The road to the small fishing village of Burgeo has little traffic and crosses abundant moose and caribou populations. This easy driving road is basically a swath cut through dense forest and offers no services other than a roadside restaurant halfway through. If you need gas, you'll have to wait till you get to Burgeo (approx 180km or so). Given the undulating sweepers and low traffic, the 80km/h (50mph) speed limit might seem very conservative. It's there for a reason.

I had a close encounter within the first 15 minutes. Just as I was getting into daydreaming mode from the boredom of pace and scenery, a young moose tentatively crossed the road about 75 feet in front of me. I stood on the brakes and beeped my horn while he quickly trotted off through the dense forest. By the time I passed him, he was at the 1o'clock postion, about 20 feet to the side. I could almost smell him! Riding at 80kph gave me plenty of time to react and slow down. Might have been very different at 120. . .

This got my attention level back up! While a younger moose can still be intimidated by motorcycles, older bulls are much more nonchanlant. In fact, they've been known to charge at cars. Be wary.

Apparently this road could be quite scenic and I was looking forward to that. Unfortunately, I soon rode into progressively thicker fog that accompanied me right into Burgeo. I saw nothing except for the few feet ahead of me for the whole leg. On the way back things improved somewhat.

It was a long ride there and back