U.S. cyclocross champ gets the bikepacking bug in northern Quebec
Almost two weeks after Tim Johnson got out of the woods, he still had blackfly bites. They were on his ankle sand fore arms. the six-time u.s. cyclocross champion could still feel them on the back of his neck beneath his shaggy hair, which he referred to not as a mullet or even hockey hair, but as his “coupe Longueuil.” He comes by the Quebec term for mullet honestly: he’s been married to Canadian cycling champion and the Liberal MP for Brome-missisquoi Lyne Bessette for 16 years. They have a place in Sutton, Que. This past August, Johnson learned even more about his adopted province. He went on his first bikepacking trip with his Sutton neighbour Ryan Atkins and Ontario rider Buck Miller.
The trio took on the Trans Taiga Road, which is roughly 1,300 km north of Montreal and connected with the province’s large hydro-electric projects. The road is about 700 km of rolling gravel. The trip featured a lot of fishing, a bear encounter and many, many blackflies. “My understanding of Quebec has definitely expanded,” Johnson says, “Being in the Eastern Townships is one version of the province. With Montreal, Quebec City, the Beauce region, even Gaspésie, I was kind of familiar with them before I got there almost by osmosis. But up north though, it really is so markedly different. It’s just wide and so vast. The trees are smaller. It looks like the glaciers just receded yesterday.” He also got a better sense of effects of the hydro projects on the Indigenous communities and the environment.
Not only was he bitten by blackflies on the Trans Taiga, but by the bikepacking bug as well. During the trip, the three riders discussed what other trips they might do. Weeks afterwards, Johnson was already itching for the next adventure.— MP