Ride Report - 2024 Nouveaux Angleterre et Gaspe

[shanekingsley]

This is a trip I've wanted to do for about 20 years and finally made it happen. If you have never been to Gaspe or the New England states for a fall colours ride - go do it!

Highlights: 5400km/7 days
Route: ON, NY, VT, NH, ME, QC, ON
Highlights: My 22 year old bike never skipped a beat. Amazing fall colours, epic scenery and very little rain.

First off - a little background.
I was supposed to ride to Gaspe in early August. Trip was booked and everything was ready, but a few days before the trip, I tore my right calf muscle - felt and heard a pop in the calf and immediately couldn't weight bear on it. I've done some stupid things to keep riding on trips before, but this seemed like a recipe for disaster since I couldn't support the bike at a stoplight for at least a week. With that, the Gaspe summertime trip was cancelled and I just took that week off to rehab my calf as fast as possible.

So next, I planned a trip to the Smoky Mountains for the first week of October. This would be a fall colours ride and stitching together the very best of the best twisty backroads between Ontario and the Smoky's. We were planning for 3 days to get down there, 1 day of riding around and then 3 days to get home, never riding the same twisty road twice. Then 2 days before the trip, Hurricane Helene swept through the southeast and caused a huge amount of destruction across some areas of the Appalachians. It would have been fine to go to Deals Gap and ride the northwest area of the Smoky's, but 4 days of our route riding there and back was strictly in the areas affected by landslides, road washouts and some towns being wiped right off the map. It was going to take a lot of time the day before our trip to figure out new places to stay, twisty roads to ride and much more. Plus I still had to check over my bike, swap both tires, do an oil change, and replace my broken choke cable the day before our trip.





While trying to reconfigure our route to make the Smoky Mountains trip work, I remembered that I couldn't go to Gaspe this summer and took a quick look online at what the fall colours there look like and it looked amazing. So then I checked the weather forecast, it was calling for 6 days of sun! It would have been around 15deg vs the 25deg in the Smoky's, but with very little rain, so it sounded promising. Had a quick chat with my riding buddy the day before we were to leave and we made the decision to go to Gaspe instead. Since I had already planned the summer Gaspe trip, I still had the routes mapped out, so it took much less effort to completely change our trip plans at the last minute.

Day 1: Mississauga to Lincoln, New Hampshire



I'm doing this trip with Zoran. We met a couple years ago when he was selling a bike and I went to go look at it. We ended up talking for a while about bikes and are like-minded, but we didn't keep in touch. Then this summer I was inquiring around to see if anyone was interested in riding excessively long days of twisty roads and maybe going to Deals Gap and he chimed in that he was up for it and likes that kind of riding. He's riding a 2015 Yamaha FJ-09 and I'm riding a 2002 Yamaha FZ1, so at least we only need to find a Yammie dealer if we have bike issues. In the GTA, the leaves hadn't begun to change colour, so fingers crossed we would time this trip right and see some nice colours out east. Bon Voyage!

We cross over at Gananoque and head into the Adirondacks. I like this area for riding with it's big scenery and fast sweeping curves along very good pavement. There's many little towns along the way with all kinds of outdoor things to do and really nice accommodations. The fall colours in the Adirondacks are much further ahead than in the GTA. This is somewhere near Tupper Lake, NY and was looking like what we might see in the Kawartha's or Muskoka.

We continue east along #3 in the Adirondacks making our way over through Lake Placid. My wife did her first Ironman competition here and we've also been back for a moto-camping trip. Right here we're starting to see that the elevation changes are becoming more pronounced and the fall colours are also starting to show more reds and oranges.

If you ever go this way, one particular road to check out is Tracy Rd, which is southeast of Lake Placid and close to the Vermont Border. It has flawless pavement combined with very tight corners and zero traffic. It's also a bit unique because there is very little elevation change on this road. It is flat out amazing and if we had more time I would have run it a few more times.



We make our way over the Vermont Border and the scenery is starting to get better and better. The roads are not very tight and twisty, but instead they are fast flowing sweepers with huge scenery all around.

