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WRITINGS, RAMBLINGS, AND REASONS FOR NOT GOING BACK!

There are very few days when I don’t ride. The gravel, the asphalt, the dirt, the mud are always calling.

This page is a collection of my ramblings and ride reports.

 

 

Roll With The Changes

A sign warning of dangerous road
A lesson in remaining happy My last post was about riding and exploring the Mid-Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route. It is a ride I have done twice now, the last ...
Misty photo of a gravel road in the morning
One of the most intriguing features about riding the Mid-Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route is the sheer number of places to ‘discover’ along the way. There is a lot to ...
Misty photo of a gravel road in the morning
Tackling the MABDR for a second time Sunday - Ottawa to Mountain Creek Campground, Gardners, Pensylvannia If you read my last post then you know that I decided that ...
Adventures Out East: One Beautiful Island to Another
From Grand Manan to Prince Edward Island I awoke on Tuesday morning just before dawn to a glorious sunrise on the beautiful island of Grand Manan. I watched a ...
Adventures Out East: Arriving at Grand Manan Island
More Than Just A Rally I have been taking part in the Fundy Adventure Rally since 2015 and I am sure that I will be attending for years to ...
The East Coast Adventure 2018
Grateful just to have a cup Tuesday, August 14 2018 Day 1                                    ...
The Fundy Adventure Rally 2018 . . .
. . . and The East Coast Adventure Those of you who have been following along over the last couple of years may remember that I broke a couple ...
A photo of the battery at Signal Hill
It's All So Unpredictable I would never have predicted it. No one who knows me would ever have predicted it. It was just so . . . unpredictable. During ...

I Love This City

I Love This City
Reasons Why I Love Living In Ottawa A change has occurred in the last two months in the Ottawa area. A glorious green change. Yes, spring finally arrived in ...
The Gaspé Snowmobile Adventure
Sledding In The Gaspé Peninsula By all accounts, the 2017-2018 snowmobiling season was less than stellar in eastern Ontario. In the area where I do my local sledding – ...
Horizons Unlimited Ontario 2018
Where Is Your Next Horizon? I stumbled across the Horizons Unlimited website and bulletin board while researching adventure motorcycle riding in late 2014, and it was there that I ...
How To Get The Most Out Of Your Ontario Snowmobile Season
Chasing The Snow I fell in love with a new expression of adventure last winter. It was borne upon a 2002 Arctic Cat ZR 800 snowmobile. All of a ...
Group of motorcycle riders setting off on adventure
What Does The New Year Hold For You? There’s no denying that 2017 provided an amazing riding season for yours truly. Riding 19,000 kilometers in 5 weeks during my ...

A Leap Of Faith

higway and horizon on the canadian prairies
In late April of this year I took a leap of faith. I listened to the little voice inside of me, and I stopped working for a living. At ...
Horizon's Unlimited Ontario 2017
HU Ontario 2017 and Really Big Top Cases In early September I packed a couple of changes of clothes, my sleeping bag and my laptop into my Wolfman Expedition ...
When All Appears As Darkness, Believe In The Dawn Of A New Day
Coming Back From The Abyss It’s no secret that life often takes some unexpected turns. I am sure that there are every few of us who have never woken ...
The Fundy Adventure Rally 2017
Gettin' Dirty Down East Fundy Adventure Rally August 17 through 20 saw the 4th running of the Fundy Adventure Rally in Sussex, New Brunswick and my 3rd time partaking in the ...

Rallies, Ribs and Hot Rods

Rallies, Ribs and Hot Rods
I have been lagging behind again, getting caught-up in all that life has to offer and neglecting to take the time to write. And quite a lot has been ...
And Now, Finally - The D2D
The D2D Ride June 14 to 16 - 2017 One of the most concrete and unflappable tenets of motorcycle riding, and even more so with motorcycle adventure travel is that ...
Keno City - Traveling to The Past
Abandoned Mines and Haunted Hotels in Keno City You can find quite a bit of information about Keno City on the web. Information about a history steeped in turn ...
Hot Springs, Awesome Pizza and A Rustic Hotel
June 12 and 13 465 kilometres June 12 Lorie was up, packed and on the road before I even rolled over in my sleeping bag - it must have ...
Riding South Canol Road: Pay Attention To The Weather
June 11, 2017 785 Kilometres Tom and I awoke excited about the adventure that lay ahead of us: we were geared up and gone before 0800am. Lorie elected to ...
Whitehorse And Planning Canol Road
Nisutlin Bay Bridge, Teslin, Yukon   June 10, 2017   250 kilometres   Tom and I went through our morning tear-down and pack up routine and rode 75 kilometers ...
Twisted Leg - Broken Peg
June 9, 2017 478 Kilometers I fell asleep last night to the sound of waves lapping the shore on Dease Lake. A picture perfect setting, and something that I ...

