Driving unpaved Quebec roads

[Bonk]

Hi, everyone! I live in southern Ohio, and I've recently become interested in driving in the far north after coming back from a vacation in the Ottawa-Gatineau region in August. It was one of the best vacations I've ever had.

I'm thinking about doing the James Bay Road in 2008. I made my first pilgrimage into rural Quebec during that trip, and had my first experience with Quebec's unpaved roads in the Papineau-Labelle Wildlife Preserve. That road had the same ridges on it that I see on some of Mr. Muma's pictures.

When I first encountered that type of road (driving a Chevy Malibu), my car started shaking, and my inclination was to slow down. I did about 15 km/h, because it seemed like the faster I went, the worse the shaking got.

My question is: Is shaking normal at such slow speeds, and should I have actually sped up on those ridged, upaved roads? I was afraid of blowing a tire, which would've been disasterous as far from home as I was, so I played it safe (and was worried I had a suspension problem), and got off that road as soon as possible.

[admin]

Hard to say. I have driven very bad unpaved roads a lot. Washboarding is about the hardest thing to deal with. Really shakes your vehicle. I tend to go a lot faster than 15 km/h. It all depends on the "frequency" of the ridges - how close together they are. Faster is probably better, as the car stays more 'airborne" in the low spots between the high spots. Of course, control (steering) is something that needs to be carefully considered.

[Bonk]

Thanks a lot. I was too scared to go faster, since my instincts were telling me faster would mean worse shaking, and a blowout there wouldn't have been pleasant. But I'll try to ride them out next time.

I guess the road I was on looked very similar to your km 308 Trans-Taiga picture:

http://jamesbayroad.com/ttr/virtualtour ... our05.html

Seeing the ridges on the left side of that picture still make me cringe.

[admin]

Yes, it takes a mental leap to go faster on those washboards, for sure! The washboard in the picture you reference would indeed be best driven at speed - 70-80 km/h. Washboards are not what cause blowouts. Large rocks do. Nails and sharp objects do.

[Bonk]

Walter --

I was thinking about doing the James Bay Road trip to Chisasibi in September of this year or next (I have no desire to fight the black flies in the dead of summer, plus the foliage should make for one beautiful drive), but I saw you encountered snow in September 2000. The possibility of cold doesn't bother me, but snow potential on that isolated of a road is a major concern.

Was that unusual to get snow then? That seems awfully early even for the 54th parallel. And if you remember, did you go at the beginning of the month or was that at the end? Also, was the snow substantial enough to affect driving?

Once again, thanks so much for creating such an informative and visually stimulating Web site. Even though I haven't tried any of these roads yet, I come to this site every two months or so just to look at the pictures and take a short cyber-vacation.

[admin]

Not unusual to get snow in September up there. I was there towarsd the end of the month when I experienced it.
But it did not affect driving. I wouldn't be concerned.

[Andrew Kirschner]

[quote="Bonk"]Walter --
Was that unusual to get snow then? That seems awfully early even for the 54th parallel.[/quote]

In a sense, the Baie James region is further north than it actually is. In Western Canada and Alaska, there are roads and even significantly large towns much further north than that--the Dalton goes well past the 70th I believe, and Anchorage is a town of over a quarter million at about the 61st.

The thing is, eastern North America is generally colder than the west, due to prevailing currents (namely the Gulf Stream, which moves tropical air eastward towards Europe, and the Labrador Current, which moves Arctic air southward.) Northwestern Quebec (and Central-Western Quebec, which geographically the James Bay region is really part of), Northern Ontario, and Northestern Manitoba would be especially cold because of the influence of Hudson/James Bay, which freezes in winter.

More locally for me, NYC (at the 40th) is I believe significantly cooler than even Vancouver (past the 49th.)

Andrew