One thing worth mentioning is that my last experience riding in Vermont was that the roads were worse than Ontario for bumps and frost heaves. There were nice curvy roads, but the pavement quality was so poor I never wanted to come back. Well on this trip the roads we took through Vermont were much better than my last trip and they were really smooth and in many cases completely flawless. The overall scenery and fall colours in Vermont is also spectacular, so I'd say the area is totally worth exploring for a weekend ride or more.

We make our way over to the Stonybrook Motel and Lodge in Franconia NH. It's a small little motel with simple rooms and away from town, so it was nice and quiet here. We planned this spot, because it's exactly 2 hrs away from Mount Washington and we wanted to ride to the top in the morning. The auto road there opens tomorrow at 9am, so if we leave at 7am, we'll be one of the first to ride up. We had dinner at a local Thai restaurant which was delicious and it was a great first day to the trip!

Next Up: New Hampshire, Maine and over to New Brunswick!

 

[thwak]

What a great write up Shane! Although we wouldn't expect anything less from you now. Your efforts are always appreciated.

 

[shanekingsley]

Day 2: Lincoln New Hampshire to Woodstock, New Brunswick



One of the nice things about this trip is that the riding distances were shorter than my normal trips. Some of it is due to reduced daylight in the fall, but it was also so we could have ample time for stopping anytime we saw something interesting. We were still trying to start each day by 7am latest, because the early mornings can be a really beautiful time to be on the roads with the sun just starting to come up, light fog showing up around various corners or at different elevations and next to no traffic. I saw a deer jump out and run across the road first thing in the morning, so that was a very friendly reminder to take it easy. Right away we can see that we're heading toward some higher elevations:

I should note that the mornings were pretty cold. I had my heated gear and it was cranked. Zoran has a much higher cold tolerance than me, but his summer riding gloves were not good for these temps. Lucky for him I had brought 3 pairs of gloves and one of them was a Held Satu Goretex pair. We're both wearing thermal base layers and I can't say enough how much I love riding with heated gear - 14 years on the same jacket liner and gloves (Warm'nSafe) used over hundreds of thousands of km's and never an issue.

Leaving our motel we head directly south on on a highway called #93. It reminded me of the 93 between Banff and Radium Hot Springs. We were both blown away by how beautiful it was with the mountains on either side, and nothing but incredible views all around us. The fall colours were more vibrant and plentiful than anything I have seen in Ontario. I was even out this way and riding in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine in 2014, but that trip rained almost every day, so the colours were very muted. This morning we were treated to awesome views:

From here we ride the Kancamagus Highway. It's a marvellous piece of road in New Hampshire with buttery smooth pavement, tight twisties mixed with crisp sweepers and meanders between dense tree cover on either side to wide open views. If you ever visit New Hampshire - ride the Kancamagus!

After the Kanc we make our way over to Mount Washington to drive the auto road to the top. I had read that if you get there early and there is a line of cars, they will let bikes go to front. We got there before 9am, but they must have opened the gates up a bit early, and had just started letting vehicles in. There were a couple GS riders in front of us and a few very large SUV's who all got to head up several minutes before us. We paid our $35US each for the ride up and I kept thinking I'm nuts for paying $35 to ride up an 8 mile hill. At the base of the mountain is some extra beautiful mixed deciduous and coniferous forest. It was super vibrant.

The ride to the top is along a narrow 2 lane road with many bumpy sections in mid corner. Some areas were really nicely paved and others were definitely not. I made the mistake of looking over the edge while riding up and immediately had this strange urge like I was going to throw my bike off the edge. Note to self - don't look over the edge while riding up or down the road. We stop at a pull off about 3/4 of the way up and by the time we are already above the clouds and it sometimes felt like I could just ride off the mountain and scoot across the clouds.

