June 19th, 2008 Wawa to Thunder Bay, Ontario – 299 miles

1. Goose at Wawa..........................................................2. Shores of Lake Superior



3. Typical Ontario Forrest...........................................4. Gene at Terry Fox Monument

Wawa is from the Ojibwa name for “wild goose” hence the 30 foot statute at the entrance to the town commemorating the completion of the last section of the Trans Canada Highway. We were on the road by 8:00 and it was overcast and chilly; but fortunately there was little traffic. The first place we passed through was White River, the birth place of the cub that became famous in the London zoo as the inspiration of A A Milne’s Winne-the-Poo. The roads are good with broad sweeping turns and low hills which are completely forested.

By the time we reached Marathon we were entering the thick of fog and I had to dawn the rain gear. There are lots of bikers heading east and we met a couple when we stopped for coffee who were from Vernon B.C. heading for Newfoundland.

After a few miles the fog dissipated and from here to Nippigon we traveled near the coastline of Lake Superior with beautiful vistas of this inland Ocean. For the past three days we have been crossing the Canadian Shield which rings Hudson Bay, a region of worn down mountain ranges pitted with Lakes and covered with boreal forest. Past Nippegon the country became more fertile as the forest was much more prolific and we were seeing more grass and pasture and the occasional farm.

Just outside Thunder Bay we came to the Terry Fox monument, a very moving experience. Imagine running over 5300 kilometers at the rate of a marathon a day from St John’s to here to raise money for Cancer and then have it re occur. He is, without a doubt, the definition of a true Canadian Hero.

We stopped at Thunder Bay, the largest freshwater port in the world with a population of 115,000. It is a real melting pot, with over 40 nationalities, including the largest Finnish settlement outside of Finland! According to the waitress at breakfast, who is of Finnish decent, her ancestors were farmers who settled here since the topography was similar to Finland’s. Thunder Bay has Lake Head University, is the economic center of North West Ontario and is a major winter and summer sport recreation area.

June 18th, 2008 Pembroke to Wawa, Ontario – 541 miles

1. First View of Lake Superior................................2. Rock Outcroppings in Northern Ontario



3. Turn off to Camp Petawawa................................4. Rolling Forest in Northern Ontario


5. Gene at Sudbury Smokestack and Mine Tailings

We were on the road by 7:00 AM under sunny skies with chilly conditions. As we passed by Camp Petawawa, a major Canadian army base, one could not help but reflect on the announcements of troops killed almost weekly in Afghanistan who were based here. Then we passed through Chalk River, the development center for Canada’s Candu nuclear reactor. One has to assume the major base and a nuclear development program being almost adjacent is no accident. We are no longer in farm country but rather rolling forest. It appears the whole economic focus of the area is the wilderness recreational experience. We are traveling parallel to the upper reaches of the Ottawa River where steam boats were used for transportation.

Just before we reached North Bay, on the north shore of Lake Nipissing, it started raining. When we reached Sudbury, the land had rock outcrops everywhere with minimal overburden and small scrub growth. The extensive tailings reveal the huge amount of ore removed here over the years while the stack for the smelter is incredibly high (in part to disburse pollutants over a greater area in lower concentrations!

I had driven down this route when I was young and for a family vacation we drove from the East Coast to Winnipeg where my grandparents lived. I remember so many of the place names; Sturgeon Falls, Mattawa, Deep River etc. That family auto vacation while camping has largely disappeared with the convenience/ cost of air travel and the rising prices of gas. It is interest to reflect back that Alexander Graham Bell, who was the founder of National Geographic, had the first well publicized automobile/ camping trip to Yellowstone Park with a group of friends including Henry Ford (they also brought along maids and butlers!)

North of Sault Saint Marie we glimpsed our first view of Lake Superior and it extends off to the horizon, as if it is an ocean, but it is the largest lake in the world! As we drove up to Wawa, the temperature dipped to 9C, and with the biting wind and overcast skies it was reminiscent of an Eastern Canada day in early November.

June 17th, 2008 Montreal to Pembroke, Ontario – 209 Miles

1. La Peau World Headquarters..........2. Street Clock in Downtown Montreal



3. Two Person Side Car!...............................................4. Entering Ontario

We started the day with a workout at the gym and then went out for a downtown stroll to have a cappuccino. At 12:00 I phoned BMW and the moto would be ready by 2:00 PM.
Other than leaving with a wallet $2300 lighter, I was very pleased with the service they had provided. The mechanic told me the pressure plate was worn down to the rivets and it was 100% consumed.

It was great to be out on the road and it was a sunny 20C day. The countryside is fairly flat and mainly farmland. We flew down the road toward Ottawa but approximately 20 miles out of town it began to rain. We went into a Tim Hortons for a soup and sandwich (god bless Ron Joyce) and to escape the rain. After 30 minutes the rain was minimal and we resumed our trip. Unfortunately t was still rush hour between 5:30 and 6:15 and we crawled along the freeway through Ottawa almost until Kanata. After Amprior we were on two lane highway but the traffic was light. We stopped at Pembroke and will be on the road early to try for a large mileage day.

