So, been talking a little bit about this one in a few other threads. Friend and I left early Thursday morning and did the trip....back at around 10:30PM last night, 5KM short of 4000km total, and a heck of an adventure. Thought I'd post a thread for anyone looking for a good long in-province option this summer.
6AM at McDonalds in Whitby getting coffee and heading out. Bike still nice and clean. ?
Didn't take many photos through the first day as we had just over 1100 KM to cover so it was a fairly steady day aside from brief fuel and food stops.
Bumped into @MacDoc a few hours north of Toronto as he was headed off on the same trip albeit at a bit of a slower schedule than us.
The stretch between Sault Ste Marie and Thunder Bay is one of my favourite all time roads in the province - it's easy to forget you're still in Ontario sometimes.
We spent the night at the "Coachhouse motel" in Jackfish Ontario - claim to fame, it's one of the places Terry Fox stayed during his run. Spotlessly clean, awesome super friendly owners, and comfortable beds with 4 pillows. Slept great after a long day. The next morning we soon discovered what I had anticipated would be a problem - finding places to eat. We left the motel and made the 15 minute ride over to Terrace Bay where there was some restaurants, but everything was closed tight. Made a call to the "Hungry Moose" 15 more minutes down the road and got an answer but it sounded like they weren't actually opened yet but when I told the lady we were hungry travellers she said her hubby would get things turned on. We arrived and although it wasn't much to look at, it was a great breakfast and the owner was a nice down to earth fellow.
Day 2 was 850KM or something in that range. Again, a fairly steady day but we did stop for a quick lunch and a visit to the Terry Fox monument in Thunder Bay - a great tribute to a great man. Sadly all the services and bathroom were locked tight but they did have a nice clean porta potty at least in the parking lot.
We arrived in Pickle Lake around 8PM. We were back 1 timezone so it was actually only 7PM and daylight until nearly 11PM our time due to the west and north destination. There was a First Nations checkpoint about 45 minutes south of Pickle Lake asking where you were headed - all indian land everywhere is under heavy travel restrictions right now due to Covid. When we told them we were headed to Pickle Lake versus anywhere else we were sent on our way with a smile and a thank you.
Ironically we saw hardly any police for the entire first half of the trip, but we got pulled over 5KM south of Pickle Lake (Look in the mirror of my friends Spyder in the pic below). 2 very nice (& very young) female OPP officers told use we were speeding but didn't give us any tickets once we got off to chat with them roadside.
They asked us why the heck we'd come to Pickle Lake of all places as a destination - we told them it was all about the adventure and the half joking suggestion "We've been everywhere else", and specifically because it was the furthest north you can ride in Ontario on paved roads. It was at that moment that the officers informed us that they'd paved another 40KM north and the asphalt no longer ended at Pickle Lake. I facepalmed myself so hard they both laughed...so who knows, maybe that's why we didn't get tickets LOL. They asked if we would be riding to the end and we said "probably not". We never did. Made it to Pickle Lake, all good.
You know you're in the north when there's Cree on the road signs.
The motel was "interesting". It wasn't the Hilton, that's for sure, but it was serviceable and mostly clean. AC worked which was good as it was freakishly hot for the north - the locals were dying in the heat. Lots of construction crews staying in town as they were doing a ton of infrastructure work on the highway leading into town.
(Continued in a reply...only allowed 10 photos per post...)
6AM at McDonalds in Whitby getting coffee and heading out. Bike still nice and clean. ?
Didn't take many photos through the first day as we had just over 1100 KM to cover so it was a fairly steady day aside from brief fuel and food stops.
Bumped into @MacDoc a few hours north of Toronto as he was headed off on the same trip albeit at a bit of a slower schedule than us.
The stretch between Sault Ste Marie and Thunder Bay is one of my favourite all time roads in the province - it's easy to forget you're still in Ontario sometimes.
We spent the night at the "Coachhouse motel" in Jackfish Ontario - claim to fame, it's one of the places Terry Fox stayed during his run. Spotlessly clean, awesome super friendly owners, and comfortable beds with 4 pillows. Slept great after a long day. The next morning we soon discovered what I had anticipated would be a problem - finding places to eat. We left the motel and made the 15 minute ride over to Terrace Bay where there was some restaurants, but everything was closed tight. Made a call to the "Hungry Moose" 15 more minutes down the road and got an answer but it sounded like they weren't actually opened yet but when I told the lady we were hungry travellers she said her hubby would get things turned on. We arrived and although it wasn't much to look at, it was a great breakfast and the owner was a nice down to earth fellow.
Day 2 was 850KM or something in that range. Again, a fairly steady day but we did stop for a quick lunch and a visit to the Terry Fox monument in Thunder Bay - a great tribute to a great man. Sadly all the services and bathroom were locked tight but they did have a nice clean porta potty at least in the parking lot.
We arrived in Pickle Lake around 8PM. We were back 1 timezone so it was actually only 7PM and daylight until nearly 11PM our time due to the west and north destination. There was a First Nations checkpoint about 45 minutes south of Pickle Lake asking where you were headed - all indian land everywhere is under heavy travel restrictions right now due to Covid. When we told them we were headed to Pickle Lake versus anywhere else we were sent on our way with a smile and a thank you.
Ironically we saw hardly any police for the entire first half of the trip, but we got pulled over 5KM south of Pickle Lake (Look in the mirror of my friends Spyder in the pic below). 2 very nice (& very young) female OPP officers told use we were speeding but didn't give us any tickets once we got off to chat with them roadside.
They asked us why the heck we'd come to Pickle Lake of all places as a destination - we told them it was all about the adventure and the half joking suggestion "We've been everywhere else", and specifically because it was the furthest north you can ride in Ontario on paved roads. It was at that moment that the officers informed us that they'd paved another 40KM north and the asphalt no longer ended at Pickle Lake. I facepalmed myself so hard they both laughed...so who knows, maybe that's why we didn't get tickets LOL. They asked if we would be riding to the end and we said "probably not". We never did. Made it to Pickle Lake, all good.
You know you're in the north when there's Cree on the road signs.
The motel was "interesting". It wasn't the Hilton, that's for sure, but it was serviceable and mostly clean. AC worked which was good as it was freakishly hot for the north - the locals were dying in the heat. Lots of construction crews staying in town as they were doing a ton of infrastructure work on the highway leading into town.
(Continued in a reply...only allowed 10 photos per post...)