It's a very slow speed limit to the top and no passing allowed - Zoran laughed at the lady when she told us the rules and she smiled back and said have fun. Very quickly we caught and blew past the GS riders, mid-corner while looking over the edge... There's a restaurant and gift shop at the top among other things. They have some very nice souvenir toques, so I bought one for my wife. On the toque it also had their NH license plate slogan (i.e. Ontario - Yours to Discover), but theirs is "New Hampshire - Live Free or Die". After doing the ride up and down and enjoying both very much, I felt a lot better about parting with $35US to ride it, especially because it was mostly sunny and we could see for miles around us.

From here we make our way over to Evans Notch. It's a road called the #113 and moves back and forth along the border of New Hampshire and Maine. It is super fun with a great mix of tight corners and fast sweepers that move between thick forest and huge open scenery. At this very spot we stopped for a quick break, Zoran turns to me and says he had no idea Vermont and New Hampshire would be this beautiful and he's not quite sure how Gaspe will be able to match the roads we have already ridden and the scenery we have seen. Little do we know...

When I was here in 2014, I happened to ride a road nearby that had an 17% slope and the road was like this in a straight line for at least 5km. I thought it was Evans Notch, but we never saw it when we just rode it. Once we got to our motel, I looked at my old ride report from that trip and found that it was called Hurricane Mountain Road and was right off Evans Notch. Doh!



After this we make our way over to our motel in Woodstock, New Brunswick, which is just across the Maine border. I was expecting Maine to be very similar to New Hampshire for scenery and interesting roads, but found the roads not as curvy and the tree canopy was more coniferous, which meant much less fall colours. But we did take the #2 all the way over to Bangor, so maybe other parts of the state are better for riding.

The border crossing into New Brunswick was super easy - there was one guy in a booth and no one else there. Even the border crossing at Gananoque was super easy, with no line-ups there and the border agent calling us both to the booth at the same time to move us along.

After checking into our motel, we whip into town. We asked a lady working at the local cannabis shop for suggestions on a good place to eat, because people who work at cannabis shops are always hungry right? She told us to go to a specific local pub, because they had really good food and it wasn't typical pub grub. So we checked it out and it was a typical pub and the food was super garbage. But at least we now had some cannabis to help us forget the trauma.

Strangely enough, the day before we left for this trip, when we still thought we were going to the Smoky Mountains, my wife asked me if I had ever been to Woodstock. And I'm like I wasn't even born yet. But there was another one that happened in 1994 for the 25th anniversary that a few of my buddies went to as a spur of the moment trip and ate some things that allowed them to connect with aliens for a couple days straight. But now, I can officially say I stayed at Woodstock!

Next up: New Brunswick and the start of the Gaspe coast!

 

[Lightcycle]

Wonderful descriptions and great pics. Sad we could not meet up but looks like you had a great time!

 

[shanekingsley]

Wonderful descriptions and great pics. Sad we could not meet up but looks like you had a great time!

Thanks! I thought about you guys often on this ride and it was a difficult decision to not go south and catch up.

But yes - it was a great trip and I am glad that I finally experienced Gaspe.

 

[MacDoc]

Good memories and pics Shane - especially Mount Washington and Gaspe with the kid.
BTW FWIW the entire BRP is closed according to Stromtrooper site. You made a wise choice of ride.
Seems a migration to the Yammie tribe. Happy with my little MT-03. Bit more go than the Honda 300.

 

[shanekingsley]

Day 3: Woodstock New Brunswick to Carleton Sur Mer, Quebec



I've never been to New Brunswick before so I was strangely looking forward to this, because I thought it would be mostly flat and farmland type stuff, but also I vaguely recall reading that there were some hills here and some decent roads for cruising around. We've got a pretty glorious day for weather ahead of us (21deg & sun), so we were really looking forward to see what's here.

New Brunswick had pretty nice fall colours and elevation changes, which reminded me of Northern Ontario.

Now that we are back in Canada, we decide to look for a local dispensary. Lo and behold we find Hwy 420 leading to Red Bank. This must be it.

We hug a nice backroad along a river up toward Plaster Rock. From there we head east to Miramichi which is about 130km between gas stops.
Then we hug the water for a bit to make our way over to Miscou Island, where there is a lighthouse we want to see.

For $6 you can go to the top and we do just that. It's a really cool spot and from here we can see the Gaspe Peninsula since it's a pretty clear day.

