Go West North, Young Man!

I've been riding motorcycles again for the past year and decided it was time to try a bit of a road trip.  Western Canada and Alaska have been calling, so I took this opportunity to try a bit of Northward travel in June 2008.  This was my route:

The route (click either map for a larger view):                           

Overview Detail

    
Basically, I :
- crossed the border at Sumas/Abbotsford and cut East to Hope, BC, where 1 East headed North but somehow remained 1 East
- stayed on 1East all the way to Cache Creek and shortly after that, cut over to 99, which took me to Lillooet, where I spent the night
- took a few pictures around town and then got back on 99 headed South
- rode through Whistler and Vancouver, and then back down to home

Bike:  2007 Triumph Speed Triple.  Mileage start (9,560 miles), end (10,200).
Grand total:  about 16 hours of riding, totaling 640 miles

But the interesting part of the trip is in the details and so you'll find some of those below, along with some pictures from the trip...

Friday June 6, 2008:
When I woke up on Friday morning, it was drizzling rain, promising a soggy beginning to what I hoped would be a fun exploration of British Columbia, a gorgeous province in Canada which tends to be shortchanged in descriptions about adventure travel to Alaska.  Perhaps this is just what its people want because if Alaska-bound travelers fly up or ride the ferry, that means that BC will remain a private and uncrowded place for that much longer.  I wish them luck with that, since the scenery is breathtaking in more places than I could name, there's a rich and fascinating history (camels used as pack animals for mining?!) and in just two years, Whistler will host the Olympic Games.

In any case, I wasn't sure what lay ahead of me as I finished packing and rode out into the rain except that it would be wet and probably very interesting.  I loaded up my gear into a tank bag and backpack and rode out to do some exploring.  The ride to Canada was a mixture of highway slabbing and some secondary roads approaching the border.  Here are a few warmup pics taken in the Nooksack/Sumas area:  1 2 3.The border patrolman who interviewed me was pleasant and asked some basic questions about where I was going and why, whether I was bringing any weapons across (er, nope).  Finally, he welcomed me to Canada and I rode my motorcycle for the first time on the soil of another country.  If I get to ride in England, India or Turkey it'll surely be more exotic but the first one is will always be special.

At first, my riding speed must have been fairly arthritic because I started off in "toe the line" mode but soon all the cars passing me had me picking up the pace.  My first real break about 2+ hours into the ride was in Chilliwack.  Here's a rather nondescript picture of a bakery there where I picked up some cookies and coffee...the people working there were very polite and friendly, making me glad to have chosen a small local bakery instead of resorting to Starbucks.



Getting back on the highway, I continued on towards Hope, a town where several highways converge.  If you're a Sylvester Stallone fan, pull out First Blood and watch it:  it was filmed entirely in Hope.  If you visit, you can even pretend to be Rambo.  Here are a couple other shots (1 2) taken outside the information center in Hope.  Here are a few pics taken after leaving Hope:  1 2 3.

Continuing on North, I was starting to think about moving along so as to arrive in Lillooet at a reasonable hour. This included riding right on by one attraction that I'd been thinking about, Hell's Gate and its popular tourist attraction, an airtram that passes directly over the boiling rapids.  Next time...

Gas was getting a little low near the town of Lytton.  Here are some shots taken before stopping there to fuel up:  1 2 3.  Lytton is a town which frequently vies with Lillooet for the distinction of being the hottest spot in Canada.  On July 16, 1941, both reached 111.9 (44.4 Celsius), the second highest temperature ever recorded in Canada.

In between Lytton and Cache Creek, I was having a hard time deciding which amazing vistas to stop and record. Here are a couple shots (1 2) showing the mighty Fraser River, as well as a look at the arid landscape (with a train across the river in both shots to give an idea of scale.

Weatherwise, things had improved gradually the further I got into Canada:  the rain practically stopped by the time I reached Chilliwack and the sun started hanging out in the sky around Hope.  As I approached Cache Creek, a light drizzle started to fall.  Here are a couple shots taken riding down into Cache Creek (1 2)...I'd started planning the trip debating whether to stay in Cache Creek vs. Lillooet but ended up deciding to ride on through to Lillooet.  Shortly after passing by Cache Creek, I passed the historic Hat Creek Ranch:  pics (1 2), another place that looks well worth visiting on a lengthier visit.  Then there's the aptly named Sky Blue Water Resort (1 2 3 4):  the pic of the water doesn't do it justice; it really was an amazing shade of blue.

