Creating a Cross Canada Overland Route

deadly99

Explorer
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

Explorer
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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deadly99

Explorer
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.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z9T1aXfTaE"]YouTube - Ompah Dirt[/ame]


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

Adventurer
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

Explorer
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:
 
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.
 

deadly99

Explorer
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.


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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.

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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

Explorer
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

Adventurer
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.

Expedition Leader
Staff member
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

Explorer
So not all days go as planned......

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



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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



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

Looking up at the trail, yes that is the trail



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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

Explorer
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

Explorer
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

Explorer
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 :)
 

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