I was looking for a place for a few nights and use that spot as a base camp from which to explore. I had up to a week to go riding, but then at the last minute, the 2 guys I was going to go with had to back out due to last minute work and family stuff.
As I called and checked online for camping spots somewhere up on the east side of Algonquin, I wasn't having much luck. By the way - this is a pretty good website for looking up a lot of campground and parks: with real time availability showing on the site: Camping In Ontario
Places that had camping sites available only had sites close to the main road or washrooms or garbage area. Provincial parks are all booked up. I could have done some crown land camping, but I also wanted a place that had hot showers and I wanted to set up beside a river or lake. Finally stumbled across a place called Covered Bridge Park about 20 minutes east of Barry's Bay. It's a privately run place that's mostly RV and seasonal trailers, but they do have some cabins and tent spots. I called and spoke with the owner Andrew, who said he had a nice quiet spot for me down by the water. He also rides (a KLR) and will allow 2 bikes/tents on one site to split costs. $55/night w/ water and electrical - cash only.
The plan is to leave after rush hour at the GTAM approved start time of 9am. It's only 700km today, so I should be able to get to the camp site around 5pm.
On the way up I'm going to take the long way round and check out a few roads near North Bay I've been wanting to ride, but never get around to. Also wanted to ride the Trans Canada along the north side of Algonquin Park, because it's another area I never really venture to.
I decide to ride the east side of the 518 and Chetwynd Road. I rode this area about 5 years ago and most of Chetwynd was under construction for repaving. Well this time most of it had been repaved and it was amazing and had me thinking that this might be one of the best roads in Ontario. Just as I finished that thought, there was about a 5-10km stretch of hard packed dirt before going back to pavement again. Still an amazing road and a gorgeous day to be out on the bike!
The ride along the the 533 near Mattawa was pretty nice. Pavement was a bit bumpy in spots, but it was pretty quiet and had a nice flow to the road. I wanted to go into Brent, on the north side of Algonquin Park, and know that the road is a twisty gravel road for around 40km. My Mom's long time friend runs the Algonquin Park Outfitters store there, so I thought it would nice to pop in and surprise her. But I forgot to gas up in Mattawa when I should have and then by the time I was getting close to the start of the Brent Road, I realized that I didn't even have 80km of gas left. Next time!
So now I've decided to head right to the campsite and get my tent set up. It's probably been close to 10 years since I've done any sort of motocamping. As I pull up, I see they actually have a covered bridge!
And the spot they have for setting up the tent is great.
It's now 5pm and I've already got my tent and everything set up. It's supposed to rain pretty hard tomorrow night and for the next couple days after, so my sunny riding weather is limited. Part of my route tomorrow is riding through Calabogie, but that will suck if it's wet out. I decide to make a quick rip out to Calabogie right now instead. And I'm so glad I did, because ever since Centennial Lake Road towards Calabogie was repaved a few years ago, the thought pops into my mind that this might be one of the best roads in Ontario.
I make it back to the campsite around 8;30pm and just as I take my helmet off, a couple who arrived after me and are camping in the spot next to me, come over to say that they have just started up the campfire and I'm welcome to join. That's one of the awesome things about solo motocamping that I've always experienced. People always come up to strike up a conversation and just check in. I end up hanging out with them until around 10:30 just talking about life. They were a nice couple from Brantford who plan to hear a naturalist speaker give a presentation on wolves at Bonnechere Provincial Park tomorrow night. I pass out by 11 so I can wake up early to maximize the last dry day of nice weather.
I wake up in the morning and there's a light mist over the water.
The plan for today is to check out some roads in Quebec that I haven't been on before - mostly the roads leading to and from Mont Laurier. I've ridden a fair bit through Quebec but always passed this area over and headed around Mont Tremblant, so here's hoping this area isn't as bumpy!
The morning off the covered bridge is looking pretty nice too.
I sense this is going to be a good day of riding.
It's pretty chilly in the morning, so I have my heated jacket on which I'm very thankful for! I recall there was a thread somewhere on ADVrider about covered bridges. I never felt any attraction to or even noticed covered bridges before, but realized it must be a thing for some people, and now I'm going to look out for them when I'm out riding.
And lo and behold, I come across this one in Quebec.
And then an hour or two later, I come across another one.
Stopped for a break somewhere, and this one just needs a roof to count.
And one more.
