33 1/3 N C S + Cuba

Newner
Hope you back to 100% man, I think I remember talking with you a little bit under one of the rockhouse overlooks at SLAP this year.

Glad your liking.

Now I did say I had two, one long one and a shorter one so I'd still been well off and I was walking distance to the local napa

I've never broken one of those before and hope its the first and last time for it.

Yeah a good episode could be produced in Labrador City midweek after a shift change.

I agree it should be free too, it was just too damn funny how many people came up while I was just partially in the way of the air hose superhighway.

Its amazing how many people you can draw to a bike repair in a gas station parking lot.

Note to self: Next time I coast into gas station parking lot for onsite repair, move far away from free air and little less from the pay air hose

I"ll take the bad with the good, its mostly good and I wouldn't trade it, great experiences

Little update from as far North in Quebec as you can ride and probably still get high speed internet (I'll check in Caniapiscau when I get there): Radisson, Quebec at the end of the James Bay Road sitting in a bar having pizza and beer.


Made it up here after riding through the night up from the coast, ended up sleeping in the shit house pump building at 381km fuel stop on the JBR because it was raining so hard and I was too lazy to put up the tent.


Got up this morning and blasted up the rest of the JBR to Radisson and loaded up with lunch and some fuel for the Trans Tiaga Rd. Saw a group of 5 or so that I think are headed that way so maybe I'll play sweep and pick up any pieces. You've got to space far up her if its dry or its like all out racing.

Looking forward to this next bit and sleeping under the northern lights, I hope its cold as hell- I'll be ready for it with my little junkie camera.
Let's ride:


The internet here is blazing fast some I'm uploading some photos before I go, getting ready for some big updates after the TT road and then looking forward to going South, that Central Adv Rally in WI is looking good...

Hey John John. The post are great, interesting and funny as hell! Keep them coming! Looks like you got the Mule running good and kicking hard again. Looks like you made friends with the miners and have stopped pissing in their beer! Maybe they just didn't understand your Okie sense of humor.

The new camera seems to be taking great pics. The self portraits are frickin hilarious. Mary says hi! Same old shit here at work just a different day. Keep the post coming, be careful out there on life's road and enjoy every damn moment!

ah John, how I wish I was able to join you for that run! As it is I'm training all week here in St. John's. Ride on dude!

AWESOME REPORT!!! Thanks for keeping us updated, can't wait for the next installment. Glad you decided to go with a laptop and write it up as you go, I think I was talking to you at cancun and you said you were debating it.

Still no salad Did you pay lodging tax at the pumphouse Is that a sewage pumphouse

When you started talking about a ride there a while ago I thought you might be sceeming and end up joining John.

Freakin crazy fun. If the warranty doesn't cover that darn thing then I will just have to buy another one, I LOVED that camera, darn near bought the Olympus waterproof one but just couldn't bring myself to, I miss my little pentax way too much and nothing seems to compare for me + the stupid date stamp that this one doesn't seem to have.

I miss Mary a little myself, she is a very nice girl afterall and tell Terry it was good working with him to, I had a real nice balance at the former workplace.

I don't know if you would have liked running it with me the way I was riding like a fool and living like a savage (Hey MtnDragon same stuff all over again) in the dust bowl I don't know how those boys from Ontario decided who would push and who would sweep-draw straws each morning , but you should go for it, its a good time. The North Rd is the fun one. Damn fun time over on the big island with you boys

I don't know why but I enjoy this almost as much as riding, it so fun to get back to the interaction, I think that comes mostly riding solo and not taking many showers so the girls leave me alone after the first couple days dirty like I'm riding. Glad your liking dude, I'll keep it up best I can

I got some greens for you coming. You know me, sleeping is free

You taught me well poster Zen Master, look at the grasshopper now. Thanks man, its nice to know how not to be a post whore

I was thinking of opening the hunting cabin for a few days to some local ADV FF's (I expect you to arrive late, fall asleep in a chair by the fire, probably well fed, ah good times)
Works running my ass these days but I can always make some time for "travelers".
Keep focused on the road.

