I'm saving the full story for a chapter in my next book but am happy to give you an idea of why I bother to ride those endless miles through endless tree. On some sections, you would have to get very creative. 'I spy with my little eye - a tree?" 'Yep, and there's another one.'
As the Nuovo Falcone is a bit of a slug and I didn't want to feel any pressure to ride beyond it's comfort zone, Norm and I rode up separately and met in Amos.
I stopped at a picnic place in La Verandre Park on the way up. Of course, I had the place to myself.
We camped at a municipal campground just outside Amos. $34 for the site. Quiet and pleasant, although the frogs were loud.
The James Bay Road north of Matagami crosses a number of rivers. I'm sure this one has a name, but there are so many............
This one does though. This is the Rupert River which crosses interior Quebec for hundreds of kilometres. It was a major trading route during the Fur Trade era, and a main highway for the local Cree population for countless generations. This is 'scenic' water only. Much of the original flow is now diverted by Quebec Hydro as part of the massive James Bay Hydro-Electric project. The picture doesn't really convey just how massive and powerful it is even now.
We camped where the North Road crosses the Rupert River (much further upstream) after diverting 10kms north of the North Road to find fuel at the Cree village of Nemaska (pop 700). This is where I was stopped by ruined tubes and tyre first time around.
These gravel roads are interesting to ride on and demand your full concentration. Think - an inch of marbles on concrete. You choose your line by looking for the hard-packed areas.
The softer areas throw the front end around and cause a certain clenching of the nether regions. Then there are the wash-outs and sand pits which come up just as you're starting to gain a bit of confidence and speed...
So it's good to stop and be gob-smacked by the sheer size of the land.
Nick