even hit every woops. I'll take his word for it.

Since we got separated, Jim and I weren't sure if the others were ahead of us or behind us. We finally decided they must be ahead. We eventually got a text to meet in an hour at Seguin Falls. We rode as fast as I could and I was having a blast. The bike was just eating up the trail. I almost lost it trying to ride the side of the woops at one point but the sand was really sloppy and after saving it I just kept in the bumpy but predictable part ofthe trail. After foregoing two or three bail out points where the trail crosses the road, my legs were burning and I finally begged for mercy. Jim took pity on me and agreed we should take the road to the next RDV.

By then it was 11:30 and I had a 5:00 commitment in Ottawa, so I thanked the boys and headed back.

I learned to ski in a small center in northern Quebec and for the first 10 years I thought that skiing was what we did at Mount Fortin. It wasn't till I got my first job after university and was sent out to Calgary on an installation that I even saw what real skiing was about. This weekend riding with this group I had that same type of epiphany. I discovered that there were more than bunny hills out there. I'm not sure if we were riding blue rectangle or black diamond trails this weekend, but now I know there is a different type of riding to be enjoyed and fully expect to spend more time on this type of riding. I still will take the Harley on nice sedate rides, but I will also be looking for trails to give me that rush of adrenalin.

[deadly99]

Just got back from exploring some of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Great drive, good weather, etc. I'll try to get some pics uploaded in the next few days...as I know the majority of readers on this site drive instead of ride.

48701

[deadly99]

My diesel Jetta finally died I've always been a "truck guy" ,5 years ago I decided I'd buy something a bit more pratical. Bad mistake, driving around in a wee little car that shakes and rattles like only a diesel car can, underpowered and well just not suited to the gravel roads I drive on a daily basis. So I knew I wanted something that could have a fighting chance of keeping up with my bike, could be used as a support vechicle for bike trips, would let me go on bike rides and have Mrs Deadly or one of my buddies who doesnt ride come along, have decent gas mileage, could be used as a daily driver, etc

Alot of web research and I decided on a pre runner style small truck. I got a hold of the guys at Baja North in BC and gave them my list of wants and a price range. Nicier guys you'll never meet. The customer service and the quality of work they do is outstanding

So I flew out to BC with a buddy and picked up the truck last week. I spent a bit of time on the web and chatting with some of the folks involved in the TCAT project and put together a list of roads to ride on the way home as a scouting mission for the route. We got lucky with good weather and some damn fun roads

You'll probably be seeing a bit more of this truck in this ride report. Once the salt gets put down on the roads in Canada the bikes typically get put away for the winter. Hopefully this truck will let me keep working on the route during the off season


http://64.136.20.22/2898790_l.jpg

[deadly99]

Followed part of the route threw the east Kootenay's. Great gravel roads threw some fairly remote area's.

Bull River, White River, Kootenay River, Settlers Rd, etc

Cowboy country...real cowboys


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Great roads indeed, the scenery is top drawer and other than the occasional logging truck there isn't a whole lot out there. Perfect roads for the TCAT



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The intended route for this section comes through the Crowsnest Pass before grabbing these roads and heading up to Kootenay National Park. It then swings south to the town of Radium Hot Springs. I lived in Radium for a few years and spent alot of time riding back in the Kootenay valley. Although the terrain isn't challenging the feeling of remoteness and the fun gravel roads should offer a fun day to a day and a half of riding. A couple of great camp sites are available as well as some great outdoor natural hotsprings. I don't think this section of the route will disappoint

[OttawaXJ]

Love the ranger man. Great for the type of trails I run where its tight and twisty.

[deadly99]

Love the ranger man. Great for the type of trails I run where its tight and twisty.

Thanks, I've been having some fun with it :smiley_drive:

[deadly99]

Chris is plotting the route threw Alberta and Sask. He sent me some gps files prior to me leaving on this trip with some of his intended route selections Thanks Chris I was blown away by the terrain, scenery, etc


COming out of Canmore Alberta is a road called the Spray Lakes Rd. About an hour or more....bet it takes most folks alot more due to the scenery and constant photo op's....

Heading up out of the Bow Valley


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The road goes up and around this resorvoir before getting into the Spray Lakes Valley.





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A big wide gravel road greets you at the top. High speed nirvana with some spectacular rocky mountain views. A few nice informal camp spots along the way as well.




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[deadly99]

Mike is creating the section for the province of Newfoundland. Here is an excerpt from a post he made n another forum in regards to this route.



ok, sorry I haven't been a part of the discussion before now despite Ted's lovely introduction. And all I really have at this moment are a couple of wee teasers for what's in store in Newfoundland

Here's a shot from the west coast on the T'Railway, about 100 from Port Aux Basques when we were trying to ride across the island offroad in a single day, only about 800km's if you take the shortcut with 150+ of pavement around Red Indian Lake.

This was where my buddy overshot this weird right chicane and sailed off into an overgrown washout hitting about 8 feet down and breaking 2 ribs. It only took us an hour to get his 450 out of the hole, thank the gods we weren't on our big bikes, his 800GS or my 640A. This section may not make it onto the TCAT as it's below where you'd head up the Northern Peninsula to get onto the TLH, but much of the railbed looks similar.




http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Mongolia-2010/P7030018/980180027_4dPU3-L.jpg

sometime later...that might be a part


http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Spring-riding-2010/P7030024/1083458054_sfzcM-L.jpg



We wanted to prove to ourselves it's doable and felt we accomplished something for ourselves by this time despite losing serious time from mishaps. My buddy is a tough bastard and we rode another 400 km's to Gander after the crash! Better living through chemistry



http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Spring-riding-2010/P7030033/1083454810_nDUuj-L.jpg



This is a shot of a fun washout on an old spur line section between Argentia and the main line with the CFA's who just got off the ferry headed to the "Skibum Soiree 2010" which is a good option for only having to run the island in one direction, the guy in the foreground from Boston rode this on his 1200GS last year.



http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Spring-riding-2010/P9021166/1083452106_Ca2hT-L.jpg



Here's a shot of my second flat of the day recently where another friend and I were running terrain near Gander looking for suitable routes for the Rally Newfoundland that we're helping organize for 2011 and beyond, must have something to do with the ultra cheap Shinko's I keep running, hard to pass up $100/pr. Hey Ted, how did you like the 908's?




http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Spring-riding-2010/PA180006/1059839249_wLTpm-L.jpg



This section is part of a series of logging/mining roads in various stages of decay that should be able to connect the town of Terra Nova to the Bay D'espoir highway if they fix some of the bridges that are out. I'm thinking some of this stuff might be a nice diversion from 900 km's of T'Railway, or maybe only 600 if I can start finding routes north to the ferry to Blanc Sablon. Hurricane Igor did some serious damage in the eastern part of the province and that may have some impact too.

[deadly99]

The roads threw the foothills in Alberta are great. We hauled down some fun ones creating dust trails that lingered for miles behind you. With the rocky mountains in our rear view mirrors life couldn't have gotten much better. I'm not sure if these roads are on the exact route the TCAT will follow but I'm sure the terrain and views and will be very similiar.



http://64.136.20.22/2898797_l.jpg


South eastern Alberta and south western Sask offer up some brilliant terrain. Maybe it's just me as I've lived in the mountains, bush and coast but never in the prairies...so for me this was a real treat. I really enjoyed the wide open views and the rolling hills of grass. Chris put me together a route that will be included as a part of the TCAT, thanks ! Freaking fantastic


We got to the intended route during the middle of the night. The truck has pretty sweet aux lights mounted on the bumper and we had a blast ripping down the twisty, hilly roads. My buddy IV doing the navagting (maps and gps) and calling out the corners as we approached. A full on rally style run occured for a few hours until we toke a break and boiled up some more bean and watched the sun rise. One of those mornings that will never be forgotten




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After the sun came up we followed the route to the Cypress Hills park.



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I wish all parks were like this one in Canada. Double track gravel roads going right threw it, almost as if it was made for big dual sport bikes...maybe it was ?



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This area fits in perfect for the "main route" of the TCAT. The terrain isn't too technical, it's doable by big bikes and 4 wheel vechicles, gives that feeling of remoteness and offers up a good look at Canada...the Canada that isn't over polulated and covered in ashpalt. For many this area will be a highlight of the route, I think. It took us about half a day to get through it (off course we took a wrong turn here and there and also had to do a few "I wonder where this trail goes"). There are a couple of beauty camp sites in the park as well




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IV hard at work with the maps. Not sure if this is where we got turned around or not ... I didnt have my bike gps with us (just an old Nuvi) so we couldnt load any routes/tracks. We used some printed out Google maps and a generic map from the gps. Made navagation a bit "fun" in a few spots :)




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Real fun ripping down this road towards the Montanna border. This was a nice high plateau with some great scenery across the prairies.




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[Paladin]

Awesome man. The new truck looks great. How long did it take you to drive back in total?

[deadly99]

Awesome man. The new truck looks great. How long did it take you to drive back in total?


4800 km's (approx 2900 miles) in 4 days. A rushed trip indeed, a more leisurly one is planned for the western provinces in the upcoming year or so. That being said we did travel approximately 1000 km's of gravel on this quick excursion :)

[BCHauler]

This is a really exciting project. Thank you for doing it and sharing it with us.

[deadly99]

The fun way to enter Saskatchewan


http://64.136.20.22/2898786_l.jpg



The roads went on for a while, the "unpassable when wet" raised an eyebrow as the sun was coming out and the ground was thawing. I guess it gets a bit slick during the wet season ? There weren't any crazy hills or anything so I don't see "unpassable" happening...maybe a wee bit challenging but not unpassable. A couple of hills where I suppose the ground gets slick when wet, lot's of tree's though to assist if needed.

http://64.136.20.22/2898789_l.jpg



A VERY fun area indeed and a great addition to the route.


I really enjoyed the prairie scenery. Sorry I didn't grab any pics but we had some fun blasting some nice long gravel roads. A complete grid of gravel of we termed it. Very fun just to unwind and enjoy the scenery.


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This view seen from a scenic viewpoint in the Cypress park seems to have left a lasting impression on me........




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[deadly99]

NOTE: a couple of posts from Chris who is taking on the Sask/Alberta portion of the route. This is being cross posted from another site so please excuse if the timelines, etc don't make sense


A nice road in the southern end of the Nisbet Forest about 10 km north of the town of Duck Lake SK.


http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/PB030283.jpg


Heading south just across Hwy 11.



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The road to the St. Laurent Ferry. This road was fast, curvy packed sand and a lot of fun to ride. Too bad it's only about 5 km long!


http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/PB030314.jpg



Waiting for the ferry. Saskatchewan has many of these river ferrys. You never have to wait long for them since the river isn't exactly very wide. They also run long hours, though the operator does take a half hour lunch break and a half hour supper break.



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Riding the ferry. The operator thought it was funny when I asked if I was overloading him.




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A view of the South Saskatchewan River near the St. Laurent Ferry.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/PB030328.jpg


For those interested in Canadian History, the route will run right by Batoche, which is the site of the final battle of the 1885 Riel Rebellion. Even for those non-history-buffs it's worth a quick stop for a look.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/PB030336.jpg



A dirt road on the One Arrow Reserve.



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My XR enjoys another view of the South Saskatchewan, this one near the Fish Creek battle site.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/PB030360.jpg




A nice gravel road north of the town of Alvena, SK. It's really easy to get across Saskatchewan on only gravel roads, the tough part is finding the ones that are not DFDS (dead flat dead straight).





http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/PB030363.jpg



The Alvena Co-op. I was on reserve, and Alvena only has about 50 people at the most, so I figured that knowledge that there is a gas station there was important.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/PB030366.jpg



Alvena Co-op hours. These are winter hours. In summer they open an hour earlier and close a half hour later.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/PB030364.jpg



The road south of Alvena.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/PB030370.jpg



It was getting dark and cooling off at this point, so I made a beeline for home. Got some good scouting done though, and have an idea whether my plans will work (they will, for the most part!).

[deadly99]

Some more pictures from folks helping with the route. These are in the province of Saskatchewan. It's one of the praire provinces in the middle/left of the country. Most folks only this province from the main paved highway that crosses the country. What most don't realize is that there are some excellent roads/trails for overland travel.


http://www.advrider.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=240731&stc=1&d=1287685498


http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/Cypress%202010/P6060299.jpg



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http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/CypressHills-May07076.jpg




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I think many Canadians will be very surprised at the secenery and roads/trails in this province. For folks coming from other area's of the world I believe this area of the route will remind them of "the wild west" from old movies. A huge thanks to Chris fro all the hard work he is putting into the route :victory:

[deadly99]

IUnpHj5WeMs

Sorry for the lame quality, just getting into the video game. A new Go Pro is on the xmas list so hopefully next season I'll be able to post more vid's along with the photo's.

Anyways, this is a section of the route in Eastern Ontario. Typically it isn't this wet but you don't get to pick the weather :)

[deadly99]

Here's a vid Stephen made of a day on the TCAT in southern Ontario.


_z9T1aXfTaE

[Douglas S.]

Did you go through Elkwater on your way into the Sask side of the Cypress Hills? The reason I ask is that I usually spend a week or so backpacking in the West Block (Sask. side) every year and some of those roads look very familiar.

[deadly99]

Did you go through Elkwater on your way into the Sask side of the Cypress Hills? The reason I ask is that I usually spend a week or so backpacking in the West Block (Sask. side) every year and some of those roads look very familiar.


I do believe we did.

[Christian P.]

This is so awesome. Now I need to take yet another year off to do this trail...

:wings:

[deadly99]

This is so awesome. Now I need to take yet another year off to do this trail...

:wings:

Trying to keep it to a 45 day drive :Wow1:

[Lost Canadian]

I just have to say, this trip is beyond inspiring. Awesome!

[Waytec]

Trying to keep it to a 45 day drive :Wow1:

One way or is that round trip.

[deadly99]

One way or is that round trip.

One way. The route goes east to west. Of course we are not 100% completed yet but I believe that 45 days give or take will be the length of the route. Of course some folks will able to complete it much faster and some much slower based on pace, weather, skills, etc

[deadly99]

A little information about Quebec for those of you who aren't familiar with this province of Canada. It's located in the eastern/central part of Canada and it's ....well.....it's french. Personally I really enjoy exploring the "belle province", it's almost like heading to Europe, well sort of. There are more gravel roads in Quebec than probably in the entire USA (just a hunch ). In the winter time there are more groomed snowmobile trails than there are paved roads. Recreation is BIG in Quebec. Everything seems big , it's the largest province in Canada and has some real history to it.



http://www.advrider.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=240020&d=1286310240


Another fellow has been working on the route in Quebec. Fabrice has been working his way east from the beginning of the Trans Lab Highway. His portion of the route will meet my portion near a town called La Dore. The route from there has been routed but yet to be ridden. With winter closing in this will more than likely have to wait until spring unfortunately. A nice long 400+ km gravel road will lead from there through a town called Parent, Quebec and will lead into the section we just finished. After that the route will be taken over by Flanny and will bring folks into the city of Ottawa. So....yes things are beginning to really take shape

[deadly99]

Woke up to blue skies and frost on the ground. Freaking freezing outside, frost on the ground, couldn't have much above 0 degree's. I had about an hours ride to the meet spot downtown Ottawa. Heck, we're Canadian, we're supposed to be part lumberjack/part igloo dwellers and part seal blubber eaters aren't we? So I won't complain, let's just leave it at I froze my butt off that morning.

Packed up the bike and hit the road.



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A beautiful ride down some fun twisty roads early on a Sunday morning. Got to the meet spot (yes a Tim Hortons) and was surprised to see a handful of bikes. I'd thought there was only going to be 3 of us for the day.




http://64.136.20.22/2870780_l.jpg



A few familiar faces to those who have been following this thread and a few new ones as well. A real mix of bikes, grabbed a coffee and did the small talk/introduce ourselves and whatnot. Probably my favourite part of creating this route so far has been meeting all the like minded folks along the way. A real mix of bikes for the day, a couple of klr's, a big gs, a kawi versys, a 950 se and my adv. I always enjoying checking out others bikes and seeing what gadgets the've added, etc



After meeting the lads and slamming back an extra large triple triple we hit the road. The ride up to Mont Laurier is about a 3 hour ride along some great winding twisty roads. The pace was fast and fun and waiting every now and then for the single cyclinder bikes gave me a chance to warm up a bit

Some scenery shots from the ride north. The leaves have changed colours and made for a nice background.




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Got to Mont Laurier and everyone gassed up and had a quick bite to eat. Dan highly recommends the "steamies" when visiting Quebec. To me it's a hotdog but to him it's a steamy and the best things since sliced bread Jimmy had a voice mail from his wife who sounds frantic, she'd been in a car accident and he couldn't get ahold of her. Being the good lad that he is he turned around and had to head home.....bummer for him, hope everything was okay? Ah well a nice day for riding regardless of the terrain I suppose.

A few looks at the maps we had and we headed north. We had to go off of my memory for the first bit (my memory sucks). 3 years ago I rode this route, well low and behold we found the beginning of the route and headed up some fun sandy/gravel backroads. As the GS Challenege was held a few weeks back and they must have used the same route that I'd previously ridden, we were blessed with little markers at intersections that point the way This made navagation for the afternoon a no brainer.





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The route crosses a handful of small dams.




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In Canada there are unlimited places to camp (cowboy camp). Being as how alot of our land is owned by the government and camping isn't officially allowed I'll refrain from pointing out where the good spots are, but when you come across them you'll know Hey, look at this sweet beach



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Always fun to spin the wheels in the sand




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[deadly99]

There are about 3 obvious beaches that you'll pass along this section of the route. Good spot to take a break and do some drag racing


More dams (at this point the route will take on two options, one for bikes and one for 4 wheel vechicles, some of the dams are too narrow for a truck)

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As I mentioned there area kazillion roads/trails up in this area. Getting lost would not be hard. Thanks to Rhino for making the gps route of this section (my gps is broken). We road this section in the reverse direction that the TCAT will take folks down it but I don't believe that will change the difficulty or anything like that. For the most part it's just fun sandy trails, a few spots have an abundance of baby head (round rocks) that need to be ridden.




http://64.136.20.22/2871907_l.jpg




Dave aka DVD_Scott looking nice and relaxed.




http://64.136.20.22/2871908_l.jpg




Dan checking out the snowmobile maps. As we have learned you need to be careful when riding in Canada if you plan on using these maps. What's rideable in winter is not always "doable" in the spring.




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http://64.136.20.22/2871910_l.jpg




Rhino on his big GS. The 21 inch front seems to make a big difference, he rode that bike like a 650. It's always fun to ride with someone who keeps a similar pace. Chasing faster riders (although good for the skill enhancement it offers) can be tiring, waiting for people all the time kind of breaks the rhythm. Kudo's to you Rhino, first time I've ever seen a GS travel at those speeds on this time of terrain





http://64.136.20.22/2871911_l.jpg




A nice long sprint down a wide logging road brought us back to civilization, dakar speeds always make big wide gravel roads fun I'm sure Ko is still tightening nuts and bolts on his Versys.......(insert Yoda voice) "knobby tires does not a dual sport make"......although he did pretty darned well keeping up to us on the rough bits.

The ride home was a hoot. Fast and fun. The 307, 309 and 311 (I think?) roads are a fanatastic set of twisty remote roads. Not much traffic, no cops and great scenery. I got back to Ottawa just as the sun was setting. The last hour from the city back to my place was freezing ! Must have been below freezing, first time my toes started to sting. ANother great day, I enjoyed meeting some new folks, got to ride some fun trails, finished another little section of the route....just about perfect About 800 km round trip, time for new tires.


A quick stop for a smoke while riding through Ottawa, sitting back and watching the sun set over the Rideau canal....





http://64.136.20.22/2871913_l.jpg

[deadly99]

Random pic, exploring the mountains (Chic Choc Mtns) on the Gaspe Bay in Quebec. This is what lead me to get a lighter bike :victory:


http://64.136.20.22/2386571_l.JPG

[deadly99]

NOTE: a fellow named Fab has adopted a large chunk of Quebec. This is a cross post of his posts in regards to routing eastern Quebec

TCAT's Saguenay section

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On august 11 2010 I went on a ride with my buddy Erick (530 exc) to ride a part of the proposed TCAT run.

The section goes through the Parc des Monts Valin (3.50$ crossing fee)which is a nice provincial reserve with a great view and great hillclimb and twisted trails. Not much pictures since we're too busy enjoying the fast riding . but we have a great vid featuring Erick's brake line (first time mounting a camera to the ktm handlebars ) that I may post later sinc windows movie maker is acting right now...

After the parc section it opens up into some ZEC roads. ZEC means zone environementale contrôlée wich means... environementally controled zone... wich means that it's an area controled by a non-profit organization of hunters and fishermen and is protected from the abuses of modern civilisation. Québec is loaded with ZECs. It cost some money (10$ or so) to pass through one of theses zones but in this case we get in higher than the gate so we're saving the fare.