After leaving Miscou Island we now follow the coastline over to the Quebec border. As we get closer the coastal road has increasingly more interesting views and really nice beaches. This spot was a former Irish settlement.

The closer we get to the Quebec and border we can start to see the Gaspe peninsula landform rising up. We both felt it was a really great way to arrive to the area, because we gradually got to get closer to the Gaspe area and see it from a distance as a tiny ridge above the water. As we slowly rode hundreds of km's towards it, it just kept getting bigger and bigger.

It's getting pretty late and since we've stopped a fair bit today, we are behind schedule and going to be arriving at our motel in Carleton Sur Mer after dark. This pic is from the final stretch of New Brunswick as we are about to get into Quebec and start making our way east along the Gaspe peninsula. The elevation changes keep getting bigger and the views more stunning. Tomorrow is going to be a great day on the bikes!

Next up: Riding around Gaspe!

 

[MacDoc]

Mind the moose.

 

[Lightcycle]

Lovely pics! Looks like you had great weather.

Keep it coming!

 

[shanekingsley]

Day 4: Gaspe Loop



Yesterday Zoran and I were talking about the route for today, which was to ride the interior roads of Gaspe and also ride the coastal route clockwise, keeping the water on our left. And then on our route home, we'll ride it counterclockwise with the water on our right and just skip in the interior roads. This way we could get a sense for what was to come on our ride home and also if the weather was not as good on our trip home, at least we would see the area twice, for pics and also to take note of spots to stop at.

One thing to highlight is that when we arrived at our motel last night, it was pretty late and already totally dark out, which is not the best when there signs everywhere that say "Night Danger - Moose". As we are in the motel office checking in, Zoran turns to me and says his brain is not really working, since we have stopped riding and are off the bikes. We agree that sometimes this happens with spirited riding, because your mind is so focused and "on" while riding as we problem solve and constantly evaluate the road and conditions around us, that when we finally stop for the night, the brain just needs to shut down and rest for a bit.

Another thing to mention is that Zoran is very much into martial arts and working out. So 3 days of riding with me was starting to take it's toll on him and he felt like he needed the day off to rest and have a day to relax, work out, and just chill out. He tells me that given how his brain and body are doing he's going to take the day off. Sounds good to me and I always respect when a rider knows their limits and rides within it. After checking in the owner tells us that our rooms are out back and down the hill, so we'll be facing the water. Sweet!

I wake up the following morning bright and early and sure enough, the view of the water is sweet! Ican see that I'm going to get a nice sunrise over the Gulf of St Lawrence:

I start heading east and pretty soon I'll make my way north along the #299 and through Gaspesie National Park. It's supposed to be a cloudy day, but with next to no rain and around 15deg. The road hugs a river for roughly the first half of the 140km interior section. There's a good amount of fall colours here and it's a really nice scenic ride. with good quality pavement and awesome views all around.

I arrive to the top of the #299 at St Anne Des Monts and turn right to head east and start some of the south coast of the St Lawrence Seaway. Last year I had ridden the entire north coast of the St Lawrence out to Natashquan, so I'm pretty stoked to ride the south coast towards Gaspe this year. It has really nice pavement overall with huge wide open views of the water and big sweepers. Sometimes the road cuts through a hill and other times it curves through small fishing towns. For the vast majority of it, the speed limit is 90km/hr and when you are riding outside of the small towns, many vehicles are moving closer to 120km/hr. Parts of it actually reminded me of the California coast and I kept being reminded that we are really blessed to be able to experience places of beauty like this in Canada.

Seaside towns dot the coast - it gets so windy on the north coast - they must have some very cold winters!

This trip for me is about 2 main things - I wanted to ride and see the Gaspe area and I wanted to see fall colours of this area. When we rode through the New England states on our way here, we were blown away by the amazing fall colours in Vermont and New Hampshire, so it was going to be pretty tough to beat that in Quebec.

