On Sunday April 22nd I headed out to figure out a part of the TCAT that I'd been avoiding for a while. I had spent the winter poring over maps of the area east of Saskatoon, and nothing really jumped out at me as an interesting and fun route for the TCAT in this area. So eventually I just tried to pick some roads that had a few curves (around sloughs and other natural barriers) and hoped for the best, but I wasn't too excited about the prospects for this area.

In any case, I figured I'd better get down to it, and headed out early in the morning to Alvena, where I'd left the route off in late 2010. Snobear had agreed to meet me in Alvena, so I wouldn't be riding alone on any trails. After grabbing a few micro SD cards and a quick McD's breakfast at Walmart, I headed out of the city.

I hooked up with Snobear in Alvena. We hadn't planned a particular meeting spot, just the town of Alvena. But for those who have been there you'll know it's not exactly hard to find someone in a town that size...




We headed south of town on the roads I had ridden in late 2010 before running out of time. Along the way we passed this interesting setup...




...on this road...




...and found some neat little dirt roads around Buffer Lake. After riding around the west side of the lake we found this combine in a field near the road.






That guy had a crappy harvest, no doubt!

We continued on, along roads with a pleasant amount of curves and hills...





...and found this little trail just north of Highway 16.




We headed about 10 km west to Clavet for a snack and some fuel...




...and then hit the trail again. Near Bradwell we found these awesome canal roads...



...some of which have a bit of gravel on them and some of which are grassy. They're a blast to ride, though! We saw a snowy owl and stopped to take a picture of it.




Snobear might have a better shot - his camera is quite a bit nicer than mine. After that it was on to the dam at Blackstrap Lake along the canal roads.








When we got to the lake, there was a float plane doing touch-and-gos on the lake. He flew right over us heading in for a landing.

We headed across the dam and down a nice little quad trail that follows the northwest shore of Blackstrap Lake. From there it was through Shields and west into Dundurn. Once through town we headed southwest on a nice road with a pleasant number of curves. Scramble and I had ridden that road a few years ago, and it was still as nice as ever. We eventually came to a gate, where Scramble and I had turned east. This time Snobear and I went straight through the gate into the pasture. After heading further southwest past a few herds of cattle, we found the trail Scramble had originally been looking for heading west. We took it, and after some pretty sandy trail through a pasture it turned into an awesome route! In fact, I only have 1 pic from this stretch because we were having so much fun!




The video will show more, I hope.

Eventually we hooked up with the road that Scramble and I had taken west to get to 219, and after that the exploring was complete and we were just riding for fun. We headed to the canal roads northeast of Outlook and took them down to the Broderick Reservoir.






They were filling the reservoir from the canal, and the flow was pretty strong.



After that we ripped down the canal roads to the Gardiner Dam - a fun ride, but you have to be careful at all the intersections with the grid roads. It's easy not to see the grid road coming up, and if you just fly across it you might be lunch for a 3/4 ton!

Here's Snobear, pleased that we made it to the damn dam.




After that we took the 219 home to Saskatoon, and Snobear headed on his way back home to the Gronlid area. My total km for the day were somewhere over 400, but Snobear had a few hundred more yet just getting to and from his place.

This route turned out to be wayyyy better than I'd ever thought it would be, and it's worth riding just for fun. It's not too demanding for a day ride from Saskatoon - we were back in the city before 5:00 PM. Thanks to Snobear for coming out and helping with the exploration! I'll try to get some video up on this thread at some point in the next few days.

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Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

Looks like you guys had a great ride! Can't wait to try out the new route.

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2015 KTM 500 EXC
2008 KTM 990 Adventure S

Looks good. Do you have any tracks from your ride?

I do have tracks. I'll try to post them tonight when I get home.

We don't want to reveal too much of the TCAT in advance of its Grand Opening, but small sections like this one are OK I think.

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Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

Some more photos from our Sunday Saskatoon TCAT ride. Was -1 when I left home and 19 by the time we turned around to slab it back, it was a great ride

Kiffer coming in for a landing at Alvena






Some of the required ammenities along the way


Kiffer enjoying the views



A couple of Bowinkles on the move


Some of the great open spaces






The KLR sitting on the trail




The canal from Blackstrap




Have seen this view in lots of movies


Snowy owl forgot to take his winter coat off


Blackstrap




Float plane coming in for a landing




Dundurn



Heading into the pasture trail from Dundurn to 219, best part of the ride











Broderick dam







Destination Gardiner dam, what a way to start the year


Slabbed it home, a little over 700 k, chewed up the Trakmaster on the road home but it will make 5000k which is more than I expected

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I do these things not to escape life but so life does not escape me

GPS tracks posted in the GPS section of the site in .gpx format and also a .kml so you can view them in Google Earth.

See them here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=419&p=780#p780

Still working on video...

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Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

Man, that looks super nice! Sorry I couldn't make it. I still have bruises from my son's paintball party though.

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Stay Safe and Get Dirty!

Here's a video I cooked up about the ride. My narrating sucks, but it gives you a much better idea of what the roads were like. It's about 15 minutes, so grab a beer and sit back.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaqdDxFRodU[/youtube]

It was shot in hi-def, so if you put it on full screen it should still look pretty good. You can see the difference between my new helmet cam and my old one at the end - I used my old one for the ride home from Gardiner.

Enjoy

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Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

Oh, and by the way, I never hit 299 km/h at any time during this ride...

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Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

Love the video, great locations for the TCAT. Now I do know that I need to put some knobbies back on the GS in August, 10% off road tires just won't do

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So many roads so little time but... AGATT

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