Friends,
We are looking for a quick suggestion here.

We are in Sault Saint Marie tonight, having ridden rte 17 from Pembroke last night. Our original plan was to ride north to Thunder Bay on 17 but if it is going to be 400 miles (okay I should know it in kilometers ) very similar to the ride from Pembroke.... well, we were kind of bored.

So between now and tomorrow AM we are going to decide.... head back into the States and Wisconsin, or follow our original plan north around the lake to Thunder Bay.

Is rte 17 north of Sault Saint Marie more scenic than what we have seen, or is it more of the same?

And another question: how severe are the speeding penalties? Most of the road so far is 90 Km/hr max. What happens if you are caught going 120?

We love Canada (in spite of Quebec) (that's a joke), but I don't want to run afoul of the law up here.

Thanks,

Charlie from the deep south of Verte Mont.

The only part of CA17 that I enjoyed was the part north of Lake Superior heading west from Sault Ste. Marie when I rode around all five Great Lakes. I would do that leg again if the opportunity arose.

I agree that CA17 heading east from SSM is uninspiring. I did that part again last year with a group with the intention of riding into Nova Scotia. We were so disappointed with 17 that we only went as far as New Brunswick and dropped down into Maine heading through Vermont and New Hampsire to get to the Adirondacks in New York, all of which was nice to ride through.

A bit of a backtrack, but worth it! Wife & I have gone twice across Canada from Washington State to PEI & Nova Scotia. We discovered by accident a beautiful side trip from Espanola thru Whitefish Falls to Manitoulin Island. The ride on the island is fantastic, especially Gore Bay on the north side of the island. Looks as if it was stolen from a Norman Rockwell painting. Enjoy.

Most will let you do 14 km/h over without a problem. Once you hit 15 km/h over then we (Ontarioians) get demerit points. Too many points = loss of license. I set my cruise to 13-14 over most times, but, not a real lot of police in the northern areas.... take that as you might.

Garry

I've done both ways several times when I lived in SSM and the Northern way is much more scenic. More desolate in places, too. Watch for moose, though. (Mooses? Meese? har-har!)

Thanks for the relys.

We are headed north this AM from Sault Saint Marie headed for Thunder Bay, your comments helped us decide.

Thanks for the suggested side route, we'll look into it.

14km over the posted limit, check.

One moose, many moose.
A moose after you hit it is a meese. If you hit it going really fast it is a big meese.

Thanks again!

Great roads and scenery there. (Well it was when I was back there in 87, dont think It have changed))
I would also recomend visiting WAWA.

Gents,
We have arrived in Thunder Bay, an absolutely georgeous ride today. Thank you for your encouragement and guidance.
Well..... maybe all but the part that suggested there aren't that many patrols up north. Very nice female police officer.... gave me a discount on my "going 120 in a 90 km/hr ticket).

It was a wonderful ride from Sault Saint Marie to Thunder Bay. High speed sweepers, great vistas, fantastic. I can't believe we were thinking of quitting the original plan. It was those flatlands, slow truck traffic, and boring scenery east of Sault Saint Marie that made me start to doubt the plan to ride north.

Because of your posts we stuck to our plan to ride north around the lake, we had a really great day. I almost wanted to take a picture of the police officer who stopped us but I thought better of it.

We went a little off the main drag to Marathon. Some family in the parking lot of the grocery store in Marathon said, after seeing our VT license plate, : "Welcome to Marathon". You know, I really like Canada and Canadians. (Well, excepting a few of those in Quebec) (kidding, okay?).

Thanks gents,

I guess you didn't stay at the 14 over rule.....

Garry

BTW, CharlieVT, your avatar is awesome (shiver..!). You must have hooked up with Garry Kramer in the past and snapped a shot of him...?