Part Eight |  Motorcycle Guide to Grand Valeé

Ultimate Ride Episode 8

So, as you know, this season, during our annual fall ride, we’re in the province of Quebec exploring the scenic Gaspé Peninsula with our ultimate destination, the town of Gaspé and it’s famous Percé Rock marked out on the map.  We started out on this adventure after picking up a couple BMW K1600GTs from Moto Vanier in Quebec City after a couple of days of solid riding that found us criss crossing through the peninsula’s mountainous national park we wound up in the small city of St. Anne des Monts.  Today, after enjoying nearly perfect sunny and cool riding conditions since leaving Quebec City, the weather has suddenly made a turn for the worse as we make our final puch for the town of Gaspé.

Dave

So Norm, here we are in Grand Valeé and we are midway through day three of our Gaspé tour.  And this morning we started out at Ste. Anne des Monts and I think it was about five degrees, they promised us it would stop raining, they promised us it would get warmer and the weatherman lied.

Norm

Yes he did.  I think it’s three degrees, it’s gotten colder, the touque is back on.

Dave

Yeah yeah.

Norm

We’re here by the coast with the lovely breeze off the cold sea water.

Dave

Yeah, I have to say… the things we do for Motorcycle Experience… despite the rain, despite the cold, it’s been a spectacular ride this morning. I was blown away by what we saw and what we experienced this morning.  It was fantastic.

Norm

Absolutely beautiful.  As we were riding I thought, geez, this would be great in the summer time with sunshine and just warmth but uh, you know, it was very surprising to me, the landscape that we’re seeing… I wasn’t expectin that at all, with the mountain going down to the ocean with the little road going down the side of the Gulf here… I was expecting something a little bit flatter but obviously not.

Dave

And what was really amazing was this one thirty-two that we’re on heading east to Gaspé… the way the road has been built with just the seas, the St. Lawrence was right on our left the whole way, no obstructed views no houses between us… even those signs that we’ve seen where they’ve got the waves crashing – possibly crashing over the highway, I could see that happening but just … spectacular.

Norm

Spectacular, yeah.  And we were talking earlier about, because of what we’re doing here we end up having to go back and forth sometimes to so some of the shots…

Dave

That’s right.

Norm

… and filming that you’re doing and you get a totally different perspective coming from the other way of exactly what you saw coming northwards going south  it’s different so if you have time you know ride to Gaspé on the one thirty-two this way and then ride it back the other way and you’ll have a whole different trip.

Dave

Yeah I’ve been, I have been thinking, several times along the way, if I had to pick the top three areas to ride in Canada I would have to say the ride that we did from Vancouver to Calgary through the Rockies, spectacular, the Cabot Trail, well we know that’s right up there… I would say this might be number three or at least our top three… I’ve really been pleased with what we’ve seen.

Norm

Yeah definitely and I think normally… we did choose the right time because we’re after Labour Day and normally there’s less traffic, we can see that, we just got unfortunate with the weather but in a week or so from now… can you imagine when the leaves turn, how beautiful this is going to be.

Dave

Yeah yeah. Well, you know, we’ve got a full afternoon still ahead of us, we’re about half-way now to Ste. Anne des Monts to Gaspé and hopefully this will break-up and clear a little bit and maybe warm up a little bit but it’s still… I’ve got a huge smile on my face, this has been a great adventure so far..

Norm

Yeah for sure.

Dave

Push on?  Fantastic.