Hello, and welcome to the Ultimate Biographical Entry.

My name is Mike Jacobs, and for the past three years documenting motorcycling in Northern Ontario has been my job. I “develop content” for www.OntarioRides.ca, which basically means, photos, videos, words, maps, itineraries, reviews and a bunch of other stuff. If it has anything to do with motorcycling in Northern Ontario, I try to cover it. Clubs, events, etc. I could go on, but this is the Internet and you’re probably already bored.

I am the architect of the Ultimate Northern Ontario Road Trip (UNORT) and now I’ll tell you why I devised this insane scheme. Because I write about riding in the North, I’ve always wanted to make my job an “on the road” job. There’s no better way to find out if a particular road, or motel, or chip stand is really the best for motorcyclists than first hand. And I’ve discovered literally dozens of places, roads, businesses…all kinds of stuff I’d have never known about unless I went and checked them out myself.

And on the way I’ve been forming some ideas about what the true nature of Northern Ontario is, how it’s different from Southern Ontario, from the rest of Canada, and from the rest of the world.

But there’s a second part of this project that has allowed for all of this to be possible, actually. For the past six months I’ve been working on a project for the City of Thunder Bay collecting information on motorcycling and RVing in Ontario for a new trip planning website, which will be launched in the next few months. You can see a couple of the concept screens at www.GoTourOntario.ca or www.AlleyZOntario.com.

This website will contain all of the best motorcycle routes in Ontario, filled with all of the great places to stop and eat, sleep and take in the scenery we’ve seen along our trip. The two pilot routes will be the North Shore of Lake Superior (from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay on the Trans-Canada Highway) and the Temiskaming Loop (North Bay to New Liskeard on Highway 11, then back through Quebec)

We’re just over half-way through our adventure, but we’re still amazed by something new each day. Between places we’d previously identified on our itinerary, we’ll often look at a map and see a blank stretch of road and wonder what we’ll encounter – more often than not we’re pleasantly surprised by what we find. If nothing else, this is a province of incredible variety.

Join us.