2023 Ride Report - North Shore of St. Lawrence

[shanekingsley]

This is a trip I've been wanting to do for around 15 years, ever since I heard that there was a road called the 138 that hugged the north shore of the St. Lawrence and ended in a small Innu fishing town called Natashquan. I later found out that there is another town that is past Natashquan called Kegaska and it's about 40km of gravel to get there - and along this stretch of the 138 is where any road currently ends. There are talks of completing the road all the way out towards Happy Valley Goose Bay, but I've been hearing of this for the past 15 years. Making it to at least Natashquan would be amazing and riding to end of the paved road. Stopping in at the Manic Cinq hydroelectric dam would be equally amazing and riding the 389 to get there. I've heard that the Saguenay region is really beautiful and that the 381 is one of the best roads in eastern Canada, so that's a big one on the list too.

I haven't been able to do this trip previously because of work or family committments, however this year I finally have the time off to make it happen. The plan is to leave early morning on a Saturday and be back the following Friday night - it's a family member's 50th birthday on the 8th day, so I have to accomplish what I can in 7 days tops.

The very rough route is something like this, while avoiding Montreal and Quebec City and sticking to backroads and avoiding hwy if possible: https://goo.gl/maps/Uap4sB6UPcPQz5cm7



A couple years ago a neighbour asked me to help him plan out his east coast trip and so I had a lot of the routes already mapped out. I planned out all the distances to help with that planning, so at least I had an idea of what this trip involved. So for this trip, it took very little effort to plan it out and we decided to just take it day by day based on the weather and how we were feeling in the moment.



Another rider is joining me on this ride from this forum. I know he can ride long distances on twisty and remote roads, but we've never ridden together or even met before, so I hope he knows what he's getting into

Dan rides a beautiful new Suzuki GSXS-1000GT, which is a bike I was very much looking to buy for myself. Unfortunately for me, when I sat on it at the bike show, the knee bend was too much for my tight legs. It's a very nice bike and looks good in every picture at almost every angle. The blue paint is really sharp and the exhaust has a pretty nice sound for a stock can.

Here's the blue bike and Dan!

Note: In the pic above, I'm not a tech guy and not the best at navigation, even with a GPS, so I frequently get lost or have tech issues. As we head towards Ottawa, I miss a key turn off and we end up going down a road that leads to this ferry. $6 for 6 minutes and you're in Quebec!

I'm taking a 22yr old Yamaha FZS1000 (known as the 1st gen FZ1) which I bought in late March. I'm not a fan of buying an old bike and then shortly after taking it out on a long ride, but what's the worst that can happen 2000km from home in a small Innu town with nothing around it for hundreds of kms? My bike has about 1 or 2 very specific angles that it looks ok in photos, so I have to plan all my spots very carefully. Fingers crossed I don't have any mechnical or rider issues, but I have my credit card just in case! I washed the bike just for this picture:

Day 1 Route:



We start the trip out by meeting up in Port Perry and then from there it's a simple route of taking Hwy 7 all the way out towards Ottawa and then twistiest backroads for the rest of the trip. Because his name was Dan, I was expecting him to look exactly like Dan Aykroyd, but he doesn't look anything like him. He might have been expecting me to look like Alan Ladd.



Before the trip we were debating on camping vs motels. Finally we decided on motels to keep it simpler and it's much easier to not have to set up and tear down every day, when you are staying in a new place each night. The weather forecast was looking like it would be raining at least 50% of the trip, so a warm motel room is better than a wet, bug filled tent. The first place we stayed at was in a small town called Saint-Alexis-des-Monts and we chose it because it's really close to Parc de la Mauricie. Next door there was a really nice microbrewery with a good restaurant as well. Our rooms at St Alexis were just right and I would recommend!

Accueil - Motel le Saint-Alex

motelsaintalex.com

Next Up: Parc de la Mauricie and staying somewere near Tadoussac!

 

[bigpoppa]

Looks great!

How do you find getting around in english in remote quebec? Or do you speak good french?

 

[kurtrules]

This should be exciting!

