Clear, the morning starts at freezing and is slow to warm, as I ride into the jagged boundary between Alberta and British Columbia.  The ying to Newfoundland’s aged, rounded and spare yang, the Rockies complete Canada’s parenthesis of spectacle. Climbing the 93 into gray skies we reach Continental divide, the split of North America’s lopsided…

It’s the West, home’s backyard, and Alberta feels like an old friend. The border between provinces continues to be startlingly accurate. Behind me is the wide sky and roll of the prairies, ahead the dinosaurs, oil and ranches, the Rockies, British Columbia and finally home.

The sign for Saskatchewan is a harbinger of prosperity.  Pump-jacks line the roadside fellating like 50’s cartoon mosquitoes pulling congealed crude from the earth.  David & David’s “Welcome to Boomtown” drifts through my mind.  If there is a place to let your mind roam while riding, this is it, a wide openness painted in blue…

My original plan was to push through Winnipeg, but my blind servitude to the Garmin Zumo GPS carries me into the downtown core.  Then architecture grabbed me, the Bank of Montreal, the Royal Bank, the Via Rail station.  A rail hub and the former central point of the fur trade Winnipeg has maintained a sense…

Just for reference, Ontario is large enough that when the provincial government decided to protect 222,000 square kilometers (56 million acres) of boreal forest from development in July of 2008, comparisons were drawn.  For example, 222,000 square kilometers is equal to the entirety of the U.S.’s road-less areas, half the size of Texas, or the…

That’s the last Inukshuk, Highway 17 has been lined with them the past two days.  These human forms, some classic in design and others more avant-garde, have been my constant companions as I cross Ontario.  Whenever I’ve been feeling a bit low I glance up the highway’s stony embankments, and there is an Inukshuk.  My…

Sometimes a ride is just a ride, there’s no deeper meaning or context to be provided.  These are the rides magazines never show you, the hard slogs.  Magazines are all about peak experiences, not the troughs.  Leaving Sault Ste. Marie, Highway 17 hasn’t been what I expected.  I was told to brace for mind numbing…

Mattawa, Ontario – At the Valois Restaurant and Motel, in Mattawa Ontario, churchgoers have flowed in, nearly filling the restaurant. Worship done they sit at tables craving cold meats on over-processed bread, served with a side of fries and consumed with a dash of Sunday morning righteousness. They are looking askance at the stranger in…

On the back roads of New Brunswick, the fall colours are gathering; greens transforming to oranges, yellows and golds. They would make a tremendous backdrop, except right now they’re making a tremendous blur. The road quality is horrendous; we’re diving between potholes, ruts, wallows and severe frost heaves that compress the rear suspension and the…

Nova Scotia is built for motorcycle touring. I’m sure of it, provided you hit the right speed to skim over the roads of the Sunrise Trail, which run from smooth to brutally potholed. They are gently winding and combined with late fall light and a warm day the ride makes for motorcycling satisfaction.