| Author | Message | ||
     Lornce |
Welcome to Hamilton Ontario, the "Steel City with a Heart of Gold".  Steel Mills at Dawn  | ||
| Lornce |
Some local colour: Aaron (Oddbawl) one of my riding buddies.  | ||
| Dino |
All right...a new player! Lornce, thanks for your kind words on the Mariposa thread. I can already tell that I'm really gonna enjoy this'un! Hey, read about the D200 yet? | ||
| Blake |
I went to high school not more than 90 miles from there. Girard, PA.  I miss the big lake. | ||
| Lornce |
The Big lake?!? We've got the Big Lake. You had Erie. 90 short miles, but a whole world away....  Thanks Dino, I'm gonna try and make you proud. D200? No, haven't read anything about it and don't plan to. Not for another 10 years!  | ||
| Lornce |
Motorcycles and airplanes just go together, don't they? I've loved airshows since I was a kid when my dad took me to see the local shows every summer. Here's Rick, a buddy of mine, and the Stearman he flies with the local Warplane Heritage Museum.  While not a stellar picture, the subject matter warrants this a place in a photo view of Hamilton. This is a flying condition WWII Avro Lancaster bomber, the pride of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Flying Museum. Britain's Royal Air Force maintains the only other flying example left in the world.  | ||
| Lornce |
Here's a few shots from another local airshow, this time in London Ontario. I've always been fascinated by the condensation vapour that forms in the vacuum on the top side of an F-18's wing surface during severe attitude transitions. This example is a US Navy Super Hornet which boasts engines 30% more powerful than the F-18's used by our Canadian Forces, enabling it to make more severe manouvers such as this.  Here's the Canadian Forces Snowbird flight demonstration team completing a loop with nine aircraft in formation.  | ||
| Blake |
Well, now I have no lake.  ... Blake got no lake. The nearest one has mocassins and gators. I used to think leaches were bad. LOL. I just don't crash down near as much on the slalom ski. Something about a Steerman that stirs my soul. We have one that flies around here in the Summertime. If/when I hear it I always run outside to look or if already outside, pause in whatever I'm doing to relish its big radial engine sound and deliberate slow flight. | ||
| Dino |
My wife's Dad was a USAF fighter pilot. Don't stand in the path to the door if she hears jets flying over. | ||
| Lornce |
Blake, you gotta get a lake, man. Went swimming in a lake, reservoir really, that bordered Texas and Oklahoma just north of DFW. Was more like a hot bath that a swim. No wonder you folks are so ornery. Yourta come visit the North and we'll cheer you up with some fresh air and clean, cool lakes. Yeah, that Steerman's a funky sounding aircraft. So's the Harvard he flies, too. Any big old radial makes an impression these days against a backdrop of turbo-props and flat 4 or 6 piston engined craft. But you've gotta hear the Lancaster flying overhead: 4 Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. Rick likes to bug the Lancaster crew saying things like "Ahhh, that's nice. Sounds just like four Spitfires." Dino, jawing with the USAF pilots was always the highlight of the Hamilton airshow. In addition to the flight demos there were always static display aircraft parked on the apron that stayed for the duration of the show weekend. F-15's, F-14's, B-52's, C-130's: You name it. Even a few Stealths. The crews hung around and answered everybody's questions and generally enjoyed the attention, etc. Remember being amazed when I asked about the dents and lumps on the nose of the two A-10 Thunderbolts. Pilots laughed and said they were from the in-flight refueling lines that don't always hit the probe first time! Those guys were hard core. | ||
| Lornce |
Okay, here's a teaser until I get my files sorted and my "other computer" on line. Back in July I took a trip with a friend to the Cree Nation of Chisasibi on James Bay in Northern Quebec. Carol wanted to earn an Iron Butt "1000 in 1" award, so we made the 1800km (1125 mile) run to Chisasibi in a single day before spending a leisurely 3 days riding back south. The James Bay Highway is a deserted 700km stretch of wilderness running north from Metagami Quebec through Radisson and finally west to James Bay and Chisasibi. The highway's a beautifully built two lane that gently wends it's way north into the rugged and sparse permafrost landscape. We passed probably 12 cars on the way north and a similar number on the way back south. It was surreal. I want to go back. That's smoke from a distant forest fire on the horizon, not clouds.  When you pass twelve cars all day long, you've got time to take pictures like this.  And this.  At the north end of the journey you pass through a border checkpoint and enter the Cree Nation of Chisasibi.  A few miles beyond town you cross the muskeg flats and salt water marshes of the James Bay coastal region.  Like I said, this is just a tease to get your attention while I get things sorted at this end to prepare you for the REAL PICTURE SHOW. | ||
