Road Trip

Road Trip to Eastern Canada July 2004

By Blaine Chaisson, ISRA #17085

The trip officially started about 12 years ago when my two friends (Peter T and Peter Z) and I first had motorcycles and decided we should do a road trip to the Atlantic Provinces from Upstate New York. Up until now, marriage, kids, and selling our bikes kept us from our passion. On August 2003, we sat down and decided that it was time and planned the trip for the following year. The three of us didn't even have bikes yet. That's when I bought my V Star 1100 Classic, and the trip was on.

Saturday, July 17th, 2004
I got up at 5:30 a.m. and waited for the boys to arrive. Soon after that, and we were officially on our way at 6:46 a.m. EST. We cruised along the # 401 until we hit the exit to the 1000 Island Bridge at Gananoque, Ontario. The view from the bridge was pretty spectacular. We were in upstate New York heading east toward Vermont, making stops every 200 km or so to refuel the bikes and give our bodies a chance to recover from riding. We hit Vermont and really enjoyed the twisty roads leading down and through the Appalachians. We hit Wells River around 8:30 p.m. and checked into our motel room. I did a quick calculation: We had traveled 1,000 km that day.

About five minutes after we left the motel, we cruised the # 302, which was one of the best motorcycling roads I had been on. The # 302 brought us to # 5, another beautiful road twisting back and forth that followed alongside a large river. It seemed with every new bend in the road we came across a more picturesque scene than the corner before--it just got better and better.

Number 5 led us unto # 3. We made into Bar Harbor, Maine, and found the motel we had reserved. The attendant mentioned we could probably get the early-bird special in town for lobster if we got there by 6:00 p.m. It was a beautiful evening that ended a great day of riding.

Monday, July 19th, 2004
It was spitting rain while we boarded the CAT for 7:00 A.M. We were off to the upper deck to grab some breakfast and check out the boat. I have to say the CAT was awesome. We crossed from Bar Harbor to Yartmouth in about 3 hours.

We traveled at a pretty good clip from Yartmouth to Halifax, but the 46 millimeters of rain that fell did put a bit of water in our boots. When we arrived in Halifax, we hooked up with my Uncle Tom, and in no time, we were dried off and enjoying fresh lobster and mussels. A great end to another day's ride.

Tuesday, July 20th, 2004
We had coffee and toured Halifax a bit, which turned out to be great. Halifax's boardwalk was everything you would expect of a harbor with tugboats, Theodore Two, and some well-maintained tall sailing ships, the maritime museum, and lots of shops with nautical stuff. It was a relaxing and enjoyable atmosphere. We had fish and chips on the boardwalk for breakfast/lunch.

Back on the bikes and on to Truro and then the Canso Causeway. Somewhere between Truro and Canso, Peter Z ran out of gas. Some quick thinking by Peter Z and we were draining gas from the petcock on my bike into an emptied water bottle.

We made it to a gas station about 15 to 20 km away. Then we were on our way to the Canso Causeway connecting southern Nova Scotia with Cape Breton. It's the deepest causeway in the world.

We had a choice to take the major highway north of the lake, but we opted for # 4, the secondary road that led south towards Sydney. It was 150 km of twisting, turning, uphill, and downhill. It was a bit broken up in one spot, but it was a fabulous ride.

We got into Sydney decided to head toward Louisburg and get a small motel near the ocean. The air was getting colder, and the fog started to set in as we got closer to Louisburg. As we headed into town, I noticed some bikes in a parking lot, and we pulled over to check it out. After talking to the couple in one of the cabins, Peter Z made a quick phone call and had us set for the night in a two-bedroom efficiency room with a kitchen and small living room for $85 .We grabbed some really tasty pizza from a small place in town and called it a night.

Wednesday, July 21st, 2004
I was pleasantly surprised by Fort Louisburg. I was expecting a walled garrison with the odd building or two, but it was more like a complete town with upwards of ten taverns and a running bakery. The fort was originally built by the French in 1736 but had been destroyed a couple of times before it lay unused for a hundred years or so. It wasn't until 1961 when the government of Cape Breton decided to reconstruct the site in order to provide employment and give folks a sense of their heritage and pride in their roots. It is well worth the visit.

We headed north from there into North Sydney to look at the large ferry that travels to Newfoundland and then on to wards the Cabot Trail.

There were a few scary moments for each of us as we tried to navigate the corners on the mountains.

A moose darted across the road and almost got hit by a touring bike that was only 100 meters ahead of us. About five minutes later, we saw a black bear cub on the side of the road and stopped to take a picture or two.

We had decided earlier that we would likely spend one night on the Cabot Trail, so as evening approached, we stopped at the closest motel. I shot the breeze with two older guys from PEI who were riding the Cabot Trail about the cost to go to and return from PEI. The cost was small, thus we decided to head there tomorrow the next day.

Thursday, July 22nd, 2004
We went along the Cabot Trail to the Cheti-camp, had breakfast, and continued along the coastline. Smooth wide turns were the order of the day. We connected up with # 104, which took us to New Glasgow for the ferry to PEI. At 1:00 p.m., we were on the ferry heading for PEI with a couple of sea otters or seals joining alongside the ferry. I should mention that motorcycles are the first vehicles onto the ferry and the first ones off as well. I guess because we are so special.

We were off to Cavendish to the home of Anne of Green Gables and its author Lucy Maud Montgomery. L. M. Montgomery's homestead, where she lived with her grandparents, was surrounded by beautiful pasture, and the sea was within view just across the highway. With Cavendish behind us, we crisscrossed PEI south and east to reach the Confederation Bridge that connects PEI with New Brunswick. The bridge itself is 13 km long and is quite an engineering marvel. It was 5:45 p.m. by the time we crossed the bridge and we reached New Brunswick. On to Moncton and the Bay of Fundy we headed.

We reached a group of cottages called the Chocolate Inn about 7 km before Hope Well Rocks around 8:30 p.m., and Peter Z got us a cottage--for less than what they were asking--and three breakfast coupons. They call this the Chocolate River Inn because the river is full of this reddish brown mud. It was a long ride from the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton to PEI to New Brunswick, but the blueberry pie, strawberry shortcake, and ice cream was all that was needed to top off the day.

Friday, July 23rd, 2004
We had a leisurely breakfast and took our time getting our gear together because we didn't need to get to Hope Well Rocks until closer to 10:00 a.m. As we were putting our gear onto the bikes, it reminded me of the old western movies where the cowboys are on a cattle drive and pick up their gear in the morning for the long day of herding the cows. Each of us followed our ritual of packing our bags as tightly as possible, making sure to leave regularly used items like a camera close to the top of the bag. Then it was time to clean off the visor and windshield from yesterdays bug remains. Then we were off to the Hope Well Rocks Park, which was about 7 km away.

Bikes parked and the admission paid, we headed down the hiking trail at Hope Well Rocks. We eventually went down a couple flights of stairs before we reached the beach, where the tide had receded back to the ocean. The beach was full of people taking advantage of the low tide for the next 2.5 hours before they would have to leave again with the advancing/rising tide. The tide rises and falls some 20 feet twice a day, the most of any tide in the world. There are a number of rock outcroppings topped with vegetation along the beach, and in fact one is nicknamed Flower Pot Rock.

Hope Well Rocks was the last official destination on our itinerary, so the remainder of the trip was very open to whatever we felt like doing. We didn't have any specific plans, but we were generally heading west on our way home. We decided to stop in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and visit the garrison and some of the historical buildings. The garrison was no Louisburg, but it was interesting nonetheless, with a few attendants in period costume to fill you in on life and times of that era.

We walked around the city core a bit before we realized that we were absolutely starved. We found a restaurant that was open called the Blue Door. We really lucked out on the restaurant because the food was fantastic.

Even though it was still early in the day and we probably could have put another two to three hours of riding under our belt, we looked for a motel and decided maybe even go see a movie. The show was exciting and entertaining and just what we needed after seven full days of riding. We grabbed some food and called it a day.

Saturday, July 24th, 2004
Saturday morning we were fortunate to get our gear ready under a light sprinkle of rain. We had heard the forecast of showers and were prepared for the worst. About five minutes from the motel, we did hit fairly heavy rain, but it only lasted for about half an hour. The rain was heading east under a strong wind, and we were heading west on our cruisers, which was a great combination.

The wind that was pushing the rain clouds quickly eastward pushed fiercely against us most of the way through New Brunswick. It was the most turbulent air stream we traveled through on the entire nine-day trip.

New Brunswick was pretty uneventful. Our uneventful day did come to an end as we entered Quebec. I decided to pull over to the side of the highway and get a picture of Lake Notre Dame. Peter T and I stopped on the downside of the hill. We parked the bikes, and seconds after Peter T saw out of the corner of his eye his bike falling off the side stand and crashing to the pavement on the shoulder. No major damage. Ah well, all part of a road trip I guess.

We forged on through Quebec and eventually reached Montreal. All I remember is being tired. The sun was low in the sky and blocking our view of the highway signs to the point where all of us were holding up one hand to block the sun and steering with the other hand. We made it passed Montreal unscathed and finally stopped for the night in Cornwall. We went to Harvey's for supper, and we were back in our hotel room and ready to get our final night's rest before heading home in the morning.

Sunday, July 25th, 2004
The ride home along # 401 was just the right length for the last day of a bike trip. We got to my house at 3:15 p.m. EST, where we had started from nine days ago. We had traveled 4,910 km.

The trip was everything that I hoped and wished it could be. I thoroughly enjoyed Peter T's and Peter Z's company. We had lots of fun and enjoyed thousands of kilometers of absolutely fantastic motorcycling roads. We had some scary times, we got misdirected a few times, we even had an accident, but that was okay because no one was on the bike at the time. It was a good trip. No, I stand corrected--it was a great trip.

Blaine Chaisson (AKA "The Saw")
V Star 1100 Classic ISRA