Alberta to Nova Scotia

[Ruralgas]

Hello Folks:
I am putting together a trip from Alberta to Nova Scotia for June of 2014 and I was wondering if anyone could provide input on routes. Also if you can provide ideas for stopping with a 5th wheel that would be much appreciated. Any sights that would be a "must to see" would also be much appreciated. I am not really pressed on time so that would be an issue.
The route from my home to Winnipeg is pretty straight forward, however I am looking at options of dropping down into the US after Winnipeg or going the route to Kenora and then on to Thunder Bay.
Once we get to the Maritimes I'll base camp at a all service RV park and tour around with my truck. Looks like there are a tremendous amount of sites to take in!! Will take in PEI, New Brunswick.
Thanks in advance and I look for your input.

[alfresco]

Fundy Park has particularly nice quiet campsites at Chignecto North Campground. Lots of hiking trails, golf, beachcombing. Not far from Hopewell Rocks (flowerpot rock formations and the fishing village of Alma.

[moe_f]

loulou57 wrote:


When at Cochrane you could book the polar bear express and journey to Hudson Bay.

Just in case you to take the Northern route through Northen Ontario, and when in Cochrane decide to take the "Polar Bear Express" trip, be aware you will not be going to Hudson Bay or James Bay, but will be ending your trip in Mosonee which is on the Moose River about 15 Kms upstream from James Bay. You can hire locals to take you on an excursion to James Bay for the day.

Enjoy your trip.

[loulou57]

The southern route could be classed as more scenic depending on taste.

When you travel from Thunder Bay to Sault St Marie, you travel beside the lake most of the way. There are a few pretty towns. Montreal hill area has been compared to Califonia and looking out over the ocean. It is the best lookout area on the route but I see no comparison to California, LOl.
it is a different ride to the northern route. We prefer the northern route but that is because we prefer to be a little more remote and would actually take a logging road south instead of either highway.

[Pipeman]

When we go out west and back from here, we always go through the States. We just find it faster for us although we take 6 days to get out there :). Now the last time we went the Canadian way from here & back, via Michigan up to the Sault, we did the southern route. We followed a trucker and he said that the southern route was more scenic. Not having traveled the northern route, I wouldn't know. I also have to say the last time we did the Canadian way was 35 years ago. Another bean for you.

[loulou57]

Ruralgas wrote:
Hi loulou57:
Thank you for the info. When you mention the trip from Wawa to the Sioux, do you mean Sault Ste. Marie?
I've mapped out 2 routes from Thunder Bay. One is highway 11 (northern) through Hearst-Cohrane to North Bay.
The other from Thunder Bay is highway 17 to Sault Ste. Marie- Sudbury to North Bay.
From North Bay I've mapped out highway 17 to Kanata/Ottawa.
I am not going into Toronto as we have been there before (twice) by plane and did some touring around Toronto/Niagara Falls, etc.
As for fuel, I have an extra diesel tank. Gives me a total of about 65 gallons. For climbs, I am not to concerned as my tuned/modded, with exhaust brake dually handles our mountains out west very good. Just looking for good routes and sites.
Any input is much appreciated.

Sioux....Yes Sault Ste Marie

Going across the top Hearst Cochrane etc. Is a great trip. There is a park at Hearst. Also a really nice one, Nagagamissis, it is just a bout an hour south west of Hearst. It is one of our fav's.

If you had time... you could take road 631 passed Nagagamissis to Hornepayne. Hornepayne is a railroad town. There is a museum. When we went one time the men there took my hubby through the roundhouse. Wonderful history about the railroad and northern Ontario. We once saw a train go through with 175 cars on it. The area is very remote, not much in the town but it is all there is for miles.

When at Cochrane you could book the polar bear express and journey to Hudson Bay.

Keep your gas tank full, we don't let ours go under 3/4. Gas stations are few and far in places as well as opening times.

[Little_Kopit]

Many like Algonquin Park

But me, frankly, I found the route along Highway 17 rather nice - medium for speed, pleasant for views. Goes to Ottawa, then down to Montreal, which you can stop to see or bypass.

🙂

[Ruralgas]

Hi loulou57:
Thank you for the info. When you mention the trip from Wawa to the Sioux, do you mean Sault Ste. Marie?
I've mapped out 2 routes from Thunder Bay. One is highway 11 (northern) through Hearst-Cohrane to North Bay.
The other from Thunder Bay is highway 17 to Sault Ste. Marie- Sudbury to North Bay.
From North Bay I've mapped out highway 17 to Kanata/Ottawa.
I am not going into Toronto as we have been there before (twice) by plane and did some touring around Toronto/Niagara Falls, etc.
As for fuel, I have an extra diesel tank. Gives me a total of about 65 gallons. For climbs, I am not to concerned as my tuned/modded, with exhaust brake dually handles our mountains out west very good. Just looking for good routes and sites.
Any input is much appreciated.

[Little_Kopit]

Ruralgas wrote:
Hello:
At some point we would also like to take the bridge across to PEI for some touring.

You pay when you leave PEI and cross Northumberland Strait. Checking fees you will find best is: leave via Bridge end in New Brunswick

http://www.confederationbridge.com/tolls-fees/tolls-fees.html


Go to PEI via Ferry Caribou, NS :
http://www.ferries.ca/northumberland-ferries-schedule-and-fares/

Overall, don't try to do tooooooooooo much. Just have fun.

:C

[loulou57]

First...as far as bringing beer into Canada from the US, bring as much as you like. There is no duty anymore, it is tax. If you add the tax on you are still way cheaper than buying in Canada. We go quite often over to the US. We bring back 4or 5 cases of beer each and pay the tax. We pay about $40 for 24,in Ontario and around 16 in the US, do the math. Alcohol is a different story, you will pay more than twice in tax what you paid for the bottle.

