Newfoundland via the Translabrador highway

Rotten_Ronnie

Rotten_Ronnie

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It's 4 in the morning and I leave in twenty minutes on a three week tour of Newfoundland via the TLH.My bike is loaded so heavy it feels more like a freight train than a motorcycle. :PI've waited a year for this. :D

Enroute to meet Tat2 and friend:
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Fifth Wheel for breakfast and we're ready to go!
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Safe ride Ron! Can't want to see the pictures and hear about the trip :)
 
Rotten_Ronnie said:
It's 4 in the morning and I leave in twenty minutes on a three week tour of Newfoundland via the TLH.My bike is loaded so heavy it feels more like a freight train than a motorcycle. :PI've waited a year for this. :D
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Have fun, for me I was so excited and nervous at the same time.

Just keep in mind if there is a chance that u will not use an item; and is not a necessity, u can always buy it at a nearby city. For me it was a sweater, towel
 
Have fun and be careful! I rode there for 4 years. The moose are plentiful. So are the potholes and gravel. ;)

You're going to love it. NL is the most beautiful place in the world.
 
I'm on an overloaded KLR with dirt tires. I call it the freight train. We just made Cornwall. :)Moose, deer, dogs, cows, and wee critters are my bane.

Pretrip, packed up and ready to go...
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Rotten_Ronnie said:
I'm on an overloaded KLR with dirt tires. I call it the freight train. We just made Cornwall. :)Moose, deer, dogs, cows, and wee critters are my bane.
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Update us.

Are you gonna be travelling alone? Hope u have a problem free trip
 
Those moose are devious! Especially at dawn and dusk. Please be extra careful on the corners. The severity of them is not marked in the signage. I've had some 'surprises' out there.

And don't forget to do the Irish Loop when you get down that way! Gas stations are few and far between along that route, so gas up. If you're near St. John's on Tuesday, the "bike night" goes on at the TCH and Topsail Rd. Tim Horton's ("Paradise Timmy's" if you need to ask anyone for directions). Pop in, say hello to everyone. :)
 
It's more the fact that the bike nights weren't very memorable. Although the one where *she who shall remain nameless* whispered "*******" whenever she walked by me was pretty funny.
 
Perhaps the psychopath family will be nice to Rotten_Ronnie? So long as he nods and agrees that a Bandit 1200 is "only slightly slower than a Hayabusa." :laughing8:
 
We made Montreal through weekend and construction traffic. Stop and go with 2 KLR's running close to the red temp zone. The bmw rider on an F650GS said we both blew black smoke when traffic cleared and we rolled on.

Aut 20 Est towards Montreal
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Where is this "Irish Loop" you speak of?

My last trip out East I saw the signs for Moose and Deer, but almost hit a cow in rural Nova Scotia. Bessie was quietly chewing her cud with head and shoulders over the lane into mine as I came around a blind corner. I had visions of kinked forks and playing superman over her neck landing in a ditch.

We should make it past Quebec City if we keep up the pace, but the heat is opressive, and we've yet to stop for lunch. :(

We met up with this modded Yamaha R1 at a rest stop on the East side of Montreal
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I'm Rotten Ronnie on those boards as well. ;) If you could send me lat and long in decimal format, I'll punch it into my Garmin and add it to my itinerary. (You'd laugh if you knew what it was. Ride west to east via the rail trail, then ride West again to get off the island, and experience as much as possible with no timelines, or reservations.)

So... We had a great first day on the road, although we stopped a few times and ate up our travel range, as the heat was getting to us, and all that super slab was mind numbing.

A bee decided that a helmet might contain pollen, but BCH4 made it unwelcome and it may or may not be on the hives MIA list.

Tat2 is great to ride with, as you're guaranteed to finish with a clean drivers abstract, but I road raged a bit in Montreal. The traffic there reminded me of downtown Toronto, with fewer exits, although they seem to respect bikes quite a bit more here.

The bikes! There are so many more here than around the GTA. I love the variety. We even waved at scooters today. :) So, our plans of getting a cheap motel on the East side of Quebec city fell through as they were all "complet", so we rode for about forty minutes further East towards Baie-St-Paul on 138 and found a hotel that wanted 180 dollars for three people! No thanks! We headed towards a campground, although they foolishly let me lead with my garmin set to "shortest distance" and of course we ended up on a gravel road in the dusk. AWESOME! The freight train handles well and hooks up really well in the rear, so I'll mind my front tire and enjoy the ride! I suggested a vacant building lot for stealth camping, so we're set for the night! We had varying levels of hunger, but all agreed that food waste should be kept far away from the site, so it's about a 100 feet away under a rock, to take away with us in the morning. The mosquitoes are hardy and the stiff breeze just slows them down. :P

http://maps.BlackBerry.com?lat=47.39403&lon=-70.57039&z=5&address=150+Boul+Monseigneur-de+Laval&city=Baie-Saint-Paul&region=PQ&country=Canada&postalCode=G3Z

Our campsite triangulated via cell tower. It looks like we're five hours behind the lead riders Florenz and GT_Hawk who are currentrly toasting Marsh mallows in Baie Comeau.

Sausage patty, hash browns and toaster pastry is on the menu for this one star resort in the hills along the flood plains of the Great St. Lawrence river.

The scenery east of QC is comparable in parts to the blue ridge parkway. Stunning, along with some great views of the river. We've all really woken up on the hills and curves of 138, and more in store tomorrow! We'll lose cell soon, and will check in when possible. If I haven't already said it, it's going to be a great adventure with some wonderful companions, in fact, the adventure has begun. :D Cheers!
 
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LesMcLuffAlot said:
We need pictures as proof you're not sitting on your couch posting.
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You need pictures because you're sister is going out dancing and can't find another grown up to read the posts for you anymore. :P. J/k I'll see if I can use my yfrog...
 
Safe trip Ron :) the pics on facebook look awesome :D
 
stormcat said:
Have fun and be careful! I rode there for 4 years. The moose are plentiful. So are the potholes and gravel. ;)

You're going to love it. NL is the most beautiful place in the world.
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Have fun. Did a tour on my bike in 2007. Plenty of moose and even had a bear run out in front of me. The pot holes are legendary.

Be safe!
 
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