The Squamidian Report – July 19 / 08
Issue #321
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
You know, I kind of figured that by the time we got back from our bike trip, my blueberries would be ripe. The berries were little hard white balls when we left, and they were still little hard white balls when we got back two weeks later. Turned out that even though we had hot sunny weather for our trip, it was cool and cloudy here. Oh well, we brought the sun back with us and the berries are finally starting to ripen.
Ok, here we go with the telling of the first phase of our bike journey….
The first thing you need to know is that the bike was loaded down heavier than I’ve ever had it before, and it was just the bare necessities at that. But by the time the saddle bags and tour pac are full plus our heavy leather jackets strapped to the luggage rack, we were carrying a lot of weight with most of it high up giving me a higher than normal center of gravity. It would take a day or two to get used to dealing with the weight and how it affected control. After a while I didn’t even notice it anymore. In fact, riding empty would feel weird.
We left Squamish on a hot sunny Friday, June 27 afternoon and pulled into the shop in Function Junction in Whistler where Ryan works. He would ride up as far as Pemberton with us. In Pemberton we fuelled up, Ryan headed back down to Whistler and we headed north over the Duffy. That’s always a fun ride, up into the alpine over a somewhat paved highway that is in quite bad shape.
As we dropped down into Lillooet the temperature climbed even higher and stayed very hot for the rest of the day. Going through Marble Valley, a very scenic area, we were surprised by 3 horses that decide to cross the road right in front of us. I needed to brake fairly hard to avoid them. Dinnertime found us in Cache Creek where #97 meets the Trans Canada and after a light meal we finished the ride into Kamloops where we had a motel room waiting for us.
The next morning, Saturday, we were at the Harley dealer waiting for them to open. They got the bike in for its service right away and 2 hours later we were on our way heading east. The temp continued to climb all day and we ended up riding through high 30s and even low 40s. Very, very hot indeed. Mid afternoon found us crossing the Rogers Pass in the Selkirk Mountains and then dropping down into Golden. It was too early to call it quits so we climbed up over the Kicking Horse Pass in the Rockies and then down into Banff where we parked and walked around a bit. There was no point in looking for a motel there so we headed on into Calgary. By the time we reached that city the temperature had fallen far enough that we needed our leather jackets. Felt good after all the heat we had ridden through. As would prove to be the case almost everywhere on the trip, the scenery was incredible.
Our third day saw us running from Calgary Alberta to Moose Jaw Saskatchewan. This was only 553 kilometers but it was so hot that we had to pull off into a rest area and sit it out for an hour or so. The Trans Canada runs through rolling prairie hill to flat grass land. Always very interesting. By the way, we did a stop in Herbert Sask for a cold drink and for old time sake. I’d stopped there almost 40 years ago on a much different bike trip.
The morning found us at a place I’d been looking forward to for a long time. Rouleau Saskatchewan, home of the Corner Gas TV show sets. I’m a big fan of the show. The first thing that stuck me was how small the set is as it sits out at the edge of town by the highway. The ‘parking lot’ in front of the Ruby is no bigger than an ordinary driveway and the gas station store is the size of a small room. But it was all there, including the vehicles used for the show. You can walk around and look in the windows and take pictures but you can’t drive onto the set. Main St Rouleau serves as Main St Dog River and it looks just like it does on TV. The police station is actually an ice-cream store that sells souvenirs. I don’t know what the locals think of all the attention but without having had the Corner Gas production there, Rouleau would be just another dusty falling-apart forgotten South Saskatchewan town, population just over 400.
We traveled the rest of the day off the beaten track, staying south of the TC. There isn’t really all that much to see along there but we did learn that the streets, roads and highways of Saskatchewan are in very poor condition, being the worst we rode on during the whole trip. In mid afternoon we had to take shelter from the heat and sun under a big tree beside a convenient store in a forgotten little town. At the end of the day we popped back up onto the TC just west of Brandon Manitoba and rode on into Portage la Prairie where we spent the night. By early afternoon the following day we crossed into Ontario. We rode through Kenora and on to Dryden where we pulled in for the night.
The next morning dawned dark and chilly and threatening so we decided to pull into the Horton’s just up the highway from the motel before hitting the open road. As we pulled in, the vehicle in front of us suddenly stopped, I guess he changed his mind about going in, and rammed it into reverse. We had no where to go as there was traffic behind us and a big heavy bike can’t be backed up very well anyway. As he bore down on us I hit the horn and laid the bike over so we could bail off. Other people were yelling for him to stop, as there were people behind him. When he did stop his back bumper was over the bike, within inches of it. He then shoved it into drive and when zooming over onto the other side of the road where he parked and went in for his coffee. Not so much as a ‘sorry’ from him. Sue helped me lift the bike back up and people came over to see if we were all right. We were just shaken a bit and the bike was fine. But way too close a call for us. We had to calm down a while before continuing on.
Half way on down to Thunder Bay it had gotten so cold we had to put on and use our heated vests. Only time we used them on the whole trip but we were glad for them when we needed them. In Thunder Bay we turned northeast for our rendezvous with Paul and Sherry who would be coming from the east. We had chosen Nipigon as the place to meet. There was a lot of construction along that section of #17 and we had to stop several times. Because of the length of time for each stop, I would turn the bike off. Air-cooled engines can overheat if left running while stopped. At one stop when I went to re-start, the bike would not respond and the security siren started up. All I could do was push it over to the side of the road. The bike was not recognizing my security FOB. Just moving it caused the security system to have a hissyfit. There is a way of bypassing the security system by keying in a code using the turn signal switches and I was able to get the bike settled down and started. When we pulled into Nipigon I replaced the battery in the FOB and all was well. The bike had actually done exactly what it should do when someone tried to start or move it without the right FOB. With a dead battery in the little FOB, the bike couldn’t communicate with it and therefore went into defense mode.
Anyway, we met as planned and spent the next hour in a coffee shop filling each other in on our trips so far. And I must say it was sure great to see them. We then headed back onto the road and rode west to Thunder Bay where we found a motel for the night. We had been on the road for four days and they for two.
Thus ended our first phase of the tip.
I’ll finish this story next week and include a link to an on-line version that includes pictures.
doug
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Greg is off for a vacation so there is no Ontarion in this issue.
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Have a good one..
the doug
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