Beyond Tidnish!

WE that grew up around the Rockies can perhaps be a little jaded in our views.  Fortunately in my own case, I've traveled a lot beyond those extra special mountains, and have learned that majestic snow capped peaks aside, the planet has much to offer an intrepid motorbike traveler.

Confederation Bridge

Take for example Cape Breton and the North shore of Nova Scotia.  Only a few hours ride from my home, there are ample opportunities for jaw dropping.

I was on my way to visit long time friends from my Fort Mac days, who reside just outside Sydney Mines Cape Breton.  This ride would be little back roads, some without names or numbers or painted lines. I've been to CB countless times in the years I first discovered the Maritimes but generally to get there I'd travel the highways at highway speeds.  This time around I was determined to get off the beaten fast track and meander along the coast, in and out of tiny hamlets, often with the speedometer needle hovering on the low side of 60 kph from one bend, one valley, one hilltop, one inlet to another.  The Trans Canada is never far away and if you feel the need for speed, it's only the next on ramp away.

WITH the DL 650 otherwise known as V Strom , serviced, saddlebags and top box mounted, map in hand, well pocket... I set out early towards the Confederation Bridge from my home on PEI. I would be traveling by myself as I most often have during my riding career.  I pulled into Borden to multiple lines of vehicles leaving the Island.  Since the completion of the bridge severe weather aside, getting off the Island is pretty simple.  Today however I was greeted by dozens of cars, RV's, transfer trucks and even one or two motorcycles, shades of the old days waiting for the boat!  After 10 minutes in a slow moving Credit Card only automated line-up, a female employee approached me and instructed me to take an alternate lane.  her explanation, for some reason the system was not recognizing motorcycles.  I looked across the pad and there were lines of vehicles backed up almost to the first curve into Borden.  not to worry she yelled, follow me!  This rather squat tiny woman in her bright orange vest, parted several lanes of traffic for me with only the wave of her authoritative hand and delivered me well, not to the other side of the Red Sea, but to the same approximate placing as I had just left several lanes ago.  I was grateful that I did not have to go to the back of the bus.

WALLET once again stowed and clear of several lanes of converging traffic, I was on my way.  Accelerating  up to 80 kph, the legal maximum bridge speed, I counted pavement cracks on this marvel of engineering crossing the Northumberland Strait.  Unlike crossing by car, the Strom sits me up high enough that with a little neck stretching I could glimpse the blue green waters below.  There were a few fishing boats about but of course there is an absolute NO stopping rule on the CCTV camera covered bridge.  The emergency lane is barely 4' wide so one must hope for the best and there is no photo op stops!

AFTER a very brief stop at the Port of Entry into New Brunswick, I rode the most boring stretch of road in the world to the roundabout at Port Elgin.  From here I would be literally off the beaten track with the exception of a few score miles of TC1 later in the day.

Road is definitely closed!

Port Elgin and Baie Verte are most definitely OtBT*  If you didn't know the route you could easily think you were going nowhere but if you are familiar with this little piece of forgotten roadway you would know that this is the back door to Nova Scotia! Of course even here in such a little traveled space you can expect the unexpected.  I saw the Orange sign but continued anyway.  It had warned of a detour bypassing a construction zone.  Now in the past I have often come to just such signs and indeed to bypass a piece of construction or some other such obstruction would have been impossible in a two track vehicle but many a time I was able to make it through riding a dual purpose motorcycle beyond where other traffic could go.  Now I will be the very first to admit that the Suzuki I was riding today, which by the way, belongs to the genre of Adventure Touring (ADV) bikes made popular by BMW GS models, Mega KTM's and scores of others including Suzuki, is most definitely NOT a dualie!  At well over 500 pounds, of which 50 can be well  up high on the frame, tall seat heights and wide bodywork running on tires that mimic knobbies but aren't... you didn't ride this bike on single track mountain trails!

Unrestored late '60's W 650 Kawasaki at the Blue Cat in Baie Verte

Today even I was not that lucky as just before approaching my T cut-off that headed south to Aulac or east to Tidnish... the road indeed, was impassible.  Heavy equipment, a barrier holding back the incoming tide and construction sheds indicated a lengthy repair.  As so often happened in my riding career... I was "So near and yet so far."

Seeing no readily available alternative (more on that later) I turned the big bike around and headed back to the detour.

