We woke up to a clear morning, but a bit chilly early on. We pack up and roll by 7 am. We both are wearing our jackets and gloves to start off, but I opt to still wear my riding shorts – big mistake. Although it was ok, at our first gas stop I wised up and added the lowers on the convertible pants.
Todays ride takes us west still with a northern tilt. It was a freeway in Ottawa it quickly became a two lane road but not as crowed as yesterday. It was more like riding around on country roads but did have to pass once in awhile, making it a very enjoyable ride for the day.
We pass lots of lakes today, along with farms of farms and small towns. One farm had some bright yellow crop growing that was quite a visual site to see in this green landscape in Canada. Buy about 12:30 we find ourselves in city traffic in Sudbury navigating to the Big Nickle.
Again, we did not know anything about this checkpoint till the day we traveled there. At gas stops conversing with people asking us about our journey, we find out that we are going to a large Nickle mine with a giant Nickle and a discovery center. I assume the mining company running this center as it is right next to the mine and you can do mine tours if you wish.
We get through town and find the giant nickel and take our picture and decided to check out the center and get our receipt while we are at it.
The discover center shows films, has a rock exhibit showing you what minerals come from what rock, a café, mine tours and lots of old mining photos. While observing the gems and stones, you forget how much of our daily items are minerals and come from mining. After spending about an hour milling around the center, we decided to stay in this town and call it a day, so we head to the Hamptons Inn, and while we wait for our ground floor room to be cleaned, we walk to the restaurant “Shoeless Joe’s Sports Grill” in the same parking lot to have a dessert of ice cream and cookie.
Checkpoint #8 was to visit either walled city of Montreal or Quebec. First of all we didn’t know what was meant by the walled city. Some google searches revealed where we need to go, which was basically old town area.
We went to bed with it raining, and when we woke up, it was still drizzling. After some discussions, and looking at the weather where we needed to go next, we decided to do our documentation for Quebec and then head east as the weather was clearing that way. When we loaded up our bikes, the rain had stopped but it was still very much threating all around us except for a blue patch in the sky. By 8 am we left the hotel to head to Old Town district. Rick maneuvered us through side streets that lead us there in about 20 minutes.
Didn’t really know what to expect as all I have seen was the photos of old brick buildings. As we approached, the grandeur of old town started to appear in the distance. And sure enough, we passed through some old wall and an arched gate area. If it wasn’t for the cars, you swear you stepped back in time looking at these small streets with magnificent buildings made of stone. We pulled over for some photo ops at various areas and then we parked to buy something to get a reciept, which ended up being some coffee.
Looking at the main cathedral building, ones mind wanders on how did they build these in the 17th century with rope and pully and horses. Streets and all are all made with stones. The charm of this town is amazing and one needs to visit this area to take it all in.
It still wasn’t raining, maybe a sprinkle here and there, so the rain worked in our favor as it wasn’t busy here in this tourist town today, and it wasn’t raining now. I finished finished my coffee with a shot of expresso, and Rick and I then left old town to head west for Ottawa. As we left town and found the freeway out, we missed a few cloud burst near us and as we clicked off each mile, the payment became dryer and dryer and within an hour we had dry payment.
The freeway eventually become a two lane road with passing lanes every now and then. Approaching Montreal a 100 miles later we find ourselves on a freeway again and in LA type of traffic with no lane splitting, but we manage to slip through and the sun is now starting to peak out. The road returns to it’s two lane configuration as we continue west to Ottawa. This northern corridor is rather busy with trucks and cars. We we pass and get around some trucks and cars, we can travel at 70ish for awhile, but then we catch up again to slow pokes. The speed in this wide open area is a painful 56 mph (80km) and most truckers and people follow it.
By 2 pm we make it to Ottawa to call it quits and we are back in English speaking territory and when we go out to eat at the local shopping center area, it is nice we can read the menu and communicate with the servers. We get back to our hotel before the evening thunderstorms hit the area and start mapping for the next day.
The Great Lakes Cabot Trail Tour is a ride with 12 checkpoints. Today is checkpoint # 7, Madawaska ME and the Four Corners Park. Later, we will head to Quebec for #8 and the Walled City.
We have been very lucky regarding weather, but have kept an eye on it. But today we think we may get some rain later in the day. Weather Apps, radar maps, looking up weather forecasts of the cities we will be going through on our ride that day, are all part of the tools we use to figure out what to wear for the ride and what to expect or do during the ride. Todays plan was to get in and out of Madawaska before it rains.
“Red Sky at Night, Sailors Delight, Red sky in the morning, Sailor take warning” was the thought when we go going this morning. Cooler with mostly high clouds and a reddish sunrise. The ride in the morning is very fast as we are on an interstate type of road, and not a lot of cars on it. We travel mostly just at 80 most of the morning and arrive, cross the border into the US in Madawaska under cloudy sky, but no rain. We did our pictures and the birtch wood arrow showed no rain on the old indicator at the park, and we said we will take that.
