Has anyone gone East? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Has anyone gone East?

P

Portuga

Member
I'm working out some more long distance runs and was thinking about taking a week to head out East towards Halifax as an end point. Has anyone headed out that way? I figure stopping in a couple of places in New Brunswick, PEI and probably coming back through Maine.
 
I've been out to Maine and the riding through Adirondacks is really nice, Vermont is so-so, while New Hampshire and Maine are really scenic.

edit - here's the route I took out to Maine: http://goo.gl/maps/SJ9Bx
 
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The Canadian route is indeed very boring; I've done it many times in a car and once on a bike. I'd suggest staying south of the border both ways unless you specifically want to hit Gaspé.

You might be squeezed for time if you are just taking a week. For me it was a nice three days down on secondary roads, and a mind numbing two days back on the highway. You can do it in a single day in a car, but you'll feel like a zombie for a day or two afterwards, and it wouldn't be the safest choice on a bike.
 
Cape Breton island is on our bucket list for next summer...but I'll agree, there's lots of boring stretches until you're east of Montreal unless you have the time to dedicate to taking the back roads, but it's a lot of distance to cover off the big roads.

We traveled to the east coast many, many times when we had our RV. Very fond memories of New Brunswick and the NE US coast - we crawled the coast and did lots of the big and small cities over the years - would like to get back out to Bar Harbor eventually as well. PEI was neat, but IMHO, a little overrated - we had planned to stay 4 days, found that we had exhausted most of the stuff to do after 2, and ended up leaving early to head down the coast with time to spare and this is the time when we had a blast in New Brunswick which was actually surprising - just driving the secondary roads down the coastline yields all sorts of awesome things to see and do and we easily ate those 2 extra days having a blast.

As for getting out to NF next year, I'm honestly thinking about trailering to just outside Quebec City (we have family in the area so parking the car and trailer wouldn't be an issue, and for me it's a day trip in the cage) and then riding from there. From there it's about 1300K to Sydney, so 3 days not pushing it that much, or 4 if you want to go very leisurely..and that's taking the roads less travelled routing down through Bangor Maine and then down across the coast through St John and Moncton NB, two places I'd love to visit again, particularly without 50' of trailers in tow this time and more ability to get into the cities.

We'd probably take 2 weeks of vacation time for this giving us plenty of time to sit out crappy weather as well as spending plenty of time in the places we're enjoying...but I've no reason to think that it couldn't be done in a 1 week/2 weekends (9 day) window either.
 
Portuga said:
I'm working out some more long distance runs and was thinking about taking a week to head out East towards Halifax as an end point. Has anyone headed out that way? I figure stopping in a couple of places in New Brunswick, PEI and probably coming back through Maine.
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If you're going to NS ride the east coast and cape breton as well. Stay off the 4 lane hwy and all the roads are twisty. Some with bad pavement some brand new.
 
Interesting route, I can see how it would be a trip you would really want to have two weeks to accomplish however.

That's going to be the trade-off for us, time versus budget – the time is not a problem, we each have four weeks of vacation every year, however the expense would be a concern – my wife under no circumstances will sleep in a tent, so camping during the trip to save on accommodation expenses is not an option. Accordingly I would guess somewhere in the $200 per day range between accommodations, meals, tourist stuff etc. On a 12-14 day trip that adds up. ;)
 
Go alone to reduce cost. Send the wife to some all inclusive warm place

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I'd say it's boring well past Montreal. The stretch to Quebec City blows. And the stretch from QC to Edmunston is boring. I just did it in the cage.

Can't imagine doing it on the bike. Even a touring bike.

New Brunswick does get interesting as you head south towards Saint John. Then stick along the coast if you can. There are some nice stops along the way.

Halifax is a great city to have some fun. The five fishermen is a nice place for dinner.

Then you can enjoy the rest of NS or head to PEI and explore.

As others suggested, the ride through the US is better.




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The trans lab is interesting but may not be what you are after.
 
I strongly suggest taking the ''high road''

What you want to do is cross into Quebec in Hawkesbury, head to Mt Tremblant, down to Trois-Rivières, up to Saguenay on 155, down the Saguenay Fjord to Tadoussac, follow St-Lawrence to Baie-Comeau, take the ferry to Matane, the Matapedia Valley to New Brunswick and then Halifax. A ride to remember that I would put against any of my rides out west.

For the return, the Atlantic coast to Bar harbor, back through the New Hampshire White Mountains and upstate New York to cross into Ontario at the thousand Island.

FORGET THE SOUTH SHORE OF THE ST LAWRENCE
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Very good advice
 
If you are going east, don't forget the loop around Gaspe in eastern Quebec.
Scenic as hell and the roads do enough twisting to keep it interesting.
I took the bridge over to PEI but then the ferry at the east end of the island back to NS on my way to the Cabot Trail.
 
I go Fast all the time but my vision's not that sharp.
 
My wife and I rode out to the Cabot Trail last year. Went through the Adirondacks, Vermont and Maine, along the Fundy shore of NB, then ferried across to Digby.

The scenery can be lovely, but it's certainly not spectacular. The Cabot Trail is great, but it only takes a couple of (leisurely) days to ride it.

The biggest issue we had was the weather. We went in late June, and it was COLD and rainy much of the time. I'm talking six or seven degrees on the Cabot Trail.

I'm not sorry we did it (we've now ridden coast-to-coast, which I've always wanted to do) but I'd be in no hurry to go back. 7/10
 
Mistakes I made on my East trip:

-Doing Cabot Trail in a day: No time to look at anything or visit Meat Cove
-Spending no time in Digby (looks like a neat place)
-Pre-booking hotels in the off-season (completely unnecessary and puts you on a rigid schedule)

I rode straight up the middle of NS... I'm not sure if that's a bad idea or not, because it takes a LOT more time to go near the coast and you're not always going to be able to ride ON the coast. The middle is boring, of course. And yeah, weather makes or breaks the trip.
 
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