THE road into Tidnish NS is narrow, winding, mostly flat following the coastline and very stress free.  If you happened to be riding a V Strom, on this rough patched paved road, you were now in ADV heartland.  The psuedo knobby tires put plenty of rubber on the pavement, the narrow 90 degree Liquid Cooled V Twin sourced from Suzuki's line of sporty SV models, was now in its element.  With loads of power on hand, 100 kph on this little strip of tarmac shows the attributes of riding a bike such as this.  With pretty soft suspension, wide MX style handlebars, a six speed transmission that made use of the 645cc Twins torque and horsepower both, this is where the ADV lives! I could run well over 400 kilometers on a tank of fuel and if I were really frugal with the help of the one tooth over stock gearing, I could pass 500 km between fill ups.

Riding the Sunrise trail Nova Scotia

For my plans of the three digit back roads some of which had dodgy pavement and others NO pavement, this was where the 40 c.i. Suzuki was meant to live its life.  No fanfare, just lots of carrying capacity, fuel to explore back road hamlets that often ended at some local wharf and reasonable comfort. I had bought this bike two years ago in preparation for a X Canada ride.  As time became short I could see that spending two weeks on the highway droning along (do you realize how big Canada is?) wasn't going to be constructive and besides I'd done it west to east and back 40 years prior.  I ended up flying to Edmonton and riding Liz's old Suzuki Savage through the west.

AS many of you know, I like to ride alone. No disagreements with stopping points, bathroom breaks, where to eat and how fast (or slow) to travel.  No one to complain that I take too many photo ops, or that I often U turn on some dinky toy back village road.  To me its the only way to actually "tour" while on a motorbike.

There are few people I would ride long distance with, I could likely name them on one hand with a finger or two left over and today, while ripping along at what seems like obscene speed on this highway marked 370... I thought of how lucky I am to have discovered motorcycling before I turned thirteen!

Metro Tidnish

In them days, parents, law enforcement and the general public were not accustomed to seeing hundreds of bikes on the road, in fact if you saw a group of riders in jean jackets, they most often had patches denoting their affiliation with some bad biker gang or other.  There were NO Christian Bikers or Atlanticades or Gold Wings in those days!

Once at the Tidnish junction with NS highway 366, the road widens, traffic is more tourist than local at this time of year and  the presence of people although not great, is felt.



RIDING the Sunrise Trail as this stretch of road is referred to, is an abundant joy on two wheels.  Plenty of easy corners, wide shoulders, pretty good pavement especially on my knobby tires (!) and the added bonus of European style villages placed at every whistle stop.  Lorneville, Northport, Linden with larger centers like Pugwash (what a cute little burg that!!) and Wallace to fuel up or grab a bite to eat. There are zero the number of buildings higher than 3 stories, brightly painted homes and always the water, never far from the water.  You could ride around back here on a dual purpose bike of virtually any size for a week and not see all their is to see or do.  Tatamagouche , then onto towards Pictou where left takes to the summertime ferry crossing to the Island or right into the community of New Glasgow.

So typical of riding the East coast.

It was getting late in the afternoon by this time, I had spent so much time puttering, that I took a bit of the 104 towards Antigonish where I filled the enormous tank and from there headed to the Canso causeway and the gateway to Cape Breton. So far the late summer weather had been fabulous and I mean fabulous, but now I could see black thunderheads forming to the east.  I wasn't carrying any rain gear, my riding clothes offer some protection from occasional wet weather so I wasn't particularly worried.



Here is where the ADV bike shows its true colors for they are all really street bikes in disguise.  Back in the day when Paris to Dakar west Africa was the premier off road rally the world had ever known, bikes mimicking the racers were the grandfathers of what I was riding now.

I twisted the throttle upwards merging with fast movers on the TCH, my speedometer settling around 140 kph for many miles until approaching the narrow strait that would dump me in Port Hawkesbury on Cape Breton.  No RCMP cruisers were in sight and of the many cars in the stream passing me, some were equipped with radar warning devices, which of course are illegal in the land!  I was safe only venturing into the left hand lane on occasion to pass someone traveling at the posted limit.

Even though the thunderheads were well off to the SE, the odd spatter on the V Storm shield foretold of weather to come...

*OtBT  Off the beaten Track