 

[jc100]

Is that the Cumberland ferry in the first shot? I always found that to be a nice way to get into Quebec and avoid central Ottawa. It’s also more interesting, always like taking a bike on a boat!

 

[shanekingsley]

Looks great!

How do you find getting around in english in remote quebec? Or do you speak good french?

French is a class I had to take in school and stopped the first chance I could. So my French is very bad.

As with most places around the world, making the effort goes a long way. So I would try my best and knew just enough key words and phrases that I had no problems. I also learned that there is an app called DeepL, so if you are an app person, just download that to your phone and you'll be much further ahead than me. I'd rather struggle and wait for them to finally start speaking English.

Every time I would go anywhere my opening line is: "Bonjour, Je m'apple Shane et jai parle Francais un tres petit peu." I often foloow this up with a blanf stare into the abyss...
And very often they say "Do you speak English?"
And then I often say back in English " Yes I do, but let me practice my French".
And that would last about 5 more French words before I started inserting English words into my French langauge and then finally just revert to all English, because I suck at French and rely on my wife for these things when we travel.

 

[shanekingsley]

Is that the Cumberland ferry in the first shot? I always found that to be a nice way to get into Quebec and avoid central Ottawa. It’s also more interesting, always like taking a bike on a boat!

Thanks for pointing that out. I looked it up and that's the ferry we took. It was really fast and worth the $6!
Plus we had plans to take the ferry in Tadoussac and not knowing anything about what was invloved with that one, this seemed like excellent preparation.

 

[jc100]

Thanks for pointing that out. I looked it up and that's the ferry we took. It was really fast and worth the $6!
Plus we had plans to take the ferry in Tadoussac and not knowing anything about what was invloved with that one, this seemed like excellent preparation.

I’ve never been on the big ferries with long crossings where a bike needs to be tied down but I think I’ve been on 6-7 others for quick river/lake crossings. I always like to stretch my legs and watch the water go by and each crossing is different for loading etc. The Cumberland one is great as it’s a relatively rare inter-provincial crossing and you get dumped off on the Quebec side in a very convenient place in terms of riding roads. I’ve not been on the ferry at Tadoussac but I’ve seen it as the whale watching tour picks up passengers from both sides of the fjord and the ferry uses the same docks. So, if you (or others as I see you’re back) get the ferry there look out on both sides for beluga as there are some in the fjords and they are easy to see.

 

[Sunday Rider]

I love old bikes doing new trips. Looking forward to this ride report!

 

[Lightcycle]

Looks like a great route. We've done the roads around Mt Tremblant several times and each time the pavement quality had deteriorated more and more. Road maintenance is not high on the list of priorities for the province. This was over a decade and a half ago, would be interested to see what your experience is now.

 

[shanekingsley]

So each night we think about what we want to do the following day. It's a nice way to travel instead of pre-booking each day in advance of leaving for the trip. We look at the weather and make adjustments to maximize riding in the good weather and what kind of distances we think make sense. In looking at places to stay, originally I was hoping to stay in Tadoussac , but the motels were all $200+ per room. All we need is a clean room, with a shower, comfy bed, wifi and if there are restaurants or other things nearby then it's a bonus. Since we are trying to cap the room prices at $150/night, it turns out that just 100km up the road is a town called Forestville with rooms that are cheaper. Forestville would also be a good launching pad for riding around the Saguenay region, or even heading up to Manic Cinq or going all the way out to Natashquan - it all depends on the weather.

Day 2: Motel le Saint-Alex to Forestville



Last night we chose the place we stayed partly because it was so close to Parc de la Mauricie. This park has been on my radar for a long time because of how twisty the road looks on a map and the road quality is supposed to be in such good shape:


There are lot's of bumpy roads in Quebec - just like Ontario. And we rode on a fair bit of bumpy roads all the way up to the place we stayed in the last night, especially to and from the Mont Tremblant area. This morning we wake up at 6am and head out around 7am. It's worth mentioning that the road that leads from our motel area over to La Mauricie is #351 and it's a great twisty road with really nice pavement and great elevation changes. There is an $8.50 entry daily entrance fee to get into the park so we pay this get on our way. I have been warned that riders often get tickets in the park, so that is something to be mindful of. We were there at around 7:30am, so we hd the entire road to ourselves. It had rained the night before and the road was completely wet, so we rode it smoothly.

