True North East Prelude & Cabot Trail Dual Sport and Adventure Motorcycle Guide
Expectations:
When I hopped on my bike with a GoPro strapped to my helmet in 2019, there were a number of things I never expected or anticipated would happen.
1. I didn’t expect to have a dedicated and active following of Dual Sport and ADV riders on YouTube. (Thank you all for watching me abuse my V-Strom 650 off-road)
2. I didn’t expect COVID (I know, I’m already tired of writing about it)
3. I didn’t expect to be creating an off-road motorcycle guide for Cape Breton’s world famous Cabot Trail.
4. and I didn’t expect to be writing a blog….. but here we are!
Putting it together:
In a way, it was the perfect storm.
After the exciting and dangerous journey to one of the most remote areas of North Eastern Canada accessible by road, I was craving more! Of course, with the Covid-19 pandemic, I couldn’t leave Nova Scotia, so I did the only reasonable thing a person could do……
I started googling off-road routes in Nova Scotia.
I had a few isolated hits on different points of interest (POIs) across the province (55, 284 Square kilometers including Cape Breton), but nothing worth packing up on a multi-day trip for.
I can’t remember when I had the realization that I should start looking specifically at Cape Breton Island, (probably when I was going through my old GPX/GPS files on Garmin basecamp) but I started making note of how many POIs I had in Cape Breton just off of the Cabot Trail from previous trips. The feeling of nostalgia was strong, and almost immediately I knew that I had to share them with “the people”; and so The “Cabot Trail Dual Sport and Adventure Motorcycle Guide” was born.
Fast forward from 2020 to 2021, and we’re still trying to finish. Between starting a new job in the Arctic, and Municipality lockdowns (thank the piss-poor healthcare system in NS), getting the guide completed was a challenge.
I am happy to report however, that as of October 2021, we are finished. Given that I knew things would not be completed in time for this riding season, I took the liberty of making some additions and amendments to the route. Prepare yourselves for a release prior to Spring 2022.
Fast forward to now: We’ve created a website! Woohoo! (You’ve likely already figured this out if you’ve read this far). I feel this was a necessary step to consolidate information and provide an easy to access platform for those who aren’t tech savvy youtubers.
We’ve also got a blog on the go, so I figured what better way to start off the blogging than by sharing my first big overland adventure: “True North East 2019”.
Stay tuned in the coming days for all the juicy details.
Thanks for reading and kindest regards.
-C