I was planning on it, but couldn't get my ducks in a row in time to meet him at the boat. Dammit! I soooo want to do the TT

I was thinking of crossing into the UP and then maybe the Central Adv Rally but I got a tour of the damn dam on Friday moring and then after that hammered down to Montreal find a front tire between here and there or in Ottawa and then back to the states.

The short answer is I'm not for sure yet but it sounds like a good idea to me, but then again I fly by the seat of my riding pants

When where you opening the cabin? This weekend?

I got on my way and crossed into Quebec once more for the last time I'm thinking. Richard from Quebec had told me about the runway in Gagnon and even sent me a nice email with the GPS directions that I for some reason didn't take time to record and didn't have any idea where it would be, stupid alder bushes hide all with enough time to grow.

Special Thanks to Richard since I don't remember thanking him here. The guy scooped up my gloves in front of a bridge on the road to Cartright where I failed to put them in the box after changing them for the cooler gloves. When he met back up with my at the ferry terminal in Cartright he asked it I lost anything and crazy like I am, I didn't even know they where gone yet, the temperatures where better at the moment, so he found a hundred on the ground and gave it back to its owner, no questions-they even fit him, Thanks man That stupid bridge back in Labrador:


On to Gagnon now. First I really enjoyed this part of the TLH more than any other part. I'd been warned by many that this was the worst part but in my story this was the funniest, most technical part with the most at stake with little error. My new little tkc in back made it even better, it's fun to make the big mule push and slide a little around a corner and move on down the road. There where lots of twists and turns, railroad crossings, big trucks, and some cars to top it off. The surface was mostly white topped with just enough slick to make it fun for me. I got a little over aggresive just enough to keep me in line. It was pure heaven down to Fire Lake where the pavement came back for some fast running on into Gagnon nearing the early evening. I somewhere in all this riding did find the time to roost the 52nd:

I wanted to find the airport and do some power passes to see how the throttlebodies where doing with the new pump. I didn't have any luck finding the strip even after I asked this fellow, French speaker only, who seemed mighty surprised I found his little camp tucked away in the alders here:

He was making me think the air strip was located back to the East and on the South side of the road just a few kms from where his camp was, I think he was just ass backwards or half lit. I found the only good turn back to the South and heading on not knowing what to expect, I figured out quickly that it didn't seem like the airport was going to be on an uphill slope but I figured what the hell it was getting dark and I should be finding a good place to sleep and finding a high spot may help me find the air strip in the morning so I continued on my way climbing up towards some towers and then came upon this cool lookout/firetower thingy and checked it before I headed on up. Seemed a little worn but strong enough, it was cold too, even more so up at the top, gotta be 90'+, down the chute mule down there in the dark somewhere:


Made a little mark for future visitors crazy enough to climb up this old rickety thing, climb it if you dare:

I was there, really:


What I was really after, I don't really like this camera much compared to my old one:

The view looking up:


After climbing back down the clouds that I'd seen from the crow's nest convinced me to put up the green hut to avoid the rain I was sure to see, I'd been riding through the stuff throughout the day in and out. I had smartly brought a care package from Fremont that made it a little nicer cold evening, ice not required for cooling to nice drinking temperatures:


Snug as a bug in the super shack, felt weird to be in a tent for the first time this trip. Nice to go to sleep out of the wind and to some nice tunes:


The good news is the super cot fits perfect in the tent and the nice little beach pad I'd picked up in SpringField at the BassPro worked like a top(hehe Mary) spreading out the weight nicely of the cot keeping it from digging into the floor but on a negative note the stupid footprint I ordered for the used tent I bought didn't have any pegs so I was san FP that night without having the pegs. I slept great and was planning to wake early with the sun and climb back up to the nest to document a nice Quebec sunrise and scan the area for the airport. Good to be in the tent tonight, oh and it didn't even rain when I'm ready for it.

