Unsupported: Trans Taiga Highway (Video)

Photos by Expeditions Ontario (@expeditions_ontario)

The Trans-Taiga Road is a remote wilderness route that was originally built to provide access to various dams and generating stations in northern Quebec. The road is nearly 700 kilometres long, with no towns or stores along the way, and it’s known to be one of the most remote places you can drive to in North America.

During the peak of the pandemic, Tim Johnson (@timjohnsoncx), Ryan Atkins (@ryanatkinsdiet) and Buck Miller (@buckyjmiller) rode the entire route completely self-supported, fishing in the rivers and lakes, and ended up learning about the complicated history of the land, the Indigenous people who call the region home, and how industry has affected the area more than they ever could have imagined. Watch the full 10-minute video below.

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“This was just supposed to be a bike ride, something in our own backyards that was going to be fun and would take us away from what was happening in the world. It turned out to be something more than that.”

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Trans-Taiga Road (Route Transtaïga)

The Trans-Taiga Road (French: Route Transtaïga) is an extremely remote wilderness road in northern Quebec, Canada. It is 582 kilometres (362 miles) long to Centrale Brisay and another 84 kilometres (52 miles) along the Caniapiscau Reservoir, all of which is unpaved. The road’s northeastern terminus is almost at the 55th parallel north, making it the northernmost continuous road in Eastern North America.

The Hydro Quebec project flooded 11,000 square kilometers of Taïga. Flooding disrupted the traditional nesting and migration patterns for millions of Canada geese and has been linked to six times the levels of mercury in local fish. Estimated at 900,000 before the initiation of the Hydro Quebec project, the George River caribou herd stands at less than 20,000 today. To learn more about the challenges facing the local Indigenous population and how you can help, please visit TrueNorthAid.ca.

During their trip, the group raised $4,000 for the Chisasibi Emergency Food Bank. In total, their expeditions have raised more than $25,000 for support in the remote First Nations they travel through. Follow their past and future journeys at @expeditions_ontario on Instagram.