Three NESRians explore Quebec

[markbvt]

For the past few years I've been doing a May motorcycle trip of a week or two, but this year I decided to take it a little easier. I got hit by an SUV last August that broke my femur, so I was off the bike through the fall. Figured it might be good to ease back into touring. What's more, several friends of mine wanted to go on a trip but couldn't do long ones, so the decision was made: four-day trip over Memorial Day weekend. As always seems to happen when I plan trips, several of the people who really wanted to go ended up having to drop out last minute due to work or family issues. But still in were Keith (NobodySpecific, whom you'll recognize from two prior ride reports if you've read my older ones) and Tommy (korndogg), who'd never gone touring before.

So I worked out a big loop through Quebec, Keith and I loaned Tommy some touring gear, and we all packed up our bikes the night before departure in anticipation.

--mark

[markbvt]

Friday, May 25, 2012: Georgia, VT, to Grands-Jardins, Quebec

Keith and Tommy showed up to my house at 7am as discussed. Here's my Tiger ready to go.



And Keith and Tommy.



We headed northeast through Vermont to Derby Line to cross the border into Quebec.









Our route took us through rolling countryside past Sherbrooke and Thetford Mines.



Eventually we passed Quebec City and headed north towards Saguenay on Rt 175. I didn't realize while planning that it's been expanded into a four-lane highway, but it still offers beautiful scenery while allowing us to make good time.







Upon nearing Saguenay, we turned off and headed toward La Baie and hopped on Rt 381 down into Parc National des Grands-Jardins. After a quick gas stop, we enjoyed this outstandingly scenic and very fun road.





To all our surprise, though, the road crews were out and had torn up sections for repaving; in the meantime, they were Trans-Lab-style dirt roads covered with pea gravel (in some cases, for a kilometer or two at a time). My Tiger handled the conditions well, but Keith had a few pucker moments on his Sprint ST.

But all things considered, we made outstanding time to our campground destination. Here's Tommy setting up his tent; judging by the look on his face, he wasn't quite used to me waving my camera around just yet.



I forgot to reset my GPS's trip meter before leaving, but total mileage for the day was 427.

--mark

- - - Updated - - -

Saturday, May 26, 2012: Grands-Jardins to Lac St Jean, Quebec

We awoke to a spectacular morning. We got ourselves together and started packing up the bikes.



Our route took us down to the St Lawrence River, where we turned northeast.



We took the ferry across the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord. Here are Keith and Tommy after boarding.



Views from the ferry are beautiful.







Tommy and Keith had never been up here before and were enjoying it.



Once past the Saguenay Fjord, we continued northeast along the St Lawrence to Forestville. Nice scenery along the way.



This was entirely accidental, but I like this shot because you can see the landscape we were riding through plus a glimpse of Tommy in my mirror.



And of course I had to snap a pic of this famous dude.



From Forestville we backtracked to Tadoussac and stopped off at the dunes on the north end of town. Mandatory photo opp.





Here's what they look like without bikes in the way.



After that we had an excellent lunch in Tadoussac, then headed along the northern side of the Saguenay Fjord on Rt 172 and on to Lac St Jean. There was a moment of confusion when we discovered that none of the campgrounds in the Pointe Taillon park were reachable by motorcycle (they're all limited to hiking in or bicycling), so we found another campground nearby. Ended up being a nice spot, and we got treated to a very nice sunset.



Stats for the day:



--mark

[markbvt]

Sunday, May 27, 2012: Lac St Jean to Mauricie National Park, Quebec

It got surprisingly cold overnight -- temp must have dropped into the 30s. I was sleeping in my pants, fleece vest, and thermal jacket liner, inside my sleeping bag, and I was still a little chilly. Next morning we got ourselves going but immediately stopped for breakfast at a nearby restaurant. By the time we were done it had warmed up a bit, but was still chilly, probably mid 40s or so.

The countryside around Lac St Jean is quite flat. We had lots of views like this as we made our way around the north end of the lake.