| Pdxs3t |
Nice shots! Looking forward to seeing more! | ||
| Bake |
Cool, used to ride around there lots years ago. Guelph is my hometown. | ||
| Lornce |
Bake, Oddbawl and I took our bikes for a blam in the balmy Indian summer temps yesterday and had lunch in Guelph. Always liked that town and the people there. Nice SF Laverda you've got there. Passed on a cherry SFC back in '84. If only I'd known... FWIW, I've got a picture of myself with my SR500 Yamaha at a campsite just a stone's throw from Revelstoke taken in May of '80. Just a surly yoot of 18. The sight of that dam, even half constructed, blew me away with it's scale. Do you ever take the ferry south and ride around Nakusp and Jamaica etc? I've got fond mems of rides in that region 25 years ago. Good on you! | ||
| Bake |
We do make it to Nakusp, thats where the Laverda dealer is, tons of great ridding here. Maybe next time home I can grab my buddies bike and meet up and go for a scoot. | ||
| Lornce |
Bake, Certainly, let me know when you're in the area. Been awhile, time to save thousands of words with an image update....  | ||
| Lornce |
The ride to James Bay began by crossing the western GTA (Greater Toronto Area) as nightfall approached (above). The strategy was to cover the most traveled portion of our route during the hours of darkness allowing 18+ hours of daylight to complete the more remote, lightly traveled and wildlife prone northern portion. The trip also served as an opportunity to evaluate Carol's faithful '92 R100GS, which she'd offered to me for a reasonable sum since recently acquiring a new R1200GS. The right shoulder of the 401's express lanes directly across from Toronto's international airport (incidentally, about 100 meters from the spot Air France's "miracle flight" would come to rest) is an odd spot to stop for a picture, but I'd promised Carol to get a shot of her odometer as it passed 200,000 kms.  Been riding BMW's for over 20 years: I bought the bike without reservation. | ||
| Lornce |
The plan was to make Kirkland Lake by sunrise, and with uncanny precision we rolled along right on schedule... until I ran out of gas at day-break just 12kms shy of our objective. I was hot-dogging, I knew the risks. (smirk) But I thought this thing would get better mileage.  | ||
| Lornce |
Carol fuels her shiny R1200GS in Preissac, Quebec (IIRC) while I wait for her next stop to refill the GS/PD's 35 liter tank. Progress?   | ||
| Lornce |
In Metagami, where the Baie James Highway begins, Francine is happy to provide you with route maps and camping/accomodation information in French or delightfully accented English.  You know you're not in Kansas anymore (or Southern Ontario) when you see bilingual signs in French and Cree.  | ||
| Lornce |
Okay, let's catch up with Carol and get back on the road to Chisasibi.... No, I didn't cross it: The bike wasn't officially mine yet!  Speaking of Carol, here she comes now.  An impressive bridge crossing an impressive river.   | ||
| Lornce |
Interesting to see architecture like this in the middle of the northern wilderness.    | ||
| Lornce |
A stop at the Radison Police station to register our arrival and confirm Carol's Iron Butt 1000 in 1, but with an hour or so's light remaining we decide to continue to Chisasibi.   Wake up Carol! Only 50 miles to go.  | ||
| Lornce |
22 hours and 1850kms after we left the GTA we arrived in Chisasibi to a trilingual welcome sign: French, English and Cree. Wachiya!   | ||
| Lornce |
The gravel road beyond town leads to James Bay. Be careful, that gravel's deep! I found out the hard way when the bars flopped over to the stops at 90km/h. Quite an attention getter after 22hrs in the saddle on a loaded bike with 70lbs of fuel aboard. Managed to save it... and then I slowed down.  Sandy rocky semi-arid terrain on the permafrost.  Time to head out of town, watch the northern sun go down and find a campsite for the night.   Finding a campsite was as easy as following a trail off the road and into the sparse scrub bush. If you do this, please leave only footprints in your wake. An ideal campsite in a morning's coastal fog. Beautiful.   | ||
| Blake |
I'm REALLY diggin' it! Thanks Lornce! | ||
| Lornce |
Glad you like it, Blake. It's an excellent destination if any Badwebbers are interested in a ride out of the ordinary. I'd like to make the trip again on the S2.... or maybe a Ully. | ||
| Bigdaddy |
Lornce, Stunning scenery -- thanks for sharing. G2 | ||
| Lornce |
Exploring the area revealed some interesting sights. The Chisasibi River flows into James Bay just beyond view of it's tidal shoreline.    This view is a bit deceiving as the water level is 30 or 40ft below the ridge where the bike sits.   | ||
| Lornce |
Continuing on to the shore of James Bay....    These guys were tough, they rode from NY and VA on a Honda cruiser and an old iron Sportster. James Bay: The Hard Way.   James Bay: The Easy Way  Sleds awaiting icepack and the winter's seal hunt.   |
