14 of 17: A Motorcycle Tour of the Canadian Maritimes, Summer 2018 Northern Virginia to Nova Scotia, PEI, the Gaspé Peninsula and Back

7.4.18. Wednesday.  Percé’s Rock, Quebec to Revière-du-Loup, Quebec.

The next morning, we prowled around the grounds of our cliffside lodge, enjoying the views of Percé’s Rock and the seals on the rocks below us.

Jeff had scouted out a geocache that was about 250 meters from the lodge parking lot (as the crow flies), but we realized that it was at the top of an even steeper cliff than the one we were on. Since we are not crows, it would have been quite a hike.  Instead, we checked-out and went into town for breakfast.  We ate at a bustling little place next to the Three Sister’s Motel (and part of it, although it looked like a little bungalow).  It was delicious.  But it gave us a much later start than usual and much, much later than we had anticipated.

The day’s ride was defined by jaw-dropping scenery. The ride out from Percé’s Rock to the north shore of the peninsula was perhaps the part I found most exhilarating. For a short way, it was like the Cabot Trail but even more so.

We rode out to Cap-des-Rosiers in Forillon National Park. We walked an elevated wooden “nature trail” that offered lovely views of the sea across the tops of the brush and rocks. The walkway had signs along the way describing wildlife – that we were not seeing. As I began to grouse about the lack of “nature” on this trail, Jeff hissed, “look, there.” Not more than a few feet from me, just below the edge of the walkway, a porcupine was enjoying his lunch, completely unfazed by us! Further along the way we found seals sunning themselves on the rocks, and a lovely view of a light house.

When we reached the south shore of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the road flattened out, and geological marvels predominated.  The St. Lawrence is much wider than a normal river all the way from Quebec City to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, so as we rode along its southern coast, we generally could not see a northern shore.  The coast line was beautiful. We had shale cliffs to our left on large parts of the route, and on our right, usually there was water. In many places, the jagged edges of the shale shelves protruded from the water. We stopped at a rest area (lured there by a geocache of course) where the beach was covered in stones smoothed and flattened into dark grey disks, many with white lines of other minerals running through them.

The metallic church steeples continued. The roadside "attractions" included a sword embedded in a rock and a house decorated in bright blue turrets. I was also charmed by the tidy stone-edged harbors with their bobbing fishing boats at anchor. The wind farms were abundant along the coast and even included some vertical turbines.

An unfortunate consequence of our late start is that we missed the last admission time for the Jardins de Métis. We did stop at the Centre d’Art M. Gagnon, to observe the somewhat disturbing clusters of statues clustered on the shore and proceeding in a straggly line into the river. Following that, we were rewarded with a stunning sunset that bathed the sky in violent reds and oranges at times.

It was dark by time we reached the Motel Loupi in Revière-du-Loup. The owner checked us in and directed us down the road to find some food. We by-passed his suggestions and went further into town where we found a cozy bar with a selection of vegetarian and traditional options and beers. Then back to our hotel for the night.

15 of 17: A Motorcycle Tour of the Canadian Maritimes, Summer 2018 Northern Virginia to Nova Scotia, PEI, the Gaspé Peninsula and Back

7.5.18. Thursday. Rivière-du-Loup, Québec to Wilton, Maine, US.

Motel Loupi in Rivière-du-Loup was a nice find. It’s a simple but comfortable Mom & Pop place with a cute gazebo and garden, including a number of raised vegetable beds. It’s across the road from what appeared to be an amusement park, the Noël Au Chateau, which was brightly lit the night we arrived. There were a number of other motorcycle parked in the lot.

We breakfasted at Tim Horton’s, amazingly our first stop at this iconic Canadian chain on this trip. We drove through the little town of Rivière-du-Loup, which was just a charming by day, and stopped at a park and historic hydro-electric project just outside of town that had a picturesque water fall set against a dramatic cliff.

We then set off for the northernmost crossing point between Canada and Maine, which first took us along the shores of Lake Pohénégamook on the Canadian side of the most northern tip of Maine. We passed signs advertising the area as a four-season resort; and for the “Musee Elvis,” among other things.

