2021 Day Trips! | Page 19 | GTAMotorcycle.com

2021 Day Trips!

Our new friend that we met that evening:

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We were wandering around one of the smaller towns on the Adriatic coast of Croatia when this guy approaches us and asks, "Are you Gene and Neda? I'm following you on your blog!"

LOL! We chatted for a while and when we rode off, he snapped a shot of us leaving. I also happened to be taking a picture of us riding, like I always do, and he managed to capture that right at the moment.

Neda has quite a big following in Croatia. Apparently there's a thread on some Croatian biker forum: "Croatian Girl Rides Around the World". I guess I'm her sidekick or something...

Had many many such encounters in the strangest places. We were flying back to Toronto from Guatemala City Airport and while we were waiting for our flight in the lounge, a guy recognizes us and starts talking to us.

We stopped to hike the slot canyons in Utah and when we got back to our bikes, there was a note slipped into my tankbag, "Following you guys online!" They recognized our bikes!

One of our regular riding buddies here actually initially contacted us through the blog. He sent an email asking, "Hey, were you at the Save-On Foods grocery store earlier today? What are you doing in BC?" We've been riding bikes together ever since then!

I'm so glad we decided to open our blog up on the Internet, we've met so many people who've opened up their homes and lives to us. So great to be able to get a local's insight on all these places we've visited instead of just being on the outside like the rest of the tourists.

Because of all the hospitality and goodwill we've received, we always try to invite as many travelers into our home, just to keep that circle of good karma going.
That's a super cool story and the similar ones elsewhere around the world. It must be pretty neat to meet these people or get these messages out of the blue when you are not expecting it. And it just reaffirms the things you have said about giving to and receiving from others, as well as getting a deeper experience of the places you have been to.

I'm sure as a result of your blog and forum threads that many riders have also taken a closer look at their own possibilities of long distance touring or on the flip side - are more open to welcoming riders into their home (like the tent space thread on AdvRider).

Keep the good karma going - I know I appreciated it:)
 
Neda has quite a big following in Croatia. Apparently there's a thread on some Croatian biker forum: "Croatian Girl Rides Around the World". I guess I'm her sidekick or something...

Unsurprised. Your thread on BCMT " Quit our jobs, Sold our home" still leaves everyone in awe. I have been following it, the 9th year now.
It is a "BIG" deal...
 
My buddy PMs me this morning and says, "Wanna ride some trails?"

"Sure!", I reply.

multi-X2.jpg


We meet up and he shows up on a Multistrada. He says, "You brought your enduro? You should have brought your GS! We're just doing gravel roads!"

"You told me we were doing trails! I brought my trail bike!"

Sure enough, half-way through the route, the gravel turns to deep sand and he's paddling his 530lb bike through the powder. The street tires don't give him any traction and the weight of the bike just plows into the loose stuff.

I'm just floating above the sand on my EXC. So as I fly by him, I tell him I'll stop and wait for him every couple of kms or so.

"Good thing you didn't bring the GS", he says...

:ROFLMAO:
 
But even burried in sand I'll bet that Multistrada looks beautiful.
 
But even burried in sand I'll bet that Multistrada looks beautiful.

Yeah, he was playing around with all the riding modes, Enduro mode, etc. But with those tires and all that weight, there's only so much you can do when you're in mucking around in deep sand.

Also, he had some difficulty with the Traction Control cutting in and out over washboard. It practically immobilizes the bike. He just picked it up earlier this season and he says he needs to read the manual to figure out how to disable the TC completely in Enduro mode.

Gorgeous bike though.

multi2-X2.jpg
 
The manual for my 16 Multistrada was around 248 pages. It's def a bike that demands reading the manual bacause it went from "OK" to "Amazing" after I changed settings in those menus.
 
Still very happy with my Tenere. I'll probably turn the tc off and leave it off. It's very annoying in most circumstances.
ABS is the same. Useless if not downright dangerous riding in the dirt with it on. The only times i might want it, is in heavy rain.
The bike has 1k km on it now. I can service it and see what happens over 5000rpm. Wheeee!
 
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Yes, TC is dangerous on off roads. Even if I overlook that I cannot drift with TC on, I cannot overlook the fact that TC will stall me going up on an incline, on off roads.

..And as I plant my foot down to prevent myself from toppling over a stalled motorcycle, I realise that I have left TC on, and rush to turn it off.
 
Buddy and I visited the Highlands area where we went through Bancroft and stayed overnight in Barry's Bay.

After we checked in we opened Google Maps and see a curvy road not far called Old Barry's Bay Road. OMG!! where have you been all my life! ... 19km of pure fun. We did it twice and only came up on a pickup truck near the end of the 2nd run.

Sunday morning we took 60 to Madawaska then south on 523 to Maynooth and passed through a few small lakes with some great scenery.

We bumped into a couple with the guy saying he's ridden all over Ontario and the Highlands are the best.

I'm sure a few of you have done that area but we definitely want to go back and see some more.

Any suggestions from others when we go back?
 
Buddy and I visited the Highlands area where we went through Bancroft and stayed overnight in Barry's Bay.

After we checked in we opened Google Maps and see a curvy road not far called Old Barry's Bay Road. OMG!! where have you been all my life! ... 19km of pure fun. We did it twice and only came up on a pickup truck near the end of the 2nd run.

Sunday morning we took 60 to Madawaska then south on 523 to Maynooth and passed through a few small lakes with some great scenery.

We bumped into a couple with the guy saying he's ridden all over Ontario and the Highlands are the best.

I'm sure a few of you have done that area but we definitely want to go back and see some more.

Any suggestions from others when we go back?
If you use Barry's Bay as a base, then you have a ton of options beyond just the Highlands. You can do the whole Calabogie area, Kawartha's, Haliburton and so on. All the 500 series roads up there generally have the best pavement, but some others that are also decent are Siberia Rd, Opeongo Rd, South Baptiste Lake Rd and much more. I've always wanted to go north towards Bonnechere and chck out those roads, but never seem to get around to it.

The best of that area is mostly captured in this thread, about 1/2 way down the first post: Re: The best roads/routes in Ontario/Quebec/U.S.

There is a really nice rest stop near the south end of Old Barry's Bay Rd if you didn't see it.
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My lady friend and I recently went on a road trip (in a car) to to area around Barry's Bay and along some of the 500 roads in the area. I was amazed at the terrain and elevation changes. A few areas reminded me of a smaller scale Pennsylvania. The history and settlements / ghost towns in eastern Ontario are also very interesting. An overnight bike trip would be a lot of fun.
 
We met Jamie Z very early on in our Round-The-World trip, we had just left Toronto heading towards the west coast when we it started raining on us (a common theme in our travels) in Wawa, Ontario.

We sought shelter at the local Subways and we were eating our subs waiting for the waterworks to subside when another motorcyclist strides into the restaurant.

"Who's the ADVRider?" he asks out aloud.

He had seen the stickers on the panniers of our bikes parked outside.

We chatted for awhile and the rains didn't look like they were going to let up so we decided to split a motel room with Jamie instead of camp that night.

That was July 16th, 2012.

P7160894_2-X2.jpg


Geez, we looked so young back then!

We've kept in touch over ADVRider over the years. He's followed along with us on our journeys, and just recently he's started his own RTW trip. Since he was in the area, we reached out and invited him to stay with us for a few days to catch up.

But first, we had to recreate that picture from 9 years ago!

20210917_113500-X2.jpg


We get older and the bikes keep getting younger. LOL!

As moto travelers, we knew exactly what Jamie needed as he pulled into our driveway: wifi, laundry and a nice hot shower, followed by a hearty meal:

20210913_191105_2-X2.jpg


We spent the whole evening exchanging stories of our travels. It was nice being pulled back into our old life via memories, after such a long time being sedentary in one place.

The next day, I took Jamie on a tour around Kelowna.

20210914_104812_2-X2.jpg


The Okanagan is well-known for its fruit and wine, and the whole region is dotted with orchards and vineyards. This picture was taken less than 5 minutes away from where we live. This one is actually a golf course that's decorated with orchards and from here you can see Okanagan Lake in the background.

I've only been here for about a year, but as I was showing Jamie around and telling him the story of this place, I really felt like a local.

Next morning, Jamie wanted to do more riding. But before we left, some tom-foolery:


We were watching some F9 videos on YouTube the evening before and decided to try out some poser tricks! This is the first time we've ever done this on our bikes, so we're not as polished as RyanF9. :D

I took him up the west side of Okanagan Lake, where the sportbikers like to ride. For good reason:

DSCN2320-X2.jpg


Stopped along the way to take in the scenery.

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DSCN2317-X2.jpg


Kind of an overcast day, threatening rain the entire time we were out. But we managed to get back before the rains started in the afternoon.

DSCN2330-X2.jpg


The west bank of Okanagan Lake has been plagued by forest fires last month. My co-worker was evacuated from his house and was homeless for over three weeks while firefighters fought the blaze. Fortunately his house was spared, but there were homes that were burnt to the ground. This area recently was reopened, so we took in the charred remains of the trees on both sides of the road.

DSCN2333-X2.jpg


We stumbled onto a car graveyard. These must have been all the cars abandoned by their owners when they were forced to evacuate. I noticed they were all older models. No new cars.

I have a theory: whenever homeowners are forced to evacuate their houses because of forest fires, they take all their valuable possessions with them. However, they leave behind anything old and if it's burnt by the fires, they get to claim the insurance money... As you can see, there's nothing but older cars left behind in the fire.

DSCN2347-X2.jpg


Unfortunately Neda is working this week so she's unable to join us on our rides. Our garage was full of motos, it was quite fun walking in and seeing motorcycles everywhere!

Jamie's riding on a CB500X, which is quite a popular model for motorcycle travelers. I remember riding one years ago at a demo ride when they first came out. I remember them being down on power by quite a lot.

The next day, we went out riding again and we switched up our bikes. Here's Jamie on my GS following me:

15225600_2-X2.jpg


Well, I remembered right. I was redlining that poor little 500's engine in every gear trying to find the powerband! LOL! I was kind of glad to get back on my GS again.

20210915_140730_2-X2.jpg


The CB500X gets great gas mileage though... :)

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Jamie stayed with us for four days and we went riding pretty much every single day. Was a good time hanging out and catching up with him again after all these years!

If you want to follow his travels, he's also got a ride report on ADVRider:


Also, a throwback to when we first met Jamie, as documented on our blog, oh so loooong ago:

 
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We met Jamie Z very early on in our Round-The-World trip, we had just left Toronto heading towards the west coast when we it started raining on us (a common theme in our travels) in Wawa, Ontario.

We sought shelter at the local Subways and we were eating our subs waiting for the waterworks to subside when another motorcyclist strides into the restaurant.

"Who's the ADVRider?" he asks out aloud.

He had seen the stickers on the panniers of our bikes parked outside.

We chatted for awhile and the rains didn't look like they were going to let up so we decided to split a motel room with Jamie instead of camp that night.

That was July 16th, 2012.

P7160894_2-X2.jpg


Geez, we looked so young back then!

We've kept in touch over ADVRider over the years. He's followed along with us on our journeys, and just recently he's started his own RTW trip. Since he was in the area, we reached out and invited him to stay with us for a few days to catch up.

But first, we had to recreate that picture from 9 years ago!

20210917_113500-X2.jpg


We get older and the bikes keep getting younger. LOL!

As moto travelers, we knew exactly what Jamie needed as he pulled into our driveway: wifi, laundry and a nice hot shower, followed by a hearty meal:

20210913_191105_2-X2.jpg


We spent the whole evening exchanging stories of our travels. It was nice being pulled back into our old life via memories, after such a long time being sedentary in one place.

The next day, I took Jamie on a tour around Kelowna.

20210914_104812_2-X2.jpg


The Okanagan is well-known for its fruit and wine, and the whole region is dotted with orchards and vineyards. This picture was taken less than 5 minutes away from where we live. This one is actually a golf course that's decorated with orchards and from here you can see Okanagan Lake in the background.

I've only been here for about a year, but as I was showing Jamie around and telling him the story of this place, I really felt like a local.

Next morning, Jamie wanted to do more riding. But before we left, some tom-foolery:


We were watching some F9 videos on YouTube the evening before and decided to try out some poser tricks! This is the first time we've ever done this on our bikes, so we're not as polished as RyanF9. :D

I took him up the west side of Okanagan Lake, where the sportbikers like to ride. For good reason:

DSCN2320-X2.jpg


Stopped along the way to take in the scenery.

DSCN2327-X2.jpg


DSCN2317-X2.jpg


Kind of an overcast day, threatening rain the entire time we were out. But we managed to get back before the rains started in the afternoon.

DSCN2330-X2.jpg


The west bank of Okanagan Lake has been plagued by forest fires last month. My co-worker was evacuated from his house and was homeless for over three weeks while firefighters fought the blaze. Fortunately his house was spared, but there were homes that were burnt to the ground. This area recently was reopened, so we took in the charred remains of the trees on both sides of the road.

DSCN2333-X2.jpg


We stumbled onto a car graveyard. These must have been all the cars abandoned by their owners when they were forced to evacuate. I noticed they were all older models. No new cars.

I have a theory: whenever homeowners are forced to evacuate their houses because of forest fires, they take all their valuable possessions with them. However, they leave behind anything old and if it's burnt by the fires, they get to claim the insurance money... As you can see, there's nothing but older cars left behind in the fire.

DSCN2347-X2.jpg


Unfortunately Neda is working this week so she's unable to join us on our rides. Our garage was full of motos, it was quite fun walking in and seeing motorcycles everywhere!

Jamie's riding on a CB500X, which is quite a popular model for motorcycle travelers. I remember riding one years ago at a demo ride when they first came out. I remember them being down on power by quite a lot.

The next day, we went out riding again and we switched up our bikes. Here's Jamie on my GS following me:

15225600_2-X2.jpg


Well, I remembered right. I was redlining that poor little 500's engine in every gear trying to find the powerband! LOL! I was kind of glad to get back on my GS again.

