A Ride up North - James Bay | Page 21 | GTAMotorcycle.com

A Ride up North - James Bay

Thx. Difficulty with getting east via the north is the timeline. Departing Tuesday and need to be home by late Saturday or noon-ish Sunday at the latest.

But that north route looks interesting, I’ll look closer this eve, thanks.
 
I wondered about time line but maybe it's a good route on it's own without Gaspe
Rouyne-Noranda via PQ route is only 700 km and then just head east 117 til you want to quit that day....lots of camping spots.
It says 14 hr 49 min 1,338 km to Parc Mauricie which is a must do.
Lots of places around Mt Tremblant as well.
 
Will toss it out to the friends who were interested in coming up north and see what they think.

I’m still grasping onto some faint hope the staff at the dam in Radisson will pull a rabbit out of their hat….
 
Well you are half way there to Radisson by heading to North Bay so you can cover any last minute breakthrough on the dam tour.
 
Is the dam tour really worth it to toss out a ride. I never did it, my only regret on the ride was not spending some more time up there in either Chisasibi or Radison.
 
I really regret not taking the tour. Frankly there are more exciting rides and the frost heaves are brutal ( or at least were ) but it is neat to get that far north and across the Arctic Watershed ....the carbou running in the bush beside me freaked me out but my not doing the dam was a mistake.
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MacDoc said:
but my not doing the dam was a mistake.
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I’ve heard this (and the fact the tour is epic) enough times from enough people in enough different places for it to unfortunately be yes, really worth it to toss out the ride. Or postpone rather.

The remoteness and Nunavut thing this a massive appeal, absolutely. But not doing the dam seems like akin to going to Niagara Falls and doing Clifton Hill but not looking at the actual falls. You’re kinda obligated to go back again. And much like my ride to Pickle Lake in 2020, it’s one of those places where I can’t see myself going more than once. So if probably kick myself.
 
MacDoc said:
but it is neat to get that far north and across the Arctic Watershed
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Was just thinking....I've done that bit before lol.

2017. ;)

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Go east and practice your French.
Isn't Pickle Lake north of the watershed? Some days I miss a bigger bike and being able to plan multi-day trips. :(
But then my hip reminds me that might not be a great idea and I look at the map here. 🤪

If you do that northern route to Rouyn....you can have a coffee at Van Houtes, smooze the cuties and decide 900Km to Radisson or go east to Quebec
 
Still sitting here zooming around Google Maps, really torn on what to do. As much as I was seriously looking forward to the JBR, doing it and missing the dam tour seems...stupid. Because I'll regret it. And want to go back. And I'm not sure the overall trip has two rides worth of adventure in it honestly.

Ugh.
Honestly, at this point I'm leaning towards loading up all my **** and heading south into VA/WV and just going full YOLO with no real destination.
Ride 900-1000km south on the Tuesday and see where I end up. Just looking at Google Maps there's lots of squiggly roads all over the place down there that look like they would be enjoyable.

Going back down to the dragon again and riding more of the length of Moonshiners could work as well.
 
I think I'm going to shoot south to somewhere on the bottom end of the Appalacians and then just wander northeast.

Looks like plenty of roads to see and explore, and iOverlander shows lots of motocamping options.
 
Certainly warmer. Keep us posted....I'm really now relying on virtual multi-day rides instead of just heading out for 4-5 days on impulse as I did on my last Lake Superior loop.
I might still do an overnight to Cooktown which is 331 each way. Daintree tho I think today.....dodge the crocs.
Keep that Quebec route in mind tho.
 
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Plans are underway for the adventure this summer....I've been exchanging emails with Hydro Quebec and have clarified when English tours of Lagrande 2 are happening, etc, and have planned around that.

In that planning process it seems like we're going to have to leave a day earlier than originally hoped in order to make the tour, so it's increasingly likely I'm just going to take that week off in it's entirety, meaning that the trip doesn't need to be squeezed into 5 days anymore, but might be elongated to 7-8 days now instead - depart on the Saturday and don't need to be home until the following Sunday.