Our destination was the Parc de la Frontière. This tiny unguarded border has a foot bridge that was originally built around 1904 as a larger bridge to connect the Canadian towns of Pohénégamook and Estcourt. The original bridge inadvertently crossed the international border. Once the boundary was more clearly drawn, a new bridge was constructed wholly on the Canadian side, and the international bridge was reduced to a footbridge. That original bridge has since been destroyed by flood and rebuild.   The current configuration is such that you can drive from Canada down a small access road into the little Parc de la Frontière , crossing into the US at the park’s border, and then walk across a pretty foot bridge, decked in flowers and flags, back into Canada.  The lax border control reflects the fact that this little chunk of the US isn’t actually connected to anything else by road. There is a customs station down the street, and presumably a more rigorous check if you take the road in the other direction into the US.

After that little excursion into and out of the US, we continued south on the Canadian side of the Maine border. The scenery was stunning, the little towns and buildings a random mix of quaint or run-down, interesting or ordinary. We crossed into the US at Fort Kent. US Route 1’s most northern point terminates (or begins) here, so we took the obligatory photo.

Our next stop was Four Corner’s Park in Madawaska, Maine. This marks the northeastern of the “Four Corners” motorcycle tour. Despite the strong Harley-Davidson connection, all motorcyclists are welcomed here (and four-wheel vehicles too). The proprietor insisted that rather than just park, we drive around to the front of the monument for photos first. The tiny gift shop deals primarily in HD mementos and patches, but Jeff found an appropriate memento and we were on our way again.

Back in the States, our hunt for Liberty Bell replicas resumed. Maine’s is on the grounds of the state capitol in Augusta. We successfully captured it!


That evening, we stayed at the Wilson Lake Inn, a family run place in a lovely setting. It was adequate, but only adequate. A shower grab bar tends to be more effective if it is firmly attached to the wall; having it detach itself when I grabbed it was almost more disconcerting than slipping on the shower floor.  Also, “hair dryer on request” can only work if there is someone in the office from whom to request it.  But the folks were very accommodating when we let them know we’d be late, leaving the keys on the ice machine for us. Breakfast was adequate, if you like bagels and cereal. And the setting was really, really, lovely, even if we had little time to enjoy it.

Unfortunately, we had come in very late – too late to even get a bite to eat at the counter in the gas station / truck stop which closed at 10 p.m. – so dinner was composed of the paltry snacks we picked up in the gas station convenience store.  As we were checking out from the convenience store, the clerk told us that there was a Walmart open until midnight just a mile away, which undoubtedly would have had a better selection of things to eat than that convenience store.  And, as I discovered the next morning, the real hot spot was Steve’s Market & Deli – everything you could want, including a full selection of liquor, a deli and a grill (they were turning out breakfast sandwiches when I stopped in for water) – but alas, they had closed at 9 p.m. the night before.  Future travelers, however, take note!

16 of 17: A Motorcycle Tour of the Canadian Maritimes, Summer 2018 Northern Virginia to Nova Scotia, PEI, the Gaspé Peninsula and Back

7.6.18. Friday. Wilton, Maine to Bennington, Vermont.

After wandering the pretty grounds of Wilson Lake Inn, including a walk by the lake, we loaded up and rolled out.

  Although it looked nice out early in the day, it began to cloud up. I ducked into Steve’s while Jeff fueled the bike. By time I came out, it had begun to rain, pretty hard. Fortunately it didn’t last long, although the morning was damp and, off and on, drizzly. We did some geocaching and traveled through small towns, in particular “Mexico” which fit the Team Strange Melting Pot theme.

Very nice stop at Rumford Falls, Maine. A little riverside park had a Paul Bunyan "Muffler Man" with his Babe, and an appropriately sized Adirondack chair; a hydroelectric project; a monument to Edmund Muskie; some very odd cutouts apparently intending to represent a small Native American encampment on the bank of the river; the remains of an old mill; and a geocache, of course. (For those not familiar with Muffler Men, they are fiberglass statues, originally used by gas stations to urge motorists to replace their mufflers, and often re-purposed by substituting the original muffler that the man was holding with other accoutrements, in this case, an ax. For more information see: Roadside America's website).

