Canadian Caper

[Bill_Anderson]

Paul Geller (Mr. Ducati Designs) and I set off Labor for a road trip to British Columbia. It was a three hour ride for Paul just to get from Portland to my house north of Seattle, so we planned on riding as far as Waterville the first day.

We stopped for lunch in Leavenworth, an eratz Baverian town, then rode the remaining 40 miles to Waterville, which is located on a plateau east of Wenatchee.

A friend of mine had recommended spending the night at the Waterville Hotel. It is an old hotel which is being restored room by room by the owner, who is a motorcyclist. He has an old Butaco in the shop next to hotel.
http://www.watervillehotel.com/

No restaurants were open on Labor Day. The owner recommended we walk to the only grocery store in town, purchase some steaks, and grill them on the hotel's outdoor gas grill. Paul did a very good job on the steaks and we ended the first day sipping beer on the front porch of the hotel.

Photo #1: Paul and my son Daren at my house prior to departure.
Photo #2: Leavenworth
Photos #3-5: Waterville Hotel, Waterville, WA.

[Bill_Anderson]

We headed east out of Waterville on US 2 and made a brief detour south at Washington 17 to see Dry Falls. After taking some photos at Dry Falls, we continued east on US, then north on Washington 155 to see Grand Coulee Dam. Riding though Grand Coulee in the early morning with Steamboat Rock ahead of us was quite spectacular.

After a sight seeing stop at Grand Coulee Dam and a breakfast stop at the town of Coulee Dam, we continued north on 155 to its junction with US 97 at Omak. We continued north on US 97, then crossed the Okanogan River at Tonasket to take a parallel road on the west side of the river to Oroville. We missed the turn for the south end of the Loomis-Oroville Road, but picked up the north end at Oroville for the ride to the state's most lonely border crossing at Chopaka.

The Chopaka border crossing is only open from 9am-5:00pm and a railroad crossing type gate is lowered to close the border after hours. You can look at the photos below to see how isolated and lonely this crossing is.

After crossing into British Columbia, we headed north towards Kelowa on Hwys 3, 3A, and 97. There was a huge traffic backup at Summerville, so we bagged that route and headed west on 97C, a four lane highway which took us to Merritt. We cruised above 5,000 feet elevation for many miles after crossing a summit of 5,400 ft.

At Merritt we headed north on Hwy. 5, another four lane highway to Kamloops, where we spent the night. The four lane highways did not make for exciting rides, but they were a welcome relief from the traffic and road construction we had experienced on the two lane roads.

Photo #1: Coulee country.
Photos #2-5: Dry Falls

[Bill_Anderson]

Photos of Grand Coulee Dam. It was difficult to take good photos as we were looking east, straight into the morning sun.

[Bill_Anderson]

Photos #1 & 2: the road to Chopaka.
Photo #3: Canadian border station.
Photo #4: looking back at the US border station.
Phtoo #5: welcome to Canada.

[Bill_Anderson]

We spent the second night in Kamloops at the same motel as three tour bus loads of passengers on the Rocky Mountaineer. Many of them admired our Ducs, which the motel management let us park on the sidewalk aside the front enrance.

The morning of the third day we headed north out of Kamloops on Highway 5. We passed the eastbound Rocky Mountaineer several time. I wondered if any of the passengers we talked to at the motel looked out and recognized us as we rode past the train.
http://www.rockymountaineer.com/

We headed westbound on Highway 24 at Little Fort and rode through the mountains to a side road at Lone Butte, which took us for a scenic ride around Green Lake before joining southbound Highway 97 at 70 Mile House.

North of Cache Creek we turned west on Hwy. 99 and rode to Lillooet. Both the highway and former British Columbia Railway (now a branch line of the Candian National) descend to Lillooet through a spectacular canyon. I want to return to the area in the furture to spend a day in Lollooet photographing the canyon and the railroad.