June 16th, 2008 Montreal

1. Newtown, Jacques Villenue's Night Club....................2. Cathedral in Downtown Montreal



3. Ian, Carla and Gene in Trinity Estiatorio........... 4.Crescent Street, Montreal's George Street

I was at the BMW dealership at 7:30 in the morning for an 8:30 opening but I was first through the door. I explained the clutch problem and the mechanic inspected the bike and confirmed the clutch would need to be replaced since there was no sign of gear oil draining into the clutch and causing slippage. The estimated time for the job was a minimum of eight hours (have to tear apart half the engine for access) and they hoped to get it started later in the day.

Gene and I moved downtown to the Delta hotel so we could play tourist. It was fantastic wandering around the streets of downtown Montreal, a North American city with a European flair. It was a beautiful sunny day with a 24 C temperature and we had lunch on the outside balcony of Winston Churchill’s on Crescent Street. Then it was back to the hotel for a workout.

We met Carla and went to Trinty Estiatorio, an upscale and trendy Greek restaurant, where we feasted on a large number of appetizers.

June 15th, 2008 Mont Saint Anne to Montreal – 204 Miles

1. Deciduous Foliage at Mont Saint Anne.........................2. Saint Anne de Beaupre

When we awoke it was pouring with rain! After a two hour wait we started driving in the rain. The previous day it seemed my clutch was a little sloppy, so I monitored its’ performance carefully. I decided to drive through Quebec City but there were all sorts of traffic diversions, perhaps due to the 400 year anniversary celebration. What ever the cause, limping through traffic was definitely not helping the clutch!

The drive through the flat Quebec farmland with narrow strips of field caused by families dividing farms among sons and the distinctive French Canadian housing styles was very picturesque. When we stopped for lunch at Trois Rivieres it finally had stopped raining. It was now obvious that I needed to get to a BMW dealer and the possibilities were Montreal or Ottawa. It became very sunny and hot when we stopped for gas about 30 miles from Montreal and I decided to go to International Motors there. Going into Montreal, it was bumper to bumper crawling traffic for the last 5 miles, and I was nervous the bike may give out at any time but we limped to the dealership with the bike giving little lurches at the end. Tomorrow I’ll be there at 7:30 in the morning to appeal for their assistance in getting us back on the road.

It was actually quite a stressful so it was welcome to be off the road and we went across the road from the hotel to have some Alexander Keith’s to celebrate!

June 14th, 2008 Fredericton, N.B. to Mont Saint Anne, Que. – 410 Miles

1. Dave, Georgia, Susan, Olivia and Sophia in 2, Gene on Blackberry along Saint John River
Front of Their New Home



3. Ian and World's Longest Covered ..................4. New Highway Pegs
Bridge in Hartland

I was up early and mounted my new highway pegs which should really give a great foot position alternative to the traditional riding stance. We drove north from Fredericton along the Saint John River Valley through rolling hills that were either forest, grazing land or potato fields. It was a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies. As we drove through Carleton County one could only admire the prosperous farms and hopefully their owners give thanks to the four brothers who started a Frozen Food Empire there. In Hartlan, we stopped to take pictures of the longest covered bridge in the world. The reason for covered bridges is that horses would think they were entering a barn and would prance right in! We stopped in Edmundston for lunch, 19 kilometers from the Quebec border and everyone there was speaking French. As we started across the Gaspe you could see the white vapour trails in the sky of jets arriving from Europe. We sprinted to Rimouski hoping to catch a ferry to the North Shore but the next sailing was over two hours away. As we rode down route 20 Ouest past Levis to cross over to the North Shore at Quebec City it became overcast and finally we were driving in rain. We drone north to Mont Saint Anne and stayed in one of the chalet at Chalet Montmorency, owned by former ski school director, John Barclay. This was the first time I had been here in summer, and the lush green vegetation is in stark contrast to the barren deciduous trees in the middle of winter.

June 13th, 2008 Sellars Head, N.S. to Fredericton, N. B. – 305 Miles

1. Sunrise at Sellars Head ............................................2. R1200GS Packed to Go!

After working until 22:00 hours the previous evening, the bike was fully packed just after the crack of dawn. Meanwhile, Gene had caught the overnight ferry from Port aux Basque to North Sydney after driving across Newfoundland for eight of eleven hours in a cold rain. After a gym work out and swim I went to meet Gene at the Truro turnoff at 13:30.

It was a beautiful sunny day but there were winds gusting up to 40 knots that made the driving very challenging. Since it is Friday the 13th, I was thinking of the 20,000 riders converging on Port Dover, Ontario. Once we were past the Tantramar Marches at the NS/ NB border the winds dropped considerably and the temperature was over 22C. I stopped at the BMW dealership in Moncton to pick up some black summer pants and highway pegs. From there it was a very pleasant drive to Fredericton.

We stayed at Dave and Susan Kean’s house along with their three daughters aged five to three. Dave had picked up a huge smoked meat Brisket at Dunn’s when he was at the Montreal Grand Prix the previous weekend. He prepared fantastic smoked meat sandwiches with Cesar Salad that would have had Swartz’s green with envy. It was a great evening, with perfect hosts, sitting on the deck with libations and great discussions well after dark.