The
Squamidian Report – Aug. 20 / 11
Issue #482
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
By necessity, we have added full-face helmets to our list of riding gear items. Full-face helmets keep you much warmer and dryer than open-face helmets do. They are a bit of a pain in that they are heavier, and they tend to restrict your peripheral vision a bit. But when its cold out, as it has been for so much of our ‘summer’ out here, and when it is raining, as it has been for so much of our ‘summer’ out here, they sure come in handy. The ones we have are not the high end expensive ones with all sorts of bells and whistles. They are just the basic flip-up type. The whole front flips up with the push of a button making it easier to put on or take off and to communicate. They have an internal dark lens that moves up out of the way, or down to act as sun glasses. They have a clear outer lens that also moves up out of the way, or down to cover the exposed part of your face. All this is great as at times you need to block the cold wind or rain from your eyes and face, at other times you want to feel the wind on your face. When it is dark or glumly, you want the sun lens out of the way. When the sun is shining brightly, you need to be able to flip the visor down to shade your eyes.
There is one situation were a full-face is not so nice. Every try to scratch an itchy nose when you can’t reach it very well? It can be done but its not easy. You have to flip the whole front up but that’s hard and awkward when riding. You can flip the lens’ out of the way and then get one finger in to scratch, or, if you tongue is long enough, you can go that route. My tongue is not long enough to be of any use for dealing with an itchy nose so I’m stuck with trying to get a gloved finger in far enough for relief. However, we only use our full-face helmets when necessary, the rest of the time we stick with the old open-face helmets where scratching itchy noses is not a problem
Where this is all going is that Ryan and I took off for 3 days this past week on our motorcycles and headed for the Columbia Ice Fields in the Alberta Rockies. We needed our full-face helmets for a good part of the journey. It was pretty darn cold at times. I don’t think there is one inch of this country between here and there that doesn’t have spectacular scenery and we enjoyed every inch of the way. When we left here on Monday morning, we headed north up through Whistler and Pemberton, over the Duffy (4th time this season) and on to Lillooet. That took us through the Coastal Mountains and into the Fraser Canyon. From there it was on to Kamloops where we turned north on highway #5. I have never ridden north from Kamloops before so now we were into ‘new’ country. The highway follows the very scenic North Thompson River. We passed through the Barriere area where forest fires had done so much damage a few years ago. It has now greened up but the forests around there are just black sticks. First night found us in Clearwater were we found a nice motel, but couldn’t actually find the town itself. Perhaps there isