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Spyder Trip Ideas 2020


Fuse6
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Being hopeful the world is back to normal by summer time thinking about places to go for my wife and myself annual  Spyder tour we do for 2 weeks in mid August.

Last year we did the Cabot Trail and west side of Newfoundland. In 2018 did the Maritimes including PEI, Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia and NB.

Our plan a few months ago for this summer was to fly to Calgary then rent a Polaris Slingshot and spend a week touring the Rookies in Alberta and British Columbia. With the present Covid 19 situation think we will travel to Quebec, something we can do on short notice if tourism and travel becomes an option again.

Playing on the CAA/AAA interactive map site l sketched out this possible route starting from Quebec City. We travelled all this area over the past two winters on the sled. Like most people on sled trips travelling new areas always think l would really like to come back here in the summer to explore the area.

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Few questions for those that have travelled these areas in the summer:

1. Manic 5, the Hydro Dam north of Baie Comeau, is it worth the time? I believe there is a tour you can take at the dam. 

2. Is Hwy 138 east of Sept iles to Havre St Pierre scenic?

3. We like to spend two nights at one spot A couple times in the trip vs pounding the road every day. Any suggestions on places on this route to stay and can spend a day puttering around exploring the area?

Was rereading Iceman and Playhard’s Spyder Trips to the Gaspe and CA the past couple of summers with interest. Any chance you stopped by the big lodge south of Cap Chat in the Chic Choc on the 299?

Just toying with ideas at this point if anyone has other suggestions. Below is a few pictures from last years NFLD trip.

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Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia

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Lobster supper, Baddeck, Cabot Trail

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Waiting to board the ferry in Port Sydney, NS for the 6 hour night crossing to Port aux  Basques NFLD

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Norris Point, Gros Morne national park NFLD. Beautiful area.

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1 hour ago, Signfan said:

How is the Spyder on gravel roads?  I hear that road north to Lab City is all gravel and not always the best maintained.

Avoid gravel roads as much as possible. Being belt drive always the risk the front left tire could flip a stone into the rear belt/sprocket. Drive it like l own it.😏

My understanding the road is paved up to Manic 5. From there north believe it is gravel.

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6 minutes ago, Fuse6 said:

Avoid gravel roads as much as possible. Being belt drive always the risk the front left tire could flip a stone into the rear belt/sprocket.

Playhard? Bueller? Bueller? Squirrel 🐿 

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Paved all the way to Manic 5. Yes it is worth the drive, and  yes there are tours available. it would be awesome on a bike, lots of twists and turns getting there. Maybe Baie Comeau is a spot for two nights, a day to Manic 5 and a day east toward HSP.  

The road to Grand Nature south of Cap Chat has a few kilometers of gravel but is usually in good shape, would be worth it. 

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54 minutes ago, smclelan said:

Paved all the way to Manic 5. Yes it is worth the drive, and  yes there are tours available. it would be awesome on a bike, lots of twists and turns getting there. Maybe Baie Comeau is a spot for two nights, a day to Manic 5 and a day east toward HSP.  

The road to Grand Nature south of Cap Chat has a few kilometers of gravel but is usually in good shape, would be worth it. 

Your Baie Comeau idea has merit. On the guys trip this winter we stayed at the LeManoir for a night. It would be spouses approved, the Travelodge maybe not so much.

We stayed at Grand Nature also this winter. No problem doing a gravel run like that to get to a destination.

I was mistaken saying Cap Chat. It’s the large lodge south of St Ann des Monts on the 299 l was wondering about  

Thanks for the input.

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Was gonna suggest leaving time for lawbstas etc along the way, but your pics showed that your priorities are in order!

Been there done that 3x so far. Hoping/planning to make it a habit. LSJ & BSL & Gaspésie. 

No prob if you go during the 2 week trades vaca, just reserve ahead. Scheduled from 7/18 - 8/1 this year.

There're lots of regional tourism websites for ideas on local attractions & routes, something for everyone.

Thinking zoos and any open-air walking stuff will be social-distancing friendly. 