The 5th coming up in the next installment...

I woke up the next morning and it was cold enough it took some serious effort to leave my warm bag and get dressed to climb the tower again for the sunrise pictures. I was awake but to slow getting out and ready to get the picture that I really wanted but I went to the top anyway to look around for the air strip. The morning shots:


Up top too late for the nice shot, the mule and the green hut small over to the left:


The same look from the night before looking down the chute:


You could see a long ways off:


From below at the campsite looking at the tower:


The all weather layout, it works well minus the vestibule and the footprint:


When I was up in the tower I saw what could be a airstrip along with some cottages and loaded all my gear and went to check around and low and behold I found the strip coming in from the back side. I made a couple of hot passes, I didn't want to burn off too much fuel running, but I never could muster the magical 104 that I'd seen before. Only got in the upper eighties, must be the heavy load or those worn throttlebodies?:
The wide open strip and speed reading:




Soon enough it was time to continue on the down the road and find the next fuel and some food for myself. I was wondering if I should have done so many passes on the strip after a little while and then sure enough the fuel stop that I needed appeared:


With the little pinic camping area I recognized from some many other RRs:


Nice lady made me a neat little egg/ham/cheese breakfast sandwich and some hot coffee for 10 bucks, I'm still out in the sticks:


Filled up again, the both of us, we took off toward Manic Cinq, the big famous looking Hydro Quebec speical wanting to get a tour of the place. Had a nice little smooth top gravel road section down to the big dam and big it is. I like big stuff, so here you go the dam photo montage:
The well protected top:

Coming down the curvy section towards the bottom,

supposed to be really neat looking at night lit up, a guy told me it used to be bathed in different colors of lights in the arches but now its all white lights-would have been something to see it at nightime.
This is where my favorite pano would have been perfect, damn it. Order left to right shot from the bridge:



For a little reference, there is a truck parked at the top to the left of the largest arch and some men doing maintence on the walkway right below the parked truck.


I pulled up to the official looking building and tried to speak with another full French speaker with no luck so he went to go get some help. The guy he found was a super nice security guard name Carl(?) from Baie Comeau who helped me out a bunch and even spoke my language, damn good dam worker:


He gave me some cold bottled water explained that I just missed the guided tours that ended Sept 1st and helped me track down a spare tube that I wanted to carry running the TT road later on. We talked for well over an hour and he helped arrange a Baie Comeau motorsports dealer to leave the tube at a Petro Canada station since they where going to be closing at noon and it was a long holiday weekend coming up. Nice to have this insurance and even better having a native speaker working the phones helping me out:


We had a quick smoke break before Carl's lunch and me taking off towards Baie Comeau for my spare tube. He's looking into starting to ride some, I got a good pic of him on the mule. Thanks so much CarL :


I went on down the road and directly came up on the next station around the corner and met two other state's BMW riders, one Lawerence (ltkrs on this site) on a GS and Jeff on a big tanked GT heading up to Lab City for a quick weekend trip. They where having lunch at the place by the fuel stop so I joined them for desert since I just recently had my little late breakfast sandwich. Their rigs:

I wonder how they did on the road...

I passed a more normal sized Manic 2 or something or other I believe on the road to the South:


I went on down the road toward the sea and turned to go into Baie Comeau proper towards the ferry and came upon a gaint ALCOA plant with large docking facilities for loading or unloading ships:


Went down by the ferry and found a cool adventure boat on the hard, I think I would like this type of travel with a little practice:


Found a place for some tent pegs here:


Went down to the local Wal-Mart to get the ipod to fire back up, I hadn't listened to music since mid New Foundland and was ready for some more traveling music, it was good. I also replaced a lost little wide angle mirror that was on the left mirror and fell off somewhere along the way. Found the right Petro Canada station and picked up my package and moved on down the coast looking for the next big road that would take me back to the Northland. I stopped at a helpful tourist information booth here and got some helpful English map/booklets about the roads I was going to be taking, it took a total of 4 little books to cover the ground I was looking at. Very helpful lady in here:


I got loaded up with paper maps and seemingly impossible kms to travel according to the nice lady and I heading off down the way towards Tadoussac. I was humming along 138 W and before you know it I came upon a johnny law going East that abruptly turned around and threw the lights on, I being the good foreign tourist I am pulled over as soon as I saw him coming about. He came up beside me and quickly said something in French and then followed by some English talking about the high rate of speed I was running. I played as stupid as I could, next quickly came license and registration and I deftly fumbled for just my passport hoping it would suffice. He reviewed it and again stated the speed of 123 km in a 90 km zone hoping I would do what I don't know. I just said that "Its bad" and he gave me my pp back and told me to slow down, and I thanked him with my best Merci Bucoo and it was done.

I came up on some small town shortly after my run in with the law and decided to pull over and have a look around. Nice little falls to the ocean:

The author once more, I really hate these specs but at least I can see:


I walked around a little bit and found something going on down below that looked like trouble, something for MR BMW MAN to help out with I think. Seems a family traveling had their pet dog get stuck out in the falls and the animal was scared to jump across the rocks to safety. The dog was in obvious distress and its family members even more so. Not realizing the my services where required yet I walked slowly down to the situation taking pictures as I went:

From this point on the swinging bridge one can see barely a dog in the main channel of water and a person trying to coax the animal to safety and other on the opposite side showing support.
Closer look here showing some more of the predicament, one of the dog's owners is sitting the shallow rushing water trying to reach the dog across from a swift deeper cut in the lower falls that she is unable to traverse on the very slick rocks to rescue the dog. I along with the girls mother show up to offer assisantance and a plan is devised to take the leash and form a little human chain with myself as the anchor to keep from little the women get swept off the slick rocks into the sea. We had enough reach to snag the dog's collar and pull him to safety. I hold tightly on his collar until the family members get back to safety and all is well, no one hurt besides the dog's pride and him getting in over his head a little, he'll live to fight another day:

MR BMW MAN'S work is done here, and all is well. This is that spot:


Those falls once more:


I was starting to get hungry and made it down to Tadoussac in the early cool evening. I found me a nice busy seafood place that looked promising so I bit and it was good. The place was so busy I needed to sit across from another solo customer who turned out to be a German fellow living in Montreal and then soon enough another stag traveler, Tania N orginally from New Zealand and now living and working in Montreal, showed up and we where 3 and enjoyed sharing stories and dinner, the latter having to watch us first 2 while she waited, I felt a little bad but was very hungry.
This is not lobster but closely related:


I need tools and protection for this stuff, thank Tania for the picture:


Desert was tasty too, still all less than half of the hotel I didn't need:


After the wonderful dinner I wanted some wifi and the place was the hostel down the road before the free ferry that was a pot smoker's heaven. It was jammed back and I stay on the net for a while before deciding to head North in the cold night and stay warm with the gerb while I burned what was left in the tank on the way to Saguenay. I would ride for a while until I got too tired then I pull off the road a little ways and lay down in full gear and sleep until I got to cold and then plug in again and ride some more till I got tired and repeat. I made it to 24 gas around 6am and then found a Horton's and warmed up good with some donut holes and milk. Was good to cover some ground and work my way North towards the TT road. I was still trying to meet up with the group that was headed that way.


More in the next tomorrow maybe...

Hey Super Hero! The man of many masks. Good job with the dog. Have no fear! Mr BMW Man is here! Your the man John. Looks like you and the Mule are having a great time. Hope you get to meet up with the group for the TT. That sounds like an adventure in itself. Keep the posts coming. Very entertaining. Be careful and have a great time in the North Country.

Great stuff! So glad we're benefiting from your willingness to spend the time to leave the road, wander around, and discover. The fire tower pics and story were priceless.

