DMV: Moto-Camping in Québec
After a relatively painless border crossing in Maine I headed into the Canadian province of Quebec the inhabitants of this area have diligently hung onto their French roots and little English is spoken outside of the major cities my first objective was finding a place to obtain Canadian currency so that I could then acquire gas and replenish my supply of rotisserie chicken additionally I needed to plug into a Wi-Fi connection for long enough to download maps of the area as I headed north heavy pellets of rain began to hammer the road the bike and the rider Desperate for a spot to throw up my tarp and make Camp I made the poor decision to follow a steep muddy Logging Road downhill for several miles I really don't know what compelled me to take this road under these conditions especially fully loaded up and furthermore why I continued to follow the road to the bottom there was nowhere decent at all to make camp and the only way back was up the Steep muddy Hill riding down here fully loaded had been a mistake and I was putting a serious amount of strain on my clutch to keep from sliding around when I reached the top of the hill all of a sudden I had no slack in my clutch lever and after making an adjustment I crossed my fingers and rode on for about the next two hours I searched high and low for a spot with more rain on the weather forecast anywhere I stayed had to be somewhere I could get in and out of in case of flooding eventually I noticed a level spot between some trees just big enough to squeeze my bike through for the next two days it rained without pause luckily I could squeeze my bike into this little Cove I think I halfway burned out my clutch yesterday on those uh steep muddy roads so nothing but solid rain coming my way so I'm almost out of water all right so I have to be a little bit careful about conserving water and I noticed that water has a tendency of pooling on this tarp so if I can I'll go ahead and do it and in fact I could probably set this tarp up so I could collect a more significant amount of rain water but anyway I might do that later if it comes down to it ah kind of a Canadian institution this is Tim Hortons if you've ever seen shows like the Trailer Park Boys you've probably seen Tim Hortons so this is my first time I'm excited let's go check it out it's good I must look an absolute mess I've been uh stuck in the woods wet cold miserable after the last two days so here I am so anyway damn man this river is overflowing I was really meticulous about finding a place that didn't look like it would get too flooded so hopefully this Rain's Gonna Die down and I can head to Quebec City next week they're calling for like 87 degree days so that's just crazy uh weather for you these uh quebecois grocery stores are a little different than the ones in the United States that is a very attractive strawberry display with an exchange rate of about 80 US cents to one Canadian dollar the country is a cost-effective option for Americans wanting to travel abroad other than that I mean it's a lot similar to a lot of grocery stores in the United States you got your produce section uh etc etc but it's just little details and obviously this is what I'm after which is a rotisserie chicken what they call in French Poulet or barbecue chicken that's a Portuguese chicken I don't know what uh the difference is but it's more expensive so I'm not getting that all kinds of delicious looking pre-made meals and stuff like that which means it's ready I'm still learning French but this is what I'm after because uh I noticed the other day when I was in the grocery store a lot of the homage here is a hell of a lot cheaper than it is in the United States for good quality cheese that looks good that's not bad having lived like a dirty motorcycle Vagabond for the past couple days I used the break-in weather to find a gem in which the lift weights and shower and then set out to explore the town the Sun was shining the next morning as I packed up and headed to Quebec City before heading into the city the first order of business would be finding suitable lodgings for the night I rode my bike part way down a snowmobiling route and began exploring on foot all right well looks like I got a good spot right here I kind of cleared out some of the under growth and everything else probably put my bike right there that way I can access my Tour pack and saddlebags but this is pretty [ __ ] remote and yet also pretty close to Quebec City so now that I've gotten this kind of squared away and figured out my lodgings for the night I'm gonna go head over to Quebec City and see what's going on over there at first glance that really looks real it represents the 4 seasons.... one of the oldest European settlements in North America Quebec City is a UNESCO world heritage site and as such is in a Perpetual state of repair it's one of the most beautiful cities of the world and a hell of a lot cheaper than most places in the U.S it is quite frankly one of the coolest places I've been in a really long time there are people from