C4

What the heck is "C4", you ask? Much more than a plastic explosive... Consider the following:

• There's a VF/VFR owners' mailing list. It's huge.
• There's also a Ontario VFR owners' mailing list. It's smaller, that's why they call the other one "The Big List".
• Every Year, Honda, the company, organizes a rally called the Honda Hoot. It's pretty corporate and sedate, despite the great roads around Knoxville, TN. If you don't get the hint, think Goldwing.
• Because VFR riders tend to enjoy a spirited ride, the Big Listers get together at WDGAH, or We Don't Give a Hoot (2004 marks the 8th edition.)
• The Ontario Listers, meanwhile, thought it would be pretty cool to have a Canadian We Don't Give a Hoot -- or, shorter, C-WDGAH. Or even shorter, C1. In mid-August of 2004, it was C4 and I was there.

I met two VFR owners in Kanata just before 8 a.m., Julian on a grey 5th gen., and Mark on a red 5th gen. with a very nice Two Brothers aftermarket slip-on. A little note should go here: after reading this page, Julian emailed me and said "of course you meant to describe my bike as Silver not Grey!!!!!"

Following Julian, on his grey silver VFR, we took the back roads to Sharbot Lake, at Sunsets Restaurant, the base camp of C4. (Sunsets' owner Steve owns a VFR. See the connection?). After I introduced myself -- the other 30-odd participants had arrived the day before -- I grabbed a coffee, checked out VFRs and looked at maps. (Prepared with great detail by Dave "Routemeister" Thompson for C3.)

I rode that morning with Julian, on his grey silver VFR, Mark -- I could hear his pipe as well as admire his precise lines -- while Leo from Stratford (on a blue 5th gen., nicely tricked out with accessories) was behind me. The perfect size for a group, come to think of it.

(If you're not from Eastern Ontario and have no idea where the following roads are, click here for a locator map, in a new window. I'll wait for you.)

You're back? Great! We went South on 38 and then took, clockwise, Desert Lake Road, County Road (ok, CR...) 19, on the map bellow. Technical twisties? Blind left-handers? Decreasing radius curves? Off-camber construction? Sand and other material scattered here and there on the tarmac? If you like those, Desert Lake Road is for you. And if you don't, may I suggest Highway 401 and a Goldwing, perhaps? I had a great time, did not once go "Oh, shit, I came in too hot!". The sand in the middle of half a dozen corners can be managed if you look at the piles out of your peripheral vision. Focus on where you want to go ,not on a "Hey, if my front wheel goes there, I'm going down and it will hurt like a bitch...)

At Sydenham, we went on CR 5 back towards 38, which we took north to Godfrey, the start of Westport Rd (CR 8 and 12). There are, by Wolfe Lake, cliffs on one side, the lake on the other and half a dozen esses, marked at 20 km/h which are a joy to take. Except maybe for the last right-hander, which tightens up in a way that took everyone by surprise.

Just before the quaint downtown of the village of Westport, we took CR 36, which Julian, riding a grey silver VFR, had described earlier as "gnarly". He was right. That road has great asphalt, nice curves and the landscape is even nicer. (On Desert Lake Road,looking at the landscape means you'll soon be part of the landscape.) We then took Crow Lake road, where I discovered the joy of chip-seal. Make that fresh chip seal. That's where, instead of using asphalt or tar-macadam like the Gods of motorcycle riding ask for, tar is laid on the road, topped with a layer of crushed stone and they let traffic pack it down. Unfortunately, there isn't much traffic on Crow Lake road. We could ride, at 60 km/h, on a tire track, but if your wheels drifted to between two tire tracks, you just knew that a quick countersteering effort was out of the question. So getting back to the harder-packed gravel, meant a slight body lean, a push of the knee on the gas tank. (That's probably when I sent a small rock 10 meters back to Leo. My apologies...)

After a great, hour-long lunch, which was spent looking at maps, exchanging favourite local roads, Julian, on his grey silver VFR, and Mark had to return to Ottawa, which left Leo and I to explore roads north of Hwy 7.

We took the loop below, in a clockwise direction. Hwy 509 lies in the heart of the Cambrian shield, offers great pavement and even better 5th gear sweepers. It's also smack in the middle of nowhere. It's also pretty curvy.

509 goes through the town of Ompah, which believe it or not, has nothing to do with polka, but is rather an old native word which means something like "Annoying music"... At the hamlet of Plevna -- and calling it a "hamlet" is generous -- we took a right on CR 30, where, as ride leader, I just had to trust the map that eventually, we'd get to Vennachar. Moreover, we were both running a little low on gas. We were not on fumes, but a wrong turn would have meant switching to reserve. OK, that's it for dramatic tension, because we gased up on Hwy 41, just south of Denbigh.

We made a brief stop at the gas station at the corner of 41 and Matawatchan road (the western gateway of the Calabogie Boogie), where we met a few VFRers and we saw a few sportbikes whizz by. Leo had heard a lot about this road and I couldn't wait to show him what is, in a way, my play yard. Matawatchan Rd (which leads to Centennial Lake Rd, Black Donald Lake Rd and then the 508 has been called one of the nicest 60 km in Ontario, and we were not deceived. It has, past one of the lakes, an uphill, constant radius, 180 degree wide hairpin that makes your right hand twist the throttle more and more, as you push on the right grip more and more, for what seems an eternity. At the corner of 508 and 511, at Munford's gas station/convenience store, we stopped for some water and met up with the owner of a virgin-white 93 VFR -- Robyn, who created and maintains the Ontario VFR list.

We took the famous 511 down to Lanark, enjoying its fast sweepers and well-marked turns. From there, it was time to explore the hinterland again, through CR 12 (fresh pavement!) and CR 36 south, where we encoountered a section of chip-sealed road which took us by suprise. You're doing 120 around a left-hand turn, the road goes downhill after it and.... surprise, you're in (almost) loose gravel! (That's the return of dramatic tension...) Downshift, match the revs perfectly or the rear breaks loose, repeat as necessary until you're down to 80 km/h or so -- the surface was more packed than on Crow Lake Rd, hence the slightly higher speeds.

A quick stroll down 7 and we were back and the base by 5 p.m., where I met a few (but not enough) listers. I stuck around for an hour or so before heading home to earn brownie points for an early arrival. However, the cost of the points was that I missed the banquet with all the participants, most of whom I only know through the ether and a name.

It was a day of riding much more than socializing. But, when looking back at those great roads, I think "of course, it was all about the riding..."

It was so much a day of riding that I arrived home on a bald rear tire...