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/02.jpg




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/03.jpg



Labrieville (1.50$/Liter gas, hydro plant, logging plant)




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/04.jpg



Watch out for these guys as they are not going to pull to the side of the road (too heavy)



http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/05.jpg



After that, we headed west for an awsome gravel raod trip that may or may not be included in the TCAT depending on further discussions

Google earth file of that section:




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/ge01.jpg



From Labrieville you head east to Forestville which is about a 100 cliks from Baie-Comeau (BC), the actual start of the trans -Lab run.

Strangely my bro in law asked me to join him and some friend for a party in Les Escoumin wich is about 50km from Forestville. I jumped at the chance to
1- get drunk and
2- ride the Forestville - Baie-Comeau proposed part of the TCAT the next day

So off I was with Sylvain, another of my riding buddies.

Pic off the bike in Les escoumins




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/06.jpg



Pics from the party




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/p1.jpg



The next morning we split with those fudged up mofos and headed to Forestville to ride and have breakfast

Start of the section



http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/07.jpg




A nice gravel road that turns to this




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/08.jpg



And then to this




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/09.jpg



and to this




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/10.jpg



This was next




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/11.jpg




And we finally had to turn around when facing this swamp





http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/12.jpg





Deadly would've probably tried it but we travel on pig's backs (GS's) so we decided that we would turn around.

Than one on the pigs (the samll one) got stuck in the mud




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/13.jpg




and after much sweating/swearing we got it out and it was my turn to go on the fat pork but I wisely choosed to fabricate an on-ramp instead of going to the side of the bridge




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/14.jpg




And I was quickly out of trouble watching Sylvain catch his breath




http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/15.jpg




Map of the (aborted) section





http://fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/ge02.jpg




So we headed back home after trying some alternate route that ended in a dead end also.

Now it is getting kind of a challenge to find some gravel or trail between Labrieville and Baie-Comeau since there is like 3-4 big rivers (Berstiamite, Outardes, etc) that only seems to be crossable by riding rd 138 which is paved. I'm waiting for some logger friend to be back this weekend to ask him about an alternate route but any help from anyone knowing the area would be more than welcome.

This weekend we're riding another section and will post the results soon after.

[Paladin]

Interesting stuff. Is the slab up to Mont Laurier the official route? When I saw the direction of the path from La Dore to Parent, I was hoping you were going to head through Reserve Faunique de la Verendrye, Reservoir Cabonga, etc.

[deadly99]

Interesting stuff. Is the slab up to Mont Laurier the official route? When I saw the direction of the path from La Dore to Parent, I was hoping you were going to head through Reserve Faunique de la Verendrye, Reservoir Cabonga, etc.

Nope, the slab was just us getting to the route, from Mt Laurier it will go through Pap Lab park.

From La Dore the route will follow the Chemin Du Parent. Nice twisty 400 km gravel road. We're trying to space out the technical (terrain and navagation) parts of the route. From the end of Chemin DU Parent right through Ottawa and a couple fo day in Ontario the route is quite challenging. The thoughta was having a day's break from navagation, etc would be good for the overall of the route. It kind of sucks having to do this but it is needed to try and keep some consistancy to the route. There are big sections where there is no technical stuff, just long gravel highways, so to keep the route from consistant we skip some "good" stuff now and again. Make sense?

[Paladin]

Yeah, I guess the thing is in Quebec, there's millions of miles of good dirt road, and you can't use them all!

[concretejungle]

Really enjoying your pictures and trip reports! Thanks again for sharing and keep it up!

I used to own an ATK 605 enduro and enjoyed doing what you are doing here. Except i never took as long of a trip, but still enjoyed exploring and seeing what you would ride up on.

Then i had a career change and i lost my health insurance. So the first thing to go was the motorcycle. Really hated selling it.

Purchased a Toyota Land Cruiser that now takes me on the same type of adventures. The main difference is the cruiser is more expensive and limited as to just how deep in the bush it can take me "legally". Also i find that running the same trips as i did on my motorcycle i notice a lot more vistas and cool spots since i'm traveling much slower.

Still for just trying to have an adventure and the freedom that the motorcycle offered is unmatched.

[alaskaboy]

Fantastic ride report. Where can I find the maps?

[northfacetraveller]

This trip looks badass!! I've been planning a similar trip for the past two years and hope to do it in the summer of 2011 or 2012. Let me know if you need any routes when you get to B.C. :victory:

[deadly99]

Fantastic ride report. Where can I find the maps?

www.advcanada.com but they won't be available until the route is finished (end of the next season).

[deadly99]

NOTE: This is cross posted and was done by Fab who is creating a large chunk of the route in Quebec

We intended to do the red section on the following map:


http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/ge04.jpg



It's connecting to the section that goes toward Parent and that has been layed by Ted (in blue on the map) and it's going to Dolbeau-Mistassini, a decent town (Fast-food chains, Canadian tire, lodging, etc.) around Lac St-Jean.


We had to ride about 275 kms before the real thing and we stopped for lunch at le Margot in Larouche, a nice restaurant with a ton of artwork and collectibles hanging on the wall including the sheep vest worn by Jimmy Hendrix which is worth the visit alone.


The crew: Me riding the usual red pig, Sylvain on the yellow 800GS and Erick on his KTM530.




http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/35.jpg



After the aforementioned 200+kms of pavement, we were finally at the start of the section.




http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/36.jpg



This part is a logging road and goes on for a while (+/-80kms – I forgot to take note) and is really fast (140+kph) and loose sand/gravel.




http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/37.jpg



After that we parted from the main road and entered some smaller gravel roads which where fun and offered a nice view:




http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/38.jpg



http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/39.jpg



Time to refill the ktm:




http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/40.jpg



Then it got a little rougher.


The one thing I don't like about GPS is that it often puts us in the wrong path. The trail was marked by the GPS software as a main trail but we soon found out that it was not the case. Then we ran into some four wheelers and they told us that we should have stayed on the real main trail for a while and we would have been around the nasty section that we went through. Well we where there anyway:


At first it was fun:



http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/41.jpg



But then there was a creek to cross:




http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/42.jpg



But it was deep and filled with football sized rocks which made the crossing quite interesting:





http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/43.jpg



I did go through but Sylvain did not have that much luck.


Funny thing, I got stuck on the uphill on the other side of the creek with the rear wheel stuck on a fat rock.


On of the four wheeler guy offer to winch the pig up the hill but he had to come around me in order to get to the top. He found it appropriate to push himself with his foot resting on my shifter while ascending and what do you know, a broken foot-peg/shifter mount. There is only one on sale on ebay as I write this so there was no way I was going to find one at N49 32 25.1 W73 17 32.7


The winching went all right and my bike was out of the way so Sylvain could try the ascent:




http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/44.jpg




No winch required for a 800:





http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/45.jpg




The 530 went up effortlessly.


So I'm stuck with a broken shifter holding bracket and with +/-350kms to go I wasn't excite about Erick's idea to attach a rope to my boot and use it to shift gears.


The guy who crushed my bracket had a ½ filtered rod about 10 inches long with a couple of assorted nut so I took everything apart and replaced the usual shifter mounting bolt with it and got myself a bike shifting pretty much like new. All the pics are in Erick's cam so I took one today to show:



http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/49.jpg



I also found a way around this trap on the GPS software and according with input from the four wheeler so this should not be a problem in the future.


After this little mishap, we where greeted with some of the nicest trail I ever ridden. The soil was like semi-hard packed sand/yellow earth with absolutely no roots and the trail was a sweeping one car wide with small crests, everything a perfect trail is made off. The it opened uo in some logging roads from a recent forest fire (they harvest burned wood) which was again a blast to ride. I even lost a luggage case, twice :).


This pic was taken after the first case-ejecting incident. Notice the road in the background left



http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/46.jpg




The logging trail widen up as we reached the main forest road at km 46 (they have markers) and we rushed down to Girardville, a really small logging town north of Lake St-Jean.


We then rode again an awesome trail sections going through blueberry fields and some wood on our way to Dolbeau-Mistassini:





http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/47.jpg




http://www.fabricetremblay.ca/perso/TCAT/48.jpg




These again were some of the nicest trails I've ran so far!


We stopped for lunch in Dolbeau-Mistassini and rode the 200kms separating us from home as the sun was down as was the outside temp (1 Celsius) but we stopped at our local drunk hole for a tall beer (yes, a unique feature of this area; la grosse bière!).


Sadly, this is probably one of the last TCAT outing for me until next spring.

[deadly99]

NOTE: cross posted from Mike, aka Skibum69
Here's a shot from the west coast on the T'Railway, about 100 from Port Aux Basques when we were trying to ride across the island offroad in a single day, only about 800km's if you take the shortcut with 150+ of pavement around Red Indian Lake.

This was where my buddy overshot this weird right chicane and sailed off into an overgrown washout hitting about 8 feet down and breaking 2 ribs. It only took us an hour to get his 450 out of the hole, thank the gods we weren't on our big bikes, his 800GS or my 640A. This section may not make it onto the TCAT as it's below where you'd head up the Northern Peninsula to get onto the TLH, but much of the railbed looks similar.


http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Mongolia-2010/P7030018/980180027_4dPU3-L.jpg



sometime later...that might be a part




http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Spring-riding-2010/P7030024/1083458054_sfzcM-L.jpg



We wanted to prove to ourselves it's doable and felt we accomplished something for ourselves by this time despite losing serious time from mishaps. My buddy is a tough bastard and we rode another 400 km's to Gander after the crash! Better living through chemistry




http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Spring-riding-2010/P7030033/1083454810_nDUuj-L.jpg




This is a shot of a fun washout on an old spur line section between Argentia and the main line with the CFA's who just got off the ferry headed to the "Skibum Soiree 2010" which is a good option for only having to run the island in one direction, the guy in the foreground from Boston rode this on his 1200GS last year.





http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Spring-riding-2010/P9021166/1083452106_Ca2hT-L.jpg




Here's a shot of my second flat of the day recently where another friend and I were running terrain near Gander looking for suitable routes for the Rally Newfoundland that we're helping organize for 2011 and beyond, must have something to do with the ultra cheap Shinko's I keep running, hard to pass up $100/pr.




http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Spring-riding-2010/PA180006/1059839249_wLTpm-L.jpg





This section is part of a series of logging/mining roads in various stages of decay that should be able to connect the town of Terra Nova to the Bay D'espoir highway if they fix some of the bridges that are out. I'm thinking some of this stuff might be a nice diversion from 900 km's of T'Railway, or maybe only 600 if I can start finding routes north to the ferry to Blanc Sablon. Hurricane Igor did some serious damage in the eastern part of the province and that may have some impact too.

[deadly99]

A few pics from BC :Wow1:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff235/justanotherider/IMG_0783.jpg



http://manxman.smugmug.com/photos/571175318_TZzc6-XL.jpg


The BC portion will be approximtaely 8 days, based on an average speed and average ride/drive day.







http://manxman.smugmug.com/photos/801892318_HbxF7-XL.jpg



More BC and Alberta to come :drool:

[deadly99]

There's more to come from Newfoundland as well....a few teaser pics :ylsmoke:



http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/May-Rides-2008icebergs/IcebergClub03/299409009_dgCms-XL.jpg




http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/May-Rides-2008icebergs/IMG0779/302401048_fXQZH-XL.jpg



The route is really starting to take shape. We have a handful of folks helping out, each has "adopted" a section. This has speeded things up significantly. Unless something odd happens we hope to have the route completed and ready to distribute in the Fall of 2012.

Thanks for reading :smiley_drive:

ps...looking for some folks to "pre drive" a few sections next year ........ the bulk of the route has been done by bikes up until now and it would be nice to have a perspective from some four wheeled vechicles. If your interested shoot me a message.

Thanks
Ted

[paulj]

http://manxman.smugmug.com/photos/571175318_TZzc6-XL.jpg

This looks like the High Line road above Anderson Lake (between Seaton Portage and DArcy, north of Whistler). Have to watch out for sharp rock slivers on this stretch. This is the roughest through route north of Vancouver to Lillooet. Back in the Cariboo gold rush days, miners traveled by foot and steam boat along lakes like this till they got to Lillooet, which was mile 0 on the route to Barkerville.

Wikimedia has photo just a bit further south
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Anderson_Lake,_British_Columbia_1990.jpg

http://manxman.smugmug.com/photos/801892318_HbxF7-XL.jpg

This looks like the climb above the Crowsnest (hwy 3) at Hedley. This is a side trip off the main highway across southern BC.

Other BC segments that I think would fit this category are:
Grey's Creek Pass between Kimberley and Kootenay Lake
Old Cascade Highway between Rossland and Christiana Lake

[Paladin]

ps...looking for some folks to "pre drive" a few sections next year ........ the bulk of the route has been done by bikes up until now and it would be nice to have a perspective from some four wheeled vechicles. If your interested shoot me a message.

Thanks
Ted

You know I'll do it. ;)

[deadly99]

You know I'll do it. ;)

:smiley_drive: Look forward to it, I've got a couple of Quebec sections that need driving in the spring.

[greentruck]

Not a bike guy, but found the thread entertaining as well as informative. Great photos!

We're hoping to venture to the TLH and Newfoundland in 2011 with our rig. So I'm looking forward to seeing what the final main routes will be.

[deadly99]

Not a bike guy, but found the thread entertaining as well as informative. Great photos!

We're hoping to venture to the TLH and Newfoundland in 2011 with our rig. So I'm looking forward to seeing what the final main routes will be.

The route won't be published until 2012...

Once you get closer to the date shoot me a message and I'd be happy to recommend a fun way to get onto or off of the TLH :ylsmoke:

[deadly99]

NOTE: cross posted from Chris


SK/AB Virtual Tour

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, since it's winter and bloody cold here and I can't ride I figured I'd put together a virtual tour of the SK/AB portion of the route. The photos run from East to West, and of course are all from the portions of the route I've ridden already.... Some of these have already been posted earlier in this thread, but - what the heck - I'll put them in again in case you missed 'em.

First, a rough idea of the route through SK/AB. Red is stuff I've ridden, white is "yet to be explored". Note there's a lot of white left...




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/BareMap.jpg



A few pics from the Nisbet Forest just southwest of Prince Albert SK. Very sandy in here. You can ride a GS through it, but you won't be going 100...





http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/1_1NarrowsRoad01640x480.jpg





http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/1_2NarrowsRoad02640x480.jpg




Roddick Cabin. Nisbet has several of these cabins. They're open to the public and not excellent shelter but better than open air. Snowmobilers use them in winter as warm-up shacks. Could potentially camp in them...



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/1_3Nisbet01640x480.jpg



South of Roddick Cabin:




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/1_4Nesbit640x480.jpg




Road to the St. Laurent ferry:




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/1_5StLaurent640x480.jpg




The St Laurent ferry crossing - South Saskatchewan River:




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/1_6StLaurentFerry640x480.jpg



A couple of South Sask river views from the route. This one just after the St Laurent ferry crossing...




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/1_7StLaurentView640x480.jpg



...and this one a bit further south yet.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/1_8FishCrkView640x480.jpg



Moving south of Saskatoon, we get to these canal roads near Outlook.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/2_1Canals02640x480.jpg




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/2_2Canals01449x335.jpg




The route crosses the Gardiner Dam - what used to be the largest earth dam in the world when it was built. I think it's still in the top 5.



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/2_3Canals03640x480.jpg

[deadly99]

Now we head to the Cypress Hills region. Here's a couple of shots of the Gap road, heading west out of the Saskatchewan part of the park (called the Centre Block).



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_1GapRd01640x480.jpg



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_2GapRd02640x480.jpg



The road through the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, near the SK/AB border:




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_3CypressHills01640x480.jpg




The view looking east from Eagle Butte, just west of the town of Elkwater, AB:



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_4EagleButteRd02640x480.jpg




Another shot of the Eagle Butte Road leading away from Cypress




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_5EagleButteRd03640x480.jpg




Back down on the bald prairie west of Cypress:




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_6EagleButteRd01640x480.jpg



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_7BowIsland01640x480.jpg




Entering the "Hays Maze", a maze of twisty gravel roads near the tiny town of Hays, AB. Even with a map it's a bit tricky to find your way around in here...




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_8HaysMaze02640x480.jpg



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_9HaysMaze01640x480.jpg




A couple of shots of the canal roads heading West of Vauxhall AB.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_10CanalRd02640x480.jpg




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_11CanalRd01640x480.jpg




Getting off the main road and onto canal roads near Travers Reservoir:




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_12Travers01640x480.jpg




Backroad near Travers Reservoir:





http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_13Travers02640x480.jpg



Cutting across a few miles of pasture near Milo AB:




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_14Milo02640x480.jpg





Milo backroad:





http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_15Milo01640x480.jpg




Bow River overlook near Carseland:



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_16Carseland640x480.jpg




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_18Carseland06640x480.jpg




Another view of the Bow. The overlook from two pics ago is in the background.



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_20Carseland640x480.jpg




Canal roads near Carseland, AB:




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/3_21Carseland02640x480.jpg



Backroad north of Calgary:



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/4_1ShortStretch01640x480.jpg




The town of Water Valley has a small convenience store/gas station. Not sure you can get premium though, if you baby your Beemer...



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/5_2WaterValley02640x480.jpg


The Harold Creek Road (AB #579) West of the town of Water Valley:



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/5_4HaroldCreek02640x480.jpg




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/5_5HaroldCreek03640x480.jpg

[deadly99]

The next 3 shots are views from the Mockingbird Hill fire lookout point. It's a short (~5km) detour off of the forestry trunk road West of Water Valley. It's worth a look!



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/5_6Mockingbird01640x480.jpg


http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/5_7Mockingbird02640x480.jpg



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/5_8Mockingbird03640x480.jpg



Here's the trail you have to ride to get up to Mockingbird Lookout - another great reason to make the short detour! Of course, if you have a flat it'll take a bit longer...




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/5_9MockingbirdTrail01640x480.jpg




The Trunk Road South of Mockingbird Hill is fast and wide, with sweeping curves. Try to ride it during the week, as weekend offroad traffic to and from the area can be pretty heavy.



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/5_10TrunkRoad01640x480.jpg




Exiting the trunk road, Ghost Creek Road takes you South toward the town of Morley:



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/5_12RichardsRoad02640x480.jpg




Ghost Creek road turns into Richard's Road, which is rugged but passable for a few km before it turns into good gravel again:



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/5_13RichardsRoad04640x480.jpg




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/5_14RichardsRoad01640x480.jpg




After the Smith-Dorrien road South of Canmore, the trail heads North up several km of slab on Highway 40 to the Sibbald Creek Road (Alberta #68). Specacular views along this highway!




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/6_1Hwy4001640x480.jpg



Powderface Trail heads South off Sibbald Creek, and is about 30 km of twisty narrow gravel with terrific views.



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/6_2Powderface01640x480.jpg




You may even see bear prints on Powderface. Big Grizz by the looks of it - the print was about 6" wide!



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/6_3Powderface02640x480.jpg




A small bridge in the McLean Creek area. This was taken during the flooding of 2005 - normally the water is much lower:



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/6_4McLeanCreek01640x429.jpg




By the way, watch out for wildlife in this area. One day I was blasting down the road about 3 km from where that last pic was taken and just about ran into 3 large elk standing in the middle of the road. They looked at me for a few seconds and lazily wandered away.

Gorge Creek Road South of the McLean Creek riding area. The pic doesn't come close to doing the view justice (do they ever?).




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/6_5GorgeCreek01640x480.jpg




Riding through the town of Turner Valley:




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/6_6TurnerValley01640x480.jpg





South of Turner Valley you get some straight gravel with nice views. Watch out for wildlife - saw 4 moose on this road one time.





http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/6_7SofTurnerValley01640x480.jpg

[deadly99]

The view Eastward from the highest point on Alberta 532, sometimes called Windy Peak. Worth a stop and a look - and again, the pics don't do it justice.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_1WindyPeak01640x480.jpg



http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_2WindyPeak02640x480.jpg



Down from Windy Peak back on the Forestry Trunk Road. Apparently 911 works here...if you can get cell coverage...




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_3TrunkRoad01640x429.jpg



A couple of shots from Dutch Creek Road - spectacular views here!