Telegraph Creek Road

Telegraph Creek Road
June 8, 2017 640 kilometers The day started out in the same manner as they virtually all have - fantastic. And it only got better from there. Tom and ...
Boots In The Water & Making A New Friend in Stewart
Hectate Strait - Rushbrook Harbour   June 7, 2017   515 kilometres   At breakfast there were a couple of local boys sitting at the table behind me, mid-30's, ...

Finding Zen

Finding Zen
June 6, 2017 428 kilometres I know it's getting repetitive – but I slept like a log once again in my sleeping bag, situated beside a briskly flowing river ...
Meet theshnizzle (btw, I packed too much!)
June 5, 2017 375 kilometres You know, it doesn't matter how well I sleep when camping, a hotel room always feels heavenly. Lorie and I both woke feeling refreshed ...

The Icefields Hwy

The Icefields Hwy
Sunday June 4, 2017 610 km Man I sure seem to sleep well in in a tent with a warm sleepingbag. Of course, all of the fresh air that I ...
Banff National Park & Pork Chops in Lake Louise
Saturday June 3, 2017 85 km I awoke once again feeling refreshed after a great night of sleeping in the great outdoors. My camp was in such an idyllic location, ...
Grasslands National Park to the Rocky Mountains
  Thursday June 1, 2017   If yesterday's sunshine was a welcome respite, today's was like spending 12 hours with your best childhood friend. All of the Fun was ...
Kenora to Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan
Holy Hannah - The Sun is Shining! MAY 31, 2017 The running theme of the D2D Adventure thus far has been rain. And cold. And rain. However just before ...
Oh look! It's raining. Again.
Well, today was a really short, really cold, really wet day of riding. I got up at 0630 and went for breakfast at the little restaurant that serves the ...
And A Little More Rain
D2D Day 2 Today was much like yesterday, only with a lot more rain! 11 hours of riding, Sault St. Marie to Upsala, with 8 of those in pouring ...
Day 1 is in the bag and 'put away wet'
Well, the opening salvo has been fired. I set my trip meter to zero and departed right on time at 07:00. I had an official escort out of Ottawa ...

Today’s the Day!

Today's the Day!
The day is finally here! Ottawa to Dawson City for the D2D. Then on to Tuktoyaktuk to dip my tire in the Arctic Ocean. I'll post some short ride reports ...
Packing for a 15000 km Motorcycle Adventure
I know – it looks like a lot – I mean, a LOT of stuff. And at first glance, it really is. But lets walk through and break it ...

T-1 . . . And Hold

T-1 . . . And Hold
I did say that my timeline was fluid, right? That any number of things could see my schedule change, or my route become altered? Good. 'Cause we've had a ...
The Rocky Mountains to Dawson City
Route Plan Part II As I stated in my last post - this route plan is subject to change by whim, weather, and just about anything else. On Day 5, I ...
Ottawa To The Rocky Mountains
Route Plan - Part I [simple-social-share] Ok, so you know that I am about to embark on a pretty big adventure. I’ve told you about the why – the ...
Adjusting To A New Routine
First World Problems [simple-social-share] The last 3 weeks have been busier than I expected them to be. There has also been a certain need for ‘adjustment’. It appears that ...

Out of The Darkness

UCLEAR 100 Plus
This post is not about adventure. It is not about motorcycle riding, or traveling, or snowmobile riding. This post is about the possibilities. The things that can be true ...