We travelled all across Canada. We never get tired of travelling through northern Ontario. The trip from Wawa to the Sioux is incredible. Make sure you pay attention for the last gas signs. There is quite a stretch without any. Sudbury is very hilly. You could come down from Espanola to Manitoulin Island and take the ferry across Georgian Bay to Tobermory, then hwy 6 south to the 401 east if you want to add something different.

If you travel across from Wawa to Timmins and down to North Bay it is a totally different route. The highway down to North Bay is boreal forest, small lakes, very pretty. Timmins to Toronto with trailer around 10 hours.

You could also take the northern route from Thunder Bay across to Kapuskasing #11 to Cochrane and then down to North Bay. It is a wonderful drive. Kapuskasing to Toronto about 13 hrs with no trailer.

North Bay to Toronto about 6 hours. We pull a 27/30' trailer. We travelled from Timmins down to Toronto this year. We managed to stay with traffic no problem. Barrie to Toronto will be the worst of the trip. It is not far but very busy. Try not to head south on a sunday. It can be bumper to bumper, people heading home for work mon from the Muskokas, the heaviest cottage area.
Once you are down to Toronto on the 400 and take the 401 east to Quebec it is no problem.

Travelling through Montreal can be hectic. Give yourself time and signs will likely be all french if I remember correctly. Contrary to many opinions, we have never had any issues with communicating with people in Quebec.

I give you travel times etc. to travel from area to area but it would depend on what you want to see and traffic. The ones I have given are what it usually takes us.

Old Quebec city is a must. Find a spot out of the city to camp and drive in. Taking the RV in would be crazy.

The maritimes are gorgeous. I could give you the list of places we love.

We travelled back to Ontario from New Brunswick through the States. We crossed into Maine. The trip that way home added to our journey, it was great. We added an extra week in doing so and that was not seeing as much as we would have liked.

Highways are good. Like all of Canada though, construction in the summer, LOL Most of the ones until you hit North Bay will be 2 lane with the odd exception of 4 lane.

One thing for sure..reserve! In order to get a spot in Ontario and down east reservations are a must. Go online to Ontario Parks and you will see you can reserve from around 4 months before arrival date.

You will get many opinions such as mine. The trip will be yours though. Do your homework as you are and by asking people you will find many interesting places to visit.

Good luck!

[Ruralgas]

Hello:
Thanks folks for the input. Go point about crossing into the US and customs issues. That's what I am looking for. I was also looking at a route through Kenora, Dryden to Thunder Bay or the lower Hwy 11 route. From TB looking at the north route or the lower route (Sault Ste. Marie) on to North Bay. So the route along Superior has a lot of steep climbs?? What about the highway system? I am not going into Toronto.
Coming back I might look at the whole trip through the US.
As for the Maritimes, we will base in New Brunswick and do some touring. Then we'll move to Nova Scotia, base there and do some touring. At some point we would also like to take the bridge across to PEI for some touring.
We just want to see sites, like Cabot trail and Peggy's Cove, etc. and get to meet the locals. The wife wants to fill up on lobster!
Not intending to interfere with any other threads. I have followed that one, but I am looking for information about the travel through Ontario and Quebec.
Again thanks for the input so far. Please add what you can. It will be valued.

[BigDaddyHfx]

It sounds like you intend to tour the Maritimes from one base campground. While we might look small on a map the distances can be considerable. As an example its at least 5 hours from Halifax to Sidney Cape Breton.

Once when the ferry was operating I met an older couple from Massachusetts who had left Yarmouth heading to Halifax. They had gotten off the ferry that morning intending to see Peggy's Cove (a must see for tourists) tour Halifax, drive up to Cape Breton to see the Fortress of Louisburg, drive around the Cabot Trail (both also must sees) and then make it back to Yarmouth that night for the ferry home. All that in less than 12 hours.

There are a lot of great things to see and a lot of great campgrounds.

Got some extra time and extra cash? Why not visit Newfoundland? Ferry is EXPENSIVE but sooooo worth it.

[Little_Kopit]

TimnJo wrote:

For info on touring New Brunswick and Nova Scotia you could do worse than referring to my thread titled "New Brunswick & Nova Scotia 2014"

Tim & Jo

Who says two groups of people have the same interests???? Please tell us what you especially want to see and what you like to do.

When I do my cross continent trip, I'm doing an all Canada trip. Here's a draft of possible routes.



As you can see it is planned to explore more of Quebec than I have yet done, besides making a difference in route through Ontario.

:B

[TimnJo]

Hey, THREAD HIJACKER!!!

LOL, just kidding, as I mentioned to a PM, there's no such thing as too much information when it comes to trip planning.

We went to Alberta last year:

We stayed on the Canadian side as crossing the border can be a hassle if you have booze on board; it's place of purchase doesn't count when coming back into Canada - you're only allowed a case of beer or bottle of wine/liqour, anything more and you have to pay duty.

We went out the northern or Hwy 11 route and in June you'd better watch out for the blackflies - could hardly make it from the truck to trailer in time to escape multiple bites. The distance between towns/fueling opportunities can be significant; in looking back we were stopping every couple of hours to fuel up as you never knew if the next town would have accessible pumps etc. That's half the reason I installed a 100 litre auxiliary tank this year.

Coming back we went the Sault-Ste-Marie way and, though the north shore of Superior is spectacularly beautiful, the many, many steep grades and increased traffic meant I will never take that way again while towing.

For info on touring New Brunswick and Nova Scotia you could do worse than referring to my thread titled "New Brunswick & Nova Scotia 2014"

Tim & Jo