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_4DutchCreek01640x480.jpg




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_5DutchCreek02640x480.jpg



Racehorse Pass is one of three dirt passes across the AB/BC border South of Kananaskis Country and North of Highway 3. This one would be do-able on a loaded KLR, but a GS would be a handful. It'll be a technical option for the route.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_6RacehorsePass01640x480.jpg



Hartley Pass Road, North of Fernie BC.





http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_7HartleyPass01640x480.jpg




A view from the Bull River FSR, North of Fernie BC:




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_8BullRiverFSR01640x480.jpg


Ripping up to the Quinn Creek road exit off of the Bull River FSR.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_9QuinnCreek01640x480.jpg





A view from Quinn Creek Road.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_11QuinnCreek03640x480.jpg





Here's what the Quinn Creek looks like - in case you were wondering.





http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_12QuinnCreek04640x480.jpg





Another view from Quinn Creek. You'll love this ride through here!





http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_13QuinnCreek05640x480.jpg





A shot of Settler's Road - the last bit of gravel before Radium.




http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kiffernathan/TCAT%20Possibilities/Existing%20Photos/7_14SettlersRoad01640x480.jpg



That's my tour of what I've got so far. Hope you enjoyed your "virtual ride" through SK and AB, and hope you get a chance to ride the real thing sometime!
__________________
Chris

[deadly99]

There are about 8 of us now working on this project. SOme have taken on a section of the route and are creating the GPS tracks, waypoints, etc One fellow is a GIS guru for a living and is creating the maps and making sense of the route and prepping it for distribution, another fellow is a graphic designer and is creating logo's, templates for the guidebook, covers, etc

All in all the project is coming along quite nicely :victory:

Here's a random photo of one of the roads that will be included

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Arethusa-Storm-Mist-Highwood-aerial.JPG/800px-Arethusa-Storm-Mist-Highwood-aerial.JPG

[deadly99]

NOTE: cross posting these photo's from Anthony that he took while on Vancouver Island


Where the route ends



http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3259/3208014241_397281b89d_b.jpg




http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2510/4036748014_2713dd04da_b.jpg





http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3411/3198677964_6f6a60b880_b.jpg




http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2776/4051296120_827b811a5c_b.jpg





Indeed Anthony is a wizard with the camera :Wow1:

Check out his site

http://motojournalism.blogspot.com/

[ben2go]

I have a few questions.
Where do you guys get your maps for these adventures?
Will you be making a list of coordinates of back roads?
What GPS do you guys run?I have a PC GPS that I set up my self.
Is a VHF operators license required for vehicles equipped with VHF radios?I know I had to have them on my boat and aircraft.

Next year between April and June,I plan to visit a friend, and hopefully aide in his boat launch ceremony.I would like to take the scenic route back.Hopefully my sons will be able to make the journey with me.

[deadly99]

I have a few questions.
Where do you guys get your maps for these adventures?
Will you be making a list of coordinates of back roads?
What GPS do you guys run?I have a PC GPS that I set up my self.
Is a VHF operators license required for vehicles equipped with VHF radios?I know I had to have them on my boat and aircraft.

Next year between April and June,I plan to visit a friend, and hopefully aide in his boat launch ceremony.I would like to take the scenic route back.Hopefully my sons will be able to make the journey with me.

We are using a bunch of different sources for maps to cvreate the route.


Backroads Maps
http://www.backroadmapbooks.com/main/index.html

Online resources
Google, etc

Canadian National Topographic Series of maps (NTS)



And a few other resources.

The route will be distributed via GPX files along with a "guidebook" that will include maps, tips, info on gas, lodging, weather, etc


Sorry I have no idea about the VHF, but I assume you do need a license ?

Hope that helps :smiley_drive:

[Paladin]

Fantastic stuff!

[ben2go]

We are using a bunch of different sources for maps to cvreate the route.


Backroads Maps
http://www.backroadmapbooks.com/main/index.html
Online resources
Google, etc
Canadian National Topographic Series of maps (NTS)


And a few other resources.

The route will be distributed via GPX files along with a "guidebook" that will include maps, tips, info on gas, lodging, weather, etc


Sorry I have no idea about the VHF, but I assume you do need a license ?

Hope that helps :smiley_drive:

Thanks.That does help.I can't wait till you guys have this project finished. :safari-rig:

[SnowZone]

ps...looking for some folks to "pre drive" a few sections next year ........ the bulk of the route has been done by bikes up until now and it would be nice to have a perspective from some four wheeled vechicles. If your interested shoot me a message.

Thanks
Ted

I'd be interested in running some of the Quebec/Ontario/Manitoba sections next summer. Just let me know which/where!

[deadly99]

I'd be interested in running some of the Quebec/Ontario/Manitoba sections next summer. Just let me know which/where!


Pm sent

[holidaynation]

Sorry, Ted, don't want to hi-jack your thread, just thought I would throw this out there, to answer the question. By the By, I am interested and hopefully going to be able to hook up for parts of the Ontario/Quebec sections next summer? I'll go by truck.

anyway.

Is a VHF operators license required for vehicles equipped with VHF radios?I know I had to have them on my boat and aircraft.

.
Short answer, all hams need be licenced, but not by Canada.
5. Reciprocal Operating Agreements and Arrangements
5.1 Convention between Canada and the United States of America
The operation of amateur radio service equipment and stations in the territory of the other country is covered in Treaty Series 1952 No. 7 — Operation of Certain Radio Equipment or Stations, Convention between Canada and the United States of America.

Visiting amateurs are not required to register or receive a permit before operating their amateur radio stations.

Each amateur station shall indicate at least once during each contact with another station its geographical location as nearly as possible by city and state or city and province.

The amateur station shall be operated in accordance with the laws and regulations of the country in which the station is temporarily located.

anadian amateurs operating in the U.S. have the same privileges as they have in Canada, limited by U.S. band edges and mode restrictions in accordance with the Code of Federal Regulations(CFR), Title 47, Chapter I (FCC), Part 97, Amateur Radio Service.

U.S. amateurs operating in Canada must abide by the Radiocommunication Regulations and Radiocommunication Information Circular 2, Standards for the Operation of Radio Stations in the Amateur Radio Service RIC-2). Those who are qualified to send and receive Morse code at a speed of at least 5 w.p.m. may operate in accordance with privileges accorded to holders of the Amateur Radio Operator Certificate with Basic, Morse code and Advanced Qualifications. U.S. amateurs who are not qualified to send and receive Morse code may operate in accordance with privileges accorded to holders of the Amateur Radio Operator Certificate with Basic Qualification.

[deadly99]

Great info !

As for pre driving some of the route, it would be appreciated thanks. Shoot me an email this winter and I'll send you some info.

[ben2go]

Sorry, Ted, don't want to hi-jack your thread, just thought I would throw this out there, to answer the question. By the By, I am interested and hopefully going to be able to hook up for parts of the Ontario/Quebec sections next summer? I'll go by truck.

anyway.

Short answer, all hams need be licenced, but not by Canada.
5. Reciprocal Operating Agreements and Arrangements
5.1 Convention between Canada and the United States of America
The operation of amateur radio service equipment and stations in the territory of the other country is covered in Treaty Series 1952 No. 7 — Operation of Certain Radio Equipment or Stations, Convention between Canada and the United States of America.

Visiting amateurs are not required to register or receive a permit before operating their amateur radio stations.

Each amateur station shall indicate at least once during each contact with another station its geographical location as nearly as possible by city and state or city and province.

The amateur station shall be operated in accordance with the laws and regulations of the country in which the station is temporarily located.

anadian amateurs operating in the U.S. have the same privileges as they have in Canada, limited by U.S. band edges and mode restrictions in accordance with the Code of Federal Regulations(CFR), Title 47, Chapter I (FCC), Part 97, Amateur Radio Service.

U.S. amateurs operating in Canada must abide by the Radiocommunication Regulations and Radiocommunication Information Circular 2, Standards for the Operation of Radio Stations in the Amateur Radio Service RIC-2). Those who are qualified to send and receive Morse code at a speed of at least 5 w.p.m. may operate in accordance with privileges accorded to holders of the Amateur Radio Operator Certificate with Basic, Morse code and Advanced Qualifications. U.S. amateurs who are not qualified to send and receive Morse code may operate in accordance with privileges accorded to holders of the Amateur Radio Operator Certificate with Basic Qualification.


Cool.Thanks for the info.

Sorry didn't mean to jack the thread either.

[deadly99]

Just a couple of pictures from this last summer that I don't believe got posted (my apologies if they are repeats).

Southern Ontario
Optional "Technical Section"...Pencil Lake Road

http://64.136.20.22/2858280_l.JPG



http://64.136.20.22/2858308_l.JPG

Optional "technical Section" near Ompah, Ontario


http://64.136.20.22/2728580_l.jpg

"Main Route", southern Ontario...Haliburton Heritage Trail



http://64.136.20.22/2858320_l.JPG

"Main Route", southern Ontario.....Eels Lake Road


http://64.136.20.22/2858311_l.JPG

"Main Route", southern Ontario....Nippissing Ghost Road

http://64.136.20.22/2858352_l.JPG

"Main Route", southern Ontario....K&P Rail Trail

http://64.136.20.22/2728563_l.jpg

[deadly99]

Juames making sure we don't get lost, again :rofl

http://64.136.20.22/2728582_l.jpg




Granite Lake, Ontario...great informal camp spot :deal. Warm water, sandy beach, cliffs to jump from, etc

http://64.136.20.22/2728576_l.jpg


Young ladies in the mud :wink: (yes they are of age..it's just you who is getting older)



http://64.136.20.22/2760502_l.JPG

[deadly99]

Optional "technical Section" in southern Ontario......Lingham Lake Hydro Line


http://64.136.20.22/2785926_l.JPG




http://64.136.20.22/2785914_l.JPG

[deadly99]

Some more long lost photo's, these are from eastern Quebec. Most of these are from the main trail and a couple are from an optional "Technical Section" of the route. Good riding in this area :deal


http://64.136.20.22/1686560_l.jpg




http://64.136.20.22/1686562_l.jpg





http://64.136.20.22/1686566_l.jpg



http://64.136.20.22/1686561_l.jpg



http://64.136.20.22/1686551_l.jpg

[deadly99]

A couple of more "lost" pictures

Alberta. This mountain used to be called China Mans peak, some felt it was discrimatory and it was renamed after the first fellow who climbed it. It is now called Ha Ling peak. Ironically enough this road in the picture (Spray Lakes Rd) is just about to cross White Mans pass.

http://64.136.20.22/2898771_l.jpg



Another view of White mans pass, the road is noticeable cutting from right to left. This is just outside of the town of Canmore, Alberta.


http://64.136.20.22/2898795_l.jpg




Although the intended route does not go right into the town of Banff, Alberta it is only a quick 20 minute spin up the highway. A touristy town but for good reason, amazing scenery, 35 different pubs, several campgrounds, unlimted amount of motels/hotels/hostels and a bunch of other things to keep someone occupied for a day or two break from the dusty roads :deal


http://64.136.20.22/2898769_l.jpg

[deadly99]

The last weekend in May in Quebec....depending on the snowpack that winter the higher elevations may be a bit...."wintery" at that time of year. Just around the corner from here a BIG cougar crossed in front of us, 30 feet later my bike got stuck. One of those oh crap moments


http://64.136.20.22/2386570_l.JPG



Backroads in Ontario, seriously fun to ride



http://64.136.20.22/2787080_l.JPG

[deadly99]

How long do you think that water bottle stayed there :wink:


Some rural town in Ontario.


http://64.136.20.22/2751312_l.JPG



The Eastern Ontario Adventure Rally (EOAR). Thanks to Uber a seriously fun road was added to the TCAT :victory:

http://64.136.20.22/2751339_l.JPG

[ben2go]

http://64.136.20.22/2760502_l.JPG


Oh yea baby!I like dirty gurls. http://www.smileyshut.com/smileys/new/emot95.gif (http://www.smileyshut.com/facebook-smileys.html)

[Paladin]

Granite Lake, Ontario...great informal camp spot :deal. Warm water, sandy beach, cliffs to jump from, etc

http://64.136.20.22/2728576_l.jpg


Young ladies in the mud :wink: (yes they are of age..it's just you who is getting older)



http://64.136.20.22/2760502_l.JPG

Does the Granite Lake campground look like it's heavily used? Is it all trashed? I'm always on the lookout for nice, accessible campgrounds, that aren't trashed. Very hard to find as you can imagine.

There's this one amazing spot on Lac Dumont in Quebec, spectacular camping on a bluff above a long sandy beach on a beautiful untouched lake, facing west... but it's crowded in the summer, and you can't walk in the woods without risking stepping in somebody's unburried poo. And you never know when somebody will show up with a loud stereo. One time we were there, they had a cube van full of massive stereo equipment, and a band was going to be playing. I think that was May 2-4, or July 1st. Can't remember.

Where were the girls at? Wondering if that's what goes on at Granite lake because... that's the type of thing you see at Dumont too. Not a prude, but it's not really family friendly.

[deadly99]

j=Paladin;779790]Does the Granite Lake campground look like it's heavily used? Is it all trashed? I'm always on the lookout for nice, accessible campgrounds, that aren't trashed. Very hard to find as you can imagine.

There's this one amazing spot on Lac Dumont in Quebec, spectacular camping on a bluff above a long sandy beach on a beautiful untouched lake, facing west... but it's crowded in the summer, and you can't walk in the woods without risking stepping in somebody's unburried poo. And you never know when somebody will show up with a loud stereo. One time we were there, they had a cube van full of massive stereo equipment, and a band was going to be playing. I think that was May 2-4, or July 1st. Can't remember.

Where were the girls at? Wondering if that's what goes on at Granite lake because... that's the type of thing you see at Dumont too. Not a prude, but it's not really family friendly.[/QUOTE]


Granite lake is informal camping, I've never seen anyone there before :ylsmoke:

[deadly99]

2010 Status Update

Given that the year is ending, I thought it would be an appropriate time to inform everyone of the status of the TCAT project.

We now have folks involved from across the country helping out. Skibum69 is creating the route across Newfoundland. Juames is helping out with the route in eastern Ontario and western Quebec. Fab is creating the route across eastern Quebec. Kiffernathan is creating the route across Manitoba, Sask and Alberta. Manxman is routing the bulk of BC. I’ll be filling in the missing pieces (Northern Ontario, Vancouver Island, Labrador, etc).

These folks have signed up to volunteer their time and energy for a not so glamorous job. Exploring dead ends, riding in the rain and cold weather, spending time away from your families, riding some fairly boring roads at times and all for no pay check. Each of us has received many suggestions for roads and trails which is just fantastic. This project would not be doable by one person (well, without being retired, having lots of funds or spending a dozen years) so it is with much gratitude that I say thanks. Thanks to the people for creating their sections of the route, thanks to the people who are helping them out and thanks to the folks who have offered their suggestions and volunteered to join us on our rides...THANKS!

The bulk of the TCAT has been plotted on maps; about half of it has been ridden. Next season (2011) will see most of the route being ridden and finalized.

I will be riding next spring with Fab and seeing his section of the route. It looks brilliant and I cannot wait to ride eastern Quebec for a week. Later in the year I’ll be spending a few weeks up in northern Ontario trying out a mapped route that has been put together with the help of some local input. It looks promising indeed.

In the summer of 2012 I will be heading west with a group of lads and riding the western half of the route. The plan is just beginning to come together but it looks like we’ll be meeting up with Kiffernathan and Manxman along the way and getting a “guided” tour of the TCAT. It’ll be very freaking cool to ride all of this stuff that I have been gazing at on some maps and a computer screen. I hope to be able to offer an open invite to anyone who would like to come along for a day, week or to ride the entire western half with us. It’s a long way off but as the date gets closer a schedule will get put together with some dates and times for meet up locations. Should be a great way to spend a summer



GISdood has signed up to create the maps and keep some order to the raw data we’re feeding him (tracks, google maps, etc) and will be creating the end gps product and maps for the guidebook. After much debate and input from many folks we have decided to distribute the route in this format.

· one gpx file per section

· a section being 2-3 days of riding or a 1000 km’s or a logical spot for a section to end (where an island ends, the prairies meet the mountains, end of a very long road, etc)

· each gpx file will have multiple tracks labelled sequentially and by province

· each gpx file will have waypoints for gas stops

We have decided not to include routes and have chosen tracks for obvious reasons, the biggest being that maps vary from one gps unit to another and many of them do not show the roads/trails the TCAT travels. Many gps units do not accept tracks, we understand this and it made it a hard decision. But in the end a choice had to be made, it is my feeling that if someone is spending months on the road travelling this route, a couple of hundred bucks for a track capable unit is probably just a drop in the bucket compared to tires, oil changes, food, gas and so on. Of course some people may decide to alter our gpx files and create routes and use them as direct routes, that your choice. We looked at doing maps, road books, routes and what not but in the end we choose this means to distribute the TCAT, we hope everyone will agree it makes the most sense. The GPX files will be distributeted from our web site at no charge.

Here’s a sample of one section.

[deadly99]

http://64.136.20.22/2933448_l.JPG

[deadly99]

http://64.136.20.22/2933448_l.JPG





You can see how the Technical Sections (5 of them in this section) intertwine with main route. The Main Route is designed to be “doable” by big bikes and by trucks (land rovers, suv’s, jeeps, etc). The bulk of the main route consists of non paved roads. Some are narrow, some are wide gravel highways and in a few spots may be challenging for some folks. As the final route has yet to be completed I can only guess based on what I have seen so far but it looks like approximately 10-15% of the main route is on paved roads (they are called dual sport bikes). From experience some of these paved sections are pretty exceptional (scenic, twisty, hilly, etc). Some of the paved roads are not so glamorous and are used to connect gravel roads, nature of the beast and cannot be avoided. We have all tried to limit the amount of asphalt wherever possible.
The Technical Sections offer exactly what the title says, tracks that are more technical than a gravel road. Again I can only guess as the route is not completed but I think there will be approximately 20-30 technical sections on the TCAT. Mud, water crossing, narrow trails, steep hills, etc are what can be expected. They are not crazy enduro type terrain, but rather challenging terrain for a fully loaded travel enduro bike. I will have ridden every one of them on my 500 pound bike loaded with gear and will confidently be able to say that they are “doable”. This is a real grey line, we realize that but we are doing our best to not add anything that WE deem to crazy, for some these sections may be lame (I doubt it) and for others they may be considered crazy. Time will tell, all I can say is that I will have done each of them and I consider myself nothing more than a strong intermediate rider.
Antronax has joined the team and is going to be creating the logo’s for the TCAT and some other graphic design type of stuff. This is a huge help to the project Among other things he is contributing is a template for the guidebook.
I have just begun to work on the guidebook. The intent is to have a 250+- page book that will be available for sale. It will include a write up for each gpx file (or section of the route) with some history, geography, pictures, a detailed map and more importantly a description of the terrain and what folks can expect over the next few days of riding. There will be a charge for the guidebook with proceeds going to try and keep our web site alive. As I mentioned I have just begun to wrap my head around this part of the project and I am beginning to realize that writing a book is no small thing. My wife has generously volunteered to be the editor, which is huge because my grammar and spelling is...well....not so great.
A quick sample (first draft, no template, bad spelling mistakes, etc) just to give you an idea of what I am thinking about. In my experience it is best to just start doing it, putting pen to paper so to speak and begin. Of course this will get revamped, updated and probably won’t even be in the book but starting as they say is the hardest part.

[deadly99]

http://64.136.20.22/2933449_l.JPG





In summary I am very excited with how far we got this year. I am simply blown away by the folks who have joined “the team” and are lending their expertise in a field or area of the country to try and make the TCAT something exceptional. The final product is beginning to become visible and to be honest it will be much better than I ever expected. I believe the mix of geography, cultures and terrain this route will offer will be second to none in North America for travel enduro bikes and 4 wheeled overland vechicles. I would never have made that statement 6 months ago, but I feel confident in saying it now because of the all the people helping out

The end goal of having the TCAT ready for distribution in the fall/winter of 2012 is still looking reasonable. I can’t wait to do another one of these status updates next holiday season......

From my family to yours, we’d like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years

[deadly99]

I'd like to do a shout out to some of the people who have got in touch with me and suggested roads, trails, scenic spots, etc

A HUGE THANK YOU

Andy from Alberta has been kind enough to send me some gps tracks in Alberta and BC and answered a kazillion emails with questions about the terrain, access, etc. Help like this is only adding to the overall project and will benefit the route significantly. Having local's help us out along the way is a big plus...THANKS ANDY :thumb


Andy

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/CNP%20Sept%202009/img_1312_2.jpg




A potential "technical section" in Alberta :evil


http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/CNP%20Sept%202009/IMGP1201.jpg




Potential for the main route through the East Kootenay's



http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/Fairmont%20-%20Sept%202009/IMGP1255.jpg



Potential: optional "Technical Section" near Invermere BC (East Kootenays)


http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/Fairmont%20-%20Sept%202009/IMGP1338.jpg




http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/Fairmont%20-%20Sept%202009/IMGP1310.jpg



Once again Andy, thanks for the tracks and photo's :freaky

[deadly99]

A question was asked on another forum of where that rideg photo was taken
As for the ridge.....up above Paradise Mines, shoulder of Mt Nelson near Panorama ski resort.

The pic (or so I have been told) involves a few hairy moments to get to and from...


http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/Fairmont%20-%20Sept%202009/IMGP1281.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/Fairmont%20-%20Sept%202009/IMGP1284.jpg




http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/Fairmont%20-%20Sept%202009/IMGP1321.jpg



BUT Andy was also good enough to point oput an alternate route that goes up and over the ridge that may be more suitable for loaded large bikes :deal

All of Andy's info has been passed on to Manxman to consider as the majority of BC is his playground and he'll be planning the route through that section of Canada. Have fun Manxman :freaky Looks like some fun terrain you get to try out there in BC. Have I mentioned that I miss living in BC lately ?