So now I've seen a fair bit of the coastline and turn back to the interior to ride the #198 towards Murdochville. I'm pretty excited to ride this section because I had heard good things about it. About 20km inland from the coast, I come around a corner and get treated to this!

I make my way over to and through Forillon National Park and to the town of Gaspe. It looks super nice and I make a note that tomorrow we want to stop here for lunch and relax for a bit. That's Gaspe in the distance:

Gaspe Lighthouse:

From here it's time to head over to Perce. I had checked the low/high tide timing online and knew that I would be getting there at high tide today. Tomorrow morning we would be getting there at low tide, so if we had enough time, we could walk out to le rock! Sometimes everything just kind of comes together in a moment and we can capture it in a photo. For me, this was one of those moments.

It's now getting close to 2pm and I still have a fair distance to go. I've stopped a fair bit for pictures and to enjoy the scenery, but I haven't eaten anything. On my way back to our motel, I stop in Chandler to grab a sub from Subway. After lunch I head off and then stop about 10km from our motel to fuel up and and reach into my pocket and no wallet! I look around on the ground and don't see it anywhere. I get off the bike and look in my top case and don't see it in there either. Tabernac! The last time I used it was to pay for my sub 130km ago, and when leaving the Subway I had opened up my top case to put my chocolate chip cookies in there. Normally I always keep my jacket pockets fully zipped up once I've started riding, but this time I had forgotten for whatever reason, so it might have fallen out somewhere along the last 130km. I check my pockets and I have about $20 in change which is enough to fill up my tank. I decide to do just that and then go back to the motel and can call the Subway to see if my wallet is there. If they don't have it, I guess Zoran will be my sugar daddy for the rest of this trip!

Next up: No idea since I don't have my wallet!

 

[voyageur]

Nice pictures and write up Shane! I was very curious about Gaspe and I just got back from a trip around the Maritimes.

I find myself checking my pockets over and over to ensure my phone and wallet are in place while riding. So, I hope your situation resolves with a positive twist...

 

[shanekingsley]

Day 5: Carleton Sur Mer to Rimouski


Last night I called the Subway and they don't have my wallet. I was there for lunch around 3pm, but when I called a few hours later it was all different staff working there, so I decide that tomorrow morning I'll ride over and see if the same day shift staff from yesterday are there. In the meantime, I place a temp hold on my credit cards and Zoran being the great guy he is, tells me that he'll cover the rest of my trip if needed. We've already paid for our accommodations, so it's just gas and food expenses remaining.

It also turns out there is a TD branch in Gaspe and we are passing right though there, so if the Subway doesn't have my wallet, I can always pop into the TD there to get a new debit card.

Last night we also ate at a great sushi restaurant in town - the food and restaurants on this trip have been really good and the food tastes even better when Zoran is paying. Carleton Sur Mer is a nice little town and I would definitely go back for a weekend stay with my wife. Yesterday since Zoran took the day off from riding, he decided to walk 10km into town and the 10km back. He bought a bunch of food from the grocery store and made us really yummy sandwiches for the day. I'm not sure I can ever go for a solo ride again!

We're ready to head out in the morning and the fog is very thick!

But then it clears and we have nothing but bright sunshine and blue skies for the rest of the day!

We stop into the Subway in Chandler QC a short while later and lucky for me the same lady who was working yesterday is there this morning! She says she looked all over and unlucky pour moi, she did not see my wallet. Who knows, I might have even tossed it into the garbage at Subway with my food tray... No big deal - I can get a new bank card in Gaspe, so off we go.

Before getting to Gaspe, we're going to ride past Perce and this is the first time on this trip for Zoran to see it. Riding in this counter clockwise direction with the water on our right, we come across this sweet view of le rock.

The town of Perce:

It's low tide now, but since we are going to have an extended stop at the bank in Gaspe and anticipate more picture stops along the way, we decide to forego the walk to the rock. But it would have been a cool walk to do!

We hop back on and make our way over to Gaspe. By now it's over 20deg with no wind and pure sun. From starting the day off with my heated gear fully cranked in the morning, to just a t-shirt under my jacket now, it's turning out to be another amazing day on the bikes. A final pic of le rock in the distance, taken from the other side of the bay:

Approaching Gaspe and more stunning views everywhere:

Once in Gaspe we break for a yummy sandwich lunch and I hit the bank. Glad I had my passport, which made getting a new bank card super easy.

