Waytec
Adventurer
One way or is that round trip.
Creating a Cross Canada Overland Route
- Thread starter deadly99
- Start date
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
Quebec
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.
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
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.
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
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TCAT Western Quebec
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.
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.
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.
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.
The route crosses a handful of small dams.
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
Always fun to spin the wheels in the sand
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.
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.
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.
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.
The route crosses a handful of small dams.
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
Always fun to spin the wheels in the sand
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)
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.
Dave aka DVD_Scott looking nice and relaxed.
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.
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
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....
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)
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.
Dave aka DVD_Scott looking nice and relaxed.
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.
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
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....
Quebec Continued
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.
Labrieville (1.50$/Liter gas, hydro plant, logging plant)
Watch out for these guys as they are not going to pull to the side of the road (too heavy)
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:
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
Pics from the party
The next morning we split with those fudged up ********** and headed to Forestville to ride and have breakfast
Start of the section
A nice gravel road that turns to this
And then to this
and to this
This was next
And we finally had to turn around when facing this swamp
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
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
And I was quickly out of trouble watching Sylvain catch his breath
Map of the (aborted) section
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.
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.
Labrieville (1.50$/Liter gas, hydro plant, logging plant)
Watch out for these guys as they are not going to pull to the side of the road (too heavy)
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:
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
Pics from the party
The next morning we split with those fudged up ********** and headed to Forestville to ride and have breakfast
Start of the section
A nice gravel road that turns to this
And then to this
and to this
This was next
And we finally had to turn around when facing this swamp
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
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
And I was quickly out of trouble watching Sylvain catch his breath
Map of the (aborted) section
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.
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?
concretejungle
Adventurer
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.
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.
northfacetraveller
Adventurer
This trip looks ************!! 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:
Quebec Continued
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:
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.
After the aforementioned 200+kms of pavement, we were finally at the start of the section.
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.
After that we parted from the main road and entered some smaller gravel roads which where fun and offered a nice view:
Time to refill the ktm:
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:
But then there was a creek to cross:
But it was deep and filled with football sized rocks which made the crossing quite interesting:
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:
No winch required for a 800:
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:
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
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:
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.
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:
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.
After the aforementioned 200+kms of pavement, we were finally at the start of the section.
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.
After that we parted from the main road and entered some smaller gravel roads which where fun and offered a nice view:
Time to refill the ktm:
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:
But then there was a creek to cross:
But it was deep and filled with football sized rocks which made the crossing quite interesting:
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:
No winch required for a 800:
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:
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
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:
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.