[deadly99]

Cross post in reference to the route through the East kootenay valley in BC



I think the "technical" reference was just the powerline that bypasses part of the Gray Creek route. It's often open sooner than the actual road as it doe not go quite as high, but the riding is much more interesting (and doable for a well-ridden big duallie).
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/Kootenay%20trip%20-%20July%202008/IMG_4435.jpg

I did Rose Pass twice last summer... only one tough (but short) climb, but would not recommend it as part of the main route given that we are targeting bigger bikes for this. But certainly could be an interesting alternative for smaller bikes. Should not be attempted before July as the St Mary river crossing can be pretty high and fast with spring run-off.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/Kimberley%20Sept%202009/IMGP0946.jpg

The route I suggested to Deadly99 for getting across the divide was Deadmans Pass. It is the first pass to the north of Coleman and is a nicer alternative to hwy 3

Koko Claims (also called Crossing Creek) is way too tough for the bigger bikes, but not a problem for a 650 or smaller thumper with a really good bash plate. Very loose baby head rock climb that seems to go on forever... but fun.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/CNP%20July%202009/IMGP0592.jpg

The route I suggested coming down from Canal Flats is the power line that runs just to the west of the hwy. It's a blast for high speed DS riding that is fine for all bikes.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/Kimberley%20Sept%202009/IMGP1027.jpg

Also the ride up to the Skookumchuk LO is not to be missed - great views of the valley.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z143/aebbern/Kimberley%20Sept%202009/IMGP1030.jpg

[deadly99]

Somewhere in Ontario along the TCAT


http://64.136.20.22/1728536_l.JPG





http://64.136.20.22/1728522_l.JPG

[deadly99]

Things have predictably slowed down now that winter has set in. ALOT of work has been happening behind the scene's. Discussions about route choices, much work on the guidebook, a logo for the route, designs for the maps, and choices on what and how to distribute the route.

The route will be distributed for free from our server ( www.advcanada.com )
It will be a series of GPX files based by province.
Each GPX file consist of several tracks following this naming convention
PROVINCE _ TYPE_NUMBER
examples
ONTmain001
ONTmain002
ONTtech001

main being the main route which is designed for well prepared suv's and loaded, large dual sport bikes.
tech being the optional technical tracks

A guidebook will be available from our site for a few bucks. The idea being that we can make enough money to keep our site alive in oder to distribute the GPS files. The book will have a brake down and explanation for each gpx file, province and track file. Lot's of photo's and as much histroy and other relvant information we can stuff into it.

We have also been filming all of our trips and may be throwing a dvd together as well.....

The idea being that the guidebook and dvd would help folks prepare for their expedition across Canada. We hope the guidebook would be valuable while on the route as well, the maps in particular should help folks out and reading about the next day's tracks should be valuable as well.

The interest folks have expressed in this project is much appreciated :smiley_drive:


As more information becomes available I'll do my best to update this thread. We have some fun trips planned for next season, northern Ontario, eastern Quebec, Newfoundland just to name a few. The other fellows creating the diofferent sections of the route also have some great trips planned and by the end of next summer we should have a very good idea of the final product.

Cheers for now
Ted

[deadly99]

Just so folks dont get the wrong impression of the route, it is not a hard core enduro or crawlers route. This photo best represents the main route....gravel roads crossing the country. Small towns and out of the way places are the goal.

http://64.136.20.22/2839653_l.JPG

[ben2go]

Sweet deal.Just what I am wanting a rough country driving vacation without to much hard core stuff.When I go that far from home I don't wanna worry with hard core crawling breaking my junk.

[Paladin]

Have we seen the section north and NW of the GTA yet? You ARE going to use the Old Nippissing Rail trail... right? What about the Park to Park trail, which includes much of the Seguin trail... right? ;)

Man, I need to get a rack system for my bike. And a big fuel tank. And a turbo.

[deadly99]

Have we seen the section north and NW of the GTA yet? You ARE going to use the Old Nippissing Rail trail... right? What about the Park to Park trail, which includes much of the Seguin trail... right? ;)

Man, I need to get a rack system for my bike. And a big fuel tank. And a turbo.


Yes and yes. A section of the Seguin will be used (technical option due to whoops and water) and the Nippissing Ghost Rd will also be used north from where it meets the Seguin. After Noth Bay the route follows 600 km's of gravel roads through the town of Shining Tree and Timmins. North from there to the Abitibi Canyon before heading back south to Kapaskasing and points west :smiley_drive:

Most of that section has been routed and we plan to spend a few weeks in August test riding it. We're also planning to attempt a northern passage above Lake Nippigon. From what we can tell one fellow has t tied three times and made it once. Collapsed bridges and wide rivers will be the challenge..
:smiley_drive:

[deadly99]

Sweet deal.Just what I am wanting a rough country driving vacation without to much hard core stuff.When I go that far from home I don't wanna worry with hard core crawling breaking my junk.

No worries, the main route is primarily gravel roads, lots and lots of gravel roads. Throw in about 10 percent paved roads and maybe another 10 percent of easy double track and you have the main route. We as well are traveling these roads and trails and also have concerns of breaking our bikes and trucks way out in the middle of nowhere along ways from home and have taken these concerns to heart when designing the main route. In all there looks to be about 30 technical sections that are optional.

We have come out with a rating system for the tracks, that along with the guidebook and we believe people will be able to make an educated choice on wether or not to drive the technical sections or just stick to the main route.

A few areas left to route but it is looking like the TCAT will be around 15 000 kilometers in length and will offer a very wide range of cultures, scenery and geographical landscapes :smiley_drive:

[ben2go]

No worries, the main route is primarily gravel roads, lots and lots of gravel roads. Throw in about 10 percent paved roads and maybe another 10 percent of easy double track and you have the main route. We as well are traveling these roads and trails and also have concerns of breaking our bikes and trucks way out in the middle of nowhere along ways from home and have taken these concerns to heart when designing the main route. In all there looks to be about 30 technical sections that are optional.

We have come out with a rating system for the tracks, that along with the guidebook and we believe people will be able to make an educated choice on wether or not to drive the technical sections or just stick to the main route.

A few areas left to route but it is looking like the TCAT will be around 15 000 kilometers in length and will offer a very wide range of cultures, scenery and geographical landscapes :smiley_drive:


:luxhello: I am on edge just waiting for the finishing touches.I know it will be a year or two before I can take some real time away to do some extended traveling. :smiley_drive:

[Paladin]

Make sure you drop me a note when you are going to be doing any runs in my area in the spring. Bike or truck. Either way.

[x32792]

We have come out with a rating system for the tracks, that along with the guidebook and we believe people will be able to make an educated choice on wether or not to drive the technical sections or just stick to the main route.

Guidebook?

[deadly99]

Guidebook?

Indeed, the GPS files will be ditributed for free and we are writing a guidebook for the route. It will cost a few bucks and we hope to make enough to help support the website costs.

The guidebook will have relevant information for folks coming to Canada, some history, flora and fauna, and a breakdown per track file on terrain, etc along with photo's and maps of each track. The intent is to create a book that you can sit down with each evening and see what the next day has in store. The maps will be in color and accurate and should also help people in seeing the big picture. We have found that when following a line on a gps screen that it becomes easy to loose the big picture of where you are. Maps will be provided for the entire route, then broken down by province and then further by each gpx file.

The guidebook may also be bundeled with a 40 minute DVD on the route along with a few other bells and whistles.

:smiley_drive:

[x32792]

Indeed, the GPS files will be ditributed for free and we are writing a guidebook for the route. It will cost a few bucks and we hope to make enough to help support the website costs.

The guidebook will have relevant information for folks coming to Canada, some history, flora and fauna, and a breakdown per track file on terrain, etc along with photo's and maps of each track. The intent is to create a book that you can sit down with each evening and see what the next day has in store. The maps will be in color and accurate and should also help people in seeing the big picture. We have found that when following a line on a gps screen that it becomes easy to loose the big picture of where you are. Maps will be provided for the entire route, then broken down by province and then further by each gpx file.

The guidebook may also be bundeled with a 40 minute DVD on the route along with a few other bells and whistles.

:smiley_drive:

Good for you! I'm subscribed to this thread and enjoy going long so I'll be on the lookout for your Guidbook, GPS files, etc... Your Trans Canadian Trail could be in my future?

Ah...Will my '01 TJ (or 2012 JK with new Pentastar motor if they ever go on sale) be suitable?

John

[deadly99]

Good for you! I'm subscribed to this thread and enjoy going long so I'll be on the lookout for your Guidbook, GPS files, etc... Your Trans Canadian Trail could be in my future?

Ah...Will my '01 TJ (or 2012 JK with new Pentastar motor if they ever go on sale) be suitable?

John

Sorry I can't say what will be suitable (I don't play the brand game or this model is better than this). The main route is primarily just gravel roads with a bit of pavement where needed and a few area's of easy double track. I believe any truck-suv would be suitable as long as it's reliable and well prepped. The route is looking like it will be about 10, 000 miles. A vechicle should be well prepared to take that sort of abuse. There are 20-30 technical sections that are optional. Some are too narrow for trucks and some are very challenging but 'doable" for trucks. If you read through this entire thread you should get an idea of what these optional section entail.

That help?

[ben2go]

Indeed, the GPS files will be ditributed for free and we are writing a guidebook for the route. It will cost a few bucks and we hope to make enough to help support the website costs.

The guidebook will have relevant information for folks coming to Canada, some history, flora and fauna, and a breakdown per track file on terrain, etc along with photo's and maps of each track. The intent is to create a book that you can sit down with each evening and see what the next day has in store. The maps will be in color and accurate and should also help people in seeing the big picture. We have found that when following a line on a gps screen that it becomes easy to loose the big picture of where you are. Maps will be provided for the entire route, then broken down by province and then further by each gpx file.

The guidebook may also be bundeled with a 40 minute DVD on the route along with a few other bells and whistles.

:smiley_drive:


Any ideas on a rough cost of the bundle?My GPS doesn't do gpx files.It uses klm files.Is there away to convert gpx over to klm?

[deadly99]

Any ideas on a rough cost of the bundle?My GPS doesn't do gpx files.It uses klm files.Is there away to convert gpx over to klm?


No idea on cost at this point, if I had to guess I'd say 60-100 bucks for the book, dvd, maps and a some decals.

I'm not familiar with klm files, kml files are Google Earth files.
This web site does a lot of conversions and we have had good results with it:

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/

In all honestly I would recommend buying a gps that does tracks. The Garmin 60 series can be found for about 200 dollars these days. We choose tracks as opposed to routes as some of the roads and trails so not show up on many GPS maps and the auto re route features are bound to be a pain for something like this.

Gpx tracks are visible by many programs, can be converted simply and are easily manipulated. I do not pretend to be an expert on gps units and associated files, we have a GIS fellow who is making our maps and gpx files for the project.

[ben2go]

No idea on cost at this point, if I had to guess I'd say 60-100 bucks for the book, dvd, maps and a some decals.

I'm not familiar with klm files, kml files are Google Earth files.
This web site does a lot of conversions and we have had good results with it:

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/

In all honestly I would recommend buying a gps that does tracks. The Garmin 60 series can be found for about 200 dollars these days. We choose tracks as opposed to routes as some of the roads and trails so not show up on many GPS maps and the auto re route features are bound to be a pain for something like this.

Gpx tracks are visible by many programs, can be converted simply and are easily manipulated. I do not pretend to be an expert on gps units and associated files, we have a GIS fellow who is making our maps and gpx files for the project.


Thanks for the info.

No roads is why I use the set up I have that runs Google Earth.I can use it on my boat.airplane,or offroad.I checked and it appears that my system will run gpx with a little tweaking.

[x32792]

Sorry I can't say what will be suitable (I don't play the brand game or this model is better than this). The main route is primarily just gravel roads with a bit of pavement where needed and a few area's of easy double track. I believe any truck-suv would be suitable as long as it's reliable and well prepped. The route is looking like it will be about 10, 000 miles. A vechicle should be well prepared to take that sort of abuse. There are 20-30 technical sections that are optional. Some are too narrow for trucks and some are very challenging but 'doable" for trucks. If you read through this entire thread you should get an idea of what these optional section entail.

That help?

After looking at the photos in this thread, I'd say your TCT is much like the TAT in that a 4x4, even a short wheel base one like an old TJ Jeep is unsuitable for the single track sections.

To the poster suggesting a GPS unit which does tracks (also read direct vs auto-routing) amen...The Garmin soccer mom type GPS units have a 'back to the nearest paved road' default setting which will really mess you up off-road. Use a chart plotting type GPS with 'direct' routing capabilities.

John

[Paladin]

The Garmin soccer mom type GPS units have a 'back to the nearest paved road' default setting which will really mess you up off-road.

Au Contraire. ;) Last week my soccer mom GPS (borrowed from my wife) tried to send me down a road in my little car that had me wishing I was in my truck! :Wow1: You know when the little voice tell you "Turn right on dirt road" you're in for some interesting times. :smiley_drive:

I'm somewhat familiar with most of the route through Ontario, and I expect any kind of serious off-roader, Land Rover, Jeep, etc. should be able to do the route if you're experienced. Assuming the trail is wide enough, which is never a good assumption... but it's worth trying. I know for sure I've lead stock JK's down sections that were deemed too hard for even the "technical" sections. (ie: Lingham Lake)

The reality is, some trails that are hard for bikes are easy for trucks, and vice versa.

I imagine Ted will try to vet all the sections for truck passibility before the whole thing is launched.

[x32792]

http://x32792.smugmug.com/Other/x32792/Nuvi-Gone-Wild1/851766474_2bcLE-L.jpg

While running the Eastern portion of the TAT this Spring, my Nuvi gave me what you see above in TN, took me in long sweeping loops and sent me down dead end roads.

On the levees in MS, it displayed multiple magenta lines back to the nearest paved road.

In NM, it completely lost its mind and directed me to turn on roads that didn't exist.

Off pavement, I wouldn't used one again and strongly suggest something more robust unless you just enjoy the thrill of being lost, misdirected and such.

John

[ben2go]

Use a chart plotting type GPS with 'direct' routing capabilities.

John


That is pretty much how I use my laptop gps with Google Earth.

[deadly99]

Read your TAT report on Advrider and here, looked like a fun trip you took.

The TCAT is being designed with trucks in mind and I don't for see anywhere on the main route where folks should have any issues with the terrain, most of it is just gravel back roads. For sure some area's may be a bit exciting when wet but I still feel confident in saying it is "doable" :ylsmoke:

The TAT was designed for bikes and from what I have seen their are some states where the terrain is too narrow for anything but a bike. The TCAT also has those but they are all being labelled as optional sections. Originally the technical sections were going to be a part of the main route with go arounds available but as the project evolved it became apparent that the technical sections were far and few between and that the route was becoming better suited to larger bikes and trucks due to the long distances it will travel.

:smiley_drive:

[x32792]

Read your TAT report on Advrider and here, looked like a fun trip you took.

The TCAT is being designed with trucks in mind and I don't for see anywhere on the main route where folks should have any issues with the terrain, most of it is just gravel back roads. For sure some area's may be a bit exciting when wet but I still feel confident in saying it is "doable" :ylsmoke:

The TAT was designed for bikes and from what I have seen their are some states where the terrain is too narrow for anything but a bike. The TCAT also has those but they are all being labelled as optional sections. Originally the technical sections were going to be a part of the main route with go arounds available but as the project evolved it became apparent that the technical sections were far and few between and that the route was becoming better suited to larger bikes and trucks due to the long distances it will travel.

:smiley_drive:

All you need do is mark the single track and technical sections and it should be do-able on two wheels or four.

A possible advantage of doing a long trip like this on a bike is being able to store it along the way and then re-deploy later when time, finances or weather permits. It is also worth mentioning, a DS bike doesn't have the load capacity of a 4x4, but they can travel about 30% faster on rough tracks.

And yes, other than my unfortunate experience with that treacherous Nuvi my TAT trip was a whole lot of fun.

John

[deadly99]

All you need do is mark the single track and technical sections and it should be do-able on two wheels or four.



The blue line is the main route and is one track file, the pink lines are the optional technical sections and each one is a seperate track file. Waypoints for gas stations also included. This would comprise on "section" of the route and is one gpx file.


http://64.136.20.22/2933448_l.JPG

Here is a very, VERY. very rough draft (hasnt even been spell checked so no complaints on grammer, layout, spelling, quality or anything else please) of that "sections" write up in the guidebook. Enjoy the read, I'll be nuking this link in a few days. Positive comments only :ylsmoke:
LINK (http://www.fasttrackphoto.com/ted/Sample.pdf)

[ben2go]

That is awesome.I like the layout and it's very informative.

[Paladin]

It is also worth mentioning, a DS bike doesn't have the load capacity of a 4x4, but they can travel about 30% faster on rough tracks.

More like 3-400% faster in my experience, depending on the terrain, and the bike. ;)

Ted, a couple things I just thought of. I think people might appreciate a two-level definition of "passible" in a truck. ie: Is the technical trail wide enough for the truck to pass without having to cut down any trees, but likely to experience pin striping? Or is the trail wide enough that pin striping is not a major concern? Some people have differing opinions on pin-striping.

I think it would be more interesting if the track were renamed with names instead of a technical filename. You know, like "Lingham Lake Road" or "Phil's Folly" instead of "ONTech05". Just as an example. Suitable names could likely be suggested by locals along the route.

[deadly99]

More like 3-400% faster in my experience, depending on the terrain, and the bike. ;)

Ted, a couple things I just thought of. I think people might appreciate a two-level definition of "passible" in a truck. ie: Is the technical trail wide enough for the truck to pass without having to cut down any trees, but likely to experience pin striping? Or is the trail wide enough that pin striping is not a major concern? Some people have differing opinions on pin-striping.

I think it would be more interesting if the track were renamed with names instead of a technical filename. You know, like "Lingham Lake Road" or "Phil's Folly" instead of "ONTech05". Just as an example. Suitable names could likely be suggested by locals along the route.

Thanks for the advice :ylsmoke:

I seem to keep up to bikes just fine, all depends on the truck and the bike I suppose

http://64.136.20.22/2898790_l.jpg

[Paladin]

I seem to keep up to bikes just fine, all depends on the truck and the bike I suppose


And the road. That road looks pretty easy, and I daresay I'd be faster in a car than my bike. I'm talking about significantly harder roads then that.

I think you ran the Lingham Lake road on your bike right? I do that at about 40-60 km/h on my bike, and 10-20 in the truck. I wouldn't be able to do that speed on a big bike though. But then my bike isn't fun at more than 120 on the open road.

Different strokes.

That does look like a really sweet truck though and I'm really curious to check it out someday. Could probably run some interesting trails with it. With a little bit of skinny pedal, and a 4wd along to winch you out of the really tough spots. What does it have in the rear diff?

[x32792]

Unless you're making a Cannon Ball Run across Canada or North America, I think your pace will get slower after the first 2,000 or 3,000 miles...Or at least, mine did.

I chased and caught two BMW motorcycles in Oklahoma on the TAT in my '01 Jeep TJ. The bikers were not going as fast as they could, but they were going about 30% faster than I wanted to drive for any extended period of time.

My suggestion for any long trip is to estimate your daily progress and speed on the low side...In this way you'll have a safer, less stressful and more enjoyable trip with time to make those unplanned extra stops, fix a flat or visit with someone you meet along the way.

John

[deadly99]

Unless you're making a Cannon Ball Run across Canada or North America, I think your pace will get slower after the first 2,000 or 3,000 miles...Or at least, mine did.

I chased and caught two BMW motorcycles in Oklahoma on the TAT in my '01 Jeep TJ. The bikers were not going as fast as they could, but they were going about 30% faster than I wanted to drive for any extended period of time.

My suggestion for any long trip is to estimate your daily progress and speed on the low side...In this way you'll have a safer, less stressful and more enjoyable trip with time to make those unplanned extra stops, fix a flat or visit with someone you meet along the way.

John

Very good advice

[deadly99]

That does look like a really sweet truck though and I'm really curious to check it out someday. Could probably run some interesting trails with it. With a little bit of skinny pedal, and a 4wd along to winch you out of the really tough spots. What does it have in the rear diff?

Slip dif, and yes it's good to have friends with a winch and 4x4's :ylsmoke:

I'm surprised though it seems to get threw stuff I didn't think it would, just a game of keeping the momentum. I'm not much into mud these days, more getting out an exploring and just cruising back roads, tHis truck seems to be good for that, handles the bumps well and is decent on gas. A few mods in it's future I ......

[Paladin]

Unless you're making a Cannon Ball Run across Canada or North America, I think your pace will get slower after the first 2,000 or 3,000 miles...Or at least, mine did.



Well, this was an enduro... so no, not 2-3000 miles. ;)


I'm surprised though it seems to get threw stuff I didn't think it would, just a game of keeping the momentum. I'm not much into mud these days, more getting out an exploring and just cruising back roads, tHis truck seems to be good for that, handles the bumps well and is decent on gas. A few mods in it's future I ......

Slip diff? No LSD at all? It would be a difficult decision between say, a Torsen, or a locker. The torsen would be much more useful for what the truck is intended. But the locker would allow you to get over much tougher stuff. Too bad nobody makes a selectable locker on a torsen?

Your suspension is also what allows you to hit stuff with momentum I'd never attempt in mine.

That truck would be a hoot to try out in a rally. I often wonder why they work so hard to drive a car fast on car-breaker roads. A truck would never be as fast as a top level rally car. But there are so many amateurs struggling to keep the wheels attached to an old Golf that isn't even fast.