More small towns. Gorham and Jefferson seemed especially pretty. We had planned on Mount Washington, but took heed of the warnings that the steep road could be rough and dangerous in wet or windy weather. With storm clouds gathering overhead, we decided this was not the day for it. At the lower elevations we dipped in and out of questionable weather but overall it wasn’t bad, so it’s hard to tell if we made the right call or not. Hopefully, at our next opportunity to try Mt. Washington there will be a clear “go” signal.

More small towns and then, Vermont! The scenery in Vermont (and New Hampshire) is always stunning. But it was an especially great day for clouds, so the sky scenery was a dramatic and breath-taking as the mountainous landscape.


Montpelier is home to Vermont’s Liberty Bell replica. Although our directions said it was housed in the museum, before we paid admission, I asked the docent if it was viewable. Turns out it’s not actually in the museum. It’s housed in a hallway between the museum and the Capitol building. Got our photo and decided to take time for a real sit-down lunch, thus getting our receipt too. (And we got the obligatory motorcycle photo before searching out the Bell.) We found a Mexican place for lunch, Julio's, and enjoyed a decent meal for the first time in days. 

A whispering bench in Barre, a fire tower with a scenic view, more dramatic cloud scapes and then, perhaps one of my favorites, the floating bridge.

Three young boys were leaping off the railing of this wooden, water-level structure (it’s floating!) into the pretty river below, throwing glistening droplets into the air, swimming to shore, scrambling up the bank, and racing each other to the center of the bridge to do it again and again. A historic house with a millstone outside, a pretty red barn and weeping willow at the water’s edge and a tiny park, with a geocache, completed the picture. Quintessential small-town New England summer day!

Picturesque barns, solar farms, old and new “general stores,” and houses decked with painted gingerbread trim and flowers made up the rest of the day. And then Bennington, VT.

 We ended our day in Bennington Vermont as planned, at the Best Western.  After the big lunch late in the afternoon in Montpelier we were not particularly hungry and, in any event, the most appealing “restaurant” we could see within walking distance of our hotel was the snack bar of a bowling alley. (Billy T’s Dairy Bar was closed.)  We weren’t excited about getting back on the bike to hunt for food, so we walked a bit and wandered into the strip mall behind the hotel. We by-passed its restaurant offerings and instead bought some ready-made stuff from the Price-Chopper grocery that we brought back to the room.

17 of 17: A Motorcycle Tour of the Canadian Maritimes, Summer 2018 Northern Virginia to Nova Scotia, PEI, the Gaspé Peninsula and Back

7.7.18. Saturday. Bennington, Vermont to Springfield, Virginia (home).

In Bennington, we made a few stops, visiting Robert Frost’s grave in a beautiful historic cemetery and the Bennington monument.

As many other cities have done, Bennington has a animal sculpture that shows up with different paint jobs throughout the city.  Its is a panther.

Then we headed to Albany NY – close to home for me! -- to photograph NYS’ Liberty Bell replica.

Albany State Capitol

The Bell is inside the Dept. of Education, and we really weren’t sure it would be open.  But we pulled up in front of the formidably grand building and I ran up the stairs to check.  The doors opened to the guard’s desk inside.  He said the building was closed, so we could not enter – but the bell we were looking for was right at the top the grand staircase behind me.  So, I radioed to Jeff to come in.  The guard wouldn’t let us climb the stairs, but Jeff took the picture from the bottom and declared victory.  We got the shot of the bike outside.  Only remaining problem was a receipt.  After circling a bit, we can testify that downtown Albany is deader than a doornail (whatever that means) on Saturday mornings.  But, I’ve stayed in Albany often enough to know where to find the Starbucks that is open on Saturdays.  It’s inside what appears to be a dark, closed office building (corner of State and N. Pearl).  Jeff seemed dubious, but I jumped off the bike at a red light and ran across the street.  Sure enough, by time he circled back I had a receipt in hand. Success!

NYS Department of Education

The rest of our last day was mostly just slab, hightailing it back to the DC area.  Long and wonderful trip, but nice to be home!