Prince Edward Island & Return

It was misting a bit in the morning as Ed and I left the hotel parking lot for the rally start point, Toys for Big Boys in Salisbury NB, just outside of Moncton.


CMG Online invited a Swiss rider, Christian, to join in the rally as this gentleman flew his '96 Honda Africa Twin into Buenos Ares, rode down to TDL, and all through North and South America, over 46,000km!

The rally is run every year by CMG Online in Eastern Canada and have some absolutely brilliant roads. This year they upped the limit from 250cc to 500cc with a few big bikes tagging along for the sheer fun of it.

Over 600km of interior New Brunswick roads this year. Fabulous time and you make so many new friends over the length of the ride.

Our lunch stop at Kredl's market in Hampton New Brunswick, and I always get a kick out of riding through this area as my Grandfather owned a farm up the street, and donated the land to the church when he passed on. My father and his friends would have played in this same area and fished off the bridge just up the street.

Riding over Keirstead mountain and passing through Keirsteadville brings to mind our United Empire Loyalist roots, and our firm footing in Eastern Canada soil and heritage.


After the rally, when Kirk heard that Christian was going to visit PEI before heading to Halifax to make arrangements to ship his bike back home to Europe, he invited him to stay the night at Wendy's B&B, an inside joke, where he's now in the living room showing the family pictures from his travels in South America.

His very wet tent is drying out in the garage, and he has no plans but to loaf around and enjoy the island and it's charms until he hits Wood Island Ferry tomorrow or the next day to continue his journey.

And he's off again bound for Halifax later on today.

He has some amazing pictures and stories.

We hit the vet in Cornwall PEI for a visit, then Ryan and I had breakfast at Anna's Country Kitchen to say farewell to Anna and Sandy, then paid our 18 and left the scattered showers and mist behind as we crossed Confederation Bridge bound for Sackville NB to drop off a package with a friend, then it's highway 11 North until Miramichi where stopped for a longish poutine and donair meat at Ed's Subs where the staff brought out a table and chair to the sidewalk for us!



Another smoke and we'll pack up and head towards Gaspe and hopefully a campsite for the night.

Clear sky and a warm day is making for the perfect afternoon.

Cheers!

I got bored of the highway and skipped off to NB 134 and it's patched pavement, and stopped for a much needed walkabout with Suzi.


Now I'd run out of water but had a half tank of gas, and on into Campbellton we rode where we bought four litres of water, two of which went straight into the camel back, and the second bottle into my top case for cooking tonight and tomorrow.

We crossed the bridge into Quebec just after five, and found New Richmond was just under an hour away, but when searching for campsites in the area, it looked like our best bet was eight kilometres further East in Nouvelle, so that's where we pitched our tent for the evening, but not before dousing myself in mosquito repellent! Those little buggers tried to suck me dry before the tent went up, so I frantically rooted around in one of my panniers until I found my repellent. Minutes layer I found my Labrador bug jacket. Go figure.



Suzi got her kibble, and I fired up my trusty SVEA123R and had my boil in the bag food ready in minutes. On the menu for tonight was Mexican rice and Paneer Makhani. I boiled up some fresh water for some hot chocolate, and while that cooled I repaired the strap on my crocs that I ripped off this morning with hurried packing.

I met Arthur and Donna who are RV camping across Canada, who both ride bikes back home, a Yamaha Virago 750 and a Honda Goldwing, sitting in his garage in British Columbia. He offered me a beer and we exchanged motorcycle stories in that time honoured tradition we all know and love while Suzi lay passed on in the grass at my feet, obviously very happy to be done for the day.

As I was inflating the air mattress, she curled up on the end of it. As I then began to roll out my sleeping bag, she got up and lay on top of that, then growled at me out of sorts when I asked her to move yet again onto a nest I'd made for her of my riding jacket, my trousers and my t-shirt. I think she's happy to finally be left alone to rest.



A two man tent gets pretty crowded with all this gear.

Cam had invited me via FB to drop into his Aunt's restaurant tomorrow near Rimouski, so my plan is to get a move on and over night in Rimouski itself, or farther West if I can manage it. The goal is to ride from 8 until just after 6 with plenty of photo and rest stops.
Cheers from Nouvelle QC on Route 132.

It was chilly last night, dropping down to only 6 degrees and as I pulled out my clothes for this morning I opted for a thermal shirt until the temperature gets closer to the sunny and 25 in the forecast.

I packed up the bike after a breakfast of instant oatmeal and hot chocolate, having completely forgot to bring tea or coffee with me. It was warm and wet, and what I needed to get my butt in gear.

As I was taking down my tent and packing it away, I thought to myself how fortunate I was that it wasn't raining, as I had gear everywhere that needed to be sorted and packed away.


Every time I load it up I'm mentally preparing a list to lighten the load for the next time, which will be our annual camp out at Mosport for the CSBK double header. Somehow I have to get a cage to bring some beer up for me.

Well, my cellphone is getting precocious and doesn't like taking a charge unless it's over 750mah and only on one cable, that of my Scala, so I had it turned off and plugged into my bike while making breakfast and tearing down.



Suzi was content to sit in the sun while all this was going on.