As I'm out riding near Mont Laurier, I stop to check the weather forecast. It's supposed to start raining very heavy around 8pm, basically everywhere from Mississauga to Barry's Bay. And it will continue raining all day tomorrow, which isn't going to make for a fun day of riding. And then my tent is going to be all wet and that's going to suck when packing it up. So I make the call to see if I can make it back to the campsite by 3:30pm so I can have everything packed up and head home for 8pm. It will be a tight schedule to make, but then again, it's for times like these that I got rid of the 650 VStrom and bought a liter bike.
I manage to make it back to the campsite by 2:30! Chow some food down and get all my gear packed up and loaded in a record 30 minutes!
The skies are cloudy here already and my wife has texted me to say please be careful in the tent, because there's a call for very heavy storms to be passing through this evening. Little does she know that I'm coming home tonight and I ride on Michelin's, so a little thunderstorm can't stop me.
I leave the Covered Bridge Park at 3pm and direct my GPS to send me home along the fastest route possible. It shows that I will be home by 7:30pm which is perfect. But unfortunately that means taking the most direct and boring route home, which means error 404 page not found. Instead I decide to take the fun way home and one by one I hit up Old Barry's Bay Road, Elephant Lake Road, Essonville Line, Glamorgan Rd and the 507. Each time I go away from the direct route the GPS tells me is the fastest, it's adds a few more minutes. But I'm saving some time by riding my pace, so it kind of balances out.
While I'm on Old Barry's Bay Road, I think to myself this might be one of the best roads in the whole province. When I make it over to Glamorgan Road, the majority of it has been freshly repaved and it really is one of the the very best roads in the whole province. That's 180km of roads from Old Barry's Bay to the bottom of the 507 that is absolutely amazing fun to ride.
I finally make it to the 407 and by the time I get to the Pickering area, it's starting to rain and it's only 7pm. The clouds have become so dark that it looks like night out. And there's lightening and thunder and then the torrential downpour starts. I have to give some credit to the Michelin Road 6's here - what an incredible wet weather tire. The amount of traction and grip in heavy downpours is nothing short of incredible - it almost felt like riding on dry roads.
By the time I get home, I hop off the bike and take a quick look back at it and... no bugs! The rain has washed my bike clean. I take my gear off and it's also spotless, while just an hour ago it was covered in bikes and dust from all the dirt roads.
It was an amazing ride overall, with amazing weather and lot's of new roads for me. Covered around 2200km over the 2 days and the bike now needs some overdue maintenance!
It would be pretty neat to do a ride checking out various covered bridges in Ontario (near twisty road areas of course).
As I called and checked online for camping spots somewhere up on the east side of Algonquin, I wasn't having much luck. By the way - this is a pretty good website for looking up a lot of campground and parks: with real time availability showing on the site: Camping In Ontario
Places that had camping sites available only had sites close to the main road or washrooms or garbage area. Provincial parks are all booked up. I could have done some crown land camping, but I also wanted a place that had hot showers and I wanted to set up beside a river or lake. Finally stumbled across a place called Covered Bridge Park about 20 minutes east of Barry's Bay. It's a privately run place that's mostly RV and seasonal trailers, but they do have some cabins and tent spots. I called and spoke with the owner Andrew, who said he had a nice quiet spot for me down by the water. He also rides (a KLR) and will allow 2 bikes/tents on one site to split costs. $55/night w/ water and electrical - cash only.
The plan is to leave after rush hour at the GTAM approved start time of 9am. It's only 700km today, so I should be able to get to the camp site around 5pm.
On the way up I'm going to take the long way round and check out a few roads near North Bay I've been wanting to ride, but never get around to. Also wanted to ride the Trans Canada along the north side of Algonquin Park, because it's another area I never really venture to.
I decide to ride the east side of the 518 and Chetwynd Road. I rode this area about 5 years ago and most of Chetwynd was under construction for repaving. Well this time most of it had been repaved and it was amazing and had me thinking that this might be one of the best roads in Ontario. Just as I finished that thought, there was about a 5-10km stretch of hard packed dirt before going back to pavement again. Still an amazing road and a gorgeous day to be out on the bike!
The ride along the the 533 near Mattawa was pretty nice. Pavement was a bit bumpy in spots, but it was pretty quiet and had a nice flow to the road. I wanted to go into Brent, on the north side of Algonquin Park, and know that the road is a twisty gravel road for around 40km. My Mom's long time friend runs the Algonquin Park Outfitters store there, so I thought it would nice to pop in and surprise her. But I forgot to gas up in Mattawa when I should have and then by the time I was getting close to the start of the Brent Road, I realized that I didn't even have 80km of gas left. Next time!
So now I've decided to head right to the campsite and get my tent set up. It's probably been close to 10 years since I've done any sort of motocamping. As I pull up, I see they actually have a covered bridge!
