July 21st Bellingham to Clinton BC
We (Dave, Lorie, Dave, Dawn, Bill, Marla, Larry, and
me) headed out from Starbucks on Bakerview at 8:00 AM. We were suited up for rain because the clouds
were hanging low over Whatcom and the weather prediction all the way to
Whistler BC was rain. We took Northwest
and angled over to the Guide heading to the Lynden crossing. A few quick questions and we were on our way.
Getting through the Vancouver traffic snarls, road
improvements, drivers who think only they have the right of way, and large
foreign objects in the middle of our lane was probably the most stressful part
of the trip today. But then Vancouver
traffic is always like this.
The Sea to Sky highway is beautiful and we stopped
for gas before we arrived in Whistler and then gazed in amazement at all the
new condominiums, and houses that have been built since we last passed through
Whistler right before the 2010 Winter
Olympics.
We stopped in Pemberton at The Pony for lunch before
climbing up and over the mountain to Lillooet.
A stop at the bottom of the mountain to remove the last of the rain gear
and as many other layers as we could take off.
We started out in the high fifties when we left this morning with rain and
now it is around eighty-two degrees.
We are only one hundred kilometers or about sixty
miles to Clinton where we are staying for the night. We have been as far as the turn off to Cache
Creek but have never gone farther north.
A new road, a new experience, a new memory.
Riding the canyon road far above the river you look
out to the dry and parched high desert hills ahead. A few twist and turns and we are down in the
valley with small farms stretching out on either side of us. Horses meander by small streams in the lush
green fields while herds of white cattle stand in fields on the opposite side
of the road. Small vineyards are
beginning to sprout up in the rich farmlands.
We pass old log homes, barns, lean-tos, and
outbuildings in various states of decay and disrepair. Occasionally we would see one of these barns
with a coat of paint that while maybe several years old, shows that someone is
still using it and trying to preserve a part of history.
We checked into the Cariboo Lodge Resort and
the owner Darla had a full crew to welcome us and chat. With the bikes unloaded and settled into our
rooms it was time to socialize. We were
on the second floor and had tables and chairs so we could sit around, relax,
tell stories, and laugh.
Clinton was originally known as 47 Mile House before
being renamed Clinton in 1863 when the Cariboo Wagon Road was completed and
only had a population of about six hundred.
The Cariboo Lodge was built on top of the original lodge and is
constructed of spruce logs and even has a western saloon.
The lodge had a restaurant so we didn’t have to ride
someplace else for dinner. The waitress
was one of the ladies who helped check us in and she was vibrant and fun. She kept up with our jokes, dinner orders,
and everything else in-between and the smile never left her face. The patrons behind us even joined in several
times.
Back at the ranch we sat on the balcony talking and
laughing. We have ridden with this group
many times and it is always a pleasure whether it is a day ride or a multiple
day ride just to be with them. No drama,
no worries, just friends who care about you, and with whom you enjoy spending
time.
July 22nd Clinton BC to Prince George BC
We were on our way before 8:00 AM. We only have to travel about 250 miles
today. No gas stations open in Clinton
on a Sunday morning so we went north to 70 Mile House to get gas which was only
about thirty miles. The good part was
they were open, but the bad part was they only had regular gas and our bikes
run on premium. Dave and Bill had enough
till we got to 100 Mile House but Dave and Larry each put a couple of gallons
in so we were not running on empty.
We stopped for breakfast in 100 Mile House which got
its name because it was 100 miles from Lillooet. The original name of the town was Bridge Creek
House. The area has a population of
about 20,000.
We stopped at Smitty’s for breakfast with lots of
laughter and then topped off our tanks with premium with a higher grade. Back on the road… You could say it is a
pretty straight shot because there were not a lot of noticeable twist and turns
in the road and every few miles there were passing lanes. The roads are fairly well maintained and lots
of improvements in the works to add more lanes in some areas and more passing
lanes in lots of areas.