The pavement was pretty much perfect and the road was super twisty. The only thing I did not like was that in some of the tightest of turns, they have installed plastic bollards spaced out every 10ft on the centreline, throughout the entire corner. Overall It was a great road and reminded me a bit of the roads in the Appalachian states. There is a bunch of campsites available in the park and it looks like a great place to pitch a tent and use it as a base for a few days of hiking or riding.

After this we start to head north up towards La Tuque along the 155. I wasn't expecting much from this road, as it's somewhat of a main road for trucks and commercial traffic getting to and from the Saguenay region, but the entire section south of La Tuque was really beautiful. The road meanders along a river for about 100km with beautiful pavement and fast sweepers.



The views are breathtaking and the outlines of the fjord type landforms are starting to show up.

Dan had heard that there was a good road about 30km north of La Tuque that was an out n back. It's around 25km and so we check it out and it was suprisingly fun. It's not actually that twisty, but it's like a magic carpet ride roller coaster kinda road. Very smooth pavement and it just keeps going up and down with some twists thrown in for good measure. Highly recommended if you are in the area: Lac-Édouard to Le Haut-Saint-Maurice Regional County Municipality



The further north you go along the 155, the higher the land formations become:

Once you get up to Lac St Jean, the elevation changes reduce and the roads straighten out. We go around the top of the lake and head south along the 172, which is on the east side of the Saguenay river. Many have said the 172 is one of the best roads in the area, but for us it was raining pretty hard the entire way and cloudy. We didn't see much in the way of good views and the road wasn't anything special for a motorcycle. Maybe I had super high expectations of it, or maybe it was just the weather, so I will go back and check it out on a sunny day and report back.

Even with the rainy weather, the views of the region are outstanding and this would become the norm for the next few days - even when it's raining and cloudy it still is amazing:

We make our way down to the Tadoussac area which is well known for whale watching, however this trip is not about whale watching. This trip is about riding lots of amazing roads. We both agree that whale watching, sampling the cuisine out this way (other than Subway) and staying in Tadoussac would be great to do for a weekend with our signifcant others.

So we turn left and make our way for the first time along the #138 north shore of the St Lawrence over to our digs for the night in Forestville. For me the north shore has already totally lived up to what I was hoping for. I wasn't looking for the roads to be super twisty, but rather very scenic with amazing views of the water, land formations, the little towns along the way and so on. I was also expecting and enjoying being rained on. It's also nicethat the speed limit is 90km/hr on most of these roads, but it seems everyone is moving much faster than that and we barely see any police presence.

We are staying at a simple EconoLodge in Forestville and the rooms are perfect and they even had covered parking. Dan thought ahead and brought a cover for his bike, while mine just got rained on:



Next up: Saguenay or Manic Cinq or Natashquan

 

[shanekingsley]

I love old bikes doing new trips. Looking forward to this ride report!

This bike is amazing. It may be a little older, but it handles and rides incredibly well. With a taller windshield, bar risers and a Corbin seat, the thing is good for 1000km days, or I can rip around the twisties in a way that my prior VStroms never could. As it's the first carb'd bike I've had in around 15 years, I was a bit hesitant, but the reviews of other others kept saying how good a bike this is with respects to fuel delivery and throttle repsonse and how underappreciated it is. The throttle response is super linear and so smooth and I would consider this to be a perfect example of a true sport touring bike that blends the sport and touring sides equally well.

 

[shanekingsley]

Looks like a great route. We've done the roads around Mt Tremblant several times and each time the pavement quality had deteriorated more and more. Road maintenance is not high on the list of priorities for the province. This was over a decade and a half ago, would be interested to see what your experience is now.