The Story So Far,

The Story So Far,
Or, How I Got From There to Here Recently I have felt like sharing a little bit about who I am, so over the next few weeks I am ...
As one adventure ends, so another begins
  Back in December I wrote a post about my new adventure cure for the season of my discontent. This winter I began an incredible exploration of Ontario's snowmobile ...
Ride Reports, Mind Control and Taking The Leap
When I had my wreck in 2014 that left me with broken ankles it led directly to my purchase of Big Ethel, my 2014 V-Strom 1000, and my introduction ...

Remembering Ecuador 2016!

Remembering Ecuador 2016!
A short video of some of the amazing riding in Ecuador last year!  This GoPro footage was shot somewhere between San Francisco de las Pampas and then Sigchos. The roads in Ecuador are ...
Into Every Life, A Little Change . . .
The site has been gathering a significant layer of dust as of late. Over the course of the 2016 riding season, our webmaster, James was spending a ton of time ...
Swamping the Suzuki DR650 in Burnt Lands
[simple-social-share] This time of year sees me paying a lot of attention to weather forecasts. Any hint of double-digit temperatures and sunshine means that the season can be extended ...
Honda Goldwing Motorcycle on Trans-Lab
[simple-social-share] In 2015, I set off with 3 mates on an East Coast adventure motorcycle journey. We rode from Ottawa through Canada’s East Coast, to the Cabot Trail in Cape ...
A Quick Ride on a DR650 and a Ural
One fine September day, Ryan and I took a run down the South Lavant Road and onto the K&P Trail (Lanark County, Ontario). Here is a short video of that ...

Winter

Shadow Blur
[simple-social-share] Well, there’s no escaping it. At least, not for those of us who live in an area that experiences winter in all of it’s glory. It is time ...
Puddle Skippin' on a DR650
[simple-social-share] Found a mud puddle! [et_bloom_inline optin_id=optin_19] ...

Riding a Suzuki DR650

Riding a Suzuki DR650
[simple-social-share] We shot some test footage of the Suzuki DR650 in the Limerick Forest using an Olympus OMD E-M5 and an inexpensive Cowboy Studio rig. A little editing and ...
The Answer - on a Suzuki DR650
[simple-social-share] I got out on my Suzuki DR650 on Saturday and once again discovered just how much better I often feel after going for a ride. So I put ...
Is The Suzuki V-Strom DL1000 an Adventure Bike?
There are as many different definitions of adventure bikes out there as there are bikes that wear the name. In my opinion, any larger displacement bike that is comfortable ...
Riding the Suzuki DR650 on Labour Day
Leading up to the Labor Day weekend, my friend and MotoYobo founder Ryan Carman thought it would be a good idea to get me in the groove for the ...

Suzi – The Suzuki DR650

Suzi - The Suzuki DR650
[simple-social-share] Here's a video starring Suzi and her previous owner Claude-Olivier - aka Flagman who played such amazing host to us during our Epic East Coast and Trans Labrador Adventure ...
8.5x11_Show_Moto2015-Header_En copy
August 19, 2015 In May of this year I was invited to become a media contributor and product reviewer for Kimpex, one of Canada's largest distributors of motorcycle and ...
Suzuki D650 Limerick
Last weekend I picked up my new (to me) Suzuki DR650 from my new friend, Flagman, in Montreal. She spent the week at the the dealership where I get ...
cropped V-Strom on K&P Trail Adventure Motorcycle Riding
[simple-social-share] Today Alex and I picked up the K&P trail at Hwy 7 & 509 and had another fantastic day of riding. We headed south from highway 7 and ...
I'm Running in the 2015 Fundy Adventure Rally!
  The hits just keep on coming! Seriously, if this season had involved nothing more than short weekend scoots after my Epic East Coast and Trans-Lab Highway Adventure, it ...

Yobos Ride Video

Yobos Ride Video

The Moment

The Moment
The Moment You know the one; A beautiful Sunday morning, you have a nice long ride planned and are heading towards Calabogie to work the kinks out on the ...
The Trip. The Weather. Fucking Cancer
Often times – maybe even most – I have a clear idea of what my posts are going to be about. Other times it is the act of blogging ...

Dressing Big Ethel

Dressing Big Ethel
Well, I have made a few more alterations to Big Ethel in preparation for the upcoming trip. The Pelican top-case is proving to be very functional – I think ...

Water Crossing Video

Water Crossing Video

Stuck In The Mud Video

Stuck In The Mud Video