5 day trip in Abitibi

[rex007can]

If anyone knows of any "must see places" around that route,  lemme know.
I'll be updating as I go along


https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Montreal,+QC/46.7852526,-76.2170205/48.2239079,-78.5757717/46.324879,-78.6984111/45.5068469,-75.8226478/45.738533,-74.0642406/@46.2309117,-73.844514,7z/data=!4m15!4m14!1m5!1m1!1s0x4cc91a541c64b70d:0x654e3138211fefef!2m2!1d-73.567256!2d45.5016889!1m0!1m0!1m0!1m0!1m0!2m1!1b1!3e0?hl=en

[rex007can]

Well, here goes nothing.




So it is that we set off for 5 days on a chilly and rainy Wednesday morning for our/my yearly ride. My buddy Mo, with very little experience and a learner's permit, riding his almost new (under 1000km on the clock) CB500, and me on my trusty Tiger955i. The plan was to go north through the Laverendrye nature reserve, then South-West through Abitibi, then back down through Eastern Ontario to finally follow the St-Laurent river East back towards Montreal.

Like this:
LINK TO GOOGLE MAPS

Day one:
I picked him up at his house bright and early( 6h30am) and we headed North to our first stop. Breakfast at my mom's. It alwas good to start a trip on a properly filled belly.
IMG_20150701_081440 by rex007can, on Flickr

Continuing North was a bit of a pain that day. I just kept getting colder and the rain was pretty hard at times. We had good rain gear, but it's still a pain to ride in. I'd say good rain gear is a must, and having ridden both in rain with and without good gear... I'll take my silly looking bootsies and suspender pants over getting soaking wet any day.
IMG_20150701_095347 by rex007can, on Flickr

The route going north goes through nice hills and villages, but since it's pretty much the only route North, it has a lot of traffic and a lot of trucks on it. The speed limit is 90Kmh, but everyone drives it at 110+. Not the optimal for sight seeing, especially in the rain.

If you're going to camp in Laverendrye, make sure you stop at the nice little outdoor gear store called "Le Coureur des Bois" in Mont-Laurier. Staff is helpful and you're definitely gonna want to buy yourself a moskito net if you dont have one...

There are lots of camp sites all over the preserve, easy to find and reserve online. Good quality sites, pretty cheap. Oh and you're gonna wanna fuel up before going in. It's 55km to the next gas station and then about 100km to the next one.
IMG_20150701_145246 by rex007can, on Flickr


Day 2:
it was about 6 above freezing when we woke up. Pretty cold for a ride when all your gear is humid or wet from the previous day. Also had to eat freeze-dried camp rations because there are no restaurants to speak of in the park, unless we'd have wanted to back track 35km to get food.

Going through the nature preserve is like riding through prefect landscaping. Everywhere you look, it's a lake here, a stream there, rivers, waterfalls, mountains, hills... it just doesn't stop. If the weather's good, it's an amazing view wherever you look.
IMG_20150702_083338 by rex007can, on Flickr

Saw a big black bear on the side of the road. Our first wildlife sight of the trip. Black bears can be a nuisance there when camping. Careful with food and trash at night.

Past the park, we kept going through Val-D'or which is/was a gold mining town. Pretty small and industrial town. We didn't stop there. Onwards to Rouyn we passed through a town called Malartic. Now... you know you're in a mining town when at strategic places, there are lighted up signs with the blasting schedule posted for the public! We sadly didn't take any pictures, but it's both an interesting and sad sight.

Onwards to Rouyn-Noranda. Just before getting to town, we stopped at the tourist office where the person was very helpful. Gave us a free 2 day parking pass for anywhere in the town, talked to us about what we could do, and called a nice camp site for us to help make a reservation. First rate service.
IMG_20150702_144703 by rex007can, on Flickr

We stopped for refreshments and to get dinner supplies and went camping at lake Flavian, the place was called "Aux petits Trembles", owned by a charming French lady who was extremely happy to finally have "real" campers, she looked practically gleeful when she saw us. Apparently the whole industry is changing because of fuel costs. Nobody camps anymore so all she got to see (usually) are locals. She was extremely nice and very friendly, as were the other campers on the site. If you go through there, I would recommend it. It's not luxurious and the sites are just adequate, but the host makes it totally worth it.
IMG_20150703_080431 by rex007can, on Flickr
IMG_20150703_080511 by rex007can, on Flickr

