BMWBMW

I depart for my week long road trip to James Bay Canada in less than 24 hours.

This is a chance to just get away, see something new, and have some time without work, friends, family, or a leaky house. Nothing but me, the road, and 16GB of tunes. Oh! And a camera, can't forget that! This is also a great, last chance to see some of the rivers that are due to be dammed for new hydro electric projects in their wild state.

The route is expected to be:
Day 1: Newark, DE -> Ottawa, ON, Canada
Day 2: Ottawa -> Matagami
Days 3-4: James Bay Road to Radison and Chisasibi, Quebec including a tour of the big hydro plant
Remainder: make my way south, possibly diverting to the east North Road or other, paved, roads to Montreal or Quebec City.

The Google map:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8& ... 005859&z=4

Details about the James Bay Road, North Road, and region can be found here:

http://www.jamesbayroad.com/

Some of this is route is very remote and beyond the reach of cellular service. However, I borrowed SPOT satellite beacon from a member (er, that is, "Madam President") of my motorcycle club. You can watch a real time track as I carry on. The SPOT will send a "ping" about every 10 minutes, and I have a fist full of AA batteries to keep this gizmo alive. The trace can be watched at:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl ... 6pqqvNdMiZ

NOTE: If you see a "Help" or "911" message on there... worry. The 911 message should automatically call the rescue services. Help will be used for non life-threatening problems (vehicle breakdown, etc.).

The weather in Northern Canada in August is a crap shoot. It's nominally the month with the least rain, but the forecast is pretty wet for the next few days. I am prepared for bad weather, so this is more of nuisance than a show stopper. Here's a link to local weather conditions:

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/fin ... ct=WEATHER

Honestly, I am more worried about mosquitoes and black flies. Late summer should be past the peak skeeter season, but I am equipped with DEET and a head-net anyway.

So... I'll post pics and a trip report once I am back, but until then, the road awaits.

Fritz

I've been up as far as Senneterre. The scenery up there is beautiful, but the roads at the time were paved with big chunks of broken rock - very hard on the tires and suspension of my then new BMW 320i.

Make sure you have a few tire repair kits.

I am hesitant to take the North Road for just that reason: it's gravel and I'm solo. I have a pump and string patches, but a large puncture could be very troublesome. The JBR is paved all of the way to Chisasibi leaving only about 60km of hardpack to get to the bay itself. The route back will be via JBR until either the North Road (unpaved) or other eastbound roads south of Matagami.

F

FWIW - I haven't been up there in ages and only on the Ontario side of James Bay. On the road front if the Quebec side of James Bay is anything like the Ontario side, I'll second+ the rough road thing. The "big" line for the road on the map is not a indicator of quality by any means.

Bring extra DEET the stragglers will be lonely

Happy Motoring!

sounds fun! nothing like a nice road trip with yourself and the bike for company traveling alone opens up all sorts of possibilities...my favorite kind of riding...and esp. when some is following river roads, always plenty of towns and interesting sites along such roads.

like Henry Wadsworth once said..
"A man who travels alone is ready to leave at a moments notice, while the man who travels with company must wait upon others leisure"
or something to that effect..


take lots of photos and don't over plan!

RM

Make sure you have the correct batteries for the SPOT, it requires lithium batteries, not your standard AA batteries and I've heard that it matters. Not sure if you'd fry the SPOT, but it'd suck to find out that it isn't working because you have the wrong batteries when you've gotten to a more remote area and can't buy them easily.

You should be fine on one set of batteries anyway. Carry one extra set in case the ones in the SPOT die cause Tina's been using it.

Lithiums for the SPOT, Alkaline for the headlamp. Everything else: GPS, phone, wifi dingus, cameras can be charged from the bike via ciggy adaptors.

In final departure and weather check! Write when I get back.

F

A few of my buddies and I made this ride last year ...it remains one of the most memorable rides I've done.

I am back with pics and a massive Spot trace, without any MC damage other than some lighting issues, knackered tires, and a sore bottom.

Jerry Skene was right about the paving north of Senneterre at least on "La Traverse from LsQ to Matagami."

The mozzies and flies weren't too bad considering the astonishing amount of rain. Blessing and a curse I suppose.

Ride report to follow, but here are some web albums.

http://picasaweb.google.com/fritz.lowre ... directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/fritz.lowre ... directlink

F

Wow! I can hardly wait for the ride report--the pictures are beautiful!

Jody

Nice pix. Just enough narrative that I got a good sense of your enjoyment of your trip. As for your meeting a celebrity, did anyone know that Ben (of BnJ) was a rider, let alone a BMW rider? Scott