Highway 99 west out of Lillooet provides wonderful mountain scenery and riding all the way to Pembrook. Unfortunately, the road surface is terrible. Someone later told me that 20 years ago the entire road between Pembrook and Lillooet was repaved in two months and has not been touched since. Although the mountains are quite scenic, we only stopped once as we did not want to keep repassing the same giant tour busses and cars who refuse to pull over.

We passed on Whister and spent the night at a nice motel in Squamish which had a very good restaurant attached to it.

Day three turned out to be the best riding of the entire trip.

Photos #1 & 2: Rocky Mountaineer north of Kamloops.
Photos # 3 & 4: Hwy. 99 east of Lillooet.
Photo #5: railroad station at Lillooet.

[Bill_Anderson]

More photos from day three.
Photos #1 & 2: Hwy. 99 west of Lillooet.
Remaining photos: Whistler.

[Bill_Anderson]

The gal at the front desk of the motel in Squamish warned us against an early start to Vancouver as we would be joining half of all Squamish residents in their morning commute south. We took her advice and I thank her for it.

Highway 99 between Whistler and Horseshoe Bay (near Vancouver) is being widened to four lanes for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It is one massive construction zone and I recommend avoiding it entirely until the Olympics are over.

We took had a slow ride down Hwy. 99 to Vancouver, then took the Transcan Hwy. east to the Lynndale border crossing at Lynden,WA. We were now back on my riding grounds and I led Paul south on some of my favorite back roads from Bellingham to LaConner for lunch. After lunch we reutrned to I-5 and I last saw Paul continuing south towards Portland as I peeled off a Lynnwood exit and headed for home.

After my 1,400 mile Class Reunion ride to Idaho in late July, I only put a little over 100 miles on my bike in August. I reeled off 1,089 miles on this trip, my first motorcycle venture north of the border in five years.

[pgeller]

A dandy ride, Bill. Thanx for the backwoods tour of NW Washington! I'm sure I can dredge up some pics a bit later. I'm still straightening out DD business since returning.

FYI, after I waved adieu to you at Lynwood, traffic came to a complete halt within an exit. Total gridlock. I stuck with it as my temp gauge headed toward the 300 mark, then decided to dive off the slab into rush-hour Seattle to let the beasty cool down. After several illegal turns and dirt-bike maneuvers I was able to locate and park up in the cool Ducati Seattle batcave for a couple of hours. Dave, Jon, David and Marty were gracious enough to give me the grand tour of their awesome chassis dyno. Marty and I chatted up tuning tricks for Multis for the beter part of an hour. He is getting some amazing results with relatively minor tweeks to ST3s and Multis. I think my bike will be wintering in Seattle so Marty can work his magic.

I bailed out of the Emerald City at sundown and slabbed most of the way home, with a quick sidetrip at Hwy 6 to ride the backroads into Kelso, before rejoining the I-5 into Beavertown. I arrived the the DD World Headquarters Campus around 10pm, a cool 14 hours and 450+ miles from Squamish. A very enjoyable 1500.6 miles from departure.

Some observations:

Multi is a wonderful mid-distance, mid-speed bike. A bit more dirt-worthiness and it would be perfect.
The Bridgestone BT021 tires are just great. Neutral, Sticky, quiet. You just forget they are there.
We are very fortunate to live in suh a beautiful place.

pg
DD

[rickmillertx]

I enjoyed your writeup Bill. I was in the area this past week. I flew into Portland and then drove down the coast to SF. Boy, I sure wish there was a way I could get my ST3s out to the coast to enjoy those beautiful roads. I tend to only take one week trips and from Texas that is just about 5 days just getting to Or/Wa then it getting back to Texas. Anyway, ya'll have beautiful country to ride.
On the I don't believe it side. I have a Garmin 60c mounted on my bike as well. I need to get a yellow topbox.

[Bill_Anderson]

Originally Posted by rickmillertx

I have a Garmin 60c mounted on my bike as well. I need to get a yellow topbox.

Imposter !!!!