And the spot they have for setting up the tent is great.
It's now 5pm and I've already got my tent and everything set up. It's supposed to rain pretty hard tomorrow night and for the next couple days after, so my sunny riding weather is limited. Part of my route tomorrow is riding through Calabogie, but that will suck if it's wet out. I decide to make a quick rip out to Calabogie right now instead. And I'm so glad I did, because ever since Centennial Lake Road towards Calabogie was repaved a few years ago, the thought pops into my mind that this might be one of the best roads in Ontario.
I make it back to the campsite around 8;30pm and just as I take my helmet off, a couple who arrived after me and are camping in the spot next to me, come over to say that they have just started up the campfire and I'm welcome to join. That's one of the awesome things about solo motocamping that I've always experienced. People always come up to strike up a conversation and just check in. I end up hanging out with them until around 10:30 just talking about life. They were a nice couple from Brantford who plan to hear a naturalist speaker give a presentation on wolves at Bonnechere Provincial Park tomorrow night. I pass out by 11 so I can wake up early to maximize the last dry day of nice weather.
I wake up in the morning and there's a light mist over the water.
The plan for today is to check out some roads in Quebec that I haven't been on before - mostly the roads leading to and from Mont Laurier. I've ridden a fair bit through Quebec but always passed this area over and headed around Mont Tremblant, so here's hoping this area isn't as bumpy!
The morning off the covered bridge is looking pretty nice too.
I sense this is going to be a good day of riding.
It's pretty chilly in the morning, so I have my heated jacket on which I'm very thankful for! I recall there was a thread somewhere on ADVrider about covered bridges. I never felt any attraction to or even noticed covered bridges before, but realized it must be a thing for some people, and now I'm going to look out for them when I'm out riding.
And lo and behold, I come across this one in Quebec.
And then an hour or two later, I come across another one.
Stopped for a break somewhere, and this one just needs a roof to count.
And one more.
As I'm out riding near Mont Laurier, I stop to check the weather forecast. It's supposed to start raining very heavy around 8pm, basically everywhere from Mississauga to Barry's Bay. And it will continue raining all day tomorrow, which isn't going to make for a fun day of riding. And then my tent is going to be all wet and that's going to suck when packing it up. So I make the call to see if I can make it back to the campsite by 3:30pm so I can have everything packed up and head home for 8pm. It will be a tight schedule to make, but then again, it's for times like these that I got rid of the 650 VStrom and bought a liter bike.
I manage to make it back to the campsite by 2:30! Chow some food down and get all my gear packed up and loaded in a record 30 minutes!
The skies are cloudy here already and my wife has texted me to say please be careful in the tent, because there's a call for very heavy storms to be passing through this evening. Little does she know that I'm coming home tonight and I ride on Michelin's, so a little thunderstorm can't stop me.
I leave the Covered Bridge Park at 3pm and direct my GPS to send me home along the fastest route possible. It shows that I will be home by 7:30pm which is perfect. But unfortunately that means taking the most direct and boring route home, which means error 404 page not found. Instead I decide to take the fun way home and one by one I hit up Old Barry's Bay Road, Elephant Lake Road, Essonville Line, Glamorgan Rd and the 507. Each time I go away from the direct route the GPS tells me is the fastest, it's adds a few more minutes. But I'm saving some time by riding my pace, so it kind of balances out.
While I'm on Old Barry's Bay Road, I think to myself this might be one of the best roads in the whole province. When I make it over to Glamorgan Road, the majority of it has been freshly repaved and it really is one of the the very best roads in the whole province. That's 180km of roads from Old Barry's Bay to the bottom of the 507 that is absolutely amazing fun to ride.
I finally make it to the 407 and by the time I get to the Pickering area, it's starting to rain and it's only 7pm. The clouds have become so dark that it looks like night out. And there's lightening and thunder and then the torrential downpour starts. I have to give some credit to the Michelin Road 6's here - what an incredible wet weather tire. The amount of traction and grip in heavy downpours is nothing short of incredible - it almost felt like riding on dry roads.
By the time I get home, I hop off the bike and take a quick look back at it and... no bugs! The rain has washed my bike clean. I take my gear off and it's also spotless, while just an hour ago it was covered in bikes and dust from all the dirt roads.
It was an amazing ride overall, with amazing weather and lot's of new roads for me. Covered around 2200km over the 2 days and the bike now needs some overdue maintenance!
It would be pretty neat to do a ride checking out various covered bridges in Ontario (near twisty road areas of course).
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