Sled geeks like us will likely enjoy stopping & peeking up the trailheads, so keeping the map app handy has value. 

Yeah, plenty of gravel & dust & roadwork in summer. But at this point face bandannas are the new normal!

Regional rental definitely has advantages, like less major (boring & buggy) highway stretches, and no trailering, and not that we'd abuse any equipment but no worries about minor undercarriage scrapeage if you creep up any of those trailheads.

Looking forward!

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With regard to Fuse6's west coast of Newfoundland tour, just finished putting this together for some folks from Australia wanting to drive out that way - crazy for Vikings. Might give some ideas. Lived in Newfoundland a few years, hoping to head to the west coast area for sledding this winter. Trip outline in first photo map and shows some accommodations.  Apologies in advance - it is called the Cabot Trail, not the Cape Breton trail as I have named it.....should be able to open in MS Word or similar....links should work( ctr key and click) and Quebec sledding map came in handy for part of the directions...

nfld trip by accomodations.docx

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1 hour ago, slomo said:

With regard to Fuse6's west coast of Newfoundland tour, just finished putting this together for some folks from Australia wanting to drive out that way - crazy for Vikings. Might give some ideas. Lived in Newfoundland a few years, hoping to head to the west coast area for sledding this winter. Trip outline in first photo map and shows some accommodations.  Apologies in advance - it is called the Cabot Trail, not the Cape Breton trail as I have named it.....should be able to open in MS Word or similar....links should work( ctr key and click) and Quebec sledding map came in handy for part of the directions...

nfld trip by accomodations.docx 4.38 MB · 5 downloads

Awesome job putting that all together. 

Looks like a great trip. I will be doing that for sure. 

Thank you!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/20/2020 at 4:09 PM, Fuse6 said:

 

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Was just having a re-look at your map - consider highway 155 north out of Shawinigan - follows a long lake for quite some time, hills and forested areas. Gets you to Chambord from which point you can drive circle hwy 169 around Lac St. Jean, south to Tadoussac and whale watching. Might be a bit more scenic than the 4 lane north of Quebec city.

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BTW - regards a western Canada drive if you were flying and renting- how about a trip up the Alaska highway continuing on to the new road to Tuktoyutuk? Been up that way into Yukon twice but would like to rent motor home type transportation in Edmonton and go up from there. 

Being fairly conversant with the Rockies - you could see most of what you want to see in 3 - 4 days - heading out highway 16 west of Edmonton to Prince Rupert would be a nice add on, very scenic, every turn looks like a tourism picture. 

 

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Another great Alaskan ride is the Kenai Peninsula, hardest part of the trip is being able to keep your eyes on the road, truly breath taking, big place, bring your top of the line binoculars and a very good camera, done it 3 times, you can never get enough of it, they don't call it The Last Frontier for nothing!

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16 hours ago, slomo said:

Was just having a re-look at your map - consider highway 155 north out of Shawinigan - follows a long lake for quite some time, hills and forested areas. Gets you to Chambord from which point you can drive circle hwy 169 around Lac St. Jean, south to Tadoussac and whale watching. Might be a bit more scenic than the 4 lane north of Quebec city.

Thanks Slomo,

Yes highway 155 would be the type of roads we look for, thanks for the suggestion.

Try to avoid the main highway/interstate type of roads as much as possible.

Steve

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On 5/7/2020 at 10:38 AM, Fuse6 said:

Thanks Slomo,

Yes highway 155 would be the type of roads we look for, thanks for the suggestion.

Try to avoid the main highway/interstate type of roads as much as possible.

Steve

You are a travellin' guy ...let us know how it goes!

On 5/7/2020 at 8:00 AM, quebec bob said:

Another great Alaskan ride is the Kenai Peninsula, hardest part of the trip is being able to keep your eyes on the road, truly breath taking, big place, bring your top of the line binoculars and a very good camera, done it 3 times, you can never get enough of it, they don't call it The Last Frontier for nothing!