Day 3:
Onwards through Abitibi. The lady at the camp site promised us we would see moose... and she was right. About 20 minutes after leaving, on a beautiful sunny morning... not one but THREE moose trotting along the train tracks beside the road. Darn they're HUGE! Beautiful animals. Too fast for pictures of the moose though.
IMG_20150703_101310 by rex007can, on Flickr

For awhile we were on the Transcanada highway and then the 101, which were pretty boring. Then we switched to the 391 which was much prettier and had a lot less trucks. Nice riding with lots of pretty scenery and easy twists and turns. We didn't want to go through North bay, so we cut accross on the 533. Best bit of road the entire trip. Non stop hills, twists and turns with no traffic. Super fun bit of road to ride, came out of there with big smiles.

Stopped at Pine Valley camping resort for the night. Run by a nice friendly fellow who set us up on a site that could accomodate our hamacks and gave us about a half a tree for our campfire. Vary family oriented campground, a bit noisy but we were so tired at that point that we were both asleep by 8h30 and slept for a full 10 hours.
IMG_20150703_162807 by rex007can, on Flickr
IMG_20150703_113049 by rex007can, on Flickr


Day 4.
I'd made a reservation at Ferris provincial park so we actually had a target that night with about 350kms to get there. Once again it was a perfect day to ride, sunshine, not too warm, not too much traffic. The down side was that for about half the day we were in the Ottawa valley, which made for long, straight and flat roads. Pretty boring half day making our way around the Algonquin provincial park. Eventually, past Pembroke the riding and the view on 41 got more interesting.

Took a break to let my mustache fight with my mouth over who would get more ice cream.
IMG_20150704_120532 by rex007can, on Flickr
I think the mustache won in the end.


Eventually we made our way to Ferris park, set up camp and went back into Campbellford for refreshments where I had probably the best beer I'd ever tasted at a tiny pub called "The Stinking Rose" just across the bridge. The beer was called "Holy Smoke", brewed by The Church Key brewery just outside of town (about 7 minute drive). It's a dark beer made with peated malt (like Islay Scotch), and it was Fantastic... In fact we were so impressed, we went out and visited the brewery and brought back a few bottles to go with dinner over the campfire. Yum!
IMG_20150704_193048 by rex007can, on Flickr
IMG_20150704_144308 by rex007can, on Flickr


day 5:
Big day ahead of us after sleeping for another 10 hours but with over 430kms to go. Riding 330 to 450kms every day sure takes a lot out of you. Put on my jean jacket that I'm hung on my windshield during the night and a darned stowaway fell out! A little mouse dug itself a little sleeping bag out of my jacket and was sleeping nice and warm in there.
IMG_20150705_072259 by rex007can, on Flickr
I wonder how it climbed on top of the bike like that... anyhow. Rode down to Belleville to get breakfast and then got on to route 2 along the St-Laurent river. The scenery was beautiful, we were riding at a nice leasurely pace, weather was sunny and warm again. But... what is it about people who insist on driving 60 or 65 in 80km zones?! All day, one after the other. We couldn't ride for more than 15 minutes without getting stuck behind an old pick-up or RV going 65kmh without passing lanes. Route 2 looked good on a map, but really, on a Sunday and probably on Saturday too, I'd avoid it from now on. Blah.

After fighting that traffic for a while (remember my friend only rides a 500, in lots of places I could have passed on the bigger bike but he wouldn't have made it), we finally gave up on route 2 around Morrisburg and got on the 401...

We stuck to the highway all the way home and that was it. Tired and hot with bruised butts we made it home to Montreal without anything breaking and without incident.

T'was a good trip.
IMG_20150701_065110 by rex007can, on Flickr

[motoOzarks]

At least the little critter didn't sleep in your beard

[John Stenhouse]

Nice report, thanks for posting

[ssevy]

Does your mom cater? That was one fine looking breakfast!

[Nick Calne]

Excellent ride report.

[rex007can]

Nope sevvy,  no catering.

And thanks,  I've never done a writeup before.  Good that I didn't mess up the first  try too much.