Canada

A collection of 58 posts

Nov/Dec '13 Premium Content

Lake Erie Circle Tour, Canada: Our Neighbors to the North

Crossing the Peace Bridge into Ontario is a mostly benign experience. I present my passport and answer a few questions: “Citizenship?” “How long will you be in Canada?” “Do you have any weapons?” Wait, what? Do I have any weapons? Well, I guess I am an American, and this is

Sep/Oct '13

City Escape: Vancouver, British Columbia

> A winding tarmac ribbon soaring from sea to sky through BC’s Coast Range into semi-desert, then back through the spectacular Fraser Canyon. Take in four climate zones! Yes, it’s a long ride, but it’s comfortably doable in a day as long as you start early. This local

Jul/Aug '13 Premium Content

Alberta, Canada: Ironhorse on the Cowboy Trail

Thousands of Canadians still head west hoping to capture some of the wealth from Canada’s richest province (per capita income) for themselves. But it’s also a favorite international tourist destination well known for its expansive blue skies and scenery as well as both winter and summer activities. Founded

Jan/Feb '13 Premium Content

British Columbia: No Country for Old Men

Spring is the season of new growth, mating … and old men trying to stop the passage of time by planning an annual, mid-life-crisis, off-road motorcycle trip. It’s not as easy as an organized tour where all you have to do is follow the guy in front of you and

Nov/Dec '12 Premium Content

Québec: Postcards From the Province

Big trips are curious things–miles and miles of road interrupted by moments of poignancy and snippets of time that persist in the mind as the years march on. “Remember that time…?” we say to ourselves and our riding partners. “You should have been there,” we say to others. Photos

May/Jun '12 Premium Content

Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park Loop: Riding the Crown of the Continent

It is closer to bedtime than it is to dinnertime when I finally park the bike. But the kitchen is open until 10 p.m. here at Vimy’s Lounge & Grill at the Waterton Lakes Resort, so I order yak meatballs (since they are fresh out of elk chili) and

Mar/Apr '12 Premium Content

Ottawa Valley: Oh, Canada!

June in Canada can make you forget that “Great White North” is the nickname for our neighbor above, for no signs of frosty, snowy whiteness appear anywhere. Rather, the tapestry of the Canadian countryside wraps the landscape in lush layers of summertime green spiked with colorful threads of blue, yellow,

Nov/Dec '11 Premium Content

Reclusive Labrador

We have every intention of riding to Alaska someday, but since we aren’t prepared to take that much time off work a ride on the Labrador is calling our names. We chat with our riding buddy Glenn Parker about it, and he says it’s one of those roads

Sept/Oct '11 Premium Content

Lake Huron, Canadian Side

Neither Sarah nor I have been to Canada, but we have high expectations. We’re both outdoor enthusiasts and would like to see some bears and moose. On top of that I’m a hockey player and a huge fan of the sport. It sounds like a silly plan to

May/Jun '11 Premium Content

Canada: Alberta's Icefields Parkway

Sept/Oct '10 Premium Content

The International Selkirk Loop

Here we are in Castlegar, Nelson can't be very far. Climbing out of Castlegar on Highway 3, the view of British Columbia below is so captivating that I pull over to fully appreciate it. The Columbia River glistens in the afternoon sun like the chrome on the 2009 Harley-Davidson Electra

Jul/Aug '10 Premium Content

Lake Superior - Canadian Side

Two countries, one lake. On the US side, Lake Superior abuts small towns, local businesses, and large industrialized cities. People abound. Yet, along the Canadian border, with the exception of Thunder Bay, the land is pristine, green, and seemingly untouched by man. As John, Jim, and I continue our Circle

Sept/Oct '09 Premium Content

The Yukon

Dual sport riding is about sacrifice. It's about sacrificing comfort, taking on a little weight, giving up some road manners and, in the name of adventure, embracing the fear of the unknown. Within sacrifice lies balance, and in the case of dual sporting it's providing the ability to happily explore

