Riding the most remote road in North America on two wheels - The Trans Taiga Road

[GravelRider]

Found some soft sand while doing a turnaround

We decided to push on to Caniapiscau to the end of the Trans Taiga and camp somewhere around the end of the road. The road past Brisay is indeed a tougher road. It’s not terrible, but speeds were definitely slower. It’s not as well maintained, there are large rocks embedded in the road, and there were several washouts along the way.

This washout could have been bad. I barely missed it, so I circled back around so that Neal didn’t hit it if he was on the same line as me

We found a road marker on the side of the road, so we put it into the hole to hopefully help someone else avoid hitting this

Some more pics along the way

The end of the Trans Taiga is very lackluster. It ends unceremoniously at a T junction. In fact, we weren’t quite sure we actually hit the end of the road at first, as there was still more road to ride in either direction.

 

[GravelRider]

We didn’t spend much time exploring since it was starting to get late in the day at this point. We set off to find a camp spot. We ended up finding a perfect spot right on the reservoir past the end of the Trans Taiga. Great views of the reservoir, and a ton of drift wood to burn were all piled up right next to it. It was the first night we didn’t need to scrounge for firewood.

In case anyone is planning a trip up here and wants to camp at the end, here are the coordinates of this spot:

After getting the camp set up, a fire going, and eating dinner, I pulled out some good Scotch and my favorite cigars.

Glennfiddich 18 year single malt with a Leaf by Oscar cigar at the end of the most remote road in North America. Priceless.

 

[GravelRider]

Day 5

Caniapiscau to the road South of Brisay to Trans Taiga

287 miles. All gravel.

We woke up to dark skies with towers of rain in the distance. We were hoping it would pass by us, but we knew better. We checked the Inreach weather and it said 70% chance of rain and thunderstorms. What we have determined thus far during the trip is that if Inreach says anything more than a 10% chance of rain, there will definitely be rain. So at 70%, we knew we were in for something.

Another picture of the camp

Scenery around the camp

We quickly broke down camp before the rain hit. We then decided to head north along the Hydro Quebec roads as far as we could go. First thing we found was a dam with a large spillway with an absolutely massive quantity of water flowing through it.

I should stop and mention that it was just beginning to rain at this point. However, the thunder and lightning were becoming increasingly closer, more frequent, and more intense. We stupidly decided to push on north on these access roads. Eventually we came to the end of the road at a large dam only a few miles north of where we camped. There was a road across it, but it was blocked with a gate. There appeared to possibly be another way around to get a little further, but with the lightning getting more intense, the rain pouring down at this point, and us at essentially high ground, we decided to run back and head toward Air Saguenay to see if they were open and had fuel.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the end of the road, but I was concentrating more on not getting struck by lightning.

After a few wrong turns down to various closed outfitters, we made it to Air Saguenay. They confirmed that they had fuel, but that it was offsite. The guy that worked there hopped in his pickup truck, and we followed him to the fuel pumps a mile or so away. We got there and topped off our tanks and our dromedary bags and then headed back to their air station to pay. It was raining so hard, we were hoping that we pumped some gas into our tanks along with the water.

When we got back to the air station to pay, we were hit with sticker shock. $2.75 per liter for ordinaire sans plomb (regular unleaded), plus a $1.99 and $3.99 fee. With the fees, that worked out to $12 CAD or $9.20 USD per gallon. But, hey, look where we were. Who were we to complain?

While there, the storms intensified. We asked if they had coffee. They led us to another building next door and told us to make ourselves at home. Carol was making probably the most delicious looking pizzas I’ve ever seen. She put on a pot of coffee for us and let us help ourselves to a litany of homemade baked goods. Coffee was hot and delicious. Carol was as sweet as could be. One of the pilots, Antoine, filled us in on the local weather, talked with us about local history, and showed us some great motorcycle routes for the ride back. What a great experience! They also confirmed that they were open seven days a week into the end of September. Although expensive, I highly recommend filling up at Air Saguenay. Good people!

Carol

Antoine

The rain slowed down and we headed south to Brisay. By the time we got to Brisay, the rain had subsided. At the intersection, we headed south (right past the sign at the picture)

Google Maps showed the road south of Brisay to be roughly 50ish miles, but satellite maps made it look like it could be further, like another 50 miles further, so we really didn’t know how far we had ahead of us. Information on this road was virtually nonexistent. Internet searches didn’t turn up anything. Forum inquiries turned up nothing. Even calls and emails to outfitters in the area turned up nothing. Looks like we were forced to ride it ourselves to find out!

The first few miles were fairly similarly maintained as the road from Brisay to Caniapiscau. However, the views were much better.

 

[GravelRider]

Neal giving his best Advrider salute

In fact, the views were incredible. By far, the best views of the entire trip.

 

[GravelRider]

Quick rest break

The road was far less maintained than any of the other large gravel roads we had ridden thus far. The road surface was highly variable. It went from well-maintained to terrible washboard to mud to large potholes to narrow doubletrack and back again.

