The Making of a Cross Canada Route

[HowlingMad]

Great report!

A few of you guys look familiar, did we run into you in New Brunswick? I seem to recall one of you (Renaud?) tried to leave behind a wallet that was left on a tankbag at a gas station? I think I chatted with ChrisP who had a few parts of his bike that weren't crashed yet.

We were the filthy crew on 3 F650GS's and one Tanker (12GSA) coming back from Newfoundland.

Here's our report to refresh your memory.

Subscribed.

[renaudtrudel]

Yes that would be me!

I seemed to always leave something on the tankbag, or seat, or...

It's all part of an 80-year study, to test the honesty of randomly selected members of society. I honestly can't count the times a stranger came up to me to return my wallet

I remember our little chat b/c your journey on the rock sounded like a nice one and I wanted to hear the story behind the dents in ladies' bags! Too bad I was being honked at by "the guys" to get my butt in gear (always last...)
Reading your RR now .
(C'était quoi le site web à Claude déjà? qqch506.com?)

That picture at the campsite in Gros Morne is not me duncing around-- I'm off to look for my iphone which "must've fallen off my bike somewhere?" since our stop at another camp spot.
Sure enough, bottom of a (dry!) puddle around a bend, a familiar black case.

Overnight near Riviere du Loup at a noisy family campground (ear plugs work a treat!) and we split up just before Montreal.

Yeah, I remember that banjo-toting kumbaya-singing bastard . Pretty sure he remembers us, pre-warming the bikes and throttling it out the campsite and revving past his tent. Revenge is a dish best served at 8deg celcius at 6am.


Thanks Chris for posting a quick recap of the concluding half of the trip.






Towards the end we were just piling in the km's and all I wanted to hear were Ted/Brian's and Dan's tales of misadventure






And to close off, straps all-a-around!



All in all, great trip, great company, great stories!

[Duster929]

Originally Posted by Deadly99

Out of curiosity would people be interested in joining us for a 3-4 week trip to ride the eastern half?

Well, after you made the last trip sound like such a rollicking good time of sunshine and rainbows, how could anyone resist? :)

Just kidding. Adversity is what makes a trip, in many ways, isn't it?

--- D

[Deadly99]

Originally Posted by Duster929

Well, after you made the last trip sound like such a rollicking good time of sunshine and rainbows, how could anyone resist? :)

Just kidding. Adversity is what makes a trip, in many ways, isn't it?

--- D

Point taken :)
I just re read my posts from the TLH and it certainly would appear like a "dark" trip. I suppose because the bad moments are the first things I remembered when I got back and started writing, also it always seems like those are the moments when the camera comes out. It's also easier to write about those moments. It's much harder to write about a good feeling.
Yes that trip had it's challenges leading up to and along the ride.

Here's a few of the good feelings.

I didn't expect that road to be a challenge to be honest and perhaps if we'd had sunny warm weather it would have been just another long gravel road to "tick off the list". But it wasn't, the weather, the breakdowns, the pace and the road conditions made it feel like a real accomplishment. A real feeling of overcoming adversity and finishing.

Had a good chat with Martin on the ferry. His elation at having ridden the TLH was contageous. Seeing him that proud was a real good moment :)

The many laughs along the way were great.

The feeling of "yehaa back on the road" everytime we fixed a breakdown was unforgetable.

The riding itself was crazy fun for me. Not too many places where I can crack the throttle, stand on the pegs and have 1400 km's of gravel ahead of me. The bad road conditions just added to that getting lost in the moment of pure concentration. If I was more bohemian I'd say it was almost a "zen like" trance. Very relaxing and fun as hell.

I'm sure I could ride that road again and never have those same experiences, so in the end it was a great ride for me. As you say it was the adversity that made the trip special and one I won't soon forget :)

Bike is almost back up and running. Emails are starting to fly around again about the next leg of the adventure.....it's looking like a good one. A bit more "offroady" which will be nice and hopefully it will be a boring report with no crashes or breakdowns. ;)

[ChrisP]

Originally Posted by Deadly99

Bike is almost back up and running. Emails are starting to fly around again about the next leg of the adventure.....it's looking like a good one. A bit more "offroady" which will be nice and hopefully it will be a boring report with no crashes or breakdowns. ;)

I think 'offroady' and 'no crashes' don't really belong in the same sentence..

OK, maybe that's just me

ChrisP

[Fab418]

Thanks for the intro Deadly!

I'm back from Forestville/BC and I'm sorting out pics so I can post them here by tomorrow....

[Deadly99]

Originally Posted by Fab418

Thanks for the intro Deadly!

I'm back from Forestville/BC and I'm sorting out pics so I can post them here by tomorrow....

BC as in Baie Comeau, Quebec I assume and not British Columbia.....or that was one heck of a ride

[Fab418]

Originally Posted by Deadly99

BC as in Baie Comeau, Quebec I assume and not British Columbia.....or that was one heck of a ride

Right on. Since I only have the small 21L tank!

[Fab418]

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.

km 83




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:

[Fab418]

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

[Fab418]

The next morning we split with those fudged up mofos 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.

[Deadly99]

Gidday Fabrice, looks like you had a great ride. Just wouldn't be a day "of the making of the TCAT" without getting stuck and or hitting a dead end at least once :)

That's a real nice looking part of the country you have in your backyard, I'm really looking forward to riding your section of the route with you once you get it nailed down.

Oh and what's up with the pic of the lad sitting in the middle of the road? Way too many brown bottles or ........

[Fab418]

Originally Posted by Deadly99

Oh and what's up with the pic of the lad sitting in the middle of the road? Way too many brown bottles or ........

Haha! Quite a few assorted bottles! If I recall correctly (I sampled a few drink myself) he was trying to show us how deserted the road was.


I'm going to ride another section today. More on that later.

[MotoMind]

I'm sure you have much better resources as locals, but as a foreigner whose imagination has been captured by this undertaking, I wanted to share some nifty data from the Atlas of Canada. Click on the map to zoom in.

Wetlands and Forests shows percentage of wetland coverage as well as tree coverage.

Land Cover is very detailed and classifies areas by types of forest, grassland, wetlands, etc. It comes with a handy classification guide with pictures for illustration.

Energy Generation Stations is useful for identifying communities that might not be on the road network but are likely to have gasoline (select "petroleum" by power type in the right hand menu). Also shows road infrastructure.

The Atlas of Canada also has maps of rail infrastructure, maps of snow cover, temperature by season, etc. Nifty stuff for a foreigner who wants to get to know the land.

Google Maps has a handy feature in the Wikipedia and photos overlay. You'll be surprised by the amount of georeferenced images and articles you can find.

Is there any open country riding in Canada in summer? (By open country I mean trackless expanses open to free motorcycle navigation.) Between the lakes and rivers that infest the north, the mountainous areas, and the forests, I couldn't find a stretch of "open country" between communities likely to have gasoline and not otherwise connected by the road network. It seems the only way to get far enough north to get past heavy vegetation is to go in winter due to wetlands and open water coverage. Maybe fly a trials bike to Baffin Island and ride from Kimmirut to Iqaluit? On the flipside, I went ahead and assumed that the southern plains were all either ranchland or farmland or otherwise inaccessible.

My visions of riding across the tundra or roosting on the Athabasca Sand Dunes have faded but I'm excited to see what you all have in store for us.

[Fab418]

Originally Posted by MotoMind

Is there any open country riding in Canada in summer?

Winter is the time for open country riding as far as I know! You can ride forever but you have to trade wheels for a skis and track combo