Great Canadian Tour 2025 - Elbows Up Edition - Day 4

 

Early morning breakfast and kickstands up at 7 a.m. to catch the ferry.  A relaxing and smooth sail across the St. Lawrence that took us about 2.5 hours.  We arrived in Godbout and headed over to Baie Comeau to drop off extra bags.

The group was heading to Manic 5, otherwise known as the Daniel Johnson Dam which is part of Quebec Hydro system.  It is also one of the largest arch and buttress dams.

Today’s weather was much different than the previous days, reaching temperatures of 30+ degrees.  In addition to this it is St. John Baptiste Day in Quebec which means a holiday.  The gas station that is half way out has closed with the next available gas at 215 km from the start.  Some opted to be happy with the first half of the ride while others rode the whole way out and back.  General consensus is that it was a great ride.

The hotel we are staying at is quite lovely.  Sitting on the banks of the St. Lawrence with a beautiful view of the ferry crossing, this hotel is located out of the way of the downtown area or the business district, in a small well treed neighbourhood.  It is beautiful and quiet and reminiscent of days gone by…….

Tomorrow we head out and will be leaving the group.  They will be heading to Lac St. Jean, while we will be heading closer to Quebec City to be our jumping off point to Ottawa for a couple of days.  There we will meet up with friends from Toronto who are coming up to see us.

Great Canadian Tour 2025 - Elbows Up Edition - Day 3

Day 3 took us from Perce Rock to Matane, PQ.  

We left later than the rest of the crew as we had some things to take care of before leaving.  Once on the road, we decided that we would take the overland route through Gaspe, a route we hadn’t taken before.  

While the overland route is away from the waters surrounding the Gaspe, it offered some surprisingly great roads running to 2000 ft above sea level…quite an elevation for this area of the country with a paved road.

This run took over an hour with a stop in Murdockville.  Apparently this area was once a thriving copper mining town, which shut down when the cost of copper fell.  As many know, copper is now a lot more expensive and the mine is being prepared to re-open after engineers determined that there is still a considerable amount of copper to mine.  It was closed in 1999 and expected to reopen fully operational agin in 2030.  They also have a ski hill and a large wind turbine farm on the higher peaks.

At the end of route 198, we arrived at the sea wall along the west side of the Gaspe.  Here we travelled along the sea wall with short diversions into some of the smaller towns and down along the sea wall again.  Lots of construction, which slowed us down long enough to take a picture of one of the waterfalls on the rock face. 

We arrived around 6 p.m., supper in the Resto Bar and packed it in for an early morning call to catch the ferry to Godbout.  

The Great Canadian Tour 2025 - Elbows Up Edition - Day 2

Apologies for late posts however reception has been spotty!

Day 2 was a “Day” in the books however it was not the best of he “Days”.  The morning started out nicely.  We left the hotel and started along a scenic route as we were meeting up with one other couple in Bathurst. 

We made a stop at Pokeshaw for a little break.  The view, a solid rock formation covered in gulls and other sea birds.  It was a quiet spot and a perfect place to take a break and take in the view.

We headed out for our next stop in Bathurst for breakfast and to meet up with our friends.

After a great brunch, we headed out for Campbellton and crossed the bridge into Quebec, heading for Perce Rock in the Gaspe Penninsula.  The destination was exciting, the weather not so much….6 hours of riding in the rain. By the time we all arrived, even those with the most “waterproof” gear were wet too…but maybe not a wet as others.  Hot showers, change of clothes, a few “beverages” at the local Irish pub and the evening ended as the day started….fabulously!

Perce Rock viewed from our room when we arrived.

Perce Rock an hour later as the fog rolled in…again.

The Great Canadian Tour 2025 - Elbows Up Edition - Day 1

Well today started out slightly later than we anticipated but we sure made up some time.

We got everything loaded, the weather much calmer than the winds from yesterday.  Sunshine, blue skies and boundless enthusiasm to get this show on the road.  We were on the road by 10 am, more or less.

