“Why do you want to do that?” ”By motorcycle?” Easily two of the most asked questions I have heard for the past few months. I have answered the questions countless times and frankly there are lots of blogs out there with the personal explanations answering the why they have embarked on such a journey. I have not read one of the explanations in those blogs so let’s get right into this…
When you throw the idea of a trip like this around you expect to get a lot of different opinions and thoughts. After getting through the puzzled looks and the countless questions I was almost always hit with the same question. ”Are you going to try a shorter trip to see how you like it?”
The Trans Labrador Highway was more then I expected. It’s tough for those who have ridden it to give you an idea of what to expect. The weather changes, traffic varies and travelling it in an easterly direction rather then west could make it a totally different experience. What was accurate were the stories about the mosquitos….
Today was the day I have been waiting on for some time now. The first day of a year long journey around the America’s and like a kid at Christmas I was up well before the sun and chomping at the bit to go.
Sporting a maple leaf on the front of the bike and in the in the middle of a cross country tour I figured a trip to the nations capital was in order. The city really embodies the Canadian spirit. Everyone was fantastically polite, helpful and the city itself was clean and vibrant.
Road traffic was the sign post of the day. I looks like the Provincial government is spending a few bucks on old Hwy 17. Traffic was light and other then the few stops and a bit of rain things moved along well.
The drive through the Canadian Shield surprises me every time. Not because of it’s beauty, and it is gorgeous but it’s because for some reason each time I go there I never really anticipate how long the drive will be. Northern Ontario is massive and the maps just don’t do it justice.
Instruction manuals come with most all electronics we buy. When I bought the GoPro camera for this trip I simply rifled through the box to the camera, played with it for a little while and tucked it away with all the other trip goodies leaving the instructions God knows where. As a result I had 3000 photos of random photos at the end of the day.
After our short stay in Ignace, ON the plan was to make our way to Winnipeg, MB and pick up a few “wants” at Mountain Equipment Co-op. After a stop in Kenora, ON for lunch we headed for Winnipeg, stopping only to pick up some snacks at a local fruit stand.
Jason left early the next morning to make his way to a friends home in eastern Montana. It was going to be a big day on the road for me as well but before that I had a date for ice cream with Chad and Hali’s daughter Raeley. We took a look around Portage la Prairie, went out for some ice cream and went back to the house where the kids added a couple of stickers to my pannier. It looks like Dora the Explorer is heading to Alaska!
Subscribe