Riding towards Lillooet, 99 was both more enjoyable than the major Highway 1 and a little more of a nailbiter.  The drizzle falling from the sky was a bit more regular now and the roads getting both steeper and more potholed, quite an entertaining mix when it came to some switchbacks.  I'd also been on the road for something like 7 hours at that point and was getting kind of fried and so waved on numerous vehicles to pass.  At one point, the road suddenly turned to gravel...given a lack of gravel riding experience and a street bike less handy on gravel than a dual-sport would be, this was a little disconcerting.  Fortunately, the gravel section was only 30 or so feet long.

Getting close to Lillooet, there was a critter off by the side of the road that at first seemed to be a big dog.  Then it raised its head and turned out to be a black bear (actually kind of brownish but small and lacking the grizzly's shoulder hump).  There was a moment where I was tempted to stop and take a picture of it but if it'd taken an unhealthy interest in moi, the logistics of getting back on and firing the bike up could have been beyond me at that point.  Thus, there are no ursine pictures accompanying this narrative...please bear with this!

Lillooet itself turns out to be quite a fascinating little town (wiki).  In 1860, it was the second largest town West of Chicago (after San Francisco).  It was the location of Mile Zero of the Cariboo Pavilion Road (the towns 70 Mile House and 100 Mile House North of Lillooet are measured from that Mile Zero.  It also bears the wacky distinction of having tried to use camels for pack animals in mining, an experiment which was far from successful.



These pics were taken riding in (1 2 3 4 5).

There's a museum in town that's supposed to be awesome.  Unfortunately, it was closed when I arrived and opened after I'd moved on the next day (1 2 3 4 5 6).  Those large rocks outside are huge chunks of jade:  Lillooet is supposed to be THE largest source of jade in the world.  After taking those pics, I noticed 3 guys unpacking dual-sport motorcycles and wandered over to say Hey.  They ended up being great folks from Vancouver Island who also hang out on the AdvRider.com, Horizons Unlimited and other dual-sport Internet sites.  We ended up getting food and beers at a Greek restaurant called Dina's that had very good food.  As we were discussing bikes, a fellow from the table next to us walked up and asked about places renting dual-sport bikes:  he was from Edinburgh on holiday in Canada and wanted to ride while visiting!

Saturday June 7, 2008:
Woke up early the next morning (damn insomnia) and took a quick ride around town to look around before heading home.  More pics: (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13).  Leaving town for good, there were plenty of neat (and slippery when wet) single lane wooden bridges and views (1 2).  One point about riding around Lillooet:  if you leave heading South, be sure you have plenty of gas, as I believe it was about 50 miles to the next available gas station. I'd had about 110 miles since the previous fillup the day before and came close to leaving without filling up...which would've been pushing the envelope for my bike.

If I got a mild taste of gravel riding the evening before, on the way out there was a full range of interesting riding situations:  the first washboarded surface I've actually encountered on a b-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-k-k-k-k-k-k-e, more potholes and wicked switchbacks.  Plus some of the most gorgeous scenery I've ever been privileged to encounter.  Here are some scenery pics, view of the pavement and a gratuitous motorcycle shot taken at Duffey Lake(1 2 3 4 5).  Getting close to Whistler, the views were quite gorgeous.  The temperature was also dropping to the point where there started being a little snow by the side of the road, making me wonder belated if there might be some icy road on the menu.  Fortunately, there was none.

Whistler is a gorgeous and expensive ski resort where I did not stop this trip.

In Squamish, my prominent finger partly obscures pics that would otherwise be interesting (1 2).  Yes, Don was pretty burned out by that point but there were still miles to go before I slept and I look forward to visiting the gorgeous coastline above Vancouver, BC someday when time is less constrained.

Riding into Vancouver from Whistler, the "LOOK AT THAT VIEW" factor took another jump.  Here are some pics from around the Britannia Mine (1 2 3 4), yet another place that merited exploration.  The waters there were a breathtaking shade of green, which may or may not have been partly caused by its history as a major copper mine.

Now, if I can just work out strategies for taking road trips like this without being totally zapped by nightfall, I'll be a happy boy.  My Triumph bike was certainly awesome on this ride....Triumph has come back in a BIG way since their near death experience in the 1980s and while they previously leaked oil like a sieve and had unreliable electrics, my Speed Triple just ticks along brilliantly with more than 10,000 miles in just over a year on the odometer.  Though she is a bit of a hooligan in a contagious way, at times...