East to West Canada trip 2016
 

Hello! We are two Irish lads planning to cross Canada in September next year. Starting from Halifax, Nova Scotia and going to Vancouver, possibly then up to Anchorage. We hope to travel a mixture of Tarmac and dirt roads.
We would generally like to avoid the larger cities and are looking for ideas for interesting and fun places to visit. Any advice would be much appreciated. All the gear - no idea!!

http://www.graveltravel.ca/index.php...-trail&catid=1


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September is a fine month for riding in the southern parts of Canada, but it can get surprisingly cool and nippy at night north of Lake Superior, across the prairies, and through the mountains.

If you have the ability to reschedule your trip one month earlier, so that you begin in early August and finish up in early September, that would be wise. You will benefit from warmer temperatures and longer periods of daylight each day.

Be aware that you can't get from the west coast of Canada up to Anchorage without backtracking a considerable distance into Alberta (unless, of course, you take a ferry north from BC).

I suggest you do a little bit of preliminary route planning, then come back to the forum here with your proposed route & timing... that would make it easier for us to give you more useful and accurate advice.

Michael

"Be aware that you can't get from the west coast of Canada up to Anchorage without backtracking a considerable distance into Alberta (unless, of course, you take a ferry north from BC)."

Michael must have meant to say "British Columbia" instead of "Alberta".

Welcome to the HUBB :)


As Michael says, go earlier if possible, it is not unusual to get snow over the Rockies in early September, especially on the Icefields Parkway - 93N between Jasper and Banff (which is a road well worth riding) and it can get pretty chilly, finish your trip in early September.

How many days do you have in Canada? What bikes are you riding?

Id also try and start from Cape Spear in Newfoundland (the most Easterly point in Canada) to Vancouver

The most direct route using mostly the TransCanada Highway is ~7400 kms, so add in taking some back roads and avoiding cities and you will easily be doing 10,000 kms across Canada. Then add on another 4500 kms from Vancouver to Anchorage.

You could certainly ride some of the TCAT (Trans Canada Adventure Trail) its total length across Canada is ~20000 kms! if you make a small donation to the guys at Gravel Travel they will send you the gpx files to load into your GPS units, but if you are restricted on time then you have to weigh up exactly what you want to achieve, ride across Canada as quickly as possible on asphalt or do some of the TCAT and some asphalt and maybe come back to Canada again to finish the trip off - depending on how much time you have. It is nice to finish the ride off in one go, but it is also nice to stop and enjoy places and see a little more.

Don't underestimate how big Canada is and how cold it can get here!


My buddies NEVIL (here on the HUBB) and Jim rode across Canada a few years ago, drop him a PM if you have any questions!

Thanks for catching and correcting that error of mine, Richard.

Also, I notice that was your first post - welcome to the HUBB community!

Michael

Grif raises a good point - if you actually want to ride 'coast to coast' in Canada, it is a heck of a long distance.

Your first post implies that you have about a month available. I don't think you would enjoy travelling almost 15,000 km in one month - you would become tired and worn out, and more important, you wouldn't have much time to actually get to know and enjoy the country you are riding through.

If you can't allocate at least 6 to 8 weeks for the proposed trip, it might make for a more pleasant vacation if you scaled the distances down a bit - for example, if you planned to only cover Eastern or Western Canada during your one month visit.

Michael

East to west Canada
 

Hi all. Many thanks for your replies. Apologies for not replying sooner but some major happenings occurred here since my original post!

We are now reducing our planned trip, omitting the journey up to Anchorage from Vancouver. Plan now is 2 weeks east side - Nova Scotia, Quebec, Montreal, Toronto etc then blast across Thunder Bay to Calgary, then 2 to 3 weeks max Calgary to Vancouver.

We are relatively experienced 30year+ bike travellers both on and off road. We have the TCAT gps info and intend to spend a little time visiting some trails.

So any points of interest anyone can suggest would be appreciated. Cheers. Kieran?

You can do the Nova Scotia to Vancouver ride in 5 weeks, no problem there, that is sufficient time, but do keep in mind that it is a pretty long distance - 6,000 kilometers if you take the shortest route and don't deviate at all from the shortest route. To put that in perspective for a European, Paris to Moscow is less than 3,000 kilometers. The best comparison might be Paris to Djibouti, which is about the same road distance.

Heck, it's only 4,000 km from Dublin to Halifax, Nova Scotia!

Canada is comprised of about half a dozen different cultural and geographical areas. From Halifax west, you could characterize these as the Maritime provinces, Quebec, far southern Ontario (the built up, heavily populated area of the country), Northern Ontario (a huge, very sparsely populated distance to cover), the Prairies, the Rocky Mountains, and finally lower mainland Vancouver.

I still think that you will be 'pushing things' if you want to tour (as opposed to simply transiting, covering miles) from Halifax to Vancouver. You might find that it will be a bit like one of those guided tours of the Louvre, where the schedule only allows 3 hours, and the guide keeps saying "Hurry up, there's no time for loitering around and looking".

A more realistic schedule for 5 weeks might be Halifax to Calgary. If nothing else, that would give you time to actually stop and smell the roses - spend a few days here and there, see what the different cultural and geographical areas are, and generally enjoy yourself. That cuts the distance down to 5,000 km (minimum), but more importantly, it cuts out two very interesting and complex regions (the Rockies, and the lower mainland of BC). You could easily spend 5 weeks just doing Calgary to Vancouver, and not run out of things to see and do, and awesome trails to ride. I suggest you leave the Calgary to Vancouver portion of the trip for another year when you have more time to allocate to it - perhaps combined with an excursion north up to Alaska.

