Follow Her North, the Hearst-based adventure outfitter, is putting a new route on the map this September: a five-day guided ride linking five northern communities entirely by forestry road and backroad. No one has run this exact route before (not even the guides), so riders and guides will be reading the terrain together for the first time.
Click here to learn more about the adventure.
Follow Her North is calling this one a trial trip, which means even the guides haven't ridden the full route before. There's no established playbook here, no route notes from last year's group—just a plan on paper and five days to see how it holds up. That's the draw for riders who'd rather find out what's around the next bend firsthand than read about it after someone else already has.
The loop links Hearst, Dubreuilville, Wawa, Hornepayne, and Manitouwadge—five Northern Ontario communities joined by nearly 1,000km of backroad. The route passes waterfalls, lookouts, historic sites, and abandoned locations that just don't show up on a highway map.
Born and raised in Northern Ontario, Mylène Coulombe-Gratton is a trained guide with a passion for getting people outdoors. She founded her adventure company, Follow Her North, in Hearst in 2021, and has since built a name guiding riders through some of the region's most remote country—including a six-day, 2,000-kilometre snowmobile push toward Churchill.
This trip has been years in the making: as she shared in her own announcement, the idea of tracing a big backroad loop through the North is one she and her father, Danny Gratton, talked about for years before finally making it happen.
The trip is open to ATVs, side-by-sides, and adventure bikes, with adventure bikes leading the pack. The group regroups every 20km or so and keeps a steady 70–90 km/h pace, so nobody gets left behind over five days of remote riding.Your vehicle must be able to can carry 250-km worth of fuel between fill-ups.
Head to followhernorth.com to book your spot, or call Follow Her North directly at 705-373-2948.
