nick949
Well-Known Member
I'll keep this brief because I'll probably write it up more fully later.
I decided to ride the Nuovo Falcone up the 'North Road' in northern Quebec. To quote the unofficial web site:http://www.jamesbayroad.com/nr/
The North Road (Route du Nord) is an alternate route to reach the lower part of the James Bay Road. It is a remote road that runs from near Chibougamau to km 275 of the James Bay Road. It is 406 km long, and is a modern gravel road with smooth curves and hills, unpaved for its entire length. There is very little traffic -- most of the traffic is trucks. The first 154 km are used by mammoth logging trucks. Use caution! There are numerous warning signs about them. There are no towns on the road except for Nemaska, which is 10 km north of this road at km 300. Please read Driving the North Road before driving this road. This can be a dangerous road.
To get there I had ridden about 1000 kilometres. The NF was running well - just chugging along, eating miles at it's own pace.
I met this group. For some reason they thought what I was planning was a bit odd!
About 240 kilometres north of Chibougamau, I got a flat.
No problem - I had a spare tube, so I fixed it at the side of the road and rode on.
About 20 kilometres later, the second tube blew. Now I was in a bit of a fix. It was 260 kms back to Chibougamau, about 500+ kilometres on to the next town. The First Nations village of Nemiska - with limited services, lies 40 kilometres north of the North Road. I had no patch kit!
So I camped.
It gets light early (about 4AM), so I got up and did a bit of McGyvering, jamming the tyre with spruce boughs as tightly as I could and rode on.
By the time I got to the Rupert River crossing (about 5.30AM) , the tyre was toast. If it had been squirming around before - it was now unrideable.
So I stopped.
And waited.
At 9AM, the first vehicle arrived. Fortunately, it was a crew doing a survey for Hydro Quebec and they had a satellite phone (no cell service for hundreds in kms in any direction).
I called Norm (my riding pal from the Trans-Taiga).
'Norm, I'm stuck half way up the North Road - can you rescue me?". At this point, Norm is 1400 kilometres away in eastern Ontario.
'Sure!'.
I wait................which isn't too bad because the scenery is passable.
Norm drove from 10AM until 2AM, slept for 2 hours, then drove the 230 kms in from the James Bay Road, arriving at the Rupert River at 7AM. We loaded the bike on his trailer then drove the 1400 kilometres home, arriving at 11PM last night. That, ladies and gentlemen, is friendship. Boy, do ever owe him a beer!
There were other options, involving many days delay, the kindness of strangers, shipping tyres to remote destinations etc. -but I'll recount those more fully later.
Nick
PS Just for fun, here's the tally with the UK superimposed. Started out on Wednesday..........home on Saturday night!
I decided to ride the Nuovo Falcone up the 'North Road' in northern Quebec. To quote the unofficial web site:http://www.jamesbayroad.com/nr/
The North Road (Route du Nord) is an alternate route to reach the lower part of the James Bay Road. It is a remote road that runs from near Chibougamau to km 275 of the James Bay Road. It is 406 km long, and is a modern gravel road with smooth curves and hills, unpaved for its entire length. There is very little traffic -- most of the traffic is trucks. The first 154 km are used by mammoth logging trucks. Use caution! There are numerous warning signs about them. There are no towns on the road except for Nemaska, which is 10 km north of this road at km 300. Please read Driving the North Road before driving this road. This can be a dangerous road.
To get there I had ridden about 1000 kilometres. The NF was running well - just chugging along, eating miles at it's own pace.
I met this group. For some reason they thought what I was planning was a bit odd!
About 240 kilometres north of Chibougamau, I got a flat.
No problem - I had a spare tube, so I fixed it at the side of the road and rode on.
About 20 kilometres later, the second tube blew. Now I was in a bit of a fix. It was 260 kms back to Chibougamau, about 500+ kilometres on to the next town. The First Nations village of Nemiska - with limited services, lies 40 kilometres north of the North Road. I had no patch kit!
So I camped.
It gets light early (about 4AM), so I got up and did a bit of McGyvering, jamming the tyre with spruce boughs as tightly as I could and rode on.
By the time I got to the Rupert River crossing (about 5.30AM) , the tyre was toast. If it had been squirming around before - it was now unrideable.
So I stopped.
And waited.
At 9AM, the first vehicle arrived. Fortunately, it was a crew doing a survey for Hydro Quebec and they had a satellite phone (no cell service for hundreds in kms in any direction).
I called Norm (my riding pal from the Trans-Taiga).
'Norm, I'm stuck half way up the North Road - can you rescue me?". At this point, Norm is 1400 kilometres away in eastern Ontario.
'Sure!'.
I wait................which isn't too bad because the scenery is passable.
Norm drove from 10AM until 2AM, slept for 2 hours, then drove the 230 kms in from the James Bay Road, arriving at the Rupert River at 7AM. We loaded the bike on his trailer then drove the 1400 kilometres home, arriving at 11PM last night. That, ladies and gentlemen, is friendship. Boy, do ever owe him a beer!
There were other options, involving many days delay, the kindness of strangers, shipping tyres to remote destinations etc. -but I'll recount those more fully later.
Nick
PS Just for fun, here's the tally with the UK superimposed. Started out on Wednesday..........home on Saturday night!