[deadly99]

In AUgust we are heading out for a few weeks to go and explore Northern Ontario and Western Ontario. We have a proposed route in place, alot of folks from up in that neck of the woods have been helping out with route suggestions for roads and trails. From what I have seen this very well will become one of the highlight areas of the TCAT. The majority of land is owned by the government, camping is allowed almost anywhere you would like, roads appear in the middle of nowehere thanks to the logging and mining industry, people...well there really are no people. A few small native reserves, a few camps for people working up there and not a whole lot else. Looks like a paradise for exploring and a perfect fit for the TCAT :smiley_drive:

The next few posts are cut and pasted from a bike forum, so please forgive me if some of the comments dont make much sense...



It's not hard to hop on and off the rail line...a secondary highway parallels it. The railbed was mostly ok when I last rode it, but with the complete demise of the forest industry, many of the back roads aren't getting that much attention.

Here's a shot of it.

http://zzr-ron.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Icebreaker-r2007/PICT0063/153924238_q7d75-M.jpg

You can camp pretty nuch anywhere up here, it's all Crown Land.
This Quorn Lake, where we camped on the rail bed.

http://zzr-ron.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Icebreaker-r2007/PICT0072/153911891_mm56i-S.jpg

[deadly99]

Canadian shield in NW Ontario


http://www.mts.net/~mneuhof/icebreaker_2007-2/DSC_6121_e.JPG

[deadly99]

A bit of this and that...

http://zzr-ron.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Snake-Bay/IMG0284-Large/202894007_Z4au4-M.jpg

http://zzr-ron.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Snake-Bay/1000617-Large/202890473_JNALv-M.jpg

http://zzr-ron.smugmug.com/Other/Icebreaker-2008/1000052-Medium/298729323_WusE9-M.jpg
http://zzr-ron.smugmug.com/Other/Icebreaker-2008/1000057-Medium/298729121_yA5Zx-M.jpg

http://zzr-ron.smugmug.com/Other/Icebreaker-2008/1000074-Medium/298736623_giDEj-M.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/rcfirth/Nos/Aguas.jpg

http://zzr-ron.smugmug.com/Other/May-camping/DSCF0236/305571630_Ntizj-M.jpg[/QUOTE]

[deadly99]

And a couple more, just for good measure...

http://members.shaw.ca/rcfirth/Nos/cavers.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/rcfirth/Nos/neys.jpg

One last one, with bikes, at an abandonded Iron mine.

http://zzr-ron.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Steep-rock-Iron-mine-Ride/PICT0002-Medium/147591475_PSMEA-M.jpg[/QUOTE]

[deadly99]

Mike is creating the route on The Rock, so far from what we are seeing it looks VERY promising and a great way for the TCAT to start. For anyone who has not been to this island you are in for a treat :drool:


http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Skibum-Soiree-2010/P9030040/999518945_3FjGU-L.jpg


http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/skibum-soiree/IMG0202/629828244_AKki2-L.jpg


http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Spring-riding-2010/PA180007/1059838620_zGvpZ-L.jpg


http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/june-rides-2008-Offroad-fun/IMG0898/309473729_63PVG-L.jpg


http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/May-Rides-2008icebergs/BP01/302392620_HqtkH-L.jpg


http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/August-2009/09SoireeTrail05/618801961_trZr2-L.jpg


http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/CroMag-Tour-September-08/IMG1701/374790378_rQoqm-L.jpg

http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/August-2009/P9010018/637073343_uVQN5-L.jpg

http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/May-Rides-2008icebergs/IMG0613/289633594_dZdTy-L.jpg


http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Flowers/flowers/IMG0503/927534146_hum9k-L.jpg


http://skibum69.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/CroMag-Tour-September-08/IMG1694/374788288_jx72S-L.jpg[/QUOTE]

[deadly99]

David from Vancouver Island is creating the route across "Vanisle" :victory:

Much debate has been going on about where the route should end. There were a few different locations to choose from, all of them with some plus and minus to them. In the end we have choosen a small town on the nort west side of Vancouver Island called Winter Harbour. It is the most westerly town accesible by road in Canada. It is at the end of a long remote gravel road and it best summed up what the TCAT is all about, places in Canada that are off the beaten trail. Heck I bet most people who live on that island have never even been there. During the winter it has a population of six :Wow1: Summer time swells the population to under 100.

Here are some pics and comments from David.


Just going through this thread and see that Winter Harbour has come up as a Western Terminus suggestion as well as Tahsis...

For a Winter Harbour terminus several route options come into play, you could pretty much ride the top half {North of Cambell River} of Vancouver Island off pavement to get there... The best route {centre Island} would amount to around 350+ KM of logging track with less than 10 KM of pavement.... The east Island route would bump the pavement total to about 20KM.. The West Island would include the Gold River HWY amounting to 90+ of pavement and give you the Tahsis option as a very worthwhile side trip ....

A mostly off road option from the south Island up to Cambell River exists but is not reliable as a lot of the south Island back road networks are gated... If open the Alberni to Comox Lake to Cambell Lake would be a good link up with the North Island routes...

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_2746.jpg
A dip in the ocean at one of the beaches near Winter Harbour would be a good end/beginning to the journey... This picture was taken in December...
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_0120.jpg
Pakmerston, taken in January..[/QUOTE]

[deadly99]

Today was our second attempt to ride up to have a look at the place as it's been a few years since I was last there...

Was glad to see the road bare of snow this time after the slipfest we had in our attempt a couple weeks back...
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1836-1.jpg
We turned back after 20 km of this the last time...

Todays ride was interesting as the roadbed was frozen with an inch or 2 of wet muddy goo on top... Half the time it felt like you were riding on a flat tire... On the return trip my speedo quit reading because the goo built up on the sending unit near the front axle...

A few teasers from today:

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1851.jpg

Nearing Port Hardy

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1854-1.jpg

Looking down Holberg Inlet..

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/MVI_1859.jpg

Probably the worst hazard to watch out for are the Fat Trucks... Not much room for a bike to pass when you meet them, Vanisle is one of the last holdouts for these big beasts... We met this guy as a downhill surprise and all we could do was swap our intended direction in a hurry...


http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1875-1.jpg

Winter Harbour store... It's only open 1 hr a day in the Winter... Possibly because there are only 6 fulltime winter residents so shortening their hours is a way try to survive till summertime brings the people back...

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1880-1.jpg

They do have they're own post office..

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1877-1.jpg

The settlements original main road consists of a boardwalk that runs along the waterfront...

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1867-1.jpg

And they grow big carrots..

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1882-1.jpg

This would be my proposed end/start for the TCAT... The roads dead ends at a trailhead about 20 KM past Winter Harbour...

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1886-1.jpg

Park the bike and take a short path to the beach...

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1902-1.jpg

I guess you'd be looking at Japan if you could see that far

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1898-1.jpg

Good spot to take a celebratory dip..

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1899-1.jpg[/QUOTE]

[Paladin]

http://www.mts.net/~mneuhof/icebreaker_2007-2/DSC_6121_e.JPG

Damn... now THAT'S shield! :Wow1:

[deadly99]

Here comes a barrage of photo's from the East Kootenay valley. I am cross posting these photo's and most belong to a fellow who goes by Jager on advrider. The east Kootenay Valley is a great place, I lived there for three years and I think alot of people will be impressed when they travel the route this area of BC :ylsmoke:

Enjoy the eye candy :smiley_drive:



http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/11/62/01/trip0110.jpg

http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/11/62/01/trip0015.jpg

http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/11/62/01/trip0016.jpg

[deadly99]

http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/11/62/01/trip0213.jpg


http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/11/62/01/trip0216.jpg


http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/11/62/01/1010.jpg


http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/11/62/01/img_3510.jpg


http://i81.servimg.com/u/f81/14/11/62/01/1310.jpg


http://i81.servimg.com/u/f81/14/11/62/01/imgp5612.jpg


http://i81.servimg.com/u/f81/14/11/62/01/111.jpg

[deadly99]

Check out the road in the background :drool:


http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/11/62/01/5210.jpg



http://i81.servimg.com/u/f81/14/11/62/01/510.jpg



http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/11/62/01/5410.jpg



http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/11/62/01/imgp6813.jpg



http://i31.servimg.com/u/f31/14/11/62/01/img_3810.jpg



http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/11/62/01/trip0020.jpg



The East Kootenay valley seperates the Rocky Mountains and the Purcell Mountains. In the next photo you see the Rockies. The route follows logging roads through the Rockies for a few hundred miles before entering the East Kootenay valley and crossing the Purcell Range into the West Kootenay Valley.



http://i81.servimg.com/u/f81/14/11/62/01/imgp3714.jpg




http://i81.servimg.com/u/f81/14/11/62/01/810.jpg




http://i81.servimg.com/u/f81/14/11/62/01/131-3110.jpg




http://i31.servimg.com/u/f31/14/11/62/01/bugice10.jpg




http://i31.servimg.com/u/f31/14/11/62/01/glacie10.jpg




http://i31.servimg.com/u/f31/14/11/62/01/flower10.jpg




A big thanks to Jager for all the tips on the roads in the area and for showing us some amazing photo's :victory:

[deadly99]

I owned an old cj5 for about 7 years (labour of love) and when I lived in the East Kootenays I completly enjoyed the amazing views as well as the roads and trails that are planned for this section of the route. A couple of high mountain passes, miles of remote logging roads, a couple of fun hydro lines and a few other gems are what primarily make up this section of the TCAT. There may be a couple of optional technical sections that are sure to offer up some challenging terrain for those that are interested in challenging themselves and their ride :ylsmoke:

[x32792]

Stunning.

[deadly99]

Exploring Quebec, my personnal favourite place to ride in Canada. Sooooooooo many backroads a life time wouldnt do it justice :deal




http://64.136.20.22/2386576_l.JPG





http://64.136.20.22/2386565_l.JPG




http://64.136.20.22/2386568_l.JPG




http://64.136.20.22/2386569_l.JPG





http://64.136.20.22/2386572_l.JPG




http://64.136.20.22/2386566_l.JPG




http://64.136.20.22/2386579_l.JPG

[deadly99]

The route is intended to travel threw the Caroboo region in the province of British Columbia


http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_1030-1.jpg
Lotsa room to camp...
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_0957-1.jpg

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_0951-1.jpg

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_0921-1.jpg
Most riding areas you get your scenic bits with miles of ho-hum in between... In the Cariboo you spend the whole day in euphoric splendor, there are not many dull bits to put you to sleep...
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/IMG_2025.jpg

[deadly99]

With winter settled in and alot of work has been happening in the background for the TCAT.



Antronax has come up with a superb logo for the project and a great template for the guidebook. Finishing touches are being done and it looks fantastic

We have registered a new domain name for a web site to distribute the gps files/mpas/guidebook/etc from. www.graveltravel.ca
The website should be up and running in the fall, we're quite excited about this new direction the project has taken. Fab is going to be hosting/helping with the site

Quantis (Stephen) has joined the "team" and will be putting his skills to use and will be creating a promo movie for the web site and a documentary style DVD to be bundeled with the guidebook. Welcome aboard Stephen Film is a new medium for Stephen and he seems quite keen to expand his skillset, he currently works as a professional photographer and is quite skilled if I may say so. I apologize to folks in advance, like it wasn't enough that I always seem to have a camera in everyones face, now it'll be a video camera....

Juames has taken on the western Quebec portion of the route which for me is very exciting. His contribution in eastern Ontario has been fantastic (some very fun optional sections) and I'm sure he'll come up with something fun for us in the hills of western Quebec

As for the BC guys, Ross and David....wow! I am always blown away by your photo's and I am simply chomping at the bit to get out and see what is in store for us in BC

NFLD holds some great potential and I understand that Mike has been wrapping his head around what roads and trails would best suit the project. If all goes well I'll get a chnace to go out east to "the rock" and check out what is on the table for the beginning of the TCAT. From my brief visit there last season I'm sure it will be impressive. The viking highway was one of the most enjoyable paved roads I've ridden in a while, waves from the Atlantic crashing on your left and the mountains of Gros Morne park on your right....stunning Throw in some gravel to get across the island and well.....NFLD should be fantastic

Chris has taken on a lions share of the route (Manitoba, Sask and Alberta) and seems to have put together a tenatative game plan for the "middle" of the country. I know I am not alone when I say I was sceptical about the prairie provinces but after seeing some photo's and getting a chance to get a glimpse of some of the proposed route last fall I am shocked at the beauty this area has to offer. Stunning, diverse, barren, etc....

Fab has created a proposed route for eastern Quebec, from the posts he has done in this thread and the info I have been privy to I think he has put together something that blends very well into the whole theme of the TCAT. Remote gravel roads that bring people to places they would norrmally not see. The scenery and culture in that neck of the woods looks amazing. I am planning to meet up with Fab in May and we will spend a few days riding his section of the route

Kelly has begun to create the maps for the different sections of the route. An absolutley great addition to the project The guidebook will have detailed and accurate maps for each gpx file, an overview for each chapter and a map of the entire route. I sincerely feel that having a map really gives perspective to where you are and where you are going. Following a line on a gps can make you loose sight of the big picture, the maps Kelly is producing are a big bonus to the project

Negotiations are ongoing in regards to who is going to create the finsihed product for the gps files.....stay tuned as it looks we may have another fellow coming on board to help out with this protion of the project


So yes, although winter has set in for most of us in Canada, ALOT of work has been going on behind the scenes. The project has really begun to take shape, due soley to the fact that so many people are volunteering their spare time to help out. I've said it before but I'd like to say it again.....
THANKS

Lot's of plans for next season To date I am going to guess and say about 50% of the route has been ridden and about 80% of the route has been mapped. This upcoming year is a big one for the TCAT as most of the folks involved are going to be riding their portions of the route and making adjustements as needed. As pieces to the puzzle get completed the guidebook, maps, gps files, etc start to get worked on. Alot of spokes to this wheel and it's beginning to pick up momentum



Spring is only a 8 weeks away and I can't wait to get back into my home away from home again


http://64.136.20.22/2751313_l.JPG

[bouts]

This is truly a wonderful project!! I am more than excited to get out and run parts of the trail!! I'll be keeping to the main trail though, as I have a full size 4x4!!! But by gosh, this sort of thing is EXACTLY what I was looking for!!! Good work and congratulations to all involved!!!!!!!

[Redline]

Very nice indeed, thank you for your continued work. I look forward to exploring this route via 4x4 and/or moto.

[deadly99]

Cross Post from a fellow in Ontario who has been mapping out some trails in that province, another great source of help on the project. Thanks Rob :victory:


Alright, long time no post, but time to get caught up.

Before I get started with the truck stuff, just to show I belong here :deal.

My bike at the end of the line. This is near Hastings, Ontario, during my own little "Ontario Overland Project" documented elsewhere, where I'm exploring and posting about all of the rail trails usable for exploration in Eastern Ontario.

http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp267/R_Lefebvre/Eastern%20Ontario%20Trails/P7040118.jpg

Nice swimming spot near Madoc.

http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp267/R_Lefebvre/Eastern%20Ontario%20Trails/P7040100.jpg

More here:

http://overlandcanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1078

So, on to the truck. Here it is:

http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp267/R_Lefebvre/Land%20Rover/DSCF5036.jpg

http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp267/R_Lefebvre/Land%20Rover/jeep2010sept020.jpg

But it's really more suited for this type of thing:

http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp267/R_Lefebvre/Trip%20Reports/Achray%202010/IMG_6320.jpg

And towing my homebuilt offroad camping trailer:

http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp267/R_Lefebvre/Trip%20Reports/Achray%202010/IMG_6184.jpg

I guess I'm one of the rare guys who likes getting out in/on any vehicle and had no prejudices. I even enjoy riding ATV's sometimes, and would love to get a snowmobile. It's all good in my book, and I really wish the different groups would cooperate more. I hear things like "XXX destroys the trails, I hate them!" coming from all groups. I think the greenies are winning a divide and conquer battle, currently. I don't see this kind of attitude from overlanders traveling on other continents, so I don't really see it as being helpful here. And as Ted states, there are not a lot of people on these trails in any case. I could usually count on one hand the number of other vehicles I saw on any given day.

As to the route, I know some of it from the area I have taken my truck, and would agree that much of it is completely doable in any normal truck. Heck, from what I've seen, much of it is doable in a car.

That may actually be a bad thing to some, I'd also love to see a true "trail" across Canada. But it's just not realistic for so many reasons. First, I just don't think the trails exist. Second... I've done the 2-day Corduroy Enduro, and it's just not the sort of thing I'm interested in doing for weeks on end while I'm supposed to be on vacation. :jkam

[deadly99]

Some more pics from Vancouver Island

http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz355/450xx/North%20Island%20Ride%202010/DSCN0669.jpg



The scenery on Vacouver Island never seizes to amaze me. From mountains to rainforests...:clap

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy356/denmit_photo/north%20island%20ride/DSC04225.jpg

[deadly99]

We are working on another route.....True North East.



Starting at the Maine/New Brunswick border and ending at the furthest northern point that roads go. It will cross the TCAT in Quebec and travel through some pretty cool places (Gaspe, Rue Du Nord, James Bay, Trans Taiga, etc). Up until now this has been kept under wraps and is now about 3/4 quarters complete. The TNE will start where a "little" project some folks down south are working on ends off (US/Canada border) and will link the TCAT to the TAT and points south......



What about a True North West, starting where the CDR leaves off and ending at the end of the Dempster, crossing the TCAT along the way........



Fall of 2012, all three should be ready to distribute. A series of routes in North America that are all interconnected.

[deadly99]

In response to us using the term "trail"

I think trail is a bit of a misdemeanor. The TCAT is a route comprised primarily of gravel roads. A trail here and there is included and so are paved roads when needed.

The TNE will be very similar in nature to the TCAT. +80% gravel roads (some wide, some narrow, some smooth, some bumpy) with the remainder being slab to connect these roads.

The TNW is just a concept at this time. We are aware that there are large chunks of it that will be paved. Just a guess but I would predict it's a 50/50 (gravel/paved) route. What we can do is ensure the route utilizes some fun gravel backroads where available, roads that folks heading that way might not normally ride or know about. There is also the added benefit of having the TNW utilize a section of the TCAT, creating some fun options of the western TAT, TCAT, TNW and the CDR.

As mentioned the TNW is conceptual at this point. The TNE will be completed this upcoming season, the TCAT will be completed in 2012 and we hope to also have the TNW completed at that time as well.

[deadly99]

The terminus of the TNE

http://64.136.20.22/2378814_l.jpg



The Trans Taiga...670 kilometers of gravel (don't forget you have to turn around and re ride that mileage)

Quote from Wikipedia

The Trans-Taiga Road (French: Route Transtaïga) is an extremely remote wilderness road in northern Quebec, Canada. It is 582 kilometers (362 mi) long to Centrale Brisay and another 84 kilometers (52 mi) along the Caniapiscau Reservoir, all of it unpaved.

The road's northeastern terminus is almost at the 55th parallel north, making it the northernmost continuous road in Eastern North America. Though the terminus is also the farthest point from any town (745 km or 466 miles from Radisson) via road in North America, it is nonetheless relatively close - 190 kilometers (118 mi) - to Schefferville geographically. It does not, however, provide access to it, as the intervening terrain is unpassable even in an all-terrain vehicle. The road's end is also close to the southern limit of Nunavik, Quebec's Inuit region.

The Trans-Taiga Road branches off from the James Bay Road (French: Route de la Baie James) at kilometer 544. It was built as an access road to the hydro-electric generating stations of Hydro-Québec along the La Grande River and Caniapiscau River. Several outfitters are established along this road, providing wilderness hunting and fishing expeditions, and some may also provide fuel, food and lodging. Otherwise, there are no services along this road.

While the Trans-Taiga Road is reportedly drivable by ordinary passenger vehicles for its entire length, Hydro-Quebec recommends use of 4WD vehicles for the section between Brisay and Caniapiscau, which is of a rougher grade than the rest of the road.

As the name of the road indicates, this road winds its way through Quebec's vast boreal forest, characterized by stunted spruce and pine, bogs and rocky outcroppings. Taiga is the Russian term for the same type of forest.



http://64.136.20.22/2378737_l.jpg




James Bay Highway, a fun remote paved road connnecting the North Road and the TT.


http://64.136.20.22/2373582_l.jpg


A nice side trip to James Bay


http://64.136.20.22/2375354_l.jpg

[deadly99]

The North Road (Rue Du Nord)

400 kilometers of gravel, great secenery and a all around fun road.



http://64.136.20.22/2371376_l.jpg


http://64.136.20.22/2371372_l.jpg

The section of the TNE that piggy backs the TCAT looks great. This is Fab's sections of the route and I'm looking forward to riding it with him in May.


http://64.136.20.22/2371304_l.jpg


The Chic Choc mountains on the Gaspe Bay Penninsula


http://64.136.20.22/2386565_l.JPG


Crossing the St Lawrence river by ferry


http://64.136.20.22/2386579_l.JPG


For those who havent ridden on the "Gaspe", it's a nirvana of narrow, gravel backroads. A huge netwrok of them :deal

The New Brunswick section of the TNE is just beggining, local input is being collected and that section may or maynot end up being "adopted"

I've been sent a few links by some locals and the riding looks outstanding for this type of route :clap


http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q141/zaner32/Moose%20Valley/moosevalley09020.jpg?1296744911


http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q141/zaner32/Moose%20Valley%202010/Moosevalley2010edit-020.jpg



http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q141/zaner32/Kedgwick%20Railbed/Kedgwickrailbedrun008.jpg


For me, the New Brunswick section fo the TNE is very exciting as I haven't spent much time in this part of Canada. Over the next few months more information should become available as to who is helping and what area's will be included.

