Hudson Bay or Bust Road Trip II

Here's a MINI event sent in by David Rose that's worth a mention:

It all started with a posting on MINI2, NYMINI.org and NAM.com:

Driving home from work one evening I had a fresh idea…driving in NY/NJ during rush hour sucks. Not very challenging, hot, humid, too much traffic and, horror of horrors, I have been passing MINIs lately that don't wave! (Can you imagine that?)

So I thought, what better way to remedy this then another ROAD TRIP?

And by far, one of the best road trips I've taken was the Hudson Bay or Bust trip in October of 2002. That was in the fall. It was very colorful, and just a tad cold.

Now, I am thinking FEBRUARY 2005. I posted, and sure enough it only took a few hours for some more nuts to come out of the woodwork. 'I'll go!' 'Sounds like fun!' 'I'm in!'

The Place and Concept:
As a kid I always wanted to see Hudson Bay. Well, it ends up that short of joining the Coast Guard, there is no way to get there because Hudson Bay proper is not attached to the lower North American continent by a contiguous road.

The Timing:
We are presently looking at an extended Presidents' Day weekend in February 2005. Friday, February 18 we leave, and home (some of us) on Monday the 21st, or (most of us) Tuesday, February 22nd. Of course, Monday is a legal holiday here in the States.

The Conditions:
Ah, cold. Average daily temperature for Radisson is -40 degrees. Doesn't matter whether I am talking Fahrenheit or Celsius, because both scales cross right there on the thermometer.

However, the James Bay Road is probably maintained better than many roads here in NY. The whole purpose of the road is to supply the Hydro plants up there. And since something like 70% of Quebec's power comes from those plants, the road is considered important. Plowed right to the end.

I can attest to the quality of the driving on the James Bay Road. When I checked in at the beginning of the road, the forest ranger said not to worry about speeding because there are no Quebec Police or RCMP because their radios don't work up there so they don't go there. J

On dry roads, 90-100 mph the whole way. And, I can tell you from experience that MINIs fly very well, thank you, when you do a frost heave at 90 mph. However, this road should have a good layer of snow packed onto it, so even though we'll have to drive slower, there won't be any flying!

The Itinerary and Activities:
As we are talking a trip that is still 6 months off, the details are still a little sketchy. So far, it seems like:

Hudson Valley and South, and all of New England will leave their respective starts early Friday, February 18th, 2005. We plan on catching up just south of the US/Canadian border, and driving across together. From there, we will probably get to about Val d' Or, which is the home' of the Canadian gold mining industry.

(We would love people from points west catch up with us too: Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. We can meet somewhere north of Montreal.)

Saturday morning, north to the check in point on the James Bay Road in Matagami. Then, 600 km of excellent driving.

While we haven't looked further than mentioning it, we'd also like to do something else Sunday that would be regional'. Maybe venturing out onto the ice, dog sledding and the like. There are plenty of Free guides who would love to be hired out for just about anything we want to do.

Monday, bright and early we are home again on the James Bay Road. We'll probably head as far south as time will allow, then pull over to a motel for the evening. This might be as far south as Montreal. Those with two drivers can, of course, continue to drive on home.

Tuesday would be the final day to get home for those that stayed over Monday.

So, want to join us?

If you're interested, please email me for details at HudsonBay@DavidRose.us. There is also a lively thread on the MINI2 board under New England events. And, we have posted some information here: www.davidrose.us/HudsonBayII.html You can also find some addition photos and the story of the original trip here: www.davidrose.us/DavidWebPage/MINICooperS/HudsonsBay/JamesBayTrip.html

We'd love to have you come. There is no limit to the number of people, and the more the merrier. We should start to get an idea about December or so whether we'll have more people coming then there are motel rooms for in Radisson.