You have indicated you have an interest in riding off-road. You won't cover as many miles per day riding off-road as you would on the main highways, which is another reason I suggest you shorten your trip to Halifax-Calgary.

Be aware that for almost one-third of your total distance, you won't have any choice at all in the roads you take. Between southern Ontario and Brandon, Manitoba (a distance of almost 2,000 km), you only have two choices: Highway 11 and then Highway 17, or Highway 17 all the way. Both of these roads are deemed to be the 'Trans-Canada Highway'. There simply are no other roads (paved, gravel, or rabbit-trails) spanning this 2,000 km portion of the route.

As for what to see and do... the distance you propose to cover is so great, and the culture and geography so diverse, I can't even begin to answer that question. It would be like me saying "Hey, I'm going to ride Paris to Djibouti, what is there to see along the way?"

Michael

For your info: the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia will be under a lot of construction this summer.

Report: Cabot Trail slated for plenty of road work this summer - Canada Moto Guide

We did something similar last year except flew the bike to/from Montreal with air Canada (£500 each way). There is a partial ride report over on ADVRider in the Canada forum. (my forum name there is AustinW). Our trip was 14 weeks and we went from Montreal west to Jasper then mooched about the Rockies around there for a week before heading up to Alaska via the Stuart Cassier and Dawson City. We mooched about Alaska for about 10 days and then South on the boat to USA and back into Canada to Vancouver Island (both boat and VI highly recommended). East via Yellowstone (ace), Badlands, Mt Rushmore, etc etc to cross back into Canada at Sault Ste Marie and then onto Montreal. 15,000miles in 14 weeks at what was actually a fairly easy pace.

As others have said the prairie section is huge and route choice pretty easy given the limited roads. As I said we travelled West - East in the USA and tbh it was was more interesting, not much, but a bit more going on. I am very glad I went to Canada but there is lots of it thats nothing to write home about. We were two-up on a heavily loaded GS1200 Adv so gravel roads really event much fun and we generally avoided where we could but I know from Canadian bikers I met that the backroads into the forest in Ontario and Quebec are spectacular. Check out the videos of my friend in Canada riding his old Guzzis around the place. I would also recommend his book - "beyond the coffee shop" (Amazon).

The best bits of Canada seem to be the Rockies or Ontario/Quebec and East (which we didn't really get to).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5m0aR6udpI

Have a great trip

OK KDBEV ... I've ridden the whole of Canada and this is what I can suggest:
Nova Scotia - Must do the Cabot Trail and camp at the northernmost point (Meat Cove) but beware, there will be alot of construction on the Cabot this summer. Halifax is a must see and take the Alexander Keiths brewery tour. There's a parking lot right across the street. Try to visit the old Fort George. If you're into this stuff, the Louisbourg fort is also a great place to visit. Peggy's Cove is also wonderful. Take the Transcanada highway to get to Hopewell to see the highest tides in the world.
From there, you either continue on the Transcan through the Matepedia valley to Riviere du Loup, Qc or you head north to the Gaspe penninsula and ride the 132 along the mouth of the St-Lawrence river. Both routes are amazing.
If you do decide to take the Gaspe route, you can take the ferry from Matane to Baie Comeau to hit the TCAT through Quebec into Ontario.
https://www.traversiers.com/en/our-f...ut-ferry/home/
Please note that Quebec is a French speaking province, but you will get by with English, especially in the bigger cities.
Quebec City and especially the old city (founded in 1608 and oldest in N.A) is worth a days visit. From there you either take the 138 (north shore) or the 132 (south shore which I prefer) and work your way to Ottawa to see the Canadian Parliament (this is a good days ride).
As others have said, there are not many choices of roads to cross the country. The Transcanada being the most direct. From Ottawa, zip along the TCAN to Northbay, Thunderbay and through the Prairies. Between Northbay and Thunder Bay, you can cross into the USA at Sault Ste Marie, but the road along Lake Superior is straight and dull.
The Parliament building in Winnipeg is nice to see and apparently there is a great camping site along Lake Winnipeg (I've never been). Brandon,Manitoba is a nice city also.
The Prairies are nice to see, but after a couple of hours it gets old. Next stop should be Drumheller, Alberta to see the Canadian Badlands and Dinosaur park and then to Calgary. This is where it gets interesting. Plan at least 1 week visiting around Banff up to Jasper and around. Do the Kannanaskis region and you can even cross into Montana to ride the "Road to the sun" in Glacier National Park or cross the Rockies into British Columbia, visit the Okanagan Valley. There are SO MANY GREAT ROADS to explore in this area. You could literally spend a month riding here and never get bored.
North of Vancouver to Whistler is also fantastic, but if you have the time, take the ferry to Vancouver Island to visit Victoria and ride the absolutely indescribable road to Tofino. This will blow your mind.
As many have said, Canada is a BIG country with lots to see. I sped from Brandon, Manitoba to Swift Current, Saskatchewan in one day just to get through the Prairies. The best sites are either on the East side or the West side of the country. Focusing on what you really want to see is the best time saver.
Hope you have fun and a safe ride through Canada.

Here's a link to some factual information about Cabot Trail roadwork in Nova Scotia this summer: Cabot Trail to see lots of road construction this summer

and,

Here's a link to a Canadian motorcycle magazine website that might give you some good ideas about routes to take and things to see as you work your way across the country: Canada MotoGuide - Routes

Michael

East to west canada
 

Again folks, many thanks for taking your time out to advise us. All info is greatly appreciated. This Hubb is a great thing !

Time for us to do a little bit more point to point planning and let discovering Canada and its people do the rest. Cheers

Don't know when you're planning your trip, but if your in my area (Trois-Rivieres, Qc) and need a place to crash/repair, give me a shout.