Jul/Aug '09 Premium Content

Vancouver Island, British Columbia

The sign is up for "Free Beer: Tomorrow" in the pub where Steve, Jim and I sit planning our Vancouver Island tour. And it seems that the gratification of good old West Coast sunshine will be delayed another day, too. The forecast promises the weekend will be fine, but we're

Nov/Dec '08 Premium Content

Ontario, Manitoulin Island Tour

It fills the bill of particulars any rider desires, a destination of friendly people and scenic vistas, of well-paved roads bearing little traffic, and if you were going to design an island for motorcyclists, this might be the place. Located in Ontario, Canada, on the northern edge of Lake Huron

Sept/Oct '08 Premium Content

Newfoundland's T'railway Provincial Park

Located at the northernmost tip of North America, Newfoundland offers a vision of barren beauty that attracts half a million tourists each year. And after finding out the big island also has a 550-mile railway trail system that's open to motorcyclists, we couldn't possibly resist the lure of traveling there,

Sept/Oct '08 Premium Content

Reader Ride: Doing the Dempster

Stretching across the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada, the 720-kilometer Dempster Highway wanders for days through untamed wilderness to reach the frontier outpost of Inuvik. Backtracking its length is the only way off the tundra, but rest assured that not a single moment of this incredible adventure will fail

Jul/Aug '08 Premium Content

British Columbia

In the late 1800s a gold rush engulfed the interior of southwestern Canada. However, to be worth the assayers' valuations, the precious metal and other mined commodities had to reach the Pacific coast. Great mountain ranges and deep river gorges stood in the way, and at that time, building the

May/Jun '08 Premium Content

British Columbia - Pacific Rim Tour

There can't be too many places people travel to in order to watch the weather. But every winter patrons cram the hotels lining Long Beach on Vancouver Island's west coast and do just that. The next stop from there is Japan, and the 5,000-mile Pacific expanse between routinely unleashes

Mar/Apr '08 Premium Content

Edmonton to Alaska

Joining a band of motorcyclists on an annual run to Hyder, Alaska, we rode north from Edmonton to celebrate Ron Ayres's 1998 feat of smashing the Iron Butt record (riding to 48 states within 10 days) in what is now called the 48 Plus! Iron Butt Ride. Making it to

Nov/Dec '07 Premium Content

Canada: New Brunswick

Our crossing from Maine into New Brunswick was quick and easy. We only had to stop long enough to answer one question: "Do you have any alcohol with you?" We had some wine and beer on board, but since the tight spaces on motorcycles are seldom thought to yield huge

Sept/Oct '07 Premium Content

British Columbia's Hot Springs

When explorer David Thompson of the Northwest Company was mapping the Columbia River in 1811, he liked nothing better at the end of a hard day's travel than to relax in one of the many hot springs lining his route in what was later to become British Columbia. Actually, I

Sept/Oct '07 Premium Content

Canada: Nova Scotia, A Seaside Sojourn in the Maritimes

I have traveled around the globe. I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes, the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland, but for simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all! -  Alexander Graham Bell Just entering Nova Scotia, where that great inventor of telecommunications lived for 30 years,

May/Jun '07 Premium Content

Canada: Newfoundland - To Terra Nova

We couldn't recognize much of what the attendant was saying as English, nor did we understand him when he smiled and rattled off a rapid-fire warning, "Yobettagedyoassoutofhere!" But we quickly got the message as the big truck approached. The man's dialect, we later learned, unmistakably identifies him to the rest

May/Jun '07 Premium Content

Canada: British Columbia, Coast to Cariboo

"Ho-hum," a friend of mine remarked, tongue-in-cheek, as we stood looking across British Columbia's vast Shuswap Lake, "just more mountains, forests, rivers and lakes." Well, for once, he was right. Southern BC is mostly forests, rivers, lakes and mountains. And as motorcyclists know, these geographical features usually indicate something other