 A quick stop at Mom and Dad’s to drop off the jars of homemade strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb jam for the folks and my brother, as well as a bouquet of my beautiful peonies for my Mom.  She loves getting them every year and always remind her of the peony bush her Mom had in the yard.  How wonderful is it that a flower and scents can invoke wonderful memories of past days as well as enjoying the present moment separately.  Peonies do that for my Mom and for me as well.  I will always remember her delight at receiving these every year.

We left the folks and headed north, stopping at Chez Raymonde for lunch.  The wind was starting to pick up as we headed to the coast and it wasn’t long before we were bobbing and weaving a bit as we hit some open landscape and manoeuvred the quick hard gusts of wind.  We made one stop at the Shippegan sign with a bunch of boats lined up behind it, just so that we could share a joke my brother got us with on our trip with him last year.  “Jerry….you know why they call this place Shippegan?”  He was uncertain and apprehensive about answering…..I just pointed to all the ships lined up and said “there’s a ship, a ship again, a ship again, a ship again…..” and then we headed off to one of our favorite rides and destinations….Miscou Island Lighthouse.  It is beautiful and in an isolated area.  The waves were crashing along the beach but the sky remained blue and sunny.

We left and headed to Caraquet, our final destination for the evening.  The Inn we are staying at is right on the water…lots of white caps but the wind feels much better with our feet planted on terra ferma than it did on the double rubber!

Tomorrow’s forecast is rain and more of the winds.  It will be a ride however Pearce Rock is always a place to look forward to…..

2023 - The Year in Review

Had a few comments from some of my friends and family wondering about where my final trip post was.  In truth, while we arrived back in NB the next day however arriving home didn’t happen until over a week later.  We had friends staying in our home while we were away, as their home was being renovated.  So when we arrived back in NB we stayed with Larry’s sister for a few days until we were able to get back into ours.  This also included a night or two at Ted’s as well. So we were finally “home” by Oct 20 and not much has changed for these wanderers.

Since then we have visited the cottage for a birthday celebration, the camp and graveyard for Remembrance Day, Mom and Dad’s a few times, Fredericton to see Bob, Toronto for Trans Siberian Orchestra…..and when you add in the holidays there hasn’t been much down time.

As I reflect on this past year, on this last day of the year, it has been what I would call a significant year.  Retirement followed by 4 days on the south shore enjoying the ocean, preparations for our bike trip, which was really a trip of a lifetime and the year continuing as I noted above.  We have done a lot, seen a lot, experienced amazing things and if I would like to take anything into 2024, is the desire to continue to do a lot, see a lot and experience more amazing things.

Happy New Year my friends.  May you continue to dream, plan and realize those dreams in the same way we had the privilege of doing in 2023. 

Go Big And Go Home - Day 30 - Welcome Home?

 

We left Gorham, NH at around 9:30 am this morning.  Most of our morning departures in the last couple of days have been dependant on temperature and weather as we do our best to skirt the rain and stay in the warmer window.

Our packing and unpacking each day is a routine that is efficient and effective….it doesn’t take us long to load up the bikes…in fact, in this weather it probably takes us longer to get our gear on than it does to pack up the bikes.

It is not long after we leave that we cross into Maine.  “Welcome Home”…..although technically not home, it is home to a lot of riding we have done, and a big jump off for all of our big trips.  So familiar is this area that for the first time since our trip began we no longer needed to “plan” our route the night before.  We didn’t even have to write any directions….so in a familiar way it is almost home.

There has been a lot of discussion about how we are feeling about getting home and what that will look like.  In some ways, much like our last big trip, we wish it could continue.  That of course would require a change in weather and finances lol.  The exchange rate is much higher since we left but we have managed with what we have put aside.  Reality is that we have other things we also want to do, other travel and some work at home.  The lure of sleeping in our own bed, of being around familiar surroundings and people is also one of the things we are looking forward to.  I would almost say routines but in fact, we have a road routine so we don’t miss or crave that as much as one might think.