Intrigued....I looked this up. If you're in Yukon anyway and having gone that far, a few days more on a trip won't hurt. Beaver Creek (Canada's most westerly community BTW) is about a 4 hour drive from Whitehorse - although might be longer these days as I understand the highway has developed a bad case of large and long up and down waves due to frost) 

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By the time I get out there again hope the exchange rate is a bit easier or I might be camping in my sled trailer.  :-)

Got my eye on this event....you never know....

https://www.toktodawson.com/

" Trek over the Top is an international snowmobile run from Tok, Alaska to Dawson City, Yukon. Riders travel over 200 miles of groomed trail through pristine wilderness to arrive in one heck of a party town!"  Takes place on a highway which is closed during the winter. Some good videos of the event on the web site.

 

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Homer is a great spot and the ride from Turn Again Arm down thru Coopers Landing and continue on the Sterling highway is incredible, I see the time of 11hours and 27 minutes....there is so much to see and explore along that route that you could spend a month doing it and miss as much as you see. And make sure you have essentials when you leave Anchorage as there is not much between there and Soldatna, and then you really do not want to do all that without seeing Seward...and then if you go a little farther than Homer you get to see a little place called Fritz Creek....and it goes on and on...kind of like riding Quebec and you just want to ride all you can, 3 trips there and just scratched the surface. There is an airport at the begining of the Homer Spit, you have to rent a plane there and spend as much time as you can, we went for 3 days, with 6 of us, camping and fishing where no man has ever stepped foot in late September, like i said, just goes on and on!!

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17 hours ago, PLAYHARD said:

And if you go around June 21st you get about 23 hours of daylight!

Makes it hard to tell when it's time to start (and stop) drinking!

I have friends who moved there, it is quite an adjustment, getting up early and it feels like you are really late. In late September and early October, things are changing so fast and in 2 weeks time in mid-September you can literally watch summer end, all of fall and first snow, in a 2 week time frame, first snow is called termination dust and everyone leaves the mountains, only main roads get plows and many dirt roads are closed off. I have been there  when it is 50 daily and in 10 days that changes to 12 degrees, crazy for sure!!

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Travel from Whitehorse to Skagway one of the most beautiful mountain drives in the world. Take the ferry from Skagway to Haines and up through the Pass to Haines Junction, tour Klaune Park. From there go to Tok Alaska, then on the Top of the World Highway to Dawson City. It is worth a day or two there ( do the Sour Toe Cocktail), then travel up the Dempster Highway. Then back to Whitehorse. An awesome tour that I have done first hand and certainly recommend. 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 5/9/2020 at 3:21 PM, slomo said:

You are a travellin' guy ...let us know how it goes!

Intrigued....I looked this up. If you're in Yukon anyway and having gone that far, a few days more on a trip won't hurt. Beaver Creek (Canada's most westerly community BTW) is about a 4 hour drive from Whitehorse - although might be longer these days as I understand the highway has developed a bad case of large and long up and down waves due to frost) 

alaska.thumb.jpg.12215f41d2381b008cba305d7f14a463.jpg

By the time I get out there again hope the exchange rate is a bit easier or I might be camping in my sled trailer.  🙂

Got my eye on this event....you never know....

https://www.toktodawson.com/

" Trek over the Top is an int jernational snowmobile run from Tok, Alaska to Dawson City, Yukon. Riders travel over 200 miles of groomed trail through pristine wilderness to arrive in one heck of a party town!"  Takes place on a highway which is closed during the winter. Some good videos of the event on the web site.

 

This looks interesting.  Is the road groomed all winter?  Or just for this event?

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On 6/3/2020 at 6:41 PM, Signfan said:

This looks interesting.  Is the road groomed all winter?  Or just for this event?

According to what I read, the highway is closed in the winter and the grooming takes place just for the event. Conditions change every year and I was looking for this one youtube video that shows a particularly tricky part with very steep embankments to the road onto which some sleds slide down quite a ways. I didn't find that particular one, but here is a URL to several others:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=trek+over+the+top

Here is the Taylor highway in the summer:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=taylor+highway+alaska

 

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