The Squamidian Report – July 26 / 08
Issue #322
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Last Sunday was the Burn Camp Motorcycle run from Deeley’s in Burnaby to the Outdoor School in Paradise Valley just north of the Brackendale section of Squamish. Sue and I rode into the city so we could join in on the ride back. It was hot and sunny so the riding was great. There were only a couple of hundred bikes this time but that made it easier for the organizers to control the event. Took about and hour and a half to do the run. We were the eleventh bike back from the front so we had no problem staying in formation or at the proper speed. Riders that were way back in the pack tended to get strung out a bit. There is something really cool about riding with a couple of hundred bikes as they wind their way up the Sea to Sky, especially since most of them were nice loud V-twins. There was a BBQ at the Burn Camp for everyone and some of the riders gave the kids rides. We were home by mid afternoon and a good time was had by all.
*
And now, on with Phase Two of our 8056-kilometer motorcycle trip…
I’ve posted links to pictures at the bottom of the article.
The morning in Thunder Bay dawned clear and fresh (that’s a polite way of saying it was a tad on the cool side). Now two bikes and four friends riding together, we mounted up and rode west on #17 / 11 to Kakabeka Falls. This falls was a major obstacle for the fur trade canoe guys as they traveled back and forth from the west to the Lake Head. We also stopped at the Terry Fox memorial just outside of Thunder Bay.
We then took #11 where it splits off from #17 and rode on west to Fort Frances and then Rainy River where we crossed into Minnesota. This was my first time into the States in almost 35 years and I really didn’t know what to expect. The border guard had us pull over so they could run our ID’s and that was fine with us because we all needed to use the washrooms. By the time we were done, they were satisfied and away we went. We rode west into North Dakota where we jumped onto Interstate 29 and booted it down to Grand Forks where we spent the night.
The ride across N. Dakota was hot and fast. Those interstates are posted at 75, which is about 120 in Canadian speeds. This day was the American 4th of July so traffic was busier and motels were a bit fuller but neither was a problem. We called it an early day in Dickinson. At this point I should point out that I was blown away the whole time we were in the States by the immaculate condition of their streets, roads and highways. Their towns are clean and tidy. And the Americans seem to understand the meaning of service. They are polite, helpful and genuine in their interest in you. We smug Canadians could learn a big lesson here.
Roosevelt Park and the Bad Lands were our first destination of the next day. The scenery changed from open prairie to eroded broken steep hills with the Little Missouri River winding through. We saw our first Buffalo as well as numerous deer type critters and a herd of wild horses that weren’t all that interested in letting us proceed along the road.
The day was starting to heat up so we turned onto Highway 85 and headed south toward Sturgis in S. Dakota. There were domestic buffalo in fields and antipope everywhere else along the way. The cross wind was gusty and strong, the heat growing. We would need shade breaks along the way. By the time we reached Sturgis it was getting on in the day so we rode on down to Rapid City where we spent the night. There were some thunderstorms during the night but they cleared out by morning.
From Rapid City we rode through foothills into the Black Hills. First stop was Mt Rushmore. We didn’t pay to go into the tourist area as we could get a good look from out on the road.
After Rushmore it was on though the Cody National Forest where we had our first close-up look at wild buffalo. There were herds of several hundred roaming the area. We had to stop when we came upon a herd crossing the road. The herd then closed in around us and we were virtually trapped inside it. Those are very big animals when viewed up close from the seat of a motorcycle.
We then rode on through Deadwood and up into Sturgis where we spent the night in a motel that, like most around there, catered to bikes very nicely. They had all their best parking spots designated for bikes. And for all the bikes it was a big party. We spent the afternoon poking around in Sturgis, the girls doing a bit of shopping. Sturgis has done an incredible job of adapting to and catering to bikes and bikers. If you ride at all, it’s like coming home.
From Sturgis we rode west into Wyoming and through some of the nicest scenery I’ve ever enjoyed. It ran the gauntlet of desert, mountain, canyon and river. Incredible. We made it to Cody that evening and checked out the town after finding a motel. Cody is very much a ‘western’ town that has become a tourist trap but it was fun anyway. By the way, Wyoming has pink pavement. Different.