Gaspe is a really nice town and just another spot that we could bring our wives back here for a weekend or more. From here we begin riding along the coast of Forillon National Park, although for a short section it cuts inland and there are some really nice twists and turns through there with very nice pavement. Note that the yellow cautionary speed limit signs they put in Quebec are much more accurate than in Ontario. It's as if in Ontario the yellow signs are for trucks and in Quebec they are intended for cars.

And more amazing displays of fall colours!

Now we are back to the coast and the views along this stretch between Forillon and St Anne Des Monts are really beautiful. It's very windy and much colder on this side of the coast, but very rugged and beautiful:

We hug the coastline all the way over to Rimouski, staying at a motel and campground about 5km west of the town. It's a really nice place with a super friendly owner and lot's to do. We check the weather and tomorrow is going to be our first day of rain! I'm really looking forward to it, because an east coast Gaspe trip would not be complete without getting soaked at some point!

While we digest our sandwiches and contemplate yet another amazing day on the bikes, the pouring rain starts!

Next up: It all depends on Mother Nature!

 

[danp]

Great ride report, looking forward to what happens next.

 

[sburns]

Fantastic ride report, enjoyed all the photos. Might have to do a run out that way sometime.
Bummer about the wallet, hopefully that doesn't become a headache.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Awesome ride report - it's neat looking at your photos and being able to identify the exact places as I've been there quite a few times - we've been around the Gaspe loop about 5 times now, the latest being just this last summer for that matter. Never on the bikes however, always with our camper.

I'd like to do it on the bike some day, however, but after our last trip out through the bulk of the Gaspesie loop, including Perce and Gaspe proper, there I was a little turned off on the increasing hatred towards RV'ers, so it left a bad taste in my mouth. One of the charming things we loved so much about the peninsula in years past out there was that you could just stop at the multitude of rest areas or parking areas and boondock for the night before moving on the next day, but on our trip this year almost all of them were plastered with "no camping" and "no overnight" signs, many threatening big fat fines, which a lot of RV'ers are reporting are actually being actively enforced. Instead, you get forced into ****** overpriced campgrounds, some of which are little more than a glorified WalMart parking lot honestly. So, in short, I don't think we'll be going back ever again. Maybe on the bike some day perhaps I'll get out there, but that would be just me solo (too far for my wife) and I wouldn't be spending remotely the same amount of time and money in the area, that's for sure.

 

[Hardwrkr13]

Beautiful. This is a ride I definitely want to do.

 

[AllistonGT]

Great report. Did a lot of that same ride 2 summers ago. Great memories.

 

[shanekingsley]

Day 6: Rimouski QC to Montebello QC



Looking at the weather forecast and radar, we can see that the rain will be falling pretty hard in Rimouski until around 1pm. The storm is moving slowly from the west but isn't that big, so if we start riding west, we'll hit the end of the storm around 3 hours into the day, somewhere near Quebec City. Our original plan was the hug the backroads of the south coast for as far as we could toward Quebec City, but since it's raining pretty hard and foggy, there's no point in taking all the slow backroads right now. We decide to take the main road until we clear the storm and the rain stops, and then we'll get back on the backroads.

Before leaving for this trip, I was debating on not wearing my Klim suit, but with the cold mornings and rain today, I'm very thankful it keeps me warm and dry!

We leave our motel at 7am and the weather radar is still showing the same thing. It turned out to be very accurate, because right around 10am as we are getting close to Quebec City, the rain has stopped, the sun comes out and the temps are warming up nicely. From here we are heading north to La Mauricie National Park, which has a sweet road that I rode through last year, but Zoran hasn't been on before:



Last year it was a cool, damp morning when I got to ride through this park, so it was a bit difficult to really enjoy the corners. Now it's around 17deg and full sunshine, so it's the perfect day for a rip through it, especially because the corners are very tight and twisty and the pavement is flawless. The park/road costs around $9 to enter, so we pay our fee and off we go. The speed limit is a bit on the slow side, but that has a lot to do with the many hiking trails that intersect the road and other things to do in the park. We are pretty lucky that for some reason the park is not very busy, so we can really enjoy the moment. The fall colours are absolutely stunning in this park and I would highly recommend this park for camping, hiking or just relaxing for a weekend.