Nothing has changed in that area from what I was on. The actual roads closest to Mont Tremblant that are part of the annual Ironman cometition have been repaved - probably around 7 or 8 years ago and they are great. I recall when my wife did the Ironman out there in 2016, I ws thinking that I had to come back and ride the area because the immediate roads in the Month Tremblant area were so nice. So did the following summer, but most of the roads 50km away from Mont Tremblant still suck for pavement quality, probably just as they did for you back then.

That said, there was a surprising amount of road construction occuring all over the rural areas, so perhaps things are changing.

 

[shanekingsley]

I’ve never been on the big ferries with long crossings where a bike needs to be tied down but I think I’ve been on 6-7 others for quick river/lake crossings. I always like to stretch my legs and watch the water go by and each crossing is different for loading etc. The Cumberland one is great as it’s a relatively rare inter-provincial crossing and you get dumped off on the Quebec side in a very convenient place in terms of riding roads. I’ve not been on the ferry at Tadoussac but I’ve seen it as the whale watching tour picks up passengers from both sides of the fjord and the ferry uses the same docks. So, if you (or others as I see you’re back) get the ferry there look out on both sides for beluga as there are some in the fjords and they are easy to see.

I've been on a couple ferries that were longer and required tie downs or at least wheel chocks, including the Manitoulin one and Vancouver Island one. And yes - ferries are much more fun!

 

[sburns]

Nece, no wonder you are missing burger meetups.
That area of the St Lawerence has also recently come onto my radar. Just more undiscovered areas to see.

 

[shanekingsley]

After checking the weather, it seems like the area with the least amount of rain is going to be heading out to Natashquan/Kegaska. Looking at the distances we decide that we'll ride out there and then loop back to Havre St Pierre for the night, which is only 200km or so away. The weather radar will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect in the next 2-6 hours, but after that it gets pretty unreliable due to the changes in wind and so on.

Day 3 route: Forestville to Havre-Saint-Pierre


Today looks like it might turn into a longer day, so we decide to be on the road for 6am. I'm super stoked for this day of riding and to finally ride the north shore after all these years of thinking about it.

Breakfast for Dan usually consists of a coffee. Breakfast for me consists of 1/2cup of trail mix, a homemade ginger cookie, a tangerine, a Clif bar and a big cup of tea. I've got 1 weeks worth of food on my bike, just in case... We head out and decide that we won't take many pics on the way there so we can make good time. We'll take notice of some of the good picture spots and then stop on the way back.

We leave and the fog gives way to sunshine and blue skies. It was shaping up to be the best day of riding yet. The landscape between Havre St Pierre and Natashquan is mostly short conifers and tons of moss and lichens growing on the rocks.

Gas prices up here are higher than in the urban centres as to be expected. When we stop just outside Natashquan for gas, the price here is right around $1.90/litre, while back in Forestville it was closer to $1.80/litre and at home in Ontario I paid $1.60/litre just before leaving. Some gas stations have big distances between them, but so far nothing seemed much more than 120km. All the gas stations seemed to have premium gas for you fancy bike ballers out there.

As fate would have it, by the time we were getting really close to Natashquan, it started to rain pretty hard. We are dry because we have good gear on, but the roads are really wet. One thing that suprised us both was how much more hilly and twisty the road was as you get closer to Natashquan, especially after this last gas stop in Aguanish.



We pull into Natashquan it's worth noting that there are three towns in the area. One is French, one is Innu and one is English. Kegaska is the English one, but apparently the paved road does not go all the way out there. Considering how far we've come, we continue going to see what lies ahead. So we make our way out of Natashquan and lo and behold - they have paved the road! It's fresh pavement and still doesn't have line markings, but it's beautiful (wet) asphalt.

As we continue on, all of a sudden about 25km later, the pavement just stops. And it's a compacted dirt, mud, gravel combo that is very slick from the rain.

Now this isn't the kind of road to take your shiny new blue bike on, especially so far from home should something go wrong and not many people around to help. As we are talking about what to do, a pick-up truck comes by and tells us that it's 20km like this to Kegaska and then nothing. It's also 3:30pm, we've been riding non-stop without breaks since 6am and we have a fair bit of riding to get to our motel, so we make the executive decision to head back.