Speaking of routines, one of best reactions we get when we check into a hotel and start to unload the bikes into a cart, or even more when we come out to pack up the bikes, is usually from the front desk clerks and others who are interested in where we are travelling to/from…..how does all of that fit on two bikes….indeed it does appear to be a lot.  Aside from our gear (jackets and helmets), we each have two side bags.  These are used for our clothes, toiletries and other day to day needs.  We each have a what we call a “roll bag”…this sits on our passenger seat.  In this we keep stuff that is not attractive to anyone who is looking to “acquire” things.  They usually hold things like warmer vests, extra gloves, rain covers, sneakers/sandals, bungee cords and other items that may be needed on our trip.  Then we each have a top case.  Besides holding all of our collectible stickers, we keep things we need along the ride that are a little more valuable, like our charger/tire compressor (small unit), warm jacket and flip flops (for those hot days when you want to take off your boots), tech stuff and food.  These units are locked and a little harder to get at.  Then we each have a tank bag….the smallest of our luggage, these hold usually our phones, wallets, sunscreen, tissues, the stuff you may need during the day and need to reach quickly.  We do our best to ensure the weight is equally balanced (no one needs to have one side heavier than the other) and that we are not over loaded.  This is the one of the bonuses of having two bikes to do this kind of trip.

We try to find great ways to document our trip and in fact we came close to buying an onboard video camera in Utah….our final decision was really after careful consideration of our loved ones……showing people what you have seen vs what you experience are two very entirely different things.  There is no way to be able to share that experience with videos or even pictures…that and we were very sure that after 30 minutes of video just about everyone would be “done with that”……travelling by bike is a very different vacation than travelling by car or even by RV.  You are exposed to the elements, you can sometimes be restricted access to some areas and safety, both by exposure to some elements or surfaces, is always a consideration.  Sometimes the pictures are few or seem similar because you can’t just stop on the side of the road or because the road is just too amazing to stop or maybe just because it is part of your experience and one that you know will be difficult to translate to others.

Those who travel by bike are looking for a different experience than people who travel other ways.  The experience is the road, the landscape, the elements of nature and the camaraderie.  By all of these measures, this trip has been the trip of a lifetime….it is both sad and exciting to be getting home. 

Go Big And Go Home - Day 29 - Who turned off the heat?

 

It is hard to believe that just 2 weeks ago today, we were in Monument Valley and up until 4 days ago we were still experiencing 30C weather…today was no where close to that.

We are taking off later in the morning and making our stops a little closer together as we make our way home.  This morning we were off by 9:45 am under sunny skies and temperatures that were already 12C…still cool but manageable in the sun.

We made our way through Vermont, which is one of my favourite states.  A few switch back roads, along beautiful lakes and forests.  The colours in Vermont are still muted and I think it has a lot to do with the wind having stripped some of the trees of their leaves.  A stop at the top of one of the passes gave us a beautiful view of what this state is all about…green mountains.

We stopped in Danville for lunch at Bentley’s Bakery and Cafe.  Very small, so small we had to stand to eat our sandwiches but they were the best sandwiches we had in a while and huge.  So big, half of the sandwich was saved for supper.

It wasn’t long before we were entering New Hampshire on Hwy 2.  Familiar territory.  We have ridden this route so many times, we almost know it by heart….the other thing we know about this route is that it tends to be cooler and being in the mountains, you can expect any kind of weather…even the unexpected weather.  We had about 10 minutes of wet road and sprinkles from a system that was hanging out around Mount Washington.  Not unusual however it was not exactly wanted, especially when the temperature had fallen to 8C.

We made it to our motel in Gotham just as the sun appeared.  We were not long unloading and heating some water for a hot chocolate and maybe a drop of Baileys to help warm us up.  We have one more night on the road before we get into NB.  The rest of this trip will be roads we know.  Here’s hoping the weather co-operates just for a few days longer.