More Northern Ontario gravel

[nick949]

Wednesday: 600+ miles to Sault Ste Marie (the way I went).
Thursday: 382 mile loop including 50 miles of the gravel Ranger Lake Road
Friday: Lazy Day - 306 miles to Sturgeon Falls including the lovely White River Road
Saturday: to Home - an easy 291 miles of slogging, mostly on the Trans-Canada. Home by lunchtime. Problems? None. 72 Moto Guzzi Eldorado - the ultimate usable classic (IMnotsoHO). Why do I do it ? Here's why.

Nick
various locations along the Ranger Lake and Little White River roads

this one is Lake Superior

I look grumpy - I'm not!

oops (edit)- forgot the map

 

[nick949]

actually, here's why..............[video]http://www.adamsheritage.info/images/Aug2016/miss.mp4[/video]

 

[austin]

Great stuff again Nick. How are the two from Tasmania getting on?

 

[nick949]

Last I heard they were heading up the Icefields Parkway. Tough couple. Tough bike - still running well.

N

 

[Lowflyer]

As always, great photos, thanks for posting.

Do you not find riding on that hard packed gravel roads quite tiring ?
If they are the same as the forest tracks up here, I find it easier to go full tilt rather than toddle along.

 

[nick949]

Hi Lowflyer - thanks

I wish they were hard-packed - usually they are loose, sloppy, ball-bearings on concrete with deep patches, unexpected wash-outs, plenty of washboard, linear piles of gravel in the corners and squirmy stuff the rest of the time, especially when the road has been freshly graded (the gravel road rider's nemesis).

I find it......engaging. I really like the need for complete concentration. There's plenty to keep the mind alive. Speed may work for some, but not for me, I'm not a skilled off-road rider - but I am a capable long distance gravel road rider.

The consequences of over-cooking it when you're x00 kms from anywhere and the last vehicle you saw was hours ago are too dire. Many people have lost their lives on some of these northern roads by gradually gaining speed, becoming over-confident and ending up down a 10 foot boulder strewn embankment and into a swamp. With helicopter rescue many, many hours away, it's not advisable. I prefer to hum along at a comfortable speed, keeping my hands loose, my backside in the saddle and my feet firmly on the pegs. When the going gets interesting, it's handy to have some soft torque at one's disposal to straighten the bike, but I've no interest in rooster tails, power slides or wheelies.

Apart from anything else, I actually like being in that environment, not racing through to the next outpost of civilization (a term to be taken with many grains of salt, as Austin will attest).

Nick

 

[Alba]

The consequences of over-cooking it when you're x00 kms from anywhere and the last vehicle you saw was hours ago are too dire.

That's what goes through my mind every time I read your posts

Really do like your adventures and the bike, keep them coming.

 

[nick949]

Lowflyer and Alba et. al.,
I haven't had a chance to do a proper ride report yet, but here's a little video segment to give you an idea of road conditions, scenery etc. The road was freshly graded, so loose on top, hard underneath. I eventually caught up with the grader. Note that traffic isn't much of a problem. Mind you, if I stopped to take a picture, it was almost guaranteed that someone would come along, slow down and ask if I needed help. It actually gets a bit exasperating.

Ignore the speedo and tach. Neither provide any useful information - I usually judge my speed by ear. After over 50,000 miles on this bike, I've got a pretty good idea of its speed (in this case, slowish).

Nick

[video]https://youtu.be/npK1YLvXGN4[/video]

 

[austin]

There must be so many Canadians who never get to see the places you get to Nick. It is a fantastic country with freedoms too ride tracks and trails we in the UK we can only dream about (although there are disadvantages too, like the long cold winter and mosquitoes the size of small aeroplanes). Personally I hated gravel roads when I rode them in Canada and USA, but then I was two-up and heavily loaded. I suspect that over time I would get used to the movement of the bike, the vague feeling of being disconnected from the surface when cornering, the sudden tugs and pulls on the 'bars in soft ground and small ruts and ripples in the surface, and the suddenly dead feeling of riding into a soft sandy patch. I didn't mind the washboard so much, but I suspect "ze panzer" was just flattening it. I do think narrower tyres, (as you probably have on the Guzzi Eldorado Nick) are an advantage on a bike on those roads as they cut into the surface better and don't pick up the small ruts so easily, but I may be wrong on that.

Keep posting stuff it makes me want to go back

 

[Alba]

Cool vid Nick. Just love the idea being in total silence. Mozzies put me off exploring myself, they love me too much.

Keep them coming.

Sent from my rotary phone using fat fingers

 

[nick949]

Cool vid Nick. Just love the idea being in total silence. Mozzies put me off exploring myself, they love me too much.
Keep them coming.

The first two years I was in Canada were sheer misery. The mosquitoes absolutely loved my untainted English blood. Once I had had about 100,000 bikes (I kid you not), I built a level of tolerance and no longer react to their bites. They still irritate but no longer cause welts. I barely notice them now unless they are really exceptionally bad - like this: [video]https://youtu.be/YB1eHO3INS0[/video].

Fortunately, they're usually not that bad, although working in the bush today, the deer flies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_flywere positively pesky.

Nick