all over the world out here you hear all kinds of different accents and languages being spoken boy oh boy this place will kill you that looks like fun gotta wait for the snow on that one so I'm just walking around not really any purpose in mind this is uh a really cool City it's a place that I knew I was gonna like and a lot cheaper than a lot of big cities in the U.S that's for sure having lived almost exclusively on rotisserie chickens for the past couple months and lost a couple of two or three pant sizes it was high time to try some local specialties here I had the traditional french onion soup with a piece of bread on top and grated cheese and it was like a taste of France I also tried the Canadian specialty poutine which is fresh cut fries pork belly and cheese curds smothered in gravy if I can uh feel myself getting fatter by the second but uh you know I guess that's how they stay warm up here uh you got to stay well insulated you know so When in Rome as they say wow that is cool looks like somebody carved a Ski-Doo out of a solid chunk of granite that's going to be kind of an interesting concept I guess you know you get a couple of people oh it's got pedals there's another Creative Rock sculpture I'm guessing probably done by the same guy that did the Ski-Doo of course that's kind of taking the easy way out just find a boulder let's take some handlebars and some wheels on it there's the town of Levis kind of where we just came from and the place where I was camping is way over there about a 30 minute ride to get here I'm just getting the most out of it today will probably be the only day that I'm here just kind of hanging out and doing some filming this is an experience you only get really from being in the cities uh you just find a nice Shady spot and just relax and watch what's going on this uh inside there is the Citadel man I wouldn't want to have to mow the side of that bank right there I mean one misstep and you're in trouble but apparently you can pay money you can actually drive your car in there I think they've got like parking spaces and stuff Quebec City looks like it was pretty heavily fortified there's the very tip top of that crazy house but look at all these windows up there and you think about the whole thing that Place must have hundreds of rooms that is worth the picture right there got my cozy little Camp back in here got the thermacell rocking that thing works great only downside is it takes about 15 minutes to really start to be effective so I usually get a mosquito coil going first so I got this uh lasagna at the grocery store some Kalamata olive bread uh a piece of carrot cake and some of my Canadian maple syrup that I picked up somewhere so I'm going to try the maple syrup on the carrot cake which I don't see why that wouldn't be good A little bit of water so really I don't know if it gets any better than this man cannot live on rotisserie chickens alone and every once in a while for my own sanity I have to mix it up and eat some of the food that I really like not that there's anything wrong with rotisserie chickens I mean it's been really effective at taking the weight off I'll tell you that I mean it's it's essentially kind of a carnivore diet I don't know exactly how much weight I've lost but I'm almost at the point where I'm going to need to make another hole in my belt so I'd say it's pretty effective well I tried that maple syrup on the carrot cake and really couldn't taste it so you know really I think the best way to uh capture the nuances of the flavor is just to do it straight you know I mean just just straight out of the bottle you need to drink maple syrup if you come to Quebec or Canada because you need to have the blood of the earth running through your veins as you ride you know the roads you need to have the blood of the trees and everything else so why not the knowledge that I was still a good 2,000 miles away from Sturgis wasn't lost on me and with a few weeks left before starting work I took advantage of the good weather to put down as many miles as possible just on the edge of the Ontario border I found a town park which allowed free tent camping for a maximum stay of three days nothing like free tent camping my allergies are going crazy I've been riding all day ever since early this morning so I'm uh not ready to sit down read a book get ready to pass out for the next couple days I rested up and explored the town being as it was right next to Ontario most of the folks here were speaking in English all right so just hanging out under my little spot under the what would you call it an elm tree based on the leaves but this has been uh a pretty good spot this guy just came out and I saw him come in I'm like he can't be Moto camping but he is you know and and what's your name hi my name is Etienne where are you from Quebec City Quebec City oh I just came from Quebec City really it was a long ride yeah and so you did you leave today I live this morning yeah this is okay that's a pretty good ride yeah if it's 500 kilometers yeah 500 kilometers so that's like 320 miles