Now on our way back we make it point to stop and capture some of things we saw that are just indicative of this whole area, including the picturesque coastal villages.

There are countless little spots like this to just pull into and enjoy the peacefullness of it all.

And then we hop on our bikes and redline away from the rains.

And towards the sunshine:

 

[shanekingsley]

Since yesterday we hit up Natashquan, there is only one way left to go. And that is up to Manic Cinq and ride the 389! And the best part is that we get to ride it twice! And if we are lucky, we'll time it right and get to go for a tour of the dam.

Day 4: Havre-Saint-Pierre to Forestville


So this looks like it's going to be a long day. We read that the dam tour is about 2 hours long. I've heard that the tours are in French, but that's ok because at least we'll get to see some neat stuff inside. Manic-5 generating station | Free tours | Hydro-Québec

They offer tours at 9am, 11am, 1:30pm and 3:30pm. It's free to book in advance, but reservations are mandatory so people can't just show up without reserving first. Looking at the route above it seems like it will take us 7.5 hours to get to Manic Cinq, so that means we have to leave at 6am to stand a chance of making it on time for the 1:30 tour. We can't take the 3:30pm tour, because it will end at 5:30 and we have 3+ hours of riding to do after the tour to get to our motel. So we reserve our spots and are ready to go.

Because we are on a super tight timeline, we only stop for a couple quick pictures on the way there. I love this one because it's the lonliest house on the north shore, but still so colourful from a distance. Dan's blue bike and the house compliment each other so well. Winter's must be long out here!

There were some sections with very sandy beaches and these areas had hundreds or thousands of trailers and RV's parked on them with people enjoying their summers out here. We continue our ride along the 138 and the views are perpetually stunning.

We are really cutting it close on time. There is a connector road that is closed due to ongoing construction, so after sitting in this construction for a while in Baie Comeau, we have to then detour about 20 minutes out of our way to get back onto the 389. All this to say that we are now about 20-30 minutes behind schedule for getting to the dam tour, so hopefully we can ride at a good pace on the 389. If we are late for the dam tour and miss it, then we'll walk around as much as we can and just head back.



There's a few things worth mentioning for those looking to go up to Manc Cinq by bike. The distance between gas stations here is around 214km - one station in Manic Cinq and other stations in Baie Comeau at the bottom. My bike typically gets around 280-350km/tank riding normally in the city or highway. If I'm riding in lower gears to get more out of the powerband on very twisty roads, then I'm getting closer to 225km/tank. So I figure on the way up I'll ride in 6th gear to save gas and then see what the gas consumption is like on my way back down if I stay in 3rd or 4th gear.

Another thing that I read around 15 years ago was that the road can be pretty bumpy in spots. Some said it was really a shame just how bumpy the road was in corners and for long portions.

Lastly, I think this is the longest twisty road sign I have ever seen in person.

We get on the road and I have to say, this road is amazing. Better than anything I have been on in Ontario and with no traffic or driveways or intersecting streets, it's easy to open it up a bit. The pavement was in really good shape and it's a tale of 2 roads. The first half is filled with really fast, tight sweepers. The second half is more of the magic carpet ride up and down rollers. There was next to no traffic on the whole 200+ km, so needless to say, we arrived early

This pic is taken from about 1km away. The dam is massive and fills the crater lake to the north of it.

When we pull into the parking lot, we were expecting it to be pretty quiet, but there were around 100 vehicles there. Seems it's a pretty popular tour avec les Quebecois. We happen to be the only English speaking people there, so they give us a personal tour guide who spoke with us for about 30 minutes to give us a historical background of the dam and what to expect on the tour. Then everyone get's headsets and the tour guide speaks to everyone using the headsets. Since we are the only Anglo's we get a pre-recorded tour through our headsets in English, so we don't feel left out.

We aren't allowed to take pictures inside the dam while on the tour. They are pretty picky about this and ask that everyone turn in their phones. We aren't sure if this is due to some security concerns or if people were allowed to take pics, these tours would take too long because of all the tourists. While inside we get to see how the turbines work and get a walking and school bus tour of the grounds.