I also want to discuss the remoteness of this road. To do this, I want to step back and talk about Caniapiscau. I had envisioned this being the epitome of remoteness. Like nobody for miles around. This wasn’t exactly the case. Once we got there, there were several other groups camped in the area; mostly fisherman camped at the boat ramps. There were also the Hydro Quebec workers, outfitters, and float plane base workers. Pretty much the rest of the Trans Taiga felt more remote than the end at Caniapiscau. This being said, it was still very remote without much of anything there. The road south of Brisay, on the other hand, was extremely remote. There was absolutely nobody else on the road, and no sign of human civilization besides the dams along the route. This was truly the remote road I came all the way up north to ride.

Along the route, we stopped for a quick rest and to check our packs, and Neal noticed that one of his Dromedary bags was only half full. Upon further inspection, it had leaked all over his tarp and into his top bag. He had lost probably a gallon to a gallon and half of fuel. He was less excited about our choice to use Dromedary bags as I was (both my bags were absolutely bombproof).

Continuing along

 

[GravelRider]

Road narrowing

Near the end, the road really became narrower and rough. Not offroad rough, as any big bike with an experience rider could ride it, but rougher than anything we had ridden on the trip. I was thankful I was riding my WR250R; it made the road easy. It may not have been the best choice for the big mile paved roads of the first day, but once we hit gravel, I was very happy.

The road ended about 70 miles from Brisay at a gate.

Our Advrider salutes

I may or may not have been curious about what laid beyond the gate. After all, satellite maps showed possibly miles ahead of the gate. So, I may or may not have ridden around and checked out what laid beyond…

Looks like it may have just fizzled out very shortly past the gate. Looks like the posted end is truly the end of the road.

We hung out at the end of the road discussing how this was truly the capstone at the end of the road; much more so than Caniapiscau. It would have been a great place to set up camp, but we wanted to still put some miles down for the day, particularly since we had a late start to the day, with the rain.

I want to also mention that everything you read about the end of the Trans Taiga Road at Caniapiscau being the furthest by road from any town in North America is incorrect. At the end of the road south of Brisay you are about 17 miles further from any town in North America by road than at Caniapiscau.

Headed back to the Trans Taiga proper

The gravel was a bit deep at this section

 

[GravelRider]

We then hopped onto the Trans Taiga Road, which felt like a Super Highway compared to the road south of Brisay. No pictures since we were trying to make it as far as we could.

We were hoping to make it to Mirage and set up camp close enough to walk over for a few cold beers. However, we made it to about 70 miles shy of Mirage before it got too late in the day, so we found a spot to camp. It was down a small dirt road off of the Trans Taiga. It was just a small flat spot close enough to a lake to pump water.

The white moss was as soft as carpet, but tended to stick to socks terribly. Ask me how I know

We were using a Katadyn pump that I’ve had for a long time and pumped a lot of gallons of water through. This was the trip it decided to finally die on me. The last few nights, the pump had started leaking water and the output was less and less. This night was the final straw. We must have spent 45 minutes pumping a gallon and a half of water. We had agreed that we would be buying any further water for the rest of the trip.

We gathered wood, pumped water, and set up camp. This may have been one of the lowest mileage days of the trip, but also one of the toughest days. We were exhausted. We were probably just going to eat and go to bed. Well, both being combat vets, we got to telling army stories, and ended up drinking the rest of our booze and staying up way later than we had anticipated…

 

[GravelRider]

Day 6

Trans Taiga to James Bay Road

401 miles. 285 miles of gravel.

We woke up fairly early and broke town camp. Another picture of the camp site

A Cree hunting cabin by the turnoff for the small dirt road we camped at

We set off down the Trans Taiga. We didn’t take many pictures.

soon came to Mirage outfitters. We fueled up, grabbed a soda and a piece of pie, and set off back down the Trans Taiga Road. We were going to pick up some beers for camp that night at Mirage, but the guy working there said they sold beer at the Relais outfitter at Km 381 on the James bay Road. So we decided to find a camp site close by and pick some up there.

A hitchhiker

We didn’t stop for pictures since we had already ridden this road once. Neal discovered that he didn’t have his Camelback about a hundred miles from Mirage. He must have left it… But we decided it wasn’t worth a 200 mile round trip to retrieve it. We did stop at our first campsite on the Trans Taiga at km 56 to pick up Neal’s tent stakes that he had left there. It was hot. I mean, really hot today. Much hotter than I would have anticipated. While there, we swam in Lac Sakami to cool off. Neal also used his steri-pen to get some water since he was getting pretty dehydrated without his Camelback.

We then set back off down the Trans Taiga.

We made it to the end late in the afternoon.

What is this?

We then pushed forward to Km 381. We fueled up and went in to get some beer for camp. Come to find out, they don’t sell beer there. Oh well, looks like we were going to get to bed early so we could head out early. They don’t sell bottled water there, other than the small bottles, so we filled our water containers at an outdoor hose there.

 

[GravelRider]

We then headed north a few miles to a camp spot we had scouted out.

It had started to rain at this point, so we hastily set up camp, gathered some firewood and made a fire. The rain soon started coming down much harder and we went to bed while it was still light out.

It was a miserable night. It was still hot, and ridiculously humid with the rain. I didn’t sleep well at all that night.

