The Crew

The Ultimate Northern Ontario Road Trip (UNORT) was conceived by Mike Jacobs is 2011. While working on Ontario’s Motorcycle Trip Planner (www.GoTourOntario.ca) Mike realized that without actually riding the roads included on the site, he couldn’t recommend them. Thus, UNORT was born, and taking his faithful photographer Alexe Sawicki and his all-too-willing father Peter Jacobs, they set out on a 40 day trip to ride the roads of the vast wilderness of Northern Ontario and to report back on all they found. For the second edition of UNORT, we’ve adjusted our crew slightly, to bring you more in-depth coverage of the wild and wooly side of the North.

Full-Timers

Mike has been working for Ontario Tourism for the last four years writing about motorcycle touring in Northern Ontario. Previous to this he took Film Production and Creative Writing at Concordia University in Montreal where he wrote short stories and directed short films. Mike’s love of road-trips began after high-school with long aimless trips through the USA in an old, wood-panelled station wagon. Mike also attends motorcycles shows around North America on behalf on Ontario Tourism and also works as a consultant for the tourism industry.

Back for her second year, Alexe Sawicki is UNORT’s official photographer. She studied film production at Concordia University with Mike, and the two have been collaborating ever since. Alexe also runs her own sewing project called Fikimiki, which produces some incredibly unique items like this a scarf with kittens on it and a zipper pocket, and this handmade roll-up toolkit. She gave herself the nickname Casque Roux (cas-ke roo) which loosely translates as Red Helmet. You can view all her photos from UNORT 1 on our Flickr account.

Previously a part-time driver for the UNORT team, Jessie Stones has jumped in and dedicated herself to the UNORT mission full time as our road trip co-ordinator and writer. Jessie’s love of the outdoors and planning makes her a perfect match for the UNORT mission of bringing our faithful audience the best that Northern Ontario has to offer. She recently passed her M2 motorcycle exam and is looking forward to spending some time in the saddle, as well as reporting back to the road trip about her hike to Pukaskwa National Park.

Bogdan Stoica is the newest member of the UNORT team, joining up as the full-time videographer. Bogdan is another graduate of the Concordia Film Production program and is starting his masters in photography immediately following the road trip.

 Part-Timers

There’s no shame in being a part-timer. It takes a special breed to be able to leave their lives behind for two months for a road trip of this epic magnitude. This is a list of pals who’ve been part of the trip before, or are new joiners, who help spread the joy of Northern living.

  • James Braithwaite – Oscar-nominated illustrator
  • Roger Parsons – Writer, Motorcycle Mojo
  • Glenn Roberts – Editor, Motorcycle Mojo
  • Dustin Woods – Motorsports Journalist, Freelance
  • Steve Thornton – Writer, Cycle Canada
  • Lorraine Sommerfeld – Writer, The Toronto Star
  • Maia Filar – Food Journalist, Freelance