A few eagles, three deer, and one possible fox
sighting was the total animal count for the day. Well, we also saw a few cows and lots of
horses.
Farmland stretched out on either side of us, farmers
bailing hay and some fields looked like they had been planted a second
time. Fields were dotted with round hay
bales and open sided barns were filled.
We passed several large lakes and small communities but the wide open
spaces with farms and forest land is almost more than you can comprehend when
everyone is talking about how populated the world is.
More homesteads, barns, and out buildings built with
logs lay abandoned and replaced by newer houses built from the early nineteen
hundreds to the current date. Split rail
fences lined some of the old farms and numerous cattle chutes stood deserted.
A couple of stops to stretch our legs and we pulled
into Prince George around three o’clock.
We headed to the local Harley dealer and it normally would have been
closed on Sunday but a HOG group from Vancouver BC had arranged for the store
to be open for their arrival. A little
shopping and we headed to our hotel.
Prince George is the largest city in northern
British Columbia and was named in honor of King George III. Logging and lumber mills are still the
primary employers.
Mischief…we don’t look for it, it just sort of comes
our way. All the girls are people watchers, not stalkers, we just watch people
to see who they are and what they are doing. We laughed about the guy whose car
broke down and hired some local guys who work on machinery for the logging
industry to hammer, pound and bang away at this guy’s SUV trying to fix
it. They met at an ATM and I can’t
imagine hiring anyone who looked like they did--no recommendations, no real
shop, they just arrived at the motel with some tools and spent hours hammering
away at fixing the bearing on his vehicle.
Ok, we went to dinner, laughed way too much and
thought we would just go back to our rooms, socialize a little more and call it
a night. That was the plan. The guys sort of were talking guy stuff and
the girls were still just laughing and joking innocently enough.
A car pulls
into the parking lot, a woman gets out, low cut top, high heels, lace tights,
short black skirt, (a lady of the night) and proceeds up the stairs to the room of the
out of town guy who had his car worked on by the sort of odd repairmen. The door is open, she goes in unannounced but
expected, about five minutes later the door is locked the curtains closed and
we can’t believe there is a prostitute in our motel.
A few minutes later a pickup truck with two guys
pulls into the parking lot taking up two spaces and this is what gets us to
look at them because it seems all the trucks in the lots think they need two
spaces. The motor is running, and they just
sit there. We begin to think they are
with the hooker when they don’t get out or leave. Well they finally roll down the window; say
something we can’t understand, get out of the truck and go into Wendy’s which
is right across from the motel. More
speculation on our part and super sleuth detective Dawn decides to
investigate. She walks over to the motel
entrance driveway and can see the two guys in Wendy’s having a cold drink
watching the motel. One of the guys is
looking up at the room where we all firmly believe a transaction and exchange
of money has taken place for sex. Are
these the pimps, the husband, the boyfriend, the brother who worked on the guy’s
car…we don’t know, but they seem interested in the room. About twenty-five minutes after she went in
the room the two guys finally come out of Wendy’s and leave slowly.
About this time our husbands are thinking it’s getting
late and time to head to our rooms so they come to check on us. We told them our story and they sort of
looked at us like we had been reading one too many novels or watching one too
many police shows on television. Well
the innuendos rang out from the guys and a little singing with the girls saying
shhhhhh and laughing. Thirty-five
minutes after the hooker went into the room, she left. Lorie timed her. Then the guys believed us.
Speechless is what it came down to. How could you ever imagine that we would stay
in a motel and we would watch a hooker do business in front of us? What happened in Prince George BC is public
knowledge…the names were not changed because we don’t know who they are, but
these are the facts, nothing but the facts, this is our story and we are
sticking to it.
Night, night, 5:45 AM is wake up and we need to be
in full rain gear, breakfast finished and on the road by 8:00 AM. It is not a long day by miles, about two
hundred and fifty miles, but rain, thunder, and lightening is predicted.
