Creating a Cross Canada Overland Route

[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.

Did I mention it was freaking ......

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

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.

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

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 ****** kind of expression.

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.

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.

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.

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 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

Hannibal Lecter??????????????????????

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 &#8220; I must be insane riding gravel with this much weight.&#8221; 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&#8230; &#8220;I've got this gravel/sand thing mastered&#8230; 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&#8230; ******!! :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&#8230; and waiting&#8230; 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 &#8220;are you all right&#8221; and &#8220;what happened&#8221; 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&#8230; 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&#8230; 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 &#8220;What are you guys doing&#8221;. I'm not sure exactly what we said, but I know our &#8220;frustration&#8221; of the moment may have come through a little&#8230; well maybe more than a little&#8230;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??????????????????????

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..

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!

The gravel road was fine, but watch the ice on the wooden bridges..

Everything was covered with a nice layer of dust by the end of the road..

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!)

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!)..

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

We all took turns riding down the beach to dip our tires in the water.

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.

The locals use these big canoes with motors for lack of a better description (based on my very limited knowledge of boat types).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is the first sign we see :Wow1:

Then this one

Off we go, we were making good tracks and really enjoying it.

Bike of choice for this terrain :clap Fast, Faster and Fastest :evil

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.

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

This sign looks important but unless you speak Cree or French good luck.

Off we went to Mirage.

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.

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

Chris fiddles with his new battery

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.

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).

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!)

 

[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.

The river valley below us was full of fog and made for some nice scenery. We quickly packed up and hit the road.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

The last stretch of road.

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.

Love this road, if you like fast smooth gravel this is the road for you. It is a classic!!!

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 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.

 

[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.

(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.

A few straps later it was all re-attached.

Then we hooked up with Throttlemeister! Here's Dan giving autographs.

We knew we were close when we started having to cross the huge rock piles.

And this huge spillway that had been blasted out.

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.

Me at the end

End of the TT. If you come bring a marker to sign this. And a ADV sticker (I forgot mine)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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

Got to the Rupert about an hour before sunset and admired the view from the bridge.

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. "******...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.

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

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.

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.

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.

We saw lots of beautiful scenery

Rolling Hills

My shiny new bike isn't so shiny and new anymore

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.

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.

The bugs were brutal and totall destroyed visibility.

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:

: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.



Man that's a helluva bush plane! Huge. Gotta find out what it is...