I do what I can especially for the pretty girls to help their dogs

No problem that's what I try to do, glad your liking this one

Hey John,

Great report man. Love the bar fight! I'm learnin' so much about guerilla/stealth camping from you. The firetower setup looked awesome.

Thanks for writing your report, I'm lovin' it.

This was a travel day making time to the roads up North, it more or less officially started at Saguenay where I warmed a bit a the local Tim Horton's and got set to make some miles. Riding through the night is always tough but when the sun comes up so does my next wind typically. It was cold but I made some changes to my gear and got set up right for the ride ahead. Passed quite a few cruisers and HD traveling south after spending some time at Lake Saint Jean I suppose, lots of touristy places in the area along with lots of farm ground. I made good time on 167 North and got quite a bit warmer than what it had been in a long time it seemed. I rode past the last gas until Chibougamau and turned back for around 15 miles to load up for the ride up to the North Rd. Kinda sucked but after seeing the SOS call box signs and checking the Garmin's information on fuel I figured I'd better turn back now.

I eventually had to pull over for a piss break and ended up pulling off at an under consturction rest/information area that was just about done. I heard a familiar buzz and realized it was some bikes just as they passed the turnoff for the yet to open rest area. I waved as the pair passed and I heard them cut them down and sure enough they came back around and we had a nice visit for sometime. Two guys from down South in Quebec I think riding a pair of late model KLRs who had been on a long weekend holiday loop up North of their homes, Luke and Nicholas here, nice fellows newer to adv riding set up with good bikes for it:


They where both diesel mechanics and we talked about riding an all sorts of important stuff, they filled me in on some unknown valuable information. One of the only cops in the area pulled in while we were talking and headed South, good news was that the woman officier was the only one who routinely patrolled the road so I was cleared for takeoff in good shape. I adjusted the warmth factor and sped away to the next gas station and some lunch.

I've been getting decent at finding the local wifi and pride myself on finding some high speed stuff. I'd stopped at the first station/resturant/hotel and inquired and was met with its for custormers and I replied I will take my lunch and fuel here for the wireless code and I was set once more just outside Chibougamau, the gateway to the North Rd. I did a little more quick research on the North and JBR roads km stuff and such before I loaded heavy on fuel which turned out I didn't need because of the fuel stop at Nemiscau.
I had my lunch first, relish again not so bad:


Then I came outside and loaded my secret weapon Turtle Pac fuel tank, one those cursourary buys of the trip way back earlier this year that I thought I couldn't live without, it works great for hauling fuel and folding up nice when not. I just placed it on top of the computer's pelican case and lashed it tight and all was well with around 13+/-gallons hauling:

Around 5 to 5 1/2 extra gallons of life-blood for the mule. She carries it so well, I hardly notice and it seems to handle better on the loose gravel I think.

Earlier on my way up to this town I'd passed one of those crazy assed pedal pushers moving the same way and now she had pulled up for a lite snack, I have the upmost respect for these individuals and what they can do, simply amazing and quite crazy I might add, I almost just can't imagine-big balls or ovaries in this case.
Malin was an early 20 something Swedish girl out riding alone across Canada, she snowboards and works at the resorts in the winter and rides the bike in the warmer months. I enjoyed talking to her and questioning her about how she camps, how far she rides, and such and just amazed at what some people can do with their legs and minds.

Tough&cool girl

At this point in the trip I was getting a little concerned with the front tkc that had been new at the start but was wearing thin in some areas and had me thinking a little more about it than normal, seems enough, we shall see, gravel should not wear it out as fast anyhow right?