July 23, 2012 Prince George BC to Jasper National
Park, Alberta
Bill said there was a sixty percent chance of rain
today and it rained all but about fifteen minutes of the two hundred and fifty
or so miles we rode from Prince George to Jasper, Alberta on the Trans-Canada
Highway #16 also known as the Yellowhead Highway. It misted, sprinkled, rained, poured, and
dumped on us all day.
In those early morning hours you could see the heavy
fog clinging to the side of the mountains.
Occasionally it would dip low into the valley and we would ride through
this veil of mist. There was never a
clear hole in the clouds ahead; instead it was a grey cold day, all day.
The roads were pretty good with only an occasional
rough spot and lots of passing lanes.
The traffic itself was not bad until we neared Jasper and then most of
it was going east. We did see our first
moose running parallel to the road on the opposite side of the road from us. What a magnificent sight.
We were pretty much enveloped in a forest for the
first one hundred and twenty-five miles.
It is almost unimaginable to think of this much land that is uninhabited
except for an occasional farm or provincial park. Of course this meant there were no towns for
gas or breaks.
When we finally arrived at a rest stop, I think
McBride, we did stop for a short break and to add more layers, tuck
existing layers in, and try to find
whatever else we had packed that might keep us warm and dry.
Back on the road our trip was interspersed with small
clearings that farmers had carved out enough forest land to grown hay. Occasionally a few horses could be seen
huddled together in a field. The rest of
the day was forest and farms until we reached Jasper and then everything just
seemed to change to canyons and rivers.
A very slow moving train that must have been over a
hundred cars moved westward between the road and the river. To the west of Jasper, we crossed into the
province of Alberta. The main highway
between Canada runs through Jasper National Park so you have to pay to go
through it. Dave and Lorie were the lead
bike and paid for everyone so we wouldn’t have to stop for each bike. When we pulled into for a pit stop a few
minutes later the train had crossed to the other side of the road and the
engineer blew his whistle and waved to us as he went by. The thunder clapped overhead and it was time
to ride. Several minutes later we saw
our first elk grazing under the tree branches on both sides of the road as we
arrived in Jasper.
We drove from one end of town to the other and the
street was filled with clothing stores, restaurants, and souvenirs shops. We found our hotel and began pulling of
layers of gear and clothing. Water had
managed to seep into and under rain gear, soaking shirts, pants, shoes, and
socks and under the protective covers for our nylon bags strapped to our tour
packs. The hotel had a laundry so some
items went straight to the dryer; other items were placed over the heaters in
the bedrooms to dry. My boots stayed dry
but others were not as lucky, including Larry.
My helmet is another story and not sure how the whole lining became wet
when I was wearing my hood from the rain gear.
It acted like a big wick which made for a fuzzy head of hair.
Everyone brewed a pot of coffee in their rooms to
try and get warm and some of us had to go to the office for more coffee and
towels. Hot showers felt great and dry
clothes even better.
Rather than ride to dinner or walk we found a local
pizza place that also had sandwiches and salads so we ordered in. Good idea!
Marla took our orders and called it in.
And still the rain is coming down.
It was a quiet evening visiting with our friends, watching
a little television, and resting. The
funny thing is last night and tonight both the television had all three of the
major Seattle channels so we could catch up on everything that was going on at
home.
The plan is to have breakfast at the hotel at 7:00
AM and be on the road by8:00 AM.
July 24th Jasper BC to Lake Louise BC and
Radium Hot Springs BC
Food, dry clothes and we are ready to ride. We were on the road by 8:00 AM. The skies are grey and we are dressed for
rain. Going south we hope to leave the
cooler weather and rain behind sometime today.
The pass through the mountains is beautiful. We stopped at Sunwapta Falls to take pictures
and had a short break. It has been a
steady light shower but nothing like yesterday.