After spending the night in Cody, we headed further west into Yellowstone Park. The ride into the park was spectacular, perhaps more so than the park itself. There were several passes in the park that were almost 9000 ft high that we rode through. Temperatures up there were down right chilly and we had to stop and bundle up, only to un-bundle once we would drop down the other side. We walked through a field of geysers and bubbling pools that over looked Lake Yellowstone, and we rode past Old Faithful as we worked our way along. There was one place where a buffalo was standing at the side of the road watching the traffic go by. Have to wonder what he thought of all the commotion. It was about here that our camera died so we have no pictures after this point.
The inevitable sad part came that afternoon. We stopped for lunch at the Roosevelt Lodge, then, at 3pm we departed ways. Paul and Sherry headed North East and we headed North West. We watched them ride away, and then accelerated in our direction. They made it to Billings, Montana that evening and we made it to Belgrade, Montana.
The ride out of Yellowstone and into Montana to Livingston where we caught the I-90 highway follows the Yellowstone River through and incredibly scenic valley. The ride was also very hot. The heat didn’t let up as we turned northwest on the Interstate and by the time we reached Belgrade we were ready to find a motel and get into some air conditioning. We headed out the next morning under clear but much cooler temperatures that continued to drop as we climbed into the mountains east of Butte. By the time we dropped down into Butte we had to pull over and bundle up. An hour or so further west we had to un-bundle again as we were running into higher temperatures. By the time we had crossed the rest of Montana and that little piece of Idaho it had reached a searing 94 American degrees. Riding through the stop and go traffic of Spokane was hot to the point of being painful and the heat didn’t let up as we turned north in Spokane toward the border. We found refuge from the heat in the small town of Coleville where we spent our last night on the road.
Our last day of riding dawned clear and comfortable. Just before hitting the road for home I decided to take advantage of the US gas prices and filled the bike’s tank. Big mistake. Don’t know what they were peddling as gas but the bike sure didn’t like it. Once this lousy substitute for gas had worked its way through my fuel system the bike couldn’t develop enough power to get out of 3rd gear. By then we were enjoying a quiet winding two-lane highway as it followed the Kettle River toward the border at Laurier opposite Cascade on the Canadian side. The young Canadian border guard was very friendly but a bit on the lonely side. Seems there are much fewer people crossing the border into BC because of the cost of fuel. We chatted for a while then proceeded on our way along highway #3, which basically runs parallel to and just north of the 49th parallel.
We had to bundle up again as we climbed over a pass just east of Osoyoos, then it was down the long windy twisty sections of switchbacks into the Okanogan Valley and the town of Osoyoos where is was very hot indeed. After a quick lunch and a rest break and a tank of fresh gas, we headed west toward Princeton. The fresh gas improved performance but it would take several tanks and some injector cleaner to finally get the bike running normal again. By this time it had become hard to tell how the bike was running because the wind had picked up to the point where you could barely push forward into it. The sky had become dark and the trees were swaying back and forth. What we didn’t know was that a major wind storm with hurricane force winds had hit the west coast and was working its way inland.
As we went through Manning Park and Alison Pass conditions had deteriorated to the point where we wanted to pull off the road but there was no where to pull off to. No point in stopping on the shoulder if you can’t get under some sort of shelter and out of harms way. Trees were bending over and branches were flying around. It was all I could do to hold the bike on the road. Cross gusts felt like they would lift us right up. By the time we dropped down into Hope my arms and hands were aching from holding the bars. We fuelled up again and rested for a while in a coffee shop. It was only then that we heard just how bad the storm was. While we didn’t run into any rain, there were blizzard conditions on the higher elevations of the Coquihalla, to the north of us. Downed trees had knocked out power to many of the southern interior towns.
However, it was clearing off to the west by late afternoon and we were only 2-hours from home so we set out and finished the last leg of the trip. It was still windy but manageable as we worked our way through Lower Mainland traffic. It was bitter sweet as we rode the last 50 clicks up the Sea to Sky. We were glad to be home but saddened by the thought that our run was over. As I’ve said before, this had been the best trip I’ve ever taken. The riding had been incredible. For the most part the weather had be perfect and except for a bad tank of gas the bike had run perfectly. We pulled to a stop on our driveway and dismounted. We climbed off a bit stiffly and walked into the house. Home after 8056 phenomenal clicks.
