After completing my trip, it took me a few days to get everything unpacked, cleaned, and put away. I spent quite a lot of time cleaning the bike, as well. My beloved R80 was not without some damage. Below is some information about after-trip issues, as well as thoughts about certain portions of my ride. Included is mileage covered, and other bit of random data. Very dry reading, I bet. It may be useful if anyone is planning a similar route.

There are more than a few photos that I did not include in this ride report. Lots of duplication and stuff I didn't think warranted typing about. If you're interested, the whole gallery is on my website, here. All the photos are captioned.
-----
First, the bike is now in need of a repaint. Really, it needed one before the trip. The previous owner had painted the bike himself, and it was not done well. I kept a heavy layer of wax on the bike which made it look rather good, but looking close you could see sanding lines and other flaws. It also seemed to take damage far too easily. The combination of mud, bugs, and tree sap, coupled with my knees coming in contact with the tank led to further damage. A repaint will be done, soon.

Second, I had saddlebag damage. I purchased a lightly used set up Seibenrock bag (Hepco-Becker reproductions) which had improved bag racks and better latches. They were in excellent condition. I found the bag had cracked around the latching mechanism. I was careful about never overloading the bags and also put a strap around the bags as insurance; I assume the rough condition of the James Bay Road led to that damage - I should have lowered my speed a bit. Good thing I had the bags strapped to the racks, as well. I may have lost the bag, entirely.

The transmission continues to work, though I don't ride the bike, much. It's headed off for a rebuild, shortly. It still likes to get hung up between gears, at times. I drained and inspected the fluid and didn't find any massive metal shards, so that's a positive.

Although some may disagree with me running from a thunderstorm that was producing ground-touching lightning, and then trying to ride through another storm that included hail, I'm glad I did what I did. Once I returned home I looked at some historical weather data, and found out things could have bee MUCH worse for me. (hard to believe, isn't it?) Based on the data I found online and the comparing the time I was running from the storm; that specific storm cell not only contained lightning and hail, but it also produced damaging winds. I'll take hail alone over hail and high wind. Luck was on my side, after all.

If you are going to take the Chi-Cheemaun ferry across Lake Huron, make sure you have a reservation. I was surprised at the number of people taking that across the lake. The Canadians I met in Radisson ended up crossing there as well, although without reservations. They ended up waiting 5 hours to get on the boat with their motorcycles. Fortunately they were in no hurry.

Finally, I covered a lot of miles in a short period of time. My scheduled route was:

Day 1 - 496 miles - MOA Rally in West Bend, WI to Grand Marais, MN
Day 2 - 409 miles - Grand Marais, MN to Lake Superior Provincial Park (Wawa, ON)
Day 3 - 553 miles - LSPP to Matagami, QC
Day 4 - 348 miles - Matagami, QC to Radisson, QC (side trip to Chisasibi, add 150 miles)
Day 5 - 348 miles - Radisson, QC to Matagami, QC
Day 6 - 523 miles - Matagami, QC to Tekummah, Manitoulin Island, ON
Day 7 - 167 miles - Tekummah to Pinery Provincial Park (part via ferry), in Grand Bend, ON
Day 8 - 163 miles - Grand Bend, ON to Toledo, OH (after several days at the Pinery)

3007 total miles. If you include the trip from my house to West Bend, it's 3378 miles. Of those miles, I did 2677 back to back over 6 days. Most of this was in cooler weather (riding jacket with liner in), so that can wear on you, over time. I know it did, me. Aside from day 1, all of this was done on two-lane roads. Just because it's called "Highway 17", it's still mostly a two-laner running between small towns and nothing. You occasionally get a passing lane added in. This is not the slab.

I deviated from the plan on Day 5 and 6, where on day 5 I went 752 miles to North Bay, ON, and then day 6 was about 200 miles from North Bay, ON to Tekummah, ON. The 348-odd mile days were no big deal, though I was planning more for 60's than 30's, weather wise. I had decent gear for the cold, though I was on the edge. I'm glad I packed for cooler than I really expected to encounter. That could have really gone wrong with slightly different gear choices. I still covered a lot of miles in a short period of time. It would have been nice to spend two days between Duluth and Wawa; lots of neat stuff to see, and enjoyable riding.

The campground for Lake Superior Provincal Park is closer to the south end of the park than the north end. I was a bit tired pulling into Wawa. I got REALLY tired when I kept not seeing the campground entrance, although I had been on park lands for 20 minutes. It's a LARGE park. Turns out I had 30 or 40 miles extra to cover. Oops.

Through the course of the trip (even including eating horribly UNHEALTHY food at the rally), I lost 10 pounds. I wasn't drinking many carbonated beverages (occasional Red Bull was all), I was generally skipping lunch, and my dinners were healthier. I never felt sick, but probably should have been drinking more. I kept not wanting to stop, aside from getting fuel. If I were to do it again, I'd make time for a 5-10 minute break between fuel stops to stretch. Even making 3 gas stops, that only adds 30 minutes to the day, max.

I literally felt like I was still "moving" for a few days after returning home. I kept having "riding dreams" for about two weeks. When it's all said and done, I look back on the trip and I'm VERY happy I decided to go.