Originally posted to ADVrider.com, July 2019

It’s a bit of a slow start to the day waking up at 8am, goodness was I ever tired. I’m feeling good otherwise however! I kept my food and smelly goods in the tallest tree I could find by tying a wrench to the end of a rope and throwing it up and over a branch. You want to get your bag as high up and as far out from the tree trunk as possible as bears are excellent climbers.

Breakfast report:

Mountain house breakfast skillet is 10/10, would eat again. Nescafe French Vanilla instant coffee is............ Caffeinated?....... It gives me what I need even if it doesn't taste the best.

I use the “Sawyer Inline Water Filter” for any water I collect from lakes like this. I need to top off my gas tank with the front Jerry cans (5L each), which should give me another 200kms in addition to whatever I had left in the tank before. Labrieville isn't too far away!

Another 8 hour day, but I didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped. Where do I start……..

Trails this morning were like a day at the beach, a really deep, sandy beach. Then there was sand with rocks, sand with boulders, sand with gravel, sand mountains, sand salad.......... Oh wait, I got carried away and started quoting a favourite movie of mine.... All of this terrain was looking to put me down for a dirt nap.

Labrieville ZEC came up fast, and the young woman there spoke excellent English. After checking in with ZEC and a fuel top-up it was a moderate trek to “Auberge 31”. Trails were enjoyable, nothing too technical; the biggest hazard being the other drivers hugging the inside of the trails, and the corners collecting deep sand. Aggressive braking and accelerating is what made this leg time efficient. Auberge 31 itself is beautiful with full service gas, and may be a spot you consider spending the night if you’re not on a tight budget!

The article describing this route is starting to show it's age:

The trek from Auberge 31 to Saint David de Falardeau was some of the most difficult 58kms of riding I've ever done, and while I don't often toot my own horn, I am damn good on that V-Strom. Would it have been much of a challenge if I wasn’t carrying a weeks worth of supplies? Probably not. It starts out fine, then slowly gets harder, and harder, and harder, and harder; each time I thought "I'm glad that's over", then I'd come up over another hill to find another field of boulders. The website describes this as "challenging depending on your riding ability", well unless you're Enduro super champ Graham Jarvis you're going to have some problems with this on a fully loaded ADV bike.

When I finally dumped out at Station De Ski Valinouet, the folks didn't believe that I had come the way I did. When I inquired about contacting ZEC (where I had checked in earlier) they were evidently surprised, concerned, and warned me to not go back the way I came (language barrier). I'm serious guys, don't take this route lightly, no one is coming to help you if you mess up. CONSIDER YOURSELVES WARNED.

I went straight from there to LaMarche avoiding the ferry over Lac Tchitogama (I didn't want to be waiting hours or days for a ferry that may or may not come as I was on a tight schedule). On that note, the trail entrance for that section of the TNE is marked with a "Private Property" sign (seen above). After that it was nice gravel roads to my campsite in Saint Ludger de Milot. Supper was Mountain house sweet and sour pulled pork with rice 9/10 would eat again. Showers are hot and free! These days are really starting to blend together, I'm trying to figure out if I'm ahead of schedule or behind!

Stay tuned for Day 5!