What's the most exotic/distant place you've ever ridden (In Ontario/Quebec) | GTAMotorcycle.com

What's the most exotic/distant place you've ever ridden (In Ontario/Quebec)

PrivatePilot

Ironus Butticus
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I have a few extra weeks of vacation this year and am contemplating interesting destinations. I would like to go north, and I mean....really north, but the reality is in Ontario once you get north of the Highway 11 corridor there's not much in the way or roads.

Northern Quebec is interesting, there's access by road to places as far north as the eastern shore of James Bay - Chisasibi for example, or Radison. And the road is paved all the way. Not perfect, but paved.

I don't care too much about cell service (I'd probably bring along a satellite distress beacon, I have access to them via my pilot friends), I don't care much about the lack of fuel services (with an aux fuel jerry can I can easily reach the 700-750 kilometer range point without needing fuel), but I do like the idea of adventure, and being engrossed in a completely different culture. Chisasibi for example is mostly Cree. Camping is status quo, no problem there for me. Distances are irrelevant, I can do 700-1000K days on my bike in comfort.

Just thought I'd post up and see if anyone has ever done any particularly "exotic" destinations. Ontario and Quebec are really the only options for me (would like to keep it to within a week) and my bike of course is not suitable for long stretches of gravel, so the term "exotic" may not be particularly appropriate most of the truly exotic places aren't at the end of a paved road... but there are exceptions such as the northern Quebec options I mentioned above.
 
Ummm please do visit Chiasibi but stay in Radisson please unless you want your bike locked up in the school gym for safety .....

It's the the only sane way to add Inuvit to the bucket list if you get out far enough and put your wheel in James Bay.

The James Bay Road is worth doing once and do book the power plant tour ( sad we did not ).

But ur not finding a cultural experience....

Sharing the road with caribou is unique... ;)

If you hunt there are threads on here.

Nice Air BnB in Rouyn-Noranda then you need fuel for the long stretch to Radisson 380 km and even if you bike can do it ..there is this tendency to push the speed up......and the load of bugs :D
 
Maniwaki....not particularly far or exotic but it's a one strip joint town and when I went the stripper was in Tim Hortons and everyone knew her and said hello. I found that to be indicative of a tightly knit social community.
 
I'm going to suggest gaspesie Quebec , never been myself but it is apparently an awesome motorcycle trip.
 
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For me it was highway 631 through Hornepayne and highway 560 through Gowganda.

Planning a big northern Ontario loop this summer and hope to do a few more remote highways, maybe highways 622, 502, and 599. Anybody been on any of them?
 
Gaspé is really nice ( mind the cops tho ) and with the Montreal bypass not so onerous for traffic.

If you have enough time looping up to Rouyn-Noranda and then staying north of the St. Lawrence gets you to some very nice roads and parks....then take the ferry across and do the South Shore and Gaspé
 
Not in Ontario or Quebec but I saw some riders having a blast on the Top of the World Highway in Yukon/Alaska on some BMW enduros. Would be a great trip. Takes awhile to drive there, though. I was in a pickup.

For me the furthest I've ridden is just Toronto to Ottawa on my 125 2 stroke. Tried to ride to North Bay another time but I snapped a ring about 3/4 of the way there.
 
I wouldn't consider anywhere in Ontario/Quebec as 'exotic'. Try Asia or Mexico.

I have done the loop around Georgian Bay/Manitoulin Island/Cheecheemaun (?) Ferry with a long side trip up through Wawa to Chapleau, ON. along some very remote roads with warning signs for distance to next fuel stop.

Had to stop while the guy in front of us in a pickup truck leaned out his window to poke a bear that was blocking the road with a broomstick (was that grammatically correct?!). We were just sitting on our bikes not 10 feet from the thing!
 
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I wouldn't consider anywhere in Ontario/Quebec as 'exotic'. Try Asia or Mexico

I recognize that but I am limited on time, so domestic-exotic vs foreign-exotic is going to have to suffice.

Thanks for the insight everyone, keep it coming. I think I'm going to focus on the destination I mentioned (Chiassini / Radison) and am conversing with a few good hard-core rider friends about coming along.
 
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As far as Quebec goes, I enjoyed the 117 between Mont Laurier and Val-d'Or. You could also ride around Lac Saint Jean and explore both sides of the Saguenay River. I'd like to ride the 138 as far as it goes on the North side the the St. Lawrence... perhaps to Kegashka.

I forget now, but am fairly certain that entire length of road from Baie-Cormeau to Manic-Cinq is paved, and is a very fun road to ride.