I topped off with some extra cash at a local bank and then headed for the famed North Rd and had a picture at the turnoff for it:

Left a little mark here that you will have to look a little to find, not in the picture above but very warm. I was ready to rip, couple cars came in behind me so it would be a little dust racing going on here later.
It's not so far, kilometers aren't nothing:

This road has some interesting surface conditions and changes quite a bit from section to section really dependent on amount of traffic and the grader operator who has the power to make or break a high speed gravel road by how he lays it out especially in the turns. This was a fast road except from around 110km through 170km where the operator must have been high, drunk, or just a flunkie blade hand or all of the above that has a lot to learn about a finely bladed road surface; good thing I got the mule and it really dosen't matter either way. Some of the areas where like powder snow with scatter medium sized rock, the throttle and holding a groove where the best bet. I blasted up this road as fast as a somewhat sane person on a loaded GS would, I have to check the Garmin for facts but I ran it about as hard as a loaded GS person should I think and traveling alone did nothing but help. You can lay out a dust storm on this road like no other and chasing down cars and trucks is like being a sucide jockey but loads of fun because no one wants to get lapped and dusted by the next joe. I chased down 4 of them and some raced for a little, at least I got one in the watered down areas that controlled the dust, the others where full on race mode to get around. It also seemed like a game with the on coming traffic, especially if it was a work truck from the new project, if you could see them from a long ways off then each of you would hammered it blowing the dust and hang on and I'd flash my lights like crazy after passing and then hugging the right side for dear life. It was fun and interesting to say the least. I didn't set a foot down hardly until I came to the jobsite for the project getting ready to divert the mighty Rupert River. I stopped at the guard shack and tried to marry this security lady's:

daughter, she sounded like quite the catch with 4 languages and all, we visited for almost and hour before I was off to the Rupert River to check the flow before they cut it down for good, this thing rips right along:


Myself, many think I am from Quebec for some reason, it must be my lapel pin or my little orange hat :

More of it:


I think it would be a fun little run:

Looked important enough for a picture:


My full self, sans distal lower extremities, courtesy of another Rupert River viewer:

I think there must have been a dead body in one of the dumpsters because it looked like the swarm of flies turned day into night in a 10' radius around the dumpster.

I flogged it on down the road and was starting to hunt fuel or unload my turtle pac, not what I was really wanting to do. I fell in line behine some cars heading out to the known fuel base out at Nemiscau or Nemaska (I get confused). I came upon some local ditch divers, doesn't work too well out here:

I pulled into the fuel stop with the reserve light well on, seems I can't keep my right hand off the throttle hard which leads to the poor mileage the mule manages but with considerbly less on road time, its a trade I'll take, speed is fun.
Had a little show and tell, people off the beaten path seem to just love Garmins and motorbikes. Bunch of good kids out here, friendly and they all love getting a chance to climb aboard while I have a candybar dinner:


I got set and blasted the remaining easy section out to the James Bay Rd proper. I gotten some info from the station operator that a group of three riders had come through that morning so I wasn't that far off it seemed. The North Rd in the early evening time, nice sunsets up here:



The speed that works well for me and then some:

The wheel really wants to keep spinning and going straight.

I got to the pavement at the JBR and took 5 and logged some waypoints and such just enjoying the early evening but starting to tire from my earlier riding done this morning:


There was even evidence of some very large game urine marks on the road surface:


You get dumped out at km 274 from the North Rd and the next fuel is open 24 hrs at km 381 so between these kms the rain started and I began to really tire and didn't at all feel like pitching the tent so I finally made 381 km and asked the gas guy if he had a barn or shed or something for me to lie out in. He gave me the shithouse or what ever they are doing pumping their somewhat treated wastewater into a septic system or whatever it was. I couldn't complain and put my free ear plugs from the Churchill falls tour to good use. I feel hard asleep and enjoyed every minute of it in my dry somewhat warm shithouse, I even left the light on, just covered up tight in my bag on my little cot wedged between the wall and some septic structure here:


And it was good, didn't smell anything worse than me.

More coming up in a bit

Good to hear from you Philip. Thanks man.

I can sleep damn near anywhere, just keep your machete or hatchet below you pillow and all is well or just say screw it and go to sleep, I've never once had to use the weapon, more worried about the larger critters and such.

Hope to get to one of those DFW GTGs sometime this month before I get way South.