Cheers

[deadly99]

Comments from a fellow from Sweden


Wow!

That's all I can say. At the same time I wish this would have been done in 2006 when I crossed Canada, mostly on tarmac...

But I did find a few nice fireroads in north western Ontario. As far as I can recall now it was some 40-50 km of really nice roads until the freaking beaver build the dam... So for some adventure and really nice roads I can recommend it.

This is the, almost, worst case condition of the road.
http://ramshage.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5514&g2_serialNumber=1

Well it did turned abit more messy but it was a road around it, if I only would have seen it in time...

http://ramshage.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5523&g2_serialNumber=1

But on the other side there is something about "watercrossings" and Ontario that goes hand in hand...
http://ramshage.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5310&g2_serialNumber=1

I really hope I will be able to get over to Canada again and ride the TCAT, I'm already planning it in my head but at the same time I can hear my girlfriend say "No again..." :)

Thanks for the reading, pictures and to keeping my dream alive.

Cheers from Sweden,
Zappa

[Motojournalism]

Heya folks,

Here's what Deadly and I have worked out for the logo and the printed guidebook

Disclaimer: It ain't finished yet!http://d26ya5yqg8yyvs.cloudfront.net/deal.gif
This is just a rough draft of what the guidebook will be like. I've misappropriated some photos from the ADVrider thread for the rough design, permission will be gained and credit given for the final document.

There are still many tweaks to make on the design, I'll be working those out with Deadly99 as the content is closer to being finalized. I've designed the document so that it will be easy for some nutcase to plug-in the heaps and heaps of photos, text and maps that will be part of the final guide http://d26ya5yqg8yyvs.cloudfront.net/Norton.gif

Each chapter/section will be colour-coded for easy reference, and I'll try to keep the text a reasonable size for legibility while sitting 'round the campfire intoxicated http://d26ya5yqg8yyvs.cloudfront.net/friday.gif

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vuj-ZqVVyT0/TV66tg7-txI/AAAAAAAAAjw/CiJwht4Eogw/s1600/TEMPLATE-ROUGH.jpg

[762X39]

I'm liking what I see.Makes me want to go out and get a dual sport for the front bumper of my 404.:coffee:

[computeruser]

Awesome project and write-up. I'd love to have a good source of route info for exploring Canada without having to recreate everything from scratch. Glad the project has branched out to include accommodations for 4wheel vehicles, too.

[Jim K in PA]

This is a stupendous effort, and much appreciated by this traveler. My wife and I will be traveling most if not all of this route over the next 10 years.

Hate to critique a rough draft, but I am pretty sure the proper spelling is Taiga, not Tiaga.

Keep the updates coming. :victory:

[syke]

Very cool! :smiley_drive:

[ben2go]

Sweet!Can't wait for the release. :wings:

[Motojournalism]

Hate to critique a rough draft, but I am pretty sure the proper spelling is Taiga, not Tiaga.

Keep the updates coming. :victory:

No worries Jim, thanks for pointing it out! Somebody else picked up on that on the ADV thread too, Viagra jokes were made, hilarity ensued. :sombrero:

[Paladin]

Ted, how early do you think the non-technical sections can be travelled by truck? I know some of the more southerly technical sections (Lingham Lake) may be passable in April if you don't mind getting wet. But you WILL get wet. That's pretty much true almost year-round, but the water will be deeper until at least May, if not June.

But, I'm not sure about the routes of the non-technical sections. Are they mostly on graded, plowed, official roads? Therefore, passable and dry in March/April?

[skysix]

Heya folks,
Each chapter/section will be colour-coded for easy reference, and I'll try to keep the text a reasonable size for legibility while sitting 'round the campfire intoxicated http://d26ya5yqg8yyvs.cloudfront.net/friday.gif

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vuj-ZqVVyT0/TV66tg7-txI/AAAAAAAAAjw/CiJwht4Eogw/s1600/TEMPLATE-ROUGH.jpg

Still needs one more chapter - "The North" for Yukon, Northwest Territiries and Nunavut...

[deadly99]

Ted, how early do you think the non-technical sections can be travelled by truck? I know some of the more southerly technical sections (Lingham Lake) may be passable in April if you don't mind getting wet. But you WILL get wet. That's pretty much true almost year-round, but the water will be deeper until at least May, if not June.

But, I'm not sure about the routes of the non-technical sections. Are they mostly on graded, plowed, official roads? Therefore, passable and dry in March/April?

Big question and I am hesitant to reply. Some parts of the route are driveable in April....really depends on the snow pack that recorded the year before. Some of the mountain passes in BC are locked with snow until late June. Some of the trails in Quebec utilize snowmobile trails which get the snow packed all winter and can be slow to melt in the shady areas. We have designed it to go east to west and believe starting in Newfoundland in May-June would enable the route to be fully open and clear of snow.

You mentioned some particular trails in eastern Ontario in your post so I will assume your intended question is to just ride a section of the route? Last year we rode the entire section of eastern Ontario in April, the year before it wasn't good to go until May. Sorry I wish I cold be more precise but it's a mother nature thing.

We have a group of sixty people coming up from the states to pre ride the eastern Ontario section on May 27th.....fingers crossed the water levels are "doable" :ylsmoke:

[deadly99]

Still needs one more chapter - "The North" for Yukon, Northwest Territiries and Nunavut...

This thread is about the TCAT......we are also working on a couple of other routes....True North East leaves the Maine-New Brunswick border and terminates at the end of the Trans Taiga highway. It will be complete this fall :ylsmoke: True North West? Indeed :victory:

Check our site next fall for more details (we are aiming to have the site up and running this fall).

Www.graveltravel.ca

Fall of 2012 we intend to have a collection of routes ready for distribution, of course at no cost :smiley_drive: The intent of the site is to make available multiple day overland routes. They will be distributed as gps files. Different people are contributing different routes but all will follow a common format (rating scale, gpx format, etc).

[deadly99]

Well the winter blues are in full effect here in most parts of Canada.

David is still plugging away on the section of the TCAT across Vancouver Island while the rest of keep the snow shovel handy and dream of warmer weather.


Made it out today to do some more route work, here are a few teaser pics:
These are from the Nimpkish valley north of Woss.
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/DWs%20Adventures/IMG_1939.jpg

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/DWs%20Adventures/IMG_1941.jpg

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/DWs%20Adventures/IMG_1947.jpg

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/dwislandhopper/DWs%20Adventures/IMG_1948.jpg

For anyone wondering what BC stands for it's "Bring Chainsaw"

[deadly99]

As a whole the poject is coming along nicely. The TCAT is on course to be completed in the fall of 2012. The True North east route should be completed this summer. A handful of folks are working on shorter "weekend" routes across various area's in Canada. Our new website, graveltravel.ca, should be up and running this fall and ready to begin distributing routes.

A very rough overview of Canada showing the TCAT is pink and the TNE in blue.

http://64.136.20.22/2975149_l.JPG

The logo for the TCAT is complete, thanks to Anthony for his grpahic design expertise. As he posted early the templates for the book are almost completed and I have spent too many hours typing away for it. Spring can't come soon enough, nothing like writing and researching bike/truck routes all winter to get a person twitching :ylsmoke:

http://64.136.20.22/2967229_l.png


A logo is underway for the TNE and the write up is almost complete for the new website. In May a friend and myself will be riding the sections that are left unridden and will have a finalized gps route in place for the launch of the web site this fall. The TNE looks like a great route, best guess is two weeks from the Maine/New Brunsiwck and return via paved roads. Some pretty diverse and remote country is included.


http://64.136.20.22/2967230_l.jpg


In May we have approximately 60 or so folks coming up from the states to pre ride a few days of the TCAT. Termed the Roaming Rally, it should be one heck of a fun couple of days. A real diverse crowd from beginners to expert racers, big bikes to little bikes to landrovers. This should give us a good idea as to how the different user groups feel about the terrain. The portion of the TCAT they will be riding/driving has about 6 optional technical sections which are sure to challenge the less experienced folks. Stay tuned as I'm sure some "interesting" stories will come out of this event :smiley_drive:

[deadly99]

Some random pictures from the New Brunswick folks showing some of the roads of the TNE in that province.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q141/zaner32/Toughride2010031.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q141/zaner32/Moose%20Valley%202010/Moosevalley2010edit-027.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q141/zaner32/Moose%20Valley%202010/Moosevalley2010edit-009.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q141/zaner32/JB%20run/IMG_0703.jpg


http://dockingpilot.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/2009-Turf-and-Surf-Adventure/SG100228/698696057_ikSWP-M.jpg (http://dockingpilot.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/2009-Turf-and-Surf-Adventure/9815516_KLSzF#698696057_ikSWP-A-LB)

http://dockingpilot.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/2009-Turf-and-Surf-Adventure/SG100243/698703471_bXSQz-M.jpg (http://dockingpilot.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/2009-Turf-and-Surf-Adventure/9815516_KLSzF#698703471_bXSQz-A-LB)
http://dockingpilot.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/2009-Turf-and-Surf-Adventure/675240160WzVNU-L/678540570_JtJ2p-M.jpg (http://dockingpilot.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/2009-Turf-and-Surf-Adventure/9815516_KLSzF#678540570_JtJ2p-A-LB)
[URL="http://dockingpilot.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/2009-Turf-and-Surf-Adventure/9815516_KLSzF#678789514_XduNJ-A-LB"]http://dockingpilot.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/2009-Turf-and-Surf-Adventure/667301975img1062/678789514_XduNJ-M.jpg[/URL

[Redline]

Simply fantastic sir!

[Christian P.]

This is the best thing that ever happened to Canada.

:)

I can't wait to do it with my KTM.

[deadly99]

This is the best thing that ever happened to Canada.

:)

I can't wait to do it with my KTM.

better than poutine, molson beer, beaver tails and dancing girls ?

[deadly99]

The True North east route utilizes two long remote gravel roads. The Rue Du Nord and the Trans Taiga. I am going to cross post from a thread we did a few years back when we rode these two roads. Where the North Road starts is the top half of the TNE. Very cool and remote country up there. Enjoy the read, it's a long one :smiley_drive:

[deadly99]

Where to go for a week trip based out of Ottawa Canada?

The Trans Labrador highway was the plan but with its completion set for next year it seemed a shame to go and do it this year. So where to? Dan sends me an email with a link to the Trans Taiga from Wikipedia.

Trans-Taiga Road

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


The Transtaiga Road.
The Trans-Taiga Road (French: Route Transtaïga) is an extremely remote wilderness road in northern Quebec, Canada. It is 582 kilometers (362 mi) long to Centrale Brisay and another 84 kilometers (52 mi) along the Caniapiscau Reservoir, all of it unpaved.
The road's northeastern terminus is almost at the 55th parallel, making it the northernmost continuous road in Eastern North America. Though the terminus is also the furthest point from any town (745 km or 466 miles from Radisson) via road in North America, it is nonetheless relatively close - 190 kilometers (118 mi) - to Schefferville geographically. It does not, however, provide access to it, as the intervening terrain is unpassable even in an all-terrain vehicle. The road's end is also close to the southern limit of Nunavik, Quebec's Inuit region.
The Trans-Taiga Road branches off from the James Bay Road (French: Route de la Baie James) at kilometer 544. It was built as an access road to the hydro-electric generating stations of Hydro-Québec along the La Grande River and Caniapiscau River. Several outfitters are established along this road, providing wilderness hunting and fishing expeditions, and some may also provide fuel, food and lodging. Otherwise, there are no services along this road.
While the Trans-Taiga Road is reportedly drivable by ordinary passenger vehicles for its entire length, Hydro-Quebec recommends use of 4WD vehicles for the section between Brisay and Caniapiscau, which is of a rougher grade than the rest of the road.
As the name of the road indicates, this road winds its way through Quebec's vast boreal forest, characterized by stunted spruce and pine, bogs and rocky outcroppings. Taiga is the Russian term for the same type of forest.



Within minutes I had replied to Dan saying count me in one hundred percent. A few emails back and forth and we decided to invite some folks from advcanada.com
This website opened up a while back as a way for folks from our neck of the woods to meet like minded people and to share riding areas with. Basically it’s an email distribution list that you can use to find people to ride with or to share new areas. A group ride usually takes place once a month and can have as few as 2 to as many as 15 people show up. It’s turned out to be a great resource.

Within a few days Stephen replied and said he was definitely in. Chris responded that if his trip to Morocco falls threw he is in (it did fall threw and he was in). John joined later in the month with an “I’m in” and Maurizio emailed the gang a week before departure and confirmed he was in as his planned trip in the spring didn’t materialize. We didn’t expect this response thinking maybe we would get one or two people at best. So there we are with 6 of us committed and ready to go.

Many, many emails bounced around for a few weeks on routes, times, camp locations, sites to see, departure dates and what not. A meeting over pints at a local pub was set and logistics were sorted out. Most of us didn’t know each other to well other than a few off-road days during the summer so everyone kind of got a feeling for who each other were.

The trip was determined to be a 7-9 day ride with a few destinations as the goal. The first goal being to dip our tires into James Bay which is a part of the Arctic Ocean. The second goal was to ride the Rue Du Nord (The North Road) which is a 400+km gravel road and camp at the Rupert River. The Rupert is one of the last free flowing big rivers in Quebec and is destined to be damned up this fall (the way of the world I suppose). The third goal was to ride to the end of the Trans Taiga road and back. This road is 666 km long, so a total of 1332 km’s of gravel.

In total the plan was for approximately 1900 km of gravel roads and 2700 km’s of pavement in one week.

[deadly99]

Here is our proposed route


http://64.136.20.22/2344318_l.JPG



After much packing and planning we are set to go. Typically I am the kind of guy who packs the morning before leaving, but on this trip we are heading to some pretty isolated areas where buying missing items may not be feasible. That being said I forgot to pack a few items even though they were on the “to pack list”, arg.

[deadly99]

Day One


The plan is to meet at Chris’s place downtown Ottawa at 4pm. A bit of a late start but a few of the guys had to work that day. The thing that best describes the mood of everyone is excitement. Getting to leave work and family behind for a week isn’t always easy for us working stiffs. With all the planning, packing and anticipation I think everyone was raring to go.

A few introductions for those that hadn’t met each other, a last minute pack and away we go. Our destination was somewhere in the Verendrye Park approximately 300-600 km from Ottawa.

The bikes loaded up and ready to go.

1 Ktm 950 adv
2 Bmw gs 1150
1 Bmw dakar650
1 Bmw Funduro 650
1 Kawasaki KLR 650



http://64.136.20.22/2369486_m.jpg

Happy campers ready to go. Big smiles and clean bikes.

http://64.136.20.22/2369538_m.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2369639_m.jpg


And off we go, a bit of rush hour downtown traffic to deal with prior to hitting the open road.

http://64.136.20.22/2369512_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2369533_m.jpg

Heading up highway 105

http://64.136.20.22/2369536_m.jpg


A quick stop for some gas, beers and chips before heading out into dusk to find a campground. I think it was around this point that I realized I didnt have any head or tail lights. A quick pull over revealed a melted fuse. Electrical gremlin or something I shorted while prepping the bike? Time will tell.

http://64.136.20.22/2369638_l.jpg

We checked in at the Lac Rapide campground and setup camp. A few brown bottles and small talk before hitting the hay. A great campsite on a lake, it cost 30 bucks per site but they let us put 6 tents on a site! Oh ya Chris I think I still owe ya 5 bucks from this night :thumb

Dan not used to me being in his face with a camera yet :evil

http://64.136.20.22/2369545_m.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2369541_m.jpg

All in all a great first day, I think we only made about three or four hundred clicks.

You might notice we are all carrying gas canisters, a few of our days will have 600 + km days between gas stations. My KTM only gets about 300 km per tank on a good day (read easy throttle day which tend not to happen :D ) so I carried and extra 25 litres on my bike.

[deadly99]

Woke up to an amazing sunrise.

http://64.136.20.22/2371304_l.jpg


http://64.136.20.22/2371305_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2371307_l.jpg

A quick pack up and we were on the road by 8 am. This time seemed to be a compromise between the morning guys and the sleepers and became the norm for the week.

http://64.136.20.22/2371308_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2371309_l.jpg

We jumped on the highway and did a few hundred km's before stopping in Sennetere for breakfast and some gas.

http://64.136.20.22/2371310_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2371311_l.jpg

We did the next stretch of highway at speed. I think its about 300km to Chapais and we made it there in about 2 hours:huh Gotta love these remote roads, no police anywhere. Quotes from a KLR "my bike can't go any faster, its been pinned for the last hour" :clap .

http://64.136.20.22/2371317_l.jpg

In Chapais we were to meet our 7th companion for the trip. Mike was coming from Nova Scotia on a Transalp but had his clutch begin slipping to the point where he had to turn around a few hundred km's from Chapais. Mike ended up doing about 3200 km in 3 days and I am sure had a good ride although not the one he intended to take. Bummer Mike, you missed out on a good trip :cry

http://64.136.20.22/2371318_l.jpg

Downtown Chapais (wouldnt want to live here, bit of a desolate rundown feel to it). We topped up with gas and made our way to the next town of Chibougamau (your guess is as good as mine of how to pronounce it) to top up with supplies (SAQ the french version of a liquor store). Bikes packed with vino we were off to the start of the North Road. Our plan was to camp at the Rupert River which is about 258 km down the North Road.

http://64.136.20.22/2371321_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2371320_l.jpg

A few quick cell calls to our significant others as this would be the last area with cell coverage for a while (note half of us had Rogers phones and they get no coverage for the better part of trip, something to consider of you head this way, Telus phones get coverage in all kinds of crazy and remote areas).

Looking down the North Road its hard not to grimace as the road has been freshly graded with maybe one set of tracks on it. Ah well its only 258 km. Funny how a trip like this starts, at first everyone is a bit apprehensive of the gravel and speeds are kept low and the pack close together. Well soon enough the dust forces everyone to spread out and within a short while everyone is hitting it Dakar style. This is truely one fun road. The surface changed from loose marbles of gravel, to oiled down almost pavement style road to a section about 50 km long of deep silty sandy terrain that guarantees pucker factors no matter what speed you were doing.

http://64.136.20.22/2371322_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2371331_l.jpg



http://64.136.20.22/2371329_l.jpg


http://64.136.20.22/2371328_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2371350_l.jpg

We stopped to regroup every 50+ km or so. Maurizio was the only one of us to not be riding on knobbies so he understandably had to go a bit slower. I wouldn't have wanted to have been riding his big bike with worn out tourances on it, kudo's to you :clap I am sure he must have had many more pucker moments than the rest of us, and we tallied up many of them for ourselves.

Reading the ridges in the road between tracks becomes an art that we were all mastering with an hour or so. Hammer the gas, lean back a bit and let the bike squirrel around under you. Seems easy, takes a bit of practise to feel comfy with it at speeds in excess of 130 km/h. But once you do....nothing but grins poking out from dusty faces :D

http://64.136.20.22/2371376_l.jpg


http://64.136.20.22/2371373_l.jpg

This is how you could tell how far you were from the guy in front, look for dust clouds as you come up over hills.

http://64.136.20.22/2371372_l.jpg

Chris looking a bit tired, this is after about 800 km for the day.

http://64.136.20.22/2371375_l.jpg

You know you are starting to get into Indian territory when the signs begin to read in Cree. They must be very devoted to Christmas as it constantly seemed as if half of their words consisted of candy canes :wink:

http://64.136.20.22/2371374_l.jpg

[deadly99]

We made it to the Rupert just as the sun was going down, approximately 11 hours on the bikes and just over 800 km's for the day. We setup camp just before the river on the right hand side. A nice free lttle camp site Dan had read about on a ride report somewhere. Came with firewood and everything. When we first stopped the black flies were out in force but as soon as the sun began to set and temperatures began to fall they disappeared. I can't imagine what it would be like during summer when the nights are warm. Note: early September is a good time of year for this area as long as you dont mind cold nights.

http://64.136.20.22/2371379_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2371380_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2371381_l.jpg

Kicking back by the fire after a long day.

http://64.136.20.22/2371382_l.jpg

Dan damn proud of his new spork

http://64.136.20.22/2371383_l.jpg

And hence begins a cold night and frustration with my darn air matress. I normally travel with a thermarest but after a trip last year where everyone else had airbeds (large double bed sized air mattresses with a velour top) I picked one up for myself. Well after sleeping for about 2 hours I woke up with one hell of a cold hip from the large tent sized rock under me and no air in the matress. Toss, turn, screw this, I brought a small back up air matress (not planned just threw it in the pannier on my way out the door). 2 more hours and damn, this one leaks too. Toss turn where's the damn sun.

