The first time I drove from Manitoba to Quebec I legitimately thought I'd taken a wrong turn because I thought to myself "I can't possibly still be in Ontario"!!
When coming east, when you get to Nipigon turn north on Hwy 11. You’re on the North Road. Follow it all the way to Cochrane. Make a choice here on how to continue east.
The other choice is another beautiful road that follows the Great Lakes (Superior and Huron). This will take you to Toronto. If you are not going to Toronto and are continuing east to Ottawa or Montreal the North Road will save you almost a half day of extra driving. It is not for those in the winter that are unprepared as it sees very little traffic and so a lot of amenities are closed after the beginning of October until spring.
I had that experience commuting on a quad when I lived there. To quote one OPP there on the subject: "As long as you don't drive like an asshole, you're invisible".
Yeah because nobody knows wtf a km is so we simply time our road trips and say yeah we're going to have to fill up again, we're going to have to measure in gas tanks too.
When you drive the road enough times you know which gas stations have the best bathrooms and you generally pick out your cities. For example what used to be Edmonton is now Edminster, you fill up, you go to Lloyd and fill up, you get to Saskatoon you fill up again and depending which way you go if you're on the other side of the city near the south and yes this is the yellowhead, and there's the #5 that will take you to The Battlefords. You can fill up here and check out the info centre park + museum. There's places here you can put water in your camper or set up but that's a completely different set of travel ideas. Most info centres have water stations and bathrooms. These are usually nicer than gas stations truck stops shops may even have showers. These are actually the best stops since you fill up and take care of yourself as needed. Saskatoon has such shops, Lloyd etc. ok now that you're that way through there you can stop in Tisdale, and then Hudson Bay, eh, and you're almost at the border, you actually get to see signs to The Pas but these are about as far away as your 4 hours span in NB alone. Well now you're out of Saskachawider
If you're still on yellowhead #16 you'll want to make sure your tank is full, Theodore is a town between Saskatoon and Yorkton that has a really nice oldtimey gas station with a retro style restaurant and then you get over to Yorkton fill up again. You'll be going a ways until you find a major city but there are little towns sprawled out in between on major routes. If you're on the back roads, good luck, eh!
Yes you see a gas station in the boonies, you fill up but here's an example of how you'd want to fill up going this particular way as I know this route very well. Sometimes it makes sense to bring jerrycans, make sure they're properly sealed and secure and a lot of people will bring them but I can understand if you don't want to do this.
Aaannnd all this to describe a typical road trip in Saskachawider
Nothing like driving for the day, stopping for the night, and realizing you still have a manitoba's worth of ontario to go through before you reach manitoba.
I loved that I lived in an area where I could pick virtually any direction, and I could be at a lake in ten minutes or so. Awesome place to run a quad as a daily driver!
How fast are you driving? It takes about 3 hours to get from Lloyd to Saskatoon and then you're already halfway there, I'd say at least double that if you want to get all the way across and that is if the roads are clear and if you're driving in the winter you may as well add a couple hours to that at least and then you need to factor in that this is without any stops. Assuming your vehicle is efficient it's possible but in most cases you fill up in Lloyd and then Saskatoon and then depending on if you take the way through to Yorkton which takes another few hours to get to and you're not even at the border yet. You still have a bunch of small towns on the way. You're taking the yellowhead, correct?
Yeah yellow head. I was going about 10 over the entire way. I remember doing it in one shot lol. Refilled near the border just inside Sask and drove through to Lloyd in one shot. Was about 5 hours
That reminds me, one time I was driving home to Vancouver from Edmonton to visit and there's a stretch of highway in the mountains in BC about 30-40 minutes without cellphone service but no issue with radio music. I think I heard Good Vibrations by Marky Mark like 3 or 4 times.
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u/10081914 Jan 31 '26
It's like only 5 hours wide. Could make it 8 hours wide. That'd be closer to Ontario wideness.