And just as we were loaded up ready to leave a rider from Montreal Quebec came up and chatted us up, Suzi being the big attraction. They're riding the opposite direction as me, and bound for Bathurst NB today to visit a friend. A relatively short ride on their BMW GSAs.

New Richmond QC has a Tim Horton's and I had to stop!



Catch y'all later, 3 more hours to Gaspe.

There is a lot more traffic than I expected, and many small towns that slow you down, but I simply had to stop for these pictures.

Gaspe in one and a half hours!

It took half a day, seriously, to make it to Gaspe. Tourists, construction, and slow drivers in general. We stopped once for gas on the bike, twice for photos, the rest of the time was pass, wait to pass, pass. Lunch stop.

I've half a mind to do a gravel interior road to shortcut to Rimouski. It heads out to 299, a paved road that follows the river south to New Richmond, North to? I got caught up in a Garmin Adventure a couple of years ago. Lol.



Suzi loves smoked meat.

Time to hit the road again.

OMG that poutine has more cheese than fries

That's the part that Suzi loved so much, and the smoked meat of course.

We made it through Gaspe at long last and around Cape Forillon. The road is under heavy construction through the park with large gravel, dump trucks and RVs galore. Passing has become the norm.

I have to say the road through the park is pretty busted up and needs to be resurfaced.



Suzi and I are taking a 3pm butt break in some spectacular scenery.

It's 5pm and we're behind again. I was hoping to be on the North Shore but we have a ways to go yet, but my plans are fluid and ever evolving.

Unfortunately my butt is not as flexible. Lol.

Currently in St. Anne-des-Monts about to gear up and get back at it.

So when you go through a journey like this with sketchy plans, this is what you get... The last ferry left from Matane at 1700.Lol.

We found a campsite just outside of Matane, and we'll travel on down the coast and perhaps take the Rimouski ferry across.

In the meantime, sunset over the St. Lawrence seaway for your viewing pleasure...


I may sit on this log for a while longer to see what happens.

Cheers from this log on this stoney beach. (A little bit of peace)

Breakfast of champions...

Suzi is waiting to hit the road


I ran my sae cable into the tent then hooked the USB charger to it for my cellphone and mp3 player, and I'm pretty happy with this setup. I have a 48" extension hooked to my heated vest cable hooked into a 1000mah sae USB charger.

The real trick here was parking close enough to get it into the tent.

A very slow start this morning, but we made it to Parc National du Bic


There is a ton of rain in the forecast for this afternoon and into tomorrow so we may opt to shorten our trip. Suzi has a raincoat, but I feel very guilty riding wet with her. It's harder to monitor her core temperature.

Cheers from the picnic bench at Parc national du Bic!

We managed to ride completely dry until I opted to jump on Autoroute 20 where it passes very close to rte 132 as I wanted to make up some miles from a slow start this am.

Everything went well, but for the sun as it never showed this morning, and as we rode further southwest, the clouds sheeted together into a light grey haze, with no sign of. Blue at the horizon, so I figured we would eventually have to don our rain gear, but I managed to put it off for as long as possible until I saw wet roads ahead so we pulled over under a bridge and did the rain dance.

Well that rain lasted pretty much from Riviere du loup all the way to Drummondville where I finally gave up and got a campsite.


We did an on the bike stop for gas just west of Quebec City where the traffic made me a bit nervous, I don't mind telling you. Of course someone tried to move into my lane, my use of my highbeams notwithstanding. It does get scary when you think of just how much room you need to safely control a panic stop on wet roads, and of course no one leaves you with three or four seconds of room. It's the risk we take I suppose, or choose to take as I could certainly have chosen not to ride in the rain, correct?

We stopped once more at a rest area forty kilometres from Drummondville, and met some riders out of Montreal that had spent three weeks on Newfoundland, with only three days of rain.



We chose Camping Des Voltigeurs just outside of Drummondville, and at $40 it's the most expensive site yet, the rest being around $20 dollars per night.

I was so wet that as I was walking around the store that is part of the parc office, I was dripping and leaving water all around.

I pulled into the campsite, put down the kickstand, let Suzi off, then did a balancing act as I retrieved my kickstand puck from my topcase and got it under the stand before the bike took a dirt nap on me.

I had that tent up in under five minutes, and Suzi inside, rubbed down and swaddled in my dirty clothes as quick as possible.



There is a 60 percent chance that we won't get rain tomorrow, and a 100 percent chance we will be wearing wet gear.

I think I have a dry spot, but I'd get censored by the moderator if I told you precisely where.

Oh, one bright spot, I took pity on Suzi and cracked open a package of Clow's store made beef jerky and she happily obliged me by scarfing it all down without leaving any for me.

She's a real trooper.

It's chilly this morning, but thankfully the rain has passed us by.



I've an extra base layer of thermal gear that I'll be wearing this morning, as it's cool and my gear is all wet, coupled with my heated vest, I should be nice and toasty, so it's Suzi that I worry about.

It'll be frequent coffee stops for us today, and rain is threatened in the afternoon closer to home.

It's been a great run so far, now to pack up all this wet gear and go find some breakfast!

Cheers!