Today began the real reason for the trip. Today we began our journey on the James Bay Road. The short description of thise road is that it contains the second longest service free stretch of paved road in North America. The first part of our journey begins on this 236 mile (381 km) segment. Service free means no gas, no stores, no commerial entities. There were rest stops and camping grounds, but that's it. If that were not enough, the section of the road after the sole gas station is another 150 miles to Radisson.
We are traveling through the Municipality of James Bay. This city covers 350,000 square kilometers. To put this in perspective, the country of Germany covers 357,000 square kilometers. Despite the size in area, total population of the Municipality is 30,000 people. 13,000 French Québec, and 17,000 Cree Indians.
We made a stop at the Rupert River to see the rapids. A Hydroelectric plant project will damn this river up next year, so this is the last summer they can be seen. The falls were very impressive and cannot be described in a picture, although you will find a few in this post, just to try an convey how rough the water actually was.
I had to gas up at the Rapids so I could make it to the service station. Once we got there, we had lunch in the cafeteria. The entire complex at kilometer marker 381 was comprised of pre-fab buildings and memories of Adak, Alaska came flooding back to me.
Today I listened to Dad's shuffle for the entire trip. This made a big difference and made the day-long haul much easier to take. Today's trip was so long that we were able to see the differences in the tree line as we pushed North, including huge sections of the northern forest burned out. Strangely, there were very animals to be seen at all. All I noticed were a few birds and some roadkill, nothing else.
We arrived in Radisson this afternoon at the Auberge Radisson and can truly say we have reached the end of the road. The road literally runs into a tunnel to the enormous Robert Bourassa plant. There is nowhere else to go. We are as far North as you can go on a paved road in the province of Québec. We are so far North that the weather reports in Ottowa don't even bother to report the conditions up here.
Of special note was the huge power substation we passed on our way into Radisson. This is easily the largest substation I have ever seen, and produced so much electrical interference as we passed by that several of the GPS units began to go haywire.
We caused a bit of stir when we got here. Bikes rarely come this far North and certainly not in groups this large. Every motorcyclist in the village sought us out. The good news is that the Hotel staff speak very good English. Tracy called them and it was a little eerie how fast they transitioned from French to English when she called.
This group photo was taken at the beginning the of the James Bay Road, better known as the Route de la Baie James. We had to check in the visitor's center with our names. This helps them identify the bodies if something bad happens.
Here is a closeup of the road sign at the beginning of the road.
All the pictures above were taken at Rupert Rapids. The pictures fail to capture how impressive they were.
After the rapids, it was time to fill up for the final stretch to the service station.
Here I am at one of the 5-star rest stops along the way.
Here we are at the service station. There were no other customers.
Just filled up. Regular unleaded only and 6$/gallon!
The end of the line. Radisson, Québec. This village is here to service the workers at the Hydro Plant.
Rode hard and put away wet.| Trip Stats | |
| Date: | Aug 21, 2006 |
| From | Matagami, Québec |
| To: | Radisson, Québec |
| Miles Today: | 411 |
| Total Miles: | 1,459 |
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