We are pretty much following the valley floor next
to the river. You can see high the water
marks when the spring floods come from melting snow. The Canadian Rockies are breath taking and
Larry said it was like riding through the North Cascades on steroids. We stopped at the Columbia Ice Fields to take
a break and admire the amazing scenery. Marla
fed crackers to a Canadian blue jay which sat on Bill’s windshield waiting to
be fed. We had our first mountain goat
sighting. Dawn spotted three teeny tiny
white dots up on the mountainside that if you watched would slowly move. We made one more stop at Crossing Café and
motel for a break.
We stopped at Lake Louise for gas, food, and
sightseeing. Not as many tourists as I
thought we might find considering the parking lot was full. The lake is beautiful with its green ice cold
glacier water and up high you can see the glacier that the water comes
from. Sometime after we left Lake Louise
we crossed back into British Columbia.
Around every bend you think this must be it, but the
road just keeps going past more amazing mountains, cliffs, and rock formations. We began to see lots of deer alongside the
road as we moved farther south.
We arrived in Radium Hot Springs about 3:30 PM and
checked into our motel. We walked down
to a German restaurant for dinner and it was early to bed for an early
departure tomorrow morning.
Radium Hot springs is a small town of about eight
hundred people in east Kootenay BC. It
is named for the hot spring in Kootenay National Park. There are radioactive elements but they are
insignificant. We did not, however,
decide to join the several hundred other people in dipping our toes in the hot
springs.
July 25th Radium Hot Springs BC to
Columbia Falls Montana USA
The sun is shining and while there is a little fog
surrounding the valley, there is no rain in the forecast. We filled our tanks and looked across the
street to see seven male Big Horn Sheep having an early morning meal of plants
and leaves on the center median. They
looked calm, not afraid of people, and no fear of vehicles.
We crossed back into Alberta and passed Frank’s
Slide near Crowsnest Pass. Turtle
Mountain collapsed April 29, 1903 and in one hundred seconds, rock, wind, and
dust blew through this little valley killing seventy to ninety people. This was one of the largest landslides in
Canadian history and the deadliest. The
slide area looks almost exactly as it did the day it happened. To see half a mountain side gone, spread out
across the valley floor with boulders as big as semi trucks is truly remarkable.
We passed many lakes and streams, crossed the
Columbia River, Kootenai River, saw deer, and cattle in the farmlands. The forested lands gave way to farm land that
changed into dry land covered in sage brush.
The border crossing was quick at Chief Mountain and we drove through open range land and
slowed for cattle that couldn’t decide, when they heard our loud pipes, if they
wanted to cross the road or just stand and stare at us. We stopped at St.
Mary’s on the east of Glacier National Park for lunch. A half
hour wait at the small restaurant (they make homemade pie) was more than we
wanted to wait, so we grabbed lunchables and rode on. There are only a few restaurants and gas
stations for miles in either direction and this is a popular rest stop and
accounts for the large crowds at any time of the day.
We entered Glacier National Park on the east side
riding the “Going-to-the Sun” to the top of mountain. Clear blue skies with white fluffy clouds that
Montana is so famous for filled the horizon.
We stopped at the top of the mountain and saw big horn sheep, mountain
goats, and ground squirrels.
Glacier National Park is over one million acres and
borders Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada.
The two parks are known as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park
and was designated as the world’s first International Peace Park in nineteen
thirty-two.
We were on the mountain side going east to west
towards Columbia Falls where we would be staying for the night. A long stretch of the road was one lane and
long lines of cars, trucks and motorcycles were led through by a pilot car as we
crossed the Continental Divide at Logan Pass.
We checked into our motel for the night, the guys
washed the bikes, we found ice, soda, chairs, glasses, and settled in to
socialize. We ordered pizza, salad,
wings, and sat out in a little covered barbeque area behind our rooms to eat
dinner.