We cross the border again back into Canada and continue on the highway, which eventually gets to a two lane road and a massive construction project of expanding the roadway through this valley we are dropping down into. Seems like Canada road works are massive expanding projects consuming vast amount of land. I look at them with awe as the cuts through this valley.
For most of the day we were riding in mid to high 70’s to low 80’s and now as we approach the St Lawrence Seaway and make a westly turn towards Quebec. The temps dropped to 63 degrees, so I pulled off to put on my jacket. Five minutes down the road, it was 80 again.
The sky was overcast, a bit of a drizzle. We stop to gas up one more time as we were about 50 miles from Quebec. When we were in Madawaska, we thought we might hit a bit of weather. So far, so good. We left the gas station and continue west when it started to drizzle. Still, warm water, not a hard drizzle, we still can travel fast and pass cars. We continue on and it gets heavier. We past another motorcyclist we had met at the gas station as they had stopped under and overpass to put on rain gear. We continue on – I’m thinking we can get there before it rains harder or we punch through this cell.
we are no 30 miles for Quebec and I pull us over under an overpass to put on my large fulll face helmet. I’m still in shorts, and wet, but its warm so no use putting on my rain pants at this point. Rick puts on his goggles but opts for his small helmet. We take off again.
We are now the slow riders. Ever one we blazed by earlier is now passing us and spraying us with water as the rain gets harder. Really you just slow down and focus on what’s in front even though seeing is difficult. You don’t have a wiper on your shield, and you tend to fog it up so you lift up your shield and water also gets on the inside of the shield. Basically, you can’t see very well….
I look in my rear view mirrors and I can’t see Rick’s lights…. I’ve lost him. We both know where our hotel is as we made reservations and have it on our GPS’s or phone. So I just keep going slow and hope to see him, but no luck. the miles click down and that is all I’m focusing on at this point and hope Rick shows up too. At about 10 miles from Quebec traffic is heavy and about 6 miles left we are in bumper to bumper traffic due to weather and construction. The stop and go traffic is better at this point as everyone is slow. I follow the maze on my GPS listen to the voice commands into the city of Quebec, with French signs and long French sounding roads that by the time Google maps say the name you have past the street.
I see the Best Western and pull in under the roof of the reception area and dismount the bike. My shorts are drenched and my right boot squishes as I walk. I literally took just a few steps and I can hear a bike in the distance and then I can see Ricks lights at the corner. He was not far behind me even though he had stop to fix his eye covers. We were both relieved that we were both at the hotel and not in some ditch.
The rain was still coming down – this was one of those all day rains, just steady and continuous. One of the reasons we choose this hotel was they had a restaurant attached to it. We find out it is closed on Mondays. I asked where the laundry services are, they don’t have any but they can tell you were one is about 1 kilometer away. No thanks, don’t want to get back on the bike, just need a dryer.
So I get out the hair dryer at the hotel and use that. We did walk to a nearby French pizza café and was treated to delicious pizzas, IPA’s and excellent desserts! The French do know how to eat.
Rick studies the weather that night, and we come up with a few idea’s depending how the weather is in the morning.
Woke up to a Happy Birthday greeting from Rick and a reminder that today was my 65, officially and senior now. We woke up early, it was clear and warm, and we were both ready to roll at about 6:30.
One thing I noticed is that these towns close up early and open up late. We didn’t want to wake anyone up with our bikes so we coast them down the hill to the street and fired them up to start this day.
At his point of our Cabot Trail experience, I was a bit underwhelmed. I always go in rides without expecting much, but so far, just nice views, pleasant people and quite towns that we have passed through. Don’t know what the fuss was about this trail, but I didn’t read up on it either. All that changed today, because I guess we choose the correct way to see it.
We continued into the morning and now we were entering the national park, or skirting it on the side. We started climbing some good elevation. Up to this point we basically were riding at sea level =/- 300 feet. Now we seem to be climbing roads at a 7 to 8% grade and lots and lots of green trees. We are also climbing inland. we eventually hit a platue and ride a bit flat before we drop on twisty roads and climb up on twisty roads again, but heading towards the water as you can feel the cooler air. Then we come over a ridge to see the vista of the rugged coastline of the Cape Breton and the road we will be traveling on in the distance. Reminded me of Bir Sur in California, mountains on one side and the coast on the other. Beautiful view as we stopped to take pictures and videos and we did that until we reached the town of Cheticamp – that’s right, the locals pronounce it shittycamp.
We stopped in Cheticamp for breakfast where Rick treated me for my birthday and then we headed out on highway 19 along the coast until we reached Port Hasting and the swing bridge over the channel. From there we just kept going till we decided to call it quits in Moncton NB for the night