Views from the top:

There are 4 dams along the 389, with the Manic 5 being the biggest. The water from here flows south to Manic 3, then from there it is used and flows south again to Manic 2, then Manic 1.

We ride back down the 389 and this time I try out staying in 3rd or 4th gear only and I almost finish the tank in the 214km. Good times!
This is the view of the road leading to down to Manic 2. What an amazing spot.

After this, it's getting late, so we head back down to Forestville for our second night at the EconoLodge.

Next up: Riding around the Saguenay region and the 381!

 

[Sunday Rider]

Now I’m itching to go. Wonderful write up and pictures.

 

[shanekingsley]

Today we have a bit of time to get off the bike while riding some of the nice roads in the Saguenay area. There's a couple interesting roads that lead from the main road #170 towards the river and seemed worth checking out. On the Vstrom forum about 10 or 15 years ago, a rider there had mentioned that the nearby #381 was one of the best roads in eastern Canada, so that was one I had to see for myself as well.

Day 5: Forestville to La Tuque


First up we leave Forestville around 7am and head over to Tadoussac for our last section along the 138. Here we catch a short free ferry to the west side of the river, so we can ride up the 170 towards Saguenay. The ferry was super quick and at this time there was hardly anyone on it.

The views reminded me of the ferry to Vancouver Island. We did not see any whales and I looked!

I had read that the #170 was not all that great, but since we are here and we already rode the other side of the river and weren't overly impressed with it, up the 170 we go. The weather was going to be pretty nice today, so hopefully with the sunshine we'll see some nice views. The 170 itself was actually pretty nice with big, fast sweepers combined with fjord-like scenery to make it a realy enjoyable ride. The couple roads we took in towards the river also lead to a really small town at one spot and and national park at the other spot.

Now it's time to ride the 381.



This road did not disappoint. It has the best blend of corners and scenery of all the roads we checked out on this trip. Pavement was excellent and the views were amazing for around 50-75km of it.

At the bottom of the road in a small town called St Urbain, there was a roadside restaurant that served up some good poutine and pizza's, so we stuffed our bellies before making the ride back north. While we were sitting at the resturant we saw 2 bikes go by - one a green Ninja ZX14 and the other looked like an FZ-09 or similar naked.

We left the restaurant and started riding north and saw this amazing view below and stopped to take this pic.

While stopped for the picture, the same two bikes come out from a nearby gravel drivewway and speed off ahead of us. We get back on the bikes and I know there is one more really scenic spot I wanted to grab a picture of. While we are riding I can see the 2 bikes coming in to view way up ahead. I decide to catch up to them and forego the most amazing picture, because catching up to and passing a local riding a ZX14 is more important. I catch them and they ride very fast on the straights and slow in the corners. It was hard to pass them because of how fast they would pull away in the straights, but they would promptly slow us down in the corners. I finally found my spot to pass, which felt good while wearing my neon suit, on an old bike with loaded saddlebags.

Afer this we head over to the 155 to get to La Tuque to spend the night. With sun shining as we travelled south on the 155, we stopped for one last amazing view for the day.

Next up... not sure!

 

[ZOMGdonuts]

Awesome ride report Shane! Bringing back memories from my trip to Saguenay back in 2020 (Ride Report: A Newbie's Odyssey to Sanguenay)
The 381 is just brilliant. I remember it fondly. Here are three pics I snapped on it!

 

[danp]

Shane thanks for an amazing trip. You make a really good ride leader and trip planner. I feel bad about making you miss Kegaska, I know you really wanted to see that town. I just really didn't feel good about doing many kms of slick wet gravel in the pouring rain, especially in such a remote place. Highlights of the trip for me were:

-Park de Mauricie - probably the best technical riding road in Canada. Definitely worth going early in the morning, I feel like that road would have been frustrating in the middle of the day when there'd probably be heavy car traffic.
-Hwy 389 - 200+ kms of twisties with almost no intersections/driveways and little traffic.
-Hwy 381 - shorter than 389 but even twistier with more elevation changes and better views. Too bad it's so far away otherwise I'd ride it all the time.