Day one – Friday August 6, 2010 – Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie
Time: 11 hours (including stops)
Kilometres: 727.3
I got on the road late – 9:18 to be precise. I had told my riding buddy Diane not to be late at our rendez vous point, but I was. Ooops and sorry. (Here's a pic of me just as I'm leaving home and running late).
We started off with a bit of a scenic trip as opposed to riding the super slab of the 400. We went north on Weston Road to hwy 9 and then hooked up with the 400. It didn’t take long before traffic came to stand still so we headed over to hwy 27 for a quick detour around the slow down.
It was bit chilly in the morning, and I quickly put on another layer, which I was grateful for as the temperature dropped down to 16 C and it started to rain. While it didn’t rain much, the cool temps stayed with us for the rest of the day.
We didn’t get far before it was time to stop for lunch. Diane made tuna sandwiches (with honey, which made them taste fantastic) so at one of our gas stops, I found a picnic table and we had a homemade lunch.
I hadn’t been to Parry Sound in at least 15 years, so it was nice to get up there again. I’d forgotten how rocky it is. I guess that is the far reaches of Canadian Shield. People had build innuitshook-type stone piles on many of the sheer cliffs flanking the roadside. At first I thought it was because we were riding through a Mohawk reservation, but these continued as we continued north.
I have to go back to the area and explore it more. It will probably be a weekend trip as getting up there is rather time consuming with all the Toronto traffic heading north.
Just before Sudbury I notice that the road signs became increasing more bilingual. It was nice to see a reminder that both the English and the French are part of Ontario culture.
We didn’t stop in Sudbury, instead we veered west on Highway 17 – also known as the Trans-Canada. The highway is surrounded by beautiful scenery from Espanola all the way to Sault Ste. Marie. It was rather rugged, with forests on the both sides of the highway punctuated by dark rivers and lakes. Much of the area is untouched by towns and human habitation.
Long before we reached the Sault, we both realized we had had enough riding for the day. It was a tough road because we had to mentally sharp all the time. Neither of us had ridden these types of roads before – and riding them is a lot different than driving them.
Unfortunately, it was impossible to capture any of the area’s rugged beauty with my camera, as the highway shoulders are just loose gravel. That combined with the slope into the drainage ditch makes it hazardous for a motorcycle to pull over.
It was a long ride. We rode for 727.3 kilometres and we were on the road from 9:18 until 8 pm. It was a long and hard 11 hour day with only a few short breaks.