something like that yeah yeah so that's but trust me it was a long ride yeah I was my butt is sore oh my God yeah you know day before yesterday I was out there exploring the town and taking videos of uh the what is it Chateau Frontenac that is crazy man I looked it up it's like 600 and something rooms it's an expensive uh yeah I looked that up too it's like 400 a night so I'm like it's much cheaper uh to Camp here absolutely absolutely this place is totally free for tents yeah so so which bike is this yeah that's a KTM Duke 790 right it's a 2019. okay so it's uh out of the uh mati gulfin and Austria plant okay so it's a genuine Austrian bike genuine Austrian KTM right yeah I've been riding it since uh 2020 and now I'm about 20 three 2300 kilometers on it so you know it's been a long okay so yeah I'm driving yeah got it broken in pretty well yeah yeah yeah cool I like it no problems at all some minor leakage but well that's normal yeah if it's like seepage you mean like from yeah from the head okay yeah that's that's normal stuff as long as there's not like a pool of oil under your bike no and you're not killing the grass and everything dies you know it's a great bike cool cool it's not a touring bag I see that yeah yeah well hey you're you're preaching to the choir well as your I'm learning French oh pretty good that's about all I know how to say unfortunately even though I have been studying I know the numbers you know I do but no so I just had a good time in Quebec City because I would just in the city itself most people speak English but I would always try to speak French with everybody yeah people be stupid and they yeah they just I made so many friends there man just from trying to speak the language and butchering it like I would say it I know this is totally wrong but they're like thank you so much for trying right that's right so where are you heading uh where are you going on a bit modern uh a bit more okay okay that's a it's about the I would say 400 kilometers an hour wow okay okay I gotta check the headings before I go again so yeah I'm trying to you know visit this region because I never been so then I'll just go back home slowly you know yeah okay in time for work okay okay so that's the plan okay by Monday so you got two couple hours plus two days yeah right yeah I got a cool little setup is that a tent or what yeah it's uh well you know I'm a hiker long distance hiker oh that's another thing I do what's American made okay yeah from a company called zpax in Florida so they make uh ultra light tent any other stuff for hikers so Z packs you know they're starting to make some stuff like this with the the fabric is it it's not nylon it's a different type of they called it Dynamics oh wow okay yeah so it's uh well very resistant for its weight yeah yeah and uh completely waterproof it almost looks like a sheepskin or something yeah it's like animal it's a weird I'm feeling plastic feeling I guess yeah plasticky and so this is your whole setup this you just throw this down and put your air pad underneath yeah that's it and I got a quilt uh you know okay a quilt is nice yeah I usually carry sleeping bags but if I had my choice I would go with the quilt yeah I like my setup I mean it makes sense to invest because it's not cheap but yeah so you hike a lot do you see a lot of bears Yes just cubs uh-huh but it was back when it was uh 10 years old yeah that's that's dangerous because you can't get in the way of the cubs I guess I've seen a lot of moose and those are even more dangerous than Bears right well they can't yeah it's they are unpredictable yes right so you better stay away but we were pretty close but nothing happens wow it's got bad sight you know but it's got a very good okay smell smell they finished the smell us because we were stinking I work the motorcycle rally in Sturgis South Dakota that's coming up in about I need to be there and a few weeks but I go really slow I take my time and you know what's the that's what's the big deal yeah it's a hurry yeah you gotta enjoy his life yeah yeah it's why Davey right yeah yeah that's right I'm sure you knew about it but some doesn't go according to plan yeah but it's it's yeah absolutely that's you know that's part of the fun I guess the adventure yeah yeah for sure and sometimes you have that night some [ __ ] with an RV parked 10 feet away from me at 3 30 a.m eventually I got back to sleep and when I woke the next morning I found Etienne getting packed and ready to ride further north into Quebec province I packed up my camp and headed west into the province of Ontario the wildfires had been exceptionally bad out there this year and it sounded like I was in for one hell of an adventure what's up this is Joe I hope you enjoyed that video of uh exploring the province of Quebec uh just a quick reminder if you enjoyed this video please hit like And subscribe and as usual I've included an optional donate Link in the Dropbox for anybody that might like to contribute to this project otherwise thanks for watching and we'll see you on the road
2023-07-15 14:11