Tommy noticed me holding the camera over my shoulder.



In Chambord we turned off onto Rt 155 and headed south. Beautiful road; starts out with farms on both sides.



Population soon disappears, and the road passes through boreal forest of black spruce and birch trees, with the occasional lake mixed in.













We stopped in La Tuque for lunch. I noticed my Tiger was getting a little dirty.



We continued south on Rt 155, following the river down to Shawinigan.



We eventually stopped for a short break at a small rest area. On the other side of the river is Mauricie National Park.





This little guy was sitting on the park bench and refused to budge.



From Shawinigan we headed north into Mauricie National Park, but the road just winds through dense woods so I didn't take pictures.

Stats for the day:



--mark

[markbvt]

Monday, May 28, 2012: Mauricie National Park to Georgia, VT

While we'd had spectacular weather for the trip so far, it stood to reason that of course our luck would have to run out eventually, and some rain moved in overnight. It had mostly stopped by the time we got going in the morning, but still looked threatening, and we did end up with some showers. So I did not put my camera around my neck, and therefore this day is mostly devoid of pictures.

We stopped off for breakfast at Restaurant Clarah a short distance outside the park. Highly recommended -- outstanding breakfast! From there we headed on via back roads to the Mont Tremblant area, where we found some really nice twisty roads. Beautiful area. From there we rode into Ontario and then crossed back into the US via the Cornwall border crossing.

By this time the weather had cleared up, so I got the camera back out. Here are a couple of views heading homewards through upstate NY.





And through the Champlain Islands of Vermont.





Stats for the day:



Overall mileage showing on the Tiger's trip odometer was 1460. Thanks to Keith and Tommy for coming along -- it was a lot of fun!

Here's our route -- map is fully interactive, so zoom in and scroll around as you like.

Crap -- this forum doesn't support iframes, apparently, so here's a link instead: http://www.swyve.org/stuff/quebec2/q...012tracks.html

--mark

[NobodySpecific]

Awesome write-up Mark, great trip!

[Uncle Snake]

Great write-up as always Mark!

[DesmoTull]

Man, I've always wanted to do a trip like that... Awesome writeup...

[Falko]

Great write-up, and timely. Leaving for the Gaspe in the next couple weeks for an 8 day trip.

[markbvt]

Great write-up, and timely. Leaving for the Gaspe in the next couple weeks for an 8 day trip.

Nice, great riding up there. If you follow the ride reports link in my sig, you'll find a Gaspé ride report from a few years ago (Autumn along the St Lawrence).

--mark

[SRTie4k]

Very cool! You guys must be sore.

[korndogg]

This was my first time touring. I've done plenty of 300+ mile days, but never back-to-back camping each night. It was great though, I loved it.
I rode my FZ1 and the only thing that seriously bothered me were my knees on days 3/4. I need to make some more room between my seat and the pegs and I will be in good shape. I felt fine every time we stepped off the bike though and didn't even end up with sore muscles.

Mark does a great job planning rides and reporting on them. We all took many similar pictures, so I'll just add a few that he didn't get..
The third night at Mauricie national park we were advised while checking in of a few scenic areas in the park that we should check out. After checking in, we rode 63 KM of twisty road into the park to our campsite. Mark and Keith settled quickly, but I wanted to check out the scenic areas that we had been informed about.

I rode 34 KM back through the winding road and got a few pictures of one of the best views of the trip in my opinion.



I checked back in at camp before heading out for a quick hike to the cascading waterfall. More amazing views along the way:


(see the loon?)



Thanks again to Mark and Keith for the great trip and loaning me a few items for my first time out. I'm hooked!

[Father Ribs]

Looks like a blast!

[Kenn157]

Great write up!
Can't wait to start "Exploring" on my new bike.

[nhbubba]

Nice trip! You guys really do it right.

I really want to start touring/camping off the bike.

[zombie]

Great job as always Mark.
Thanks for taking the time and energy
to write up these ride reports.
Looking forward to hooking up with you friday