[deadly99]

Cross post from Chris


Chibougamau outside the liquor store.. we stopped there by coincidence! really!

http://64.136.20.22/2372043_l.jpg

Oooh-la-la!! Small town Quebec always seems to have some interesting places..
http://64.136.20.22/2372022_l.jpg

A bit apprehensive about starting the gravel with a fully loaded bike..
http://64.136.20.22/2372023_l.jpg
http://64.136.20.22/2372024_l.jpg

The first encounter with a grader.. notice the almost concrete hard gravel on the left and the soft squishy gravel on the right.. a nice mix that randomly changed along the road, sometimes mid-corner, just to keep it interesting.
http://64.136.20.22/2372028_l.jpg

What's this? is someone hurt??
http://64.136.20.22/2372025_l.jpg

Nope.. Ted having a power nap!
http://64.136.20.22/2372027_l.jpg

Home for the night!
http://64.136.20.22/2372051_l.jpg
http://64.136.20.22/2372052_l.jpg

[deadly99]

Well finally the sun started to come up, bloody cold morning, must not have gotten more than a few hours sleep due to air mattress fiasco.

The Rupert River was roaring away in the morning sun and was a nice sight to wake up to. This time next year it will be a trickle, bit of a shame I suppose. Giving up our wilderness in Canada to feed the Americans with electricity. But....hard to complain from a bikers perspective as without all these dams these great remote roads wouldnt exist. A catch twenty two. I'll leave the debate at that as I have mixed feelings about the situation.

http://64.136.20.22/2373564_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2373565_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2373566_l.jpg

Did I mention it was freaking ......

http://64.136.20.22/2373568_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2373567_l.jpg

A quick pack up and off to finish the North Road. I think about 160 km were left. Maurizio left about half hour before the rest of us so he didn't have to rush on his balding street tires. I left next with plans to meet the gand for breakfast at a Hydro Camp. Things got a bit screwy here. Chris's bike had technical difficulties starting, somehow Dan and John missed me at the camp and went looking for me in some reserve about 20 km of the road then back tracked looking for me. I have no idea how we missed each other on the only road out there. A mystery of the North I suppose. John crashed his bike (I'll let him give the details), Maurizio got to the end of the road about 5 minutes ahead of me and was met by a big old black bear. Me....well I had a heck of a trip. The trees started to be replaced by rock and it was the first time I really felt like I was up North. Great vistas. The wind was blowing so hard a few times by bike would get blown right across the road threw two sets of tracks and up onto the sandy shoulders. A bit unnerving at Dakar speeds to say the least.

A great breakfast at a Hydro workers camp

http://64.136.20.22/2373569_l.jpg

I am pretty sure this dog was dead, I even tried yelling at it but couldnt even get it to blink. Or maybe he is just damn lazy, who knows.

http://64.136.20.22/2373570_l.jpg

Chris and Stephen decided to push on up the James Bay Road to next gas station while I waited for John and Dan. After a while they came blazing by me, didnt stop and started cruising up the JBR (James Bay Rd). I awoke myself from a my siesta, jumped on the bike and started ripping to catch up. I caught up to them and Dan's bike is lying on its side. Well what a sight, I was greeted with a "it hasnt been a good morning" and two pissed of dudes. I guess the looking for me, John crashing, the high winds, loose road surface and pucker moments got them down. Note: they rebounded fast and were smiling **** eating grins the rest of the day :clap

The end of the North Road

http://64.136.20.22/2373573_l.jpg


http://64.136.20.22/2373571_l.jpg

Something happened after we crossed the 52nd parallel. All the chicks we met above this latitude were obsessed and unexplainably attracted to Dan . Now Dan's not an ugly dude but this was to become uncanny at best. Dan, you need to move North and live the life of a Don Juan :evil I am not referring to one incident but I am mean every chick we saw up here was giving Dan the bedroom eyes, while the rest of us sat there looking at each other with a WTF kind of expression.

http://64.136.20.22/2373572_l.jpg


Well a few hundred clicks of pavement was left for the day. The destination for the day was the town of Radisson. Maurizio got a jump start on us as he was going to zip up to tag the James Bay as he had to leave the gang tomorrow so he could get home for his child's first day of school. The JBR is excellent. Add some, well alot, of speed and it becomes a great twisty road. Fun road with great views along the way.

http://64.136.20.22/2373582_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2373583_l.jpg

A quick stop for gas at the only gas station for many miles. Not sure if this gas is watered down or its simply a throttle twisitng thing but every time we used this gas we all lost tons of mileage. My bike got 210 km from a full tank where it normally gets 300. Who knows, another mystery of the North I suppose.

http://64.136.20.22/2373581_l.jpg


The last half hour or so on the JBR and it started to rain pretty good. Pulling into radisson the decision was unanimous to get a motel for the night. We choose the Auberge Radisson. Actually this place was clean, had great food and reasonable rates. We all enjoyed a few brown bottles, a good meal and a good sleep.

http://64.136.20.22/2373584_l.jpg

After eating boil in the bag for a few days it was damn nice to have your food separated as opposed to something that resembles dog food :D The boil in the bag will get you threw in a pinch but I grew to hate it. Not sure if it was the whole eating out of a bag or the affects freeze dried food has on the digestion system or a combo but I for one will pass on it next trip and bring real food

http://64.136.20.22/2373585_l.jpg


http://64.136.20.22/2373586_l.jpg

Hannibal Lecter??????????????????????

http://64.136.20.22/2373587_l.jpg

Nope, Johns weird *** sleeping contraptions. Hard to get this out of your brain falling alseep. All sorts of odd Silence of the Lambs dreams that night.

Said good bye to Maurizio as he was leaving at the crack of dawn for a 1300 km iron butt home.

[deadly99]

John's cross post





For those of you that have been following along I’m the one cruising around on the F650GS Dakar.
I had that poor bike packed like an old beaten mule. :mulie I had never felt it weigh that much and as I started down the North Road thought “ I must be insane riding gravel with this much weight.” Strange thing happens though, I got used to it and after a couple of hours of being puckered right up, started to relax. It’s either that or I simply couldn’t stay puckered any longer! I tell you, after you’ve done 1900 km of gravel you'll learn to read every pebble, color change and nuance of the road while you’re riding. But I’m getting ahead of myself, by the 3<SUP>rd</SUP> day I still had a lot to learn about gravel roads, especially one that was often mixed with sand like the North road. Don’t misunderstand , I have ridden many gravel roads before, but frankly this seemed way more technical.

So what happened to John on the third day. The day was gorgeous and I was really starting to get into the gravel and dirt riding. Unlike Ted, I had had a wonderful sleep the night before on my air mattress, you know the type, the ones that don’t leak! :lol3 Being bright an alert I though… “I’ve got this gravel/sand thing mastered… no worries. The irony of that thought was to echo in my head in short order. As I’m happily touring along I come into a downhill left-hander. Not too sharp but it did look a little bit soft so I dutifully slowed down to around 50 km/h. I started around the turn and was just starting to apply throttle when… WTF!! :eek1 My front wheel shot instantly to the right causing my rear wheel to skid left. Then the front decided to go left, (probably me over-correcting), causing my rear now to skid right. This continued for 3 or 4 iterations until all that weight on the rear of my bike pendulumed around causing the back end to pass the front end of my bike while still moving forward down the road. I gotta tell you, that’s some weird *** feeling sliding backwards, on your back, with the bike down the road. My reverse low-side came to rest in a cloud of dust, gravel and sand. Laying there I thought several things in the blink of an eye. Are all my body parts still attached, how long are my riding mates going to leave me laying here, what happens if a transport comes around that corner right now, how bad is my bike screwed up and finally, what idiot said that he had this gravel/sand thing mastered? Oh ya, that was me. :loco One thing I have to say is, damn, that riding gear really works! ATGATT!! After extricating myself from under that bike I found not a mark, not a scrape, no gravel burn or embedding, nothing broken, halleluiah, I’m in one piece. :rayof The only complaint later on was a sprained left finger and couple of sore muscles

So now that I’m out from under the bike, alive and well, I’m standing there thinking how the hell am I going to lift this thing? It’s laying past 90 degrees on its side, in gravel and sand, no way I can pick this up. So I stand there waiting… and waiting… and waiting, you get the idea. Turns out Dan (the rider in front of me) thought I had just stopped for a leak or other bodily function and was off in the woods! As I’m just about to start unpacking my bike so I can lift it, along came a Caterpillar repair man in his truck. After the obvious “are you all right” and “what happened” questions, we managed to pick the beast up. I thank him profusely and after a quick assessment and realization that my bike is still good to go, off I went. I catch up to Dan just as he’s turned around to see where heck I am. He looks at me in stunned silence while I tell him what happened… then off we ride.

At this point I have to admit I was not in the best of moods. Dan and I get to the end of the North road and nobody!! Where the freaking heck are they. So Dan and I figure they’ve gone up the road to the next meeting place. So off we go. After a couple of minutes I think I feel something so I stop just to double check my bike, nothing wrong. Poor Dan parks behind me wondering if everything’s alright, off his bike he gets and BAM… down goes his 1150GS on the road. I think we both said the same thing at that moment, ****! His side stand was not quite all the way forward and let his bike drop. So just as were picking his bike up along comes Ted from behind us and says “What are you guys doing”. I’m not sure exactly what we said, but I know our “frustration” of the moment may have come through a little… well maybe more than a little…ok, ok a lot. I don’t think Ted knew quite what to say at this point but looking back on it now, it all was pretty damn funny!

One last note, the cause of my backwards adventure turned out to be a deep ridge in the road which my front tire glanced off of. I went back and looked after I got my bike up. Unfortunately I didn’t think till later of getting pictures of the event. The crisscrossing tracks my bike made were quite entertaining to look at. Damage to my bike; dent and grind marks on the right Jesse pannier and end of my handle bar. Way better than I could have reasonably expected. :thumb Next farkle for my bike... say it with me... Steering Damper.

The rest of the day was great especially the gourmet meal and motel room that night in Radisson!

[deadly99]

John writes:


Ted Wrote:

"Hannibal Lecter??????????????????????

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Nope, Johns weird *** sleeping contraptions. Hard to get this out of your brain falling alseep. All sorts of odd Silence of the Lambs dreams that night."


John's reply:
And here's me just trying to be a nice guy! I know I snore and snore loudly :snore so I picked up this "chin strap" to keep my mouth shut (a rare event some would say). It worked and I didn't keep my room mate awake all night. Some thanks I get eh!


By the way, do you have any fava beans and a nice keante perhaps?

Jlsa.

[deadly99]

Chris writes:


As already mentioned.. Day3 started rather cool.. frost/ice on the tents, trees and motorcycles..
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Boiling up some water for hot tea and oatmeal was just the ticket.. while the plan was to 'stop for breakfast' I had a feeling that something might go wrong (which it did) and did not want to set out on an empty stomach! Ten points to someone that can identify my camp stove!
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The gravel road was fine, but watch the ice on the wooden bridges..
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Everything was covered with a nice layer of dust by the end of the road..
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Happily Ted and Steven were waiting when I got to the end of the North Road (John and Dan were somewhere behind be having fun of their own!)
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Once on the James Bay Road and heading north we eventually found ourselves going from bright and clear to dark and ominous.. John stopped to don rain gear (and turn into a pumpkin!)..
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Finally ending up in Radisson in the rain.. and happily taking a hotel for the night (Auberge Radisson, very friendly, fair prices, and decent rooms!).

No pix, I went inside for a hot shower and a hot meal :)




One more thing of interest from Day Three.

So I stop for a smoke break to let the others catch up and this 300 year old Indian lady appears from nowhere. She has this "raisonish" look to her and stands about 4 feet tall. You know the look, something outta a Jim Morrison vision.
She politely tells me a bike crashed on the North Road yesterday and they had to airlift him out to Chibougamau. She pauses then says "he was a white guy like you", this was said with disgust in her voice. She turns her back on me and walks off into the tundra.
I was at a loss for words, should I tell her to go Fock herself or.......then a smile came to my face......damn I just got racially slammed for being a white guy. Not a normal occurance up here in Canada.
Where she came from and where she was off to is anyone's guess and there isn't much up there and what there is is very spread apart.

Much helmet time reflecting on this and I came to the conclusion that if I were in her shoes I would resent me as well. We are raping the land they have held sacred for many many generations and within a few decades have built roads, built dams that forever change the landscape,put up mass hydro lines buzzing across the land, big mines get dug that come with all sorts of debris and side affects, the folks that go up their to work are at times less than stellar representitves of society. Really other than money making landscape changing projects there isn't anything up there other than the Indians who are just living their lives which are often lead the hard way.
So can I relate to that old lady when she almost spits the word white man? Ya for sure, rock on old lady, tell us how it is !

[deadly99]

Given we had comfy accomodations it was decided the night before to take a day off. The weather was to clear up and the campground in town had just shut down for the season. The water and electricity were still turned on but the bathrooms were closed. The price = free = perfect. The only objective for the dat was to go out to Longe Point and dip our wheels in James Bay.

We packed up the bikes and were off at the comfortable hour of 10 am.

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A group shot in front of the classic sign post to the world. Its shows Ottawa as being 1300 km away. A bit further when you take North Road :evil

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Some great high speed ashpalt for about 80 km's or so bring you to one of the big dams in the area. The signs read something like a million cubic metres of concrete were used for this one dam! The pictures cannot do justice to the size of these things, they are HUGE!

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Well the ocean is just around the corner, about 50 km away on a gravel road. After much straing at Google mpas this looked like the most northern road we could find that lead to the salt water. Funny how a Google sat image can get etched in your brain and then when you show up its exactly what you saw.

A quick walk over the rocks to the point proper for some classic been there done that photo's.

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We had some boil in the bag for lunch while enjoying the salty air. This was one of the three ticks on our list of most do's for the trip so everyone was kind of just enjoying the moment.

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We all took turns riding down the beach to dip our tires in the water.

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Is that the smell of a BMW clutch burning :clap Of course one of us had to get stuck. The rocks were about 6 inch deep of ball bearings and anyone who stopped would have a tricky time getting started. So of course I was already laughing at Dan as he stopped and gave his wave to camera. Sorry I didnt help push you out Dan but I was laughing to hard and taking a picture seemed like a better idea.

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The locals use these big canoes with motors for lack of a better description (based on my very limited knowledge of boat types).

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Just as we finished loafing around one these boats came across the water and pulled up to shore. They were out goose hunting and had everything including the kitchen sink in their boat. Seriously they even had a full size ATV in there, a huge bone that we guess must be a whale's vertabrae and lots of other odds and ends. The lads chipped in to help them get their boat up above the tide line. They use rollers under the boat and stop every 20 feet and move the last roller up front. Nice little system, primative indeed but works effectively.

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Well time to pack up and hit the road. Chris bike fails to start so everyone gets off their bikes and adds their opinions to what may be wrong. The local guys we helped lend a hand by giving us a battery to jump off of. Yes we could of donw this ourselves as we had cables but no one wanted to unpack their bikes to get at their batteries and well it was kinda nice for these chaps to lend a hand after we had helped them out. Makes you realize that 99% of the people in the world are very good people given the chance. As it would turn out of the leads one of Chris's spark plugs had come loose.

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An uneventful drive back to town where we set up camp in our private campground. The sun was shining and everyone seemed to be enjoying the day off.

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A quick trip down into town to grab some chips, dip and brown bottles along with a trip to the gas station/everything you may need store where a few of us stocked up on some new gear. 30$ sleeping bags were bought by a few to try and beat the cold weather and me well I found the only air mattres around for probably hundreds if not thousands of km's :clap
After sitting around the fire and just completely relaxing a few of us decided to go down into town to the local pub for a few more beers and some pizza. Good pizza, cold beer and strong whiskey shots and we were ready to crash. Don Juan de Dan gets stopped in the parking lot by a local native lady and boy was she in love with Dan. A good laugh for me pulling out of the parking lot while this drunk lady is kissing Dans hand while Dan looks at me with a "save me! Dont leave me here" look. To Dans credit he must of been on his bike in a big hurry as all of a sudden he was right beside me.

A great day, about 300 km's on the odometer.

[deadly99]

Woke to sunshine and cold temps this morning. Again Chris's Funduro wouldnt start so he made his way over to the local auto parts store to buy a new battery. The rest of us packed up and made our way down to join him.

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Lets hope that was the problem as we are about to head off to the middle of nowhere today. A very brisk 80 km of pavement down the James Bay Highway brought us to the beginning of the Trans Taiga Road. This is what we came here for. At 666km to the end without much on it other than a few hunt camps it was the reason for this trip. Remote and long:clap A total of 1350 km's of gravel! Our plan is to do it in three days. 358 km today to Mirage Outfitters, then a 620 km day to the end and back to Mirage, then a short 358 km day out and find somewhere to camp on the JBR. The weather forecast was looking good and the gang was excited to get going.
We had a quick meeting and discussed a plan so we wouldnt get seperated too much. Each person is responsible for the guy behind him. On long straights you wait till you see a headlight. Also we would regroup every 100 km or so.

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This is the first sign we see :Wow1:

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Then this one :D

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Off we go, we were making good tracks and really enjoying it.

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Bike of choice for this terrain :clap Fast, Faster and Fastest :evil

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NOTE : At km 202 there is a free (well donation) campsite for anyone else heading this way. Complete with outhouses, covered picnic tables and water you can drink straight out of the river.
We stopped here and warmed up and had some boil in the bag for lunch.

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Another batch of gravel brought us to a hunting lodge and gas station at Nouchimi. The gas was about 1.80 a litre but it was hard to complain. This gas station does not have regular hours and may or maynot be open. Up here you DONT pass up a gas station so we all filled up. The guy running it is a real character, long hair, long beard and bad teeth. We all joked around that this could very well be the place where a Canadian version of Deliverance could take place. Me....I wouldnt camp here for fear off waking up to "Squeal like a Cariboo":huh

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This sign looks important but unless you speak Cree or French good luck.

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Off we went to Mirage.

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We filled up here with gas that was 20 cents a litre cheaper, again you DON'T pass up on a gas station up here. We were going to camp here but as we still had 2 hours of daylight left Dan wisely convinced us to keep pushing on as it would make tomorrow a shorter day.

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We pushed on for another hour and made 80km or so. The last 50km's were deep treacherous freshly graded gravel. Why some sections are graded perfectly and then some like this section become a bikers nightmare is beyond me. Maybe its a whiskey thing, who knows, another mystery of the North I suppose. All of us were having pucker moments left and right. The only way to really ride this stuff is to be very agggressive and carry speed. Not an easy thing to get comfy with as I promise your bars will try to wretch free from your hands and your bike will make snakey shapes. But at about 90 km/h + you get less of them, they just become much more intense:evil

[deadly99]

With the sun getting low we found an excellent gravel pit that provided some shelter from the wind. We set up camp, got a fire going, ate some more boil in the bag, well most did, I just couldnt do it again. I really hate that stuff, a granola bar and some peanuts were my dinner. No beer or wine.....bad planning:cry

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Chris fiddles with his new battery

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The views were outstanding as we watched the sun drop and a truely spectacular sunset. We had 270 degree views of the sky looking down on a river valley with some nice hills as a back drop.
NOTE: not many places to camp along this road where you can get flat spots for tents due to all the brush. Another 20 km or so there is a nice spot at a river bridge.

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A great day, this road is a bikers dream :clap Total Mileage for the day 530 km.

[deadly99]

Chris writes :



With spare battery on-hand (in pannier!) and fingers crossed we set out for the Trans-Taiga. Please oh please let the tired battery be the problem and not leave me stranded hundreds of km from anything..

Ted was confident we'd get the bike going one way or another and promised not to leave me to the bears. Probably :)

Because the road kicked up a fair amount of dust, we generally rode spaced out (physically! ok, maybe mentally as well..) by up to a km or few.. but on the long straight sections waited to make sure that a headlight was still alive somewhere behind us before moving on.

Imagine if you will Wile E Coyote watching RoadRunner off in the distance.. a small speeding spot followed by a giant dust cloud- and that's exactly what we looked like. Even so, many a kilometre was spent feeling the grit between your teeth, and all our visors ended up quite sandblasted and scratched by the end (both inside and out!). Early morning or late afternoon, with the sun low in the sky, the scratches made it quite difficult to actually see where you were going!

While sections of the road were quite hard there were often ridges of soft gravel and the shoulders were especially soft. They'd grab the tires and try to squeeze you off into the bushes. Look far ahead and concentrate on where you want to end up, do NOT look down at the soft stuff or you are sure to get eaten.

Just stopping to take a picture would sometimes result in a fright as the low speed and soft gravel tried to throw the bike over (see the wiggly tire mark left below from when I pulled over for a break).

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That evening I had just enough time to swap batteries and ride around for 5 minutes before it got dark. New battery works ok, we'll see what happens in the morning!

Things To Bring this time of year: Warm Clothing! Notice a few of us are wearing wool toque's and staying close to the fire.. (and not just because we're follically challenged!)
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[deadly99]

Woke to a crisp, chilly, sunny morning. "You have got to be kidding me, the air mattress leaked and my left hip feels like I slept on ice", arg.