I’ve posted an on-line version of this trip that includes a bunch of pictures, to my biking website. The text is mostly the same with just some extra explanations for the photos. It can be viewed from my www.thedougsite.net site in the street biking section.
Just click on the link called Two Weeks On The Road or go directly to the first page of the article.
By the way, Paul & Sherry made it home to southern Ontario safe and sound and we are already starting to plan next years trip.
doug
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Hello
everyone!
It’s good
to be home again! As you know, Carole and I headed to Cape Cod on the 11th
of this month for a vacation. After spending the first night in Buffalo, we
drove across New York State from Buffalo to Albany on our first leg. When I had
looked at the map a couple of days before our departure there were two main
routes across the state. The main one was Interstate 90 known as the New York
Throughway. This of course would be a relatively straight run on what amounts
to a super highway with lots of traffic and two to three lanes of divided
highway running east and west divided by a green belt. This type of highway has
very little to offer in the way of scenery but gets you there in the least
amount of time. I don’t like driving them at the best of time so I opted for
the alternate route, highway 20 about two miles to the south of I-90 and one
that would take us through the countryside at the wild speed of 55mph
(90km/hr). Of course you have to slow down for all the little towns and
intersections with three houses along the way. Not to mention farm equipment on
the road at times and dogs, deer and dead porcupine from time to time. The
drive was very relaxing and we saw some of the most beautiful scenery as we
entered the lower section of the Adirondack Mountains. Now these hardly qualify
as real mountains when compared to Canada’s Rockeys but never the less, they
are large at times with long 2 mile grades that keep your brakes warm to say
the least. We made it to the edge of Albany and stayed the second night there.
The third day we drove across the state line into Massachusetts and onto the
Mass Turnpike. We arrived at our destination of West Yarmouth on the south
shore of Cape Cod at 2pm just in time for check in at our motel. West Yarmouth
is just east of the city of Hyannis which is famous for being the home of the
Kennedy family. Their family compound is on a section of land that juts out
into the Nantucket Sound which is actually the Atlantic Ocean. We had no
definite plans but lots of possibilities to explore should the urge hit! We
settled in that afternoon and the next day we did some exploring around the
area. We found lots of the usual tourist traps such as their infamous and
gargantuan Mini Golf courses, lots of souvenir shops and literally dozens and
dozens of restaurants. We had decided not to eat junk food on this vacation and
stayed mainly to the better quality full service eateries. It was a real nice
change from the Golden Arches that dot the landscape on every intersection
along the route to Florida. Actually, there wasn’t even a MacDonald’s to be
found on the Cape. At least we failed to notice any and that’s unusual in
today’s junk food world! LOL! We managed to find a lovely beach about two
blocks from our motel and the parking was free, imagine that! We spent the
afternoon of the second day on the Cape at this beach and it was marvelous! The
sand was soft and warm and the water was refreshing, clean and salty. There
weren’t many people on this beach and that made it even more enjoyable. We did
meet a retired gentleman and talked with him about the area. He had lived on
the Cape since 1957 and was very polite and willing to help us in any way. He
suggested a good restaurant for dinner but we had already picked an Italian
place for that evenings dining. In the morning when we went out to the car we
found an envelope on the windshield containing a coupon for 2 for 1 dinner at
The Skipper, the eatery he had suggested the day before. I guess we must have
looked like we needed financial help for dinner! LOL! Actually it was very kind
of him to make such a gesture. His phone number was on the envelope so I called
him later that day and thanked him for his kindness. I had mentioned to him
that day that we wanted to go whale watching. He suggested we drive out to the
end of the Cape to Provincetown (known to the locals as P-town). He said there
was a fleet of boats there called The Dolphin Fleet and they had been in
business for over 40 years and were the very best at finding the whales. He
also said that P-town was about an hour closer to the whales than out of any
other port on the Cape. I made a reservation with the Dolphin Fleet via phone
for the next day at their 1pm sailing. We drove up to P-town and the drive was
a very pleasant one with all the quaint scenery along the way. The Cape is
approximately 70 miles long and it took us about an hour and a half to drive to
the northern tip. The village of Provincetown is very old and the houses are
quaint to say the least. The town itself is noted for its “Gay” population and
even the tourist information on the internet warns that if you are bothered by
public displays of affection by same sex couples, that maybe you shouldn’t
visit P-town! Hmmmm…?
