BIKES, BITES & BLACKROADS

A 250cc CULINARY ADVENTURE ACROSS CANADA

- Kix Marshall

Staring over the 100-foot water crossing in the unforgiving Canadian Northwest Territories, I put the kickstand down, got off my 250cc Rally and opted to test the depth of the murky waters before proceeding to ride through them.

There was no cell service, I didn't know where I was going and no one knew where I was. The goal was to find Donovan, a man in a teepee who was going to feed me muskrat and caribou.

Navigating with nothing more than vague directions from a text message, I wasn't sure I was going to find him. For many, this would sound like one bad idea after another, but I liked this kind of adventure!

It was early spring and snowmelt from the Canadian Shield had filled in anything that might be a rideable trail in late summer. I grabbed a long stick to test the water depth of the muskeg. Carefully, I worked my way along the trail's edge poking away. I'd learned this trick in Bolivia a few years back while riding some very remote sections of the Andes alone, post-rainy season. At that time, I thought all hope was lost when I encountered a series of rivers in a valley and a partially washed-out bridge. At a loss for what to do, I set up camp to think it over. Here, I ran into a man who'd stripped down to his tighty-whities holding a cell phone above his head. He walked back and forth across the river looking for a path to cross with his old Toyota pickup. Eventually, he mapped a route on foot and drove across. I'm more of a boxers than a briefs guy myself, but I reworked his river crossing strategy, and after hours of walking the river, I made it across with my KLR650.

Back to my current predicament in Northern Canada. It was a bit cold for boxers, but with stick in hand, I eventually worked out that if I stuck close to the edge of the trail rather than the middle, I'd have a better chance of getting across.