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The river valley below us was full of fog and made for some nice scenery. We quickly packed up and hit the road.

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That beautiful fog became a nightmare. Add in some dust and it wasn't long before everyone was pulled over wiping the insides and out of their visors. After a half hour to an hour the fog lifted and we were rewarded with perfect blue skies and rising temperatures. The road was in great condition and even had some straight stretches. Made some good time.

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The last 50 km's or so were supposed to be only suitable for 4x4's. Unfortunately this wasnt the case although the road did get a bit rockier and narrower. John blew a fork seal and Chris lost a pannier. I came around a corner and Chris's bike was facing the wrong direction and gear was scatterred down the road. "All you alright?" he was and the pannier was alll bent up, nothing a rock couldnt fix. Dan had a huge cinch down strap that was used to re attach the pannier and off we go.

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We ran into an inmate up there, Throttlemeister. A quick hello, how are ya. We had had a few messages back and forth and had planned to hook up for a day or two's riding together but the timing was off. John is heading down to South America on a year long ride, safe travels:clap


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Near the end of the road you come to a bunch of hunting lodges and what not. A few km's past there the dam's gate was open and we road the dam and side trails for about another 10 km to the end of the road. Nothing fancy after all that travelling, the road just stops.

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We took some photos and had a drink from the lake. "Where the heck is John and Dan, they were right behnd us not too long ago" "Must be taking photos" "If they dont show up soon I'll go back and see where they are" "Hey here they are now, hey they look pissed off" :eek1 Accident

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The last stretch of road.

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Met these lads who are Americans, planes drop off the hunters kills of caribou and they clean the antlers, salt the meat then transport it back to the states, something about saving on duty at the border or something. He says the herd is about 400 km north and is 400 000 strong this year. They offer one way flights up there for free. the charge to come back is a few thousand bukcs though. The plane flies empty up there, me......a 400 km hike threw the tundra...no thanks.

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Love this road, if you like fast smooth gravel this is the road for you. It is a classic!!!


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More great riding on the way back to Mirage with the exception of the last 50 km. It would seem this graded section got even dustier and now we had the sun in our eyes to contend with. I come flying around this one corner at speed with both wheels sliding, yehaa, then oh man look at the size of that rock. Because I was sliding and its such loose gravel avoiding the rock was not an option. Heck I'll jump it, compress the forks and pull up at the right moment and yehaa...air time! Ah crap landing....made it but just barely, its hard to land in this loose stuff going so fast, eceptially going around a corner. After the next corner I slow down and stop to catch my breath. No I didnt **** myself but it must have been close. I did dent my front rim pretty good. Tire held the bead and the tube didnt get a pinch flat :D Along comes Stephen screeching to ahalt "man you should have seen the rock I just squared!", same rock and he had the same dented rim as me :clap 1350 km long road and we both dent our rims on the same rock, mystery of the north.
Well we got to Mirage and the sun was dropping, we were going to push on another 150 km and camp but the thought of a hot shower, real food and cold beer was to tempting for all of us.
Mirage isnt cheap but I would recommend it. $129 bucks gets ya a private room with shared bathrooms, a great all you can eat dinner, all you can eat breakfast and a bagged lunch for the next day. Excellent food, nice people and a nice place all around. A couple of cold beers and a whiskey and I couldnt keep my eyes open.
A challenging day for sure, dusty, slippery, bumpy and all around good fun. Total km for the day was about 580 km all gravel.

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[deadly99]

Stephen writes:



Day 6 - To the end and back

Today started off as cold as any other day. Frost covering anything still hidden in shadows. In a routine now we broke camp and packed up our bikes, taking turns to climb up on a big rock to shake out our tents to remove both frost and gravel. In the mean time I rolled my bike out from the shadow of a hill of rocks into the sun to help melt some of the frost that had formed on my seat.

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(Thank's for the idea Ted)


Chris' bike with it's shiny new battery started first try and we breathed a sigh of relief as we set off for out next great destination. Once we had left the nice gravel pit and descended into the lower areas we quickly discovered that every valley was filled with thick soupy fog that coated both sides of our visors and slowed us to a crawl. Eventually the sun did come up and we picked up speed as the fog burned off.

That's when I came over a small rise to see the contents of Chris' pannier spread over the road. "Oh ****" I'm thinking as I slam on the breaks and ask him what happened. With the weight of a battery and gas Chris' home made pannier came lose and spread its contents across the road.
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A few straps later it was all re-attached.
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Then we hooked up with Throttlemeister! Here's Dan giving autographs.
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We knew we were close when we started having to cross the huge rock piles.
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And this huge spillway that had been blasted out.
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We all grouped up for a team shot as we made it to the end of the Trans Tiaga. YAY! now we only have 666Km of dirt to get out of here.
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Me at the end
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End of the TT. If you come bring a marker to sign this. And a ADV sticker (I forgot mine)
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After that we stopped at Air Saguenay and filled up with gas. $1.90/L Ouch! but better than running out half way home. While waiting to fill up a blackfly got in my helmate and took a chunk out of my eyelid. Had me worried it was going to swell shut but it never got that bad.
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Cruising back to Mirage after driving into the sun all morning then turning around and driving into the sun all afternoon we were all a bit burnt and worn out. As the shadows got lower and lower I came to a blind hill that was covered in shadows. I slowed a bit because I couldn't see over it then bam, I was airborn! A rock I didn't see had launched me in the air. I knew right away it was bad so I slammed on the breaks and made a quick inspection of my bike. There was still air in the tires and I couldn't hear it leaking. Rims look ok. Tires are still ok. I thought I was luck and headed out. Meeting up with Ted, it turns out we had both squared the same rock. I check again and sure enough I had dented my front rim. DAMMIT!!!! Not much I can do now. Then we had a nice 40+Km of soft graded road to welcome us to our home for the night at Mirage. Every muscle aching in my body I gladly paied the $127CDN for a room and meals then sat sipping beers on the patio between long showers.

[deadly99]

Mirage serves breakfast from 7 to 8 then the gas opens at 8. An early morning and HUGE breakfast, packed a lunch to go (damn eating real food was a treat!). The goal for today was to ride the rest of the TT out (358km) then find somewhere to camp on the JBR.





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We decided to meet at km 202 for a regroup and headed out. This was hands down my favourite day or riding. Doing 150 +km sections with no one around and just really cracking the throttle. 6th 5th 6th 4th gear was the rythem for the day. A few moments stand out, top end of 5th gear, back wheel spinning and kicked out around the corners, dakar moments. Prior to this trip there was no way I would even consider sliding around corners with a fully loaded bike. After days on end of getting used to the graded stuff I was feeling like a champ. Top end of 6th gear full out down the straights, watching the road about .5 km ahead, ignoring the ridges and loose stuff, this will be etched in my memory for a long time. Amazing how fast we all were compared to three days prior on the way in.

We regrouped at the rest area at km 202 and then headed out for another 150 km section. Ever had the perfect day on a bike? This was mine :clap



http://64.136.20.22/2381611_l.jpg

I was leading the way and stopped after an hour or so to let the others catch up. The sun was shining and it was getting warm outside. I had a quick power nap on the side of the road. 15 minutes to recharge the brain. Travelling at these speeds requires mass concentration.

http://64.136.20.22/2381616_l.jpg

http://64.136.20.22/2381615_l.jpg

Another very fast 50 or so km's to the end. The first stop sign in 3 days. I felt like it deserved a photo.

http://64.136.20.22/2381619_l.jpg

We regrouped at a pre arranged rest area a few km's down the Jmaes Bay Road. Felt real weird to be travelling on pavement....kinda boring as it requires next to no concentration. We decided to camp that night at the Rupert River as we had heard from others that it was a nice spot to spend the night. Not sure of the milage but I think its around 200 to 300 km's from where we were.

http://64.136.20.22/2381623_l.jpg


James Bay Road is a blast! 600 km's long of what becomes a twisty at anything over 130 km/h. Dan started to showing me cornering techniques he aquired from his years of track riding. All of a sudden corners that were scetchy at 130 were completly doable at 150 :D Burnt some serious gas along this stretch of highway and made very good time. I saw speeds I had yet to do on the KTM and was really enjoying hanging off the bike and gassing the heck out of it around corners and down the straights. Pure fun :clap

http://64.136.20.22/2381631_l.jpg


Got to the Rupert about an hour before sunset and admired the view from the bridge.

http://64.136.20.22/2381637_l.jpg


http://64.136.20.22/2381639_l.jpg


http://64.136.20.22/2381638_l.jpg

At the scenic view pull over we got swarmed by blackflies, every other night of the trip temps would drop to below or at the freezing mark, tonight the forecast was for a low of +14 C. Well it didnt take long before they were in my mouth nose and ears. An easy choice was made......lets get the heck outta here. "How far is it to the next town?" "260 or so km's" "Lets do it" . John wasnt privy to this choice as he was out scouting for a camp site. His tailbone was killing him on his stock seat and I could easily anticipate his reaction, it was a bout what I thought it might be. "WTF...I seriosuly dont know if I can go any further" Well Stephen and Chris had already bolted and there was hno way I was spending the night getting eaten alive all night. John took it like a champ, said he'd catch up after a quick rest. We agreed to meet in an hour or so down the road.

We pulled over and watched the sunset and waited for eveyone to regroup. Well John comes blazing by and doesnt even stop or wave :eek1 "Man he must be pissed". Turns out he got his 3rd wind and pushed straight on to Matagami.

http://64.136.20.22/2381636_l.jpg

Well those black flies became a nightmare once the sun set. You dont dare wipe your visor in fear of the dreaded smear. Visibility was near zero for the last part of the ride which made for a wee bit of stress at the end of a long day. Got to matagami and booked into a hotel that has a bar and a restaurant, yehaa more real food :D

http://64.136.20.22/2381643_l.jpg




http://64.136.20.22/2381644_l.jpg

Everyone unpacked and had some grub. Dan and mayself moved over to the bar slash disco tech to see some local flavour. Well we didnt even know it existed but we found the elusive Northern Quebec Leopard ! We had heard tales of it before but thought it must be all lies. Leopards dont exist in Canada. Well here she was in all her glory. A skin tight leopard skinned outfit with big cuts outs on the stomach chest and sides. Now this leopard had eatin fairly well by the looks of things and each one of these cutouts was complimented by bulging chucks of fat. It was so damn revolting it was funny. Thought about getting her to pose on the bikes for some photos but after looking around realized it would not be the best plan. This bar was brutal, about 50 young guys all hitting on 5 cougars. The cougars spent most of their night chain smoking, 2 were pregnant but this didnt seem to stop their love for the tabacoo. If you end up in this bar I suspect you would have to fight to get laid as that seemed to be the look of how things worked around there. Now that we were below the 52nd paralel Dan was out of his element and didnt even get a smile:cry A few beers and some whiskey before crashing for the night.

Total distance for the day was about 950 km's, 360 of them being freshly graded gravel.

Day 8

Not much to tell here, we packed up early and hit the road for home. A nice drive down some scenic roads. It took a while to get used to traffic and seeing cops again. A long tiring drive, no more concentrating on gravel, no more crazy high speeds, just sitting in a line of traffic making our way home. This was for me the most tiring day, took every thing I had not to fall asleep on the bike. Tried to capture how tired I was at one rest area.




http://64.136.20.22/2381648_l.jpg



The highlight of the trip home was finally getting to a Tim Hortons for that coffee that us Canadians love so much. Dan looking very excited.

http://64.136.20.22/2381646_l.jpg



Total mileage for the day was about 700 km's.

We said our fairwells and exchanged some handshakes about an hour out of the city before we all headed in different directions bound for home.

A truely great week. The weather was great, roads were fun, ticked our three ticks that we had planned, everyone got along well, fun to meet some new people and see a part our country not many get to see.

In all we covered about 4800 km in the week, 1900 km's of which were gravel. We asked the lady at Mirage Outfitters how many bikes pass threw each year. She said this was a very busy year, including us she guessed about 20 had done this road this year. A guess at less than 200 in total have ridden this road.

We all agreed we would do a trip next year, Trans Lab and the Newfoundland T-Rail seemed to be on everyone's mind......time wil tell. Thanks for tagging along, its been fun writing this report and kind of reliving the trip. Adios

[deadly99]

Stephen writes:



Day 7 & 8 - The Long Ride Home

Having sworn off boil in bag food at this point the full plate of bacon and eggs was a welcome site in the morning. After having my second shower (third for some) the bikes were packed and the tanks filled for the long ride out. The neares gas station at Km 381 meant that we needed to carry a full load of gas for this streatch. Feeling confident we all took off at top speed spaced out so everyone could go at their own pace, dust free, and enjoy the peace of the morning. Comming over one hill I came face to face with a black bear and cub. I slammed the breaks and came to a stop a safe distance away but it was too close and they made a break for the woods. Too bad, no photo. A few Km later same thing but this time it was a grey wolf! I rolled by an saw it down in the ditch so I stopped farther up the trail. It hopped out and started walking down the road away from me. In the end everyone on the ride saw it.

http://qtwo.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/ttwolf.jpg


We saw lots of beautiful scenery
http://qtwo.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/ttwater.jpg

Rolling Hills
http://qtwo.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/ttroad.jpg

My shiny new bike isn't so shiny and new anymore
http://qtwo.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/tt6000.jpg

Being back on the pavement was weird. Instantly my body begain to cramp up and be sore. After being loose and standing alot for the past three days I was suddenly sitting very still and my bum knew it. We regrouped at a designated rest stop and celebrated our latest victory while preparing ourselves for an anticlimactic few days on the bike to get home.

Our planned stop for the night was to camp where the James Bay Road crossed the Rupert River. Getting there around 4:30 we all pulled off our helmets to relax and start setting up camp when we were swarmed by bugs. Screw that.
http://qtwo.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/jbrsky.jpg
http://qtwo.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/jbrchrisbridge.jpg

Looking at the GPS it was only a 2 hour ride to cold beers and a hotel room. COLD BEER & NO BUGS !!! We set off with a very disapointed John following along (He wanted to camp) and blasted our way into town. with only one quick stop to fill up the bikes along the way.

http://qtwo.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/jbrchrisgas.jpg

The bugs were brutal and totall destroyed visibility.
http://qtwo.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/jbrbugs.jpg

The next day was a leisurly ride home. Feet up, lean back, one hand on the throttle cruise back to Ottawa. Meeting up for one last gas outside of town we all shook hands and congratulated each other on a trip well done before each going our own direction.

Thanks again for the invite Ted! Until the next one !

- Stephen

[deadly99]

So the Rue Du Nord and the Trans Taiga will make an excellent ending to the True North East route. Remote and rugged landscapes fit the theme of the route very well. Heck, not many places left in the world where it is safe to pull over on the side of the road and have a quick siesta without worrying about traffic :victory:

http://64.136.20.22/2383965_l.jpg

:smiley_drive:

[ben2go]

Wish I could fit on a dual sport moto.I can't hardly ride a street bike and I own 4.My short dumpy legs won't touch the ground on a dual sport.

[Motojournalism]

Wish I could fit on a dual sport moto.I can't hardly ride a street bike and I own 4.My short dumpy legs won't touch the ground on a dual sport.

BMW F650 might fit ya! They're good bikes and can even be lowered further.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3075/2862413747_bb89c2d75d_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/antontrax/2862413747/)


Man that's a helluva bush plane! Huge. Gotta find out what it is...
http://64.136.20.22/2378815_l.jpg

[4307]

Thats a DHC-3 Otter... the great Canadian bush plane. :26_7_2:

Killer thread!

[Paladin]

I'd say the DH-2 Beaver was better, but I guess it depends on what you're going for. ;)

[ben2go]

BMW F650 might fit ya! They're good bikes and can even be lowered further.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3075/2862413747_bb89c2d75d_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/antontrax/2862413747/)


Man that's a helluva bush plane! Huge. Gotta find out what it is...
http://64.136.20.22/2378815_l.jpg

Is it possible with a 29 inch inseam?

I wish I could have flown a sea plane when I was a pilot.I never got to fly a tail dragger.Man,I really missed out.

[skysix]

This thread is about the TCAT.
But how can it be a true Trans Canad trail if it doesn't go to the Westernmost trail in Canada the Yukon/Alaska border crossing?

The North-South trail in the east is fine, and a US border to Arctic Ocean trail could also be done I suppose (under the heading of the North or whatever), but c'mon, really? Trans Canada only applies to the south?

[Paladin]

Can't keep everyone happy I guess.

[deadly99]

We understand that Beaver Creek is the most westerly town in Canada and did a a lot of humming and hawing about using it as the terminus for the route. We decided not based on a few items. One is that it didn't seem like a dramatic place to end the route as compared to a remote beach on the Pacific. Two is the crazy long paved roads to get there didn't feel like they suited the intended terrain for the tcat.

When our site goes live in the fall with a handful of smaller routes from different area's in the country there will be a section dedicated to the Yukon and the NWT. Perhaps you'd like to have some input in regards to this? Shoot me an email if your interested or have any questions.

Cabin fever has become hard to take, 50 more days until we can get out and explore again :)

[greatestexpeditions]

Looks like an aswesome trip, I actually did basically the same route 2 years ago in a in a sub compact mazda rental car. Its a lot of gravel thats for sure, we dinged up the car pretty good (thank god for windshield insurance). We took the ferry through Lake Mellville which is quite the place and I definately enjoyed the Labrador coast, its really nice out there, great driving :smiley_drive:. Im planning to go back next year, Im thinking of taking the ferry from Quebec to Nain, Labrador and then charter a boat to Torngat Mountains National Park. Expensive but a once in a lifetime trip if I can pull it off. I recently posted an article on my blog about the Trans Taiga Highway you can check it out at http://www.greatestexpeditions.wordpress.com

[deadly99]

Winter is coming to an end in Canada and we've begun working on the TCAT again.



Planning has begun in earnest now for our May ride. Leaving in two weeks for a couple of weeks, slabbing to the Main/New Brunswick border where the TNE will start. The TNE for this section was created by JP and friends and looks to be some fun gravel roads crossing the province in a northerly direction. Looking forward to meeting JP on this trip and hopefully spend some time riding together :thumb. I haven't spent much time in this province and I'm quite looking forward to checking it out. East coast hospitality is world renowned and true to form we have a backyard lined up for a nights stay near the beginning of the route, thanks R-Charger, look forward to tipping a brown bottle and weather permitting warming up by a fire :freaky

Based on some rides I had previously done on the Gaspe Bay penninsula I have put together a loop around the Gaspe staying true to gravel as much as possible while still including a tourist stop at Perce Rock as well as a chunk of the paved coastal road. The Gaspe Bay is home to the Chic Choc mountains, some of the only mountains to break tree line in this part of Canada. The area is full of fun logging roads and promises a nice addition to the TNE route. Most folks just ride the pavement around the outside of the penninsula and don't get to appreciate the fun that is waiting in the interior :thumb

Perce Rock

http://www.travelet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/perce-rock-canada1.jpg


http://famouswonders.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Perce-Rock.jpg

After the Gaspe we'll take a ferry across the St Lawrence River and meet up with Fab in Baie-Comeau. The next couple of days will be riding Fab's section of the TCAT/TNE. This section serves both the TCAT and the TNE. From the photo's and correspondence I've had with Fab this section looks great. Some real remote country in this part of eastern Quebec with some great looking scenery. Fab was put together a few optional technical section in his part of the route that look.....fun :wink:

This picture shows Fab's section of the TCAT/TNE. The purple line being the main route, the other colors representing a couple of "fun" sections. This section leaves off in the town of Poisson Blanc. The TNE heads north from here and heads up through the town of Chibougamau, then takes the Rue Du Nord, James Bay Highway and the Trans Taiga Highway where it terminates.

http://64.136.20.22/3004825_l.JPG



This shows the southern half of the proposed route for the TNE.


http://64.136.20.22/3004826_l.JPG



The TCAT heads east from Poisson Blanc and passes through the town of Parent before making its way to the town of Mt Laurier (nice 400 km sandy gravel stretch). This promises to be a very fun section of the TCAT and is quite popular with folks from these parts as the roads are very twisty, hilly and sandy. I also have a couple of fun optional tecnical sections in mind for this section :evil Here is a picture showing the proposed main route through this area.


http://64.136.20.22/3004868_l.JPG

Juames takes over the TCAT from mt Laurier and will bring the route into the city of Ottawa. Luckily for him there is a park in his way that is full of twisty little gravel roads (Papinaeau Labelle Park).


Other than NFLD this will make the Eastern part of the TCAT almost complete and will totally complete the TNE. Our new web site should be up and running this fall and will have the TNE route available. The TCAT should be available the following fall (2012).

Things are really starting to come together :clap

[deadly99]

Upon return from this trip we are hosting a two day rally. It utilizes a modified section of the TCAT. We are using this primarily as test of our gps tracks and terrain. Looks like about 60 bikes and a small handfull of rovers/trucks will be attending :victory:

We went out last weekend to pre ride a few sections of the route and as expected things are still a bit wet due to the spring thaw.



YouTube - ~PI18C8

[deadly99]

YouTube - TCAT Merrickville