This had
piqued our curiosity and we decided that we’d just have to ignore any overtly
different goings on while in P-town and enjoy the waterfront and the whale
watching adventure. There is one very obvious building in P-town and that is a
250’ high stone tower on the highest point in town that is a tribute to the
Quakers that settled there when they first arrived in the new world. If you
have the time and the legs, you can climb the tower and look out over the Cape
from the top. I imagine it affords quite a view! However neither Carole nor I
had any desire to climb to the top of this giant phallic symbol just to have to
turn around and climb back down minutes later. Looking up at it from its base
was enough to impress us and make us think of the pilgrims and their heroic
adventure in 1620. We made our way to the harbour and found our charter boat
for the whale watching trip. We left the slip at 1pm on the dot and it took us
about 40 minutes to get far enough out into the Atlantic to be deep into whale
territory. We had a marine biologist on board and she described all of the
activities of the whales as well as the different species of whales as we
sighted them along side the boat. They were in the distance and appeared about
the size of a dinky toy at first sight. We looked at each other as if to say
“Is this the closest we’ll get to these beasts?” We no sooner thought that when
the biggest animal either of us has ever seen floated up beside the boat like a
wayward log. In fact, the biologist said that this action is referred to as
“Logging”. The whales have to move to breathe so they can only “Log” for about
10 minutes at a time. There were actually two whales beside the boat (they were
mother and baby). The biologist estimated the baby at 50’ in length and
approximately 90 tons in weight. The mother was said to be 80 to 85’ and 160
tons of flesh and blubber! WOW! Imagine that, 160 TONS! The boat was 110’ in
length and only weighed 55 tons. That meant that the momma could have flipped
us over like a rag doll if she wanted to. The two of them floated beside us for
about 5 minutes and then turned 90 degrees to us and dove under the boat. We
moved to the other side of the top deck and watched as the two giants surfaced
right under our feet and as they did so, the mother’s HUGE tail flipped up
right before our eyes. It was the most amazing sight and almost unbelievable.
Altogether, we viewed approximately 25 to 30 of these gentle giants and most of
them within 50m of the boat. I have many pictures of their
activities and will send a few of them to Doug so you can all see what we
witnessed in person. The pictures do not do the sight justice. There is nothing
quite as thrilling as seeing these beauties up close and personal! When the
mother and her baby were “Logging” beside the boat, the mother floated with her
back about 4’ out of the water. At that point as we watched from above her, we
could see about 60’ of whale back that was approximately 8’ wide. We still
could not see any of her face and the biologist commented that there was still
4 to 6 feet of depth to her body still under water. Did I say AMAZING? Well if
I didn’t, please believe me this animal was AMAZING!
Once we
had been out among the whales for two hours, it was time to head back to port.
The trip was a complete success and everyone on board was shocked that we
actually got that close to these beautiful animals. The Right Whales are
smaller than the huge Humpback whales we had seen more of but they have
pectoral flippers that average 12’ in length. They float on their side and slap
the water repeatedly with these long appendages. The whales in this area are
used to the boats in their environment and actually put on a show for the whale
watching fleet. We did see several Right whales that did the “Flipper trick”
and a few Humpback whales that did what they called “Breaching” the surface or
leaping straight up out of the water. What a sight that was to see these giants
leaping like a salmon heading up stream. I was busy photographing the whales
slapping their tails and flippers on the surface and did not get a shot of the
Breaching by the big monsters. I guess you can’t expect to get ‘em all so I’m
happy to have gotten the pics I did get and would go whale watching again in
the snap of your fingers! It was THE Experience of a lifetime for sure! We’ll
have these memories to think back on and share with others for the rest of our
lives. All in all, a great trip and I’ll tell you more about the continuing
adventures of this vacation in Ontarions to come!
That’s
all for now!
Next
week, more adventures from P-town!
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next week in The
Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg.
PS:
Something To Think About>
Whales
and the protection of their environment and ours!
Greg’s
Whale Pictures… http://www.thedougsite.net/Greg/whale.htm
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Have a good one..
the doug
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