20210915_140730_2-X2.jpg


The CB500X gets great gas mileage though... :)

20210916_134543_002_2-X2.jpg


Jamie stayed with us for four days and we went riding pretty much every single day. Was a good time hanging out and catching up with him again after all these years!

If you want to follow his travels, he's also got a ride report on ADVRider:


Also, a throwback to when we first met Jamie, as documented on our blog, oh so loooong ago:

Nice post! Mann the scenery out west looks amazing..!!
 
If you use Barry's Bay as a base, then you have a ton of options beyond just the Highlands. You can do the whole Calabogie area, Kawartha's, Haliburton and so on. All the 500 series roads up there generally have the best pavement, but some others that are also decent are Siberia Rd, Opeongo Rd, South Baptiste Lake Rd and much more. I've always wanted to go north towards Bonnechere and chck out those roads, but never seem to get around to it.

The best of that area is mostly captured in this thread, about 1/2 way down the first post: Re: The best roads/routes in Ontario/Quebec/U.S.

There is a really nice rest stop near the south end of Old Barry's Bay Rd if you didn't see it.
View attachment 51218
Heading up there Monday for a good days ride if you're free you're welcome to come with.
 
Geourgeous weather yesterday, almost perfect. But when that sun went down...brrrrr...

A buddy of mine mentioned a couple of interesting places around Minden I have been meaning to check out. (hey @mimico_polak these are what I was talking about) Finally got the chance. I didn't record the route. But did my usual bouncing around until I got to Minden.

This is Horseshoe Lake Dam just along HWY 20, which itself is a nice diversion off 35 then back again.

Wasn't expecting much but I guess this is the place for kayaks to play in the water.
whitewater ontario 1.jpg

Shot of the dam
whitewater ontario 2.jpg

Then further up HWY 35 to Hawk Lake area is this Log Chute
hawk lake log chute 1.jpg

hawk lake log chute 2.jpg

Then back down 35 and across 118 to Bancroft to check out this Eagle's Nest Lookout. (thanks @jc100 for posting this)
Bancroft Eagles Nest Lookout.jpg

Oh also on the way I found this weird little shrine in Norlan
norlan shrine.jpg

BTW some fall colours are starting to appear, but still seems like some time left before it goes full colour.
 
damn
 
I should have added this to my post, thinking now because of the Fall colours. Here is the view at Eagles Nest overlooking Bancroft (looking West). So lots of green. Maybe Algonquin might be different as it's a bit further North.

fall colours.jpg
 
Based on @shanekingsley 's map in one of the other threads, I did this Algonquin loop yesterday. Despite being tiresome and what feels like pushing myself doing these longer runs, the roads around that area make it so worth it.

Screenshot 2021-09-19 150836.jpg

In my earlier post, I did mention that the construction is complete on 507 but that's not the case. I don't know how I didn't recollect but around 5 km towards the midway of 507 is still not great. It's firm and not loose gravel but the top layer of tarmac is missing. I also had a pretty scary moment yesterday when unexpectedly I hit a small heap of loose gravel and stones that was right in the middle of the road. I'm glad I didn't lose balance, I saw it very late but had my handlebar straight and I was not going too fast. Just got lucky there.

While on my way back from Dorset, I missed taking Kushog Lake Rd. I didn't put that on the map and I only realized once I passed that road. Good reason to go back there again 😀

I did Rd 60 through Algonquin at around12 noon from East to West, it was getting crowded but to my surprise not as crowded as I would have expected. @sburns I think I passed through the exact same spot on the Horseshoe Lake Rd. The road was fun so I didn't stop anywhere and just kept riding. Saw a bunch of people on their Kayaks and on the way also saw some SUVs with Kayaks. Overall, it was an amazing ride. I left at 7:30 am in the morning and was back home by 5 pm.

Here are some pics that I took along the way. The colours are just starting to show up.IMG_20210918_104436.jpg

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In my earlier post, I did mention that the construction is complete on 507 but that's not the case. I don't know how I didn't recollect but around 5 km towards the midway of 507 is still not great. It's firm and not loose gravel but the top layer of tarmac is missing. I also had a pretty scary moment yesterday when unexpectedly I hit a small heap of loose gravel and stones that was right in the middle of the road. I'm glad I didn't lose balance, I saw it very late but had my handlebar straight and I was not going too fast. Just got lucky there.

Yeah, I remember that road, its deceptive tbh, I was riding on it and couldnt tell if it was just a regular road that was super dusty, or just a gravel road, kept my speed down, its a weird mix, in between of fully finished road and a dirt road.

Its hard to tell unless you actually stop and inspect the road up close.
 

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