With the tour happening on a Thursday, does anyone have any suggestions on cool ways to elongate the first part of the trip? The original plan was to go to Matagami on day 1, matagami up the JBR on day 2, tour on day 3 and possibly part way back, then day 4 and 5 the remainder of the way home via whatever interesting route we decided.

Now with basically an extra 3 days I'm trying to come up with somewhere interesting to go to take good advantage of those extra days. Shooting out to the north shore in Quebec and then going up trough Noranda etc has popped into mind and might be the only reasonable option really, but I thought I'd toss it out here.

This all assumes I've got well enough to ride this summer which at this point in time is up in the air, but I'm still making plans anyways as I'm hoping for a positive outcome there.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Plans are underway for the adventure this summer....I've been exchanging emails with Hydro Quebec and have clarified when English tours of Lagrande 2 are happening, etc, and have planned around that.

In that planning process it seems like we're going to have to leave a day earlier than originally hoped in order to make the tour, so it's increasingly likely I'm just going to take that week off in it's entirety, meaning that the trip doesn't need to be squeezed into 5 days anymore, but might be elongated to 7-8 days now instead - depart on the Saturday and don't need to be home until the following Sunday.

With the tour happening on a Thursday, does anyone have any suggestions on cool ways to elongate the first part of the trip? The original plan was to go to Matagami on day 1, matagami up the JBR on day 2, tour on day 3 and possibly part way back, then day 4 and 5 the remainder of the way home via whatever interesting route we decided.

Now with basically an extra 3 days I'm trying to come up with somewhere interesting to go to take good advantage of those extra days. Shooting out to the north shore in Quebec and then going up trough Noranda etc has popped into mind and might be the only reasonable option really, but I thought I'd toss it out here.

This all assumes I've got well enough to ride this summer which at this point in time is up in the air, but I'm still making plans anyways as I'm hoping for a positive outcome there.
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Ahhh can i invite myself?
 
PrivatePilot said:
With the tour happening on a Thursday, does anyone have any suggestions on cool ways to elongate the first part of the trip? The original plan was to go to Matagami on day 1, matagami up the JBR on day 2, tour on day 3 and possibly part way back, then day 4 and 5 the remainder of the way home via whatever interesting route we decided.
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Take the 155 north to saguenay, then the 167 to the 113, then the 113 southwest until you reach a road that connects to the 109. I thought the 155 was really scenic especially the area south of la tuque, reminded me of the southern portion of hwy 129 in ontario. The 167 and 113 are long and not super interesting but still might be a nice ride if you haven't been up that way before.
 
danp said:
Take the 155 north to saguenay, then the 167 to the 113, then the 113 southwest until you reach a road that connects to the 109. I thought the 155 was really scenic especially the area south of la tuque, reminded me of the southern portion of hwy 129 in ontario. The 167 and 113 are long and not super interesting but still might be a nice ride if you haven't been up that way before.
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Doing this sort of thing to extend the route was what was kind of on our radar actually - head east out to Ottawa on 7 and then head north towards Mt Tremblant and weeble-wobble around on all the little highways on the north shore making our way east and then eventually do the loop up to Lac St Jean before heading NW towards Matagami to get the JBR portion of the trip started.

My biggest concern is hitting unpaved roads in the Quebec northern areas. I've had a few adventures before where we got committed 50 km down a road once only headed to a destination to have it turn to dirt, with either a super long backtrack to go around, or a 50-100km of dirt roads to make it back to asphalt again on the "other side". Don't get me wrong, I'm not afraid to ride on dirt or packed gravel, but 30...40....50km of it, especially if the weather has been bad and it's mud in areas... starts to change that equation when you're on a 1000 pound Vtwin cruiser.

With all the different options to get up to the Saguaney / Lac St Jean area, is it only the 155 you've ridden? There's also 175, 381 (which splits further to 169), 170, 172. We'd probably have to choose one and stick with it so I'd like to choose the "best" one lol.

As for having people join us, I'd love to say yes, but I think that this is the type of trip where it's going to be so unpredictable so far as how far we go every day, where we go exactly, where we stay (I think it will be almost exclusively rough motocamping), and what we eat, that it's going to be pretty hard, but I'll chat with the others involved on my side.
 
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