With pandemic restrictions still coming and going constantly, it’s a bit hard to plan a motorcycle trip this summer. But, whether it’s this year or next, there’s a new DIY option for dual sport/adventure tour planning. In a few weeks, the Trail Trash ADV channel will release the Cabot Trail Dualsport and Adventure Motorcycle Guide.
Cape Breton trails
For decades, the Cabot Trail has been the focus of most motorcycle trips to Cape Breton—we’ve focused on it here at CMG (see below), and so has every other Canadian moto-publication (and some US mags, too).
However, the island’s system of unpaved roads and trails is just as exciting as the paved sections, maybe even more-so. We’ve explored some of that system as well, but a lack of time makes it hard for non-locals to properly map out rides. There are resources like the Backroad Mapbooks that can help, but you’ll always find problems on GPS tracks designed for ATVs and snowmobiles.
That’s where the project from the Trail Trash ADV channel comes in. Over the past year, Colin MacEachern, a Nova Scotia resident, has been working on a dual sport guide to Cape Breton, with help from other riders. The idea is, with the new guide, you can ride to Cape Breton and get off the beaten path, but also enjoy the world-famous street riding MacEachern says it’s “a dual sport/adventure motorcycling experience with the traditional Cabot Trail ‘loop.’ ” When the guide is ready, MacEachern will release the GPS file, and an accompanying video series via his Trail Trash YouTube channel.
A long-term project
MacEachern started making the trail guide about a year ago—you could call it a COVID project, maybe. But, it’s based on years of his own trips to Cape Breton, and comparing his own notes and GPS tracks with data from other riders. Even now, after months of work, he says the guide he’s putting together isn’t comprehensive. It’s based on the area around the Cabot Trail, and points of interest in that region.
“There are so, so, many sections across Cape Breton that I would have loved to shoot and scout, but time, money and other factors made that impractical this time around and therefore the focus was getting people to the locations that are easily missed “near” the Cabot Trail itself,” MacEachern says.
He plans to release the GPS file for his project in June, after a last-minute scouting trip to make sure his mapped trails are still passable.
We’ll let you know when that happens, and who knows? Maybe this would be a good CMG riding destination this summer.
See the Trail Trash YouTube channel here for a glimpse of the fun ahead.