July 26 Columbia Falls Montana to Sandpoint Idaho
A beautiful sunny day and I am starting the day out
without having to layer on or plug in the heated gear. From Columbia Falls we went south along
Flathead Lake to Elmo where we went west and south to Hot Springs Montana which
is about half way between Kalispell and Missoula in the Cabinet Mountains. After a brief stop for cold drinks and Dave
J. tried to peek into the wizard’s room and got caught, we were back on the
road again.
We stopped in Thompson Falls Montana for lunch at
Minnie’s Café. Great service, good food,
and we had the whole back room to ourselves or maybe they wanted to keep us bad
bikers away from the regular customers…haha.
This is a cute little town with businesses on one side and the railway
on the other side of the street.
We got stopped somewhere before Sandpoint Idaho for
road construction. We had about a
fifteen to twenty minute wait before a pilot car led us out of the construction
zone. We headed northwest to our destination
and our route took us next to lakes and rivers, slowly leaving the farmland
behind and climbing into forest.
We arrived in Sandpoint Idaho in time for a quick
rest before we gathered to as Larry likes to say “laugh and splash”. We choose McDonalds for dinner rather than
ride and it was only about a hundred yards away from the motel. Something for everyone, salads, chicken,
burgers, mocha frappes, and ice cream in waffle cones. What a way to end the day
7-27 Sandpoint to Omak
Continental breakfast in the motel and we were ready
to go. It is going to be another warm
day. We heard before we left that
Republic had winds over one hundred miles an hour the week before. Downed power lines meant power outages and we
weren’t sure what to expect on the roads.
Republic has been our go-to Fourth of July get away for several
years. We broke from tradition this
year, instead just passing through on our week long ride.
The roads are less traveled in this part of the
state, mostly locals and vacationers. I
missed the sign saying we had crossed into Washington State but the landscape
didn’t scream, leaving Idaho, entering Washington. In fact it looked a lot like the mountains of
Montana and lower British Columbia and Alberta we rode through.
We stopped at Beaver Lodge Resort and Campground
located at Tiger Pass in the Colville National Forest for a break. It sits next to Lake Gillette and Lorie said
it is one of four interconnected lakes of Little Pend Oreille Lakes chain.
We stopped for gas in Colville and continued on toward
Republic. We ran into road construction
in several places but were lucky enough not to have to wait in the heat today.
We continued
on past Kettle Falls, over Sherman Pass, and began our descent into the valley
to Republic. We began to see trees
snapped in two or completely uprooted.
Several trees were downed and laying on top of outbuildings. Road crews had been through and cleared the
road leaving chain sawed remnants beside the road. The closer we got to town the more
devastation of the forest we saw.
We stopped at Sportsman Roost for lunch. Our waitress said the town had been without
power for about a day and a half but some places lost power for five days. Right before we finished and left the
restaurant a tree crew came in for lunch.
They were from Seattle and had come to help clear trees so power could
be restored.
We rode to Tonasket for a pit stop, shade, cold
drinks, ice cream and then finished the final leg of our trip today in Omak. Did I mention it’s hot, really hot? Checked in we had air conditioned rooms, time
for showers, and naps before dinner. We
walked across the parking lot to the Koala Street Grill for dinner. This is our last night together. We stood around the parking lot after dinner
talking, laughing, watching the wind pick up, and finally blowing tumbleweeds
across the road which was our sign to call it a night.
7-28 Omak to home
We had continental breakfast in the motel and then
we mounted up and headed home. We
stopped in Twisp for gas and then breezed through Winthrop. Heading up the mountain we could feel the
cold air and were thankful we had layered up for the trip home. There is still snow on the sides of the
roadway and we pulled off at Rainy Pass for a rest stop. Next stop Marblemount for gas and
drinks. We have decided to stop at Bob’s
Burger and Brew in Burlington for lunch.
It’s been eight days since we pulled out of Bellingham and the time has
gone quickly.
We can’t wait for the next adventure and we are
genuinely thankful for true friends to ride with. A special thank you to Dave M. for planning,
arranging accommodations, details, and making this trip a success.