If you really want to get off the beaten track though, you might need a bike you won't mind running down long stretches of gravel and put some reasonably aggressive tires on it. Buy a few year old Vstrom... cheap bikes, cheap insurance, reliable, comfortable, and can handle any road a car or logging truck could... then you can explore places like the Sultan Industrial Road, Ramsey Ghost town, the Trans Tiaga, the North Road, the Trans Lab, etc etc etc... http://jamesbayroad.com/index.html
 
One day I'd like to go to Windigo Lake. It's the furthest north you can go in Ontario. Anybody been?
 
Would love to... but the distance. It's 773km North of Thunder Bay.... you'd need at least a week just to get up there and back. 2138km one way from Mississauga....

One day I'd like to go to Windigo Lake. It's the furthest north you can go in Ontario. Anybody been?
 
One day I'd like to go to Windigo Lake. It's the furthest north you can go in Ontario. Anybody been?

Is that the furthest north? I saw a road to the Musselwhite gold mine that looks about the same distance, also Weagamow Lake.
 
Somewhere around here I have a map of the Outaouais region of Quebec that has 4 separate loop rides mapped out for a variety of scenery, fun roads etc. I can't for the life of me remember where it is though! Best part is you can plan your stay on the Ontario side of the boarder for a home base. I haven't found the time to take that trip but a buddy has ridden in that area and loved it.

As far as Ontario goes, it's not as exciting a trip as far as road options go, but a visit to Point Pelee is on my list. I love the idea of riding as far south as I can in Canada and standing on the tip of the point.
 
Somewhere around here I have a map of the Outaouais region of Quebec that has 4 separate loop rides mapped out for a variety of scenery, fun roads etc. I can't for the life of me remember where it is though! Best part is you can plan your stay on the Ontario side of the boarder for a home base. I haven't found the time to take that trip but a buddy has ridden in that area and loved it.

As far as Ontario goes, it's not as exciting a trip as far as road options go, but a visit to Point Pelee is on my list. I love the idea of riding as far south as I can in Canada and standing on the tip of the point.

Somewhere I have a picture of me standing at the very southernmost tip of Point Pelee. If the picture was taken a second later it would have been of me ankle deep in water.

It's hard to think of exotic places in Ontario, weird is easier.

Ron Brown has a number of books about unusual things to see in Ontario. My thoughts would be to paste together a bunch that are of interest and link them with interesting roads.

S.S. Keewatin in Port McNicoll

HMCS Objibwa in Port Burwell

I also have one of his road tour books and while it lists some nice day trips the directions are IMO, poor. It can be frustrating trying to find an obscure place when the roads he mentions are called something else or not shown on regular maps. That was with a car and navigator. A bike ups the challenge.

http://www.ronbrown.ca/books.html
 
There's some ghost towns in Ontario. I read about a few a while back, mostly old mining towns.
 
Highly recommend the James Bay Road to Radison and Chisasibi. There's nothing technically special about the road, other than the fact that you are in the middle of nowhere. Not patrolled by the local constabulary on a regular basis so if you feel the need for speed... mind the frost heaves!
if you go, defenitely book the hydro generating station tour. We booked the english speaking tour and there were only three people on the tour. Basically a private tour.
We took 5 days, 2 days to Radison, one day up there to get to James Bay (Chisasibi) and back in time for the 1pm hydro tour, 2 days to get back home.
 
Is that the furthest north? I saw a road to the Musselwhite gold mine that looks about the same distance, also Weagamow Lake.
Well highway 599 goes to the town of Pickle Lake which is the furthest north you can go on a paved road in Ontario. Then the Northern Ontario Resource Trail (gravel road) goes another 236 kms north from Pickle Lake to Windigo Lake. I am not aware of any roads going further north than that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ontario_Resource_Trail

I haven't heard of the musselwhite mine, I'll try to read about it.
 
Is US an option for you? If not, ignore the rest of my post.

I've traveled a bit over there and have to admit, my moto-travel experiences south of the border were far better than those from ON/QC. Ideas for a one-week trip in US:

- Adirondacks / Mt. Washington (did not go any further as I only had 4 days)
- Blue Ridge Parkway + Deals Gap + Smokey Mountain (comfortably in a week)
- Florida, including Key West (a nice break from the usual cold)
- Colorado/Utah
- Black Hills / Sturgis / Yellowstone

For the last three trips, I've trailered the bike. I can easily go 1,500 km on the first day driving solo or 2,4000 km sharing the driving duties, therefore spending 2-3 full days getting there and spending about 6 days to explore the area (assuming that a week means from Friday evening to the second Monday morning).

Because of the 2,400 km gap, if planning a one week vacation, the American south-west appears unreachable from Ontario, but once you've done it the perception changes. I don't know about others, but after I've been there once, all my subsequent trips east of the Mississippi seemed like second class experiences, and I keep going back.
 

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