After leaving the park we ride the 351 over to the 349, which are an awesome combo of really twisty roads with excellent pavement. We were originally going to ride as far north as Mont Tremblant from here, but we've both ridden there before and the roads leading to and from that area are mostly bumpy, so we decide to get over to our digs for the night.

Tonight Zoran booked an AirBnB for us in Montebello. It was much nicer than any motel we stayed at for the same price. Since it's Saturday night and I really wanted to watch UFC 307, this place is even more perfect, since they have a 70" Smart TV and very nice living room to lounge around. There's a lot of really nice restaurants along the main strip in this town and it's another town we really like that we would come back to.

While watching the UFC, I check my work emails and see that someone found my Visa by the side of the road back where we were staying near Gaspe! How nice of them to reach out! It was found between the Subway I ate at and the motel we were staying at, so it must have fallen out of my pocket while riding. She offers to mail it to my office and I tell her thanks, but please just chop it up because I've already requested a new one. A short time later I also get a separate email from someone who works for the Quebec government and they have found my driver's license! Thanks, but chop that one up too! Rural Quebecois like us Anglophones it seems!

Zoran goes to bed at around 10pm and I stay up until around 2am watching the fights.
Hope I don't sleep in tomorrow for the ride home.

Day 7: Montebello QC to GTAM



I sleep in a bit, but am still able to be ready to leave by 7:30am. For our ride home, there's no way we are doing the soul-sucking highways to ruin the end of our trip. Instead we ride up and through Gatineau to leave La Belle Province . I've only been through the Gatineau area once before and I really like it. Lot's of nice roads, small towns and beautiful scenery. There's still some good hills around here and very nice fall colours.

We cross the border for a final stop at the Timmies in Renfrew. They have motorcycle only parking here!

We move through Calabogie and head south from there. Before getting to Lanark, I see South Lavant Rd #16 and haven't ridden it in a few years, because the pavement quality is so bad. I tell Zoran that we should check it out anyways and to be careful since it's might have really broken pavement with frost heaves in the corners. Well lo and behold they have repaved the road and it's probably one of the tightest, twistiest bits in the province now. Zero traffic, flawless pavement for the majority of it and really technical road. We both comment that out of all the roads we have ridden on this trip, this is the best one for the technical nature of it.

After that we stay north of the 401 until Zoran splits off at the 35/115 and I continue on backroads over to the 404. As I slowly get closer to the GTA, I'm reminded that I'm pretty damn lucky to be able to do trips like this, from having a super supporting spouse to a job that allows me the means and time off, to having the physical health and fitness for long days of riding and a bike that does exactly what I want it to. I text my wife to let her know that I'll be home early and she says that although she'll be out, our dog will be so happy to see me. Apparently he's been staring out the window ever since I left and gets all excited any time he hears a motorcycle go by. I get home and he's completely passed out and could care less that I'm back. Back to reality.

Overall the trip was amazing. We got to experience all the wants we had on this trip and the people in Quebec are always so nice and do their best to communicate with my poor Francois. The New England states are stunning for scenic roads and fall colours in every way. Gaspe did not disappoint - it's extremely scenic with big and bold scenery along beautiful roads and welcoming hospitality. I've really filled my cup of fall colours this year!

Next up:
We both agree that next spring we'll need to ride down to the Smokies and make a proper 9 day trip out of it!

 

[ReSTored]

Great ride report, pictures and maps. Last did the Gaspe and NB in August 1981............ It's on our bucket list for next June as a car trip.

 

[kurtrules]

What a great trip! Beautiful photos.

And yes, it is a blessing to be able bodied for doing long hours on the motorcycle. Well done.