 

[GravelRider]

Day 7

James Bay Road to Ottawa

645 miles. 90 miles gravel.

We woke up early with plans to hit the road around 5:30. It was pouring down rain when we woke up, which meant having the displeasure of breaking down camp in the soaking rain. Always a fun prospect…

We stopped back into Relais outfitters at Km 381 to top up our tanks, since it would be a good stretch until our next gas stop.

We then continued on through the rain until came across the Rupert River Rapids. This is a powerful river with some awesome rapids. There is a parking lot with a trail that leads to a lookout point.

When we rechecked our bags, Neal discovered that his tent was no longer strapped to his bike. He had the presence of mind to strap it on the outside of his gear since it was soaking wet, and didn’t want the rest of his gear getting wet as well. It had been 80 miles since we had last seen it strapped to his gear, so we decided not to backtrack in hopes of finding a camouflaged tent bag on the side of the road.

Neal contemplating a teepee to sleep in

We had the choice to either stay at a hotel the last night or we could find a camping store and Neal could purchase whatever tent he could find so that we could camp the last night in the rain. That choice was easy. Although we wanted to camp every night, it made no sense for Neal to buy whatever tent he could find, which almost undoubtedly wouldn’t be an ideal tent and would be overpriced in a store up north. Our plan was to make it to Ottawa or as close as we could get and just find a hotel.

We stopped to fill up gas from my Rotopax, and Neal noticed that one of the bolts holding his skid plate was loose and almost worked its way out.

They’re repaving sections of the James Bay Road, and there was about a 30 mile section of gravel on the James Bay Road due to the construction. The new pavement is nice without all the frost heaves this road is infamous for.

Entry point at the start of the James Bay Road outside Matagami

We made it to Matagami in heavy rain most of the way. We stopped for fuel and lunch. I can’t remember the name of the place we stopped, but the food was good and service was fast. With one exception, I’ve ordered poutine at every meal stop, as I usually do when I visit Quebec. I ordered a ground beef poutine, which was the best I’ve had to date on this trip.

We had cell service here, so I pulled up Google Maps and it routed us a slightly different route than I had put into my OsmAnd GPS app. To our surprise we weren’t yet done with gravel roads. Route 1055, which branched off of the James Bay Road just north of Matagami, was a great gravel road. Narrower than the other large gravel roads we had ridden, but well maintained. It was raining most of the ride.

I stopped at a cool wooden bridge to get a picture. I heard some squealing and skidding, and before I could turn my head around, my bike lunged forward as I was hit from behind…

The river Neal nearly ended up in

Neal discovered how slippery a wet wooden bridge is. He came only a few inches from ending up in the river below. Fortunately there were no injuries, and only minimal bike damage. Mine was unharmed. Neal’s had a broken mirror and some minor plastic damage.

We continued on to Sennettere, where we fueled up and had small reprieve from the rain.

Stopped again to get fuel, in the rain

 

[GravelRider]

We then stopped at a tourist trap to find some souvenirs for the wives and kids.

From there we headed straight to Ottawa in the mostly pouring rain. We found a hotel next to a casino at a decent price. We unpacked the bikes and then headed to the casino for dinner.

Motorcycle-only parking. Cool.

In the casino

Chorizo poutine. The best poutine I’ve ever had to date.

Gear drying

I forgot to take a picture of my Inreach today, but it was 645 miles.

 

[GravelRider]

Day 8

Ottawa to home.

388 miles. 2 miles offroad.

We woke up early. It was quite strange to not have to break down camp this morning. We quickly packed things up and put on our gear. It was absolutely pouring outside… Like monsoon storm pouring. Ugh.

Screenshot of the current radar.

We hopped on the bikes and headed south. We were hoping to make it back to my house before 2 pm. That’s the time we told our wives we’d be back, so we were hoping to make it then. Unbelievably, the wives weren’t as excited about our trip as we were…

We stopped at a couple of duty free shops for souvenirs for the family

Just across the border back into the US

We slogged it home via interstate mostly. To get into my development, you can either go through the main gates, or you can take about 2 miles of trails. We chose the latter, of course.

Home!

Neal’s bash plate hit something on the trail on the way into my development

 

[GravelRider]

Trip Stats

Total mileage: 3655 miles

Longest day: 887 miles

Shortest day: 287 miles

Longest gravel day: 385 miles

Average daily mileage: 457 miles

Longest stretch between gas stops: 330 miles

Most expensive gas: $9.20 per gallon at Air Saguenay

Nights camping: 6

Nights in hotel: 1

Items lost and/or broken on this trip: 9

Number of bike drops: 4

Number of bike crashes: 1

Number of injuries: 0

Number of road graders encountered: 7

Days with rain: 6

Days without rain: 2

Best poutine: Casino Lac Leamy

Number of wives unhappy about this trip: 2

 

[GravelRider]

Whew! The 20 pictures per post limit was killing me! Though maybe I just take too many pictures...

 

[Alloy]

Good to read your trip report.

I spent 3 months looking/thinking then I bought a new WR250R. I have the 4.3G IMS tank on order but I can see it won't be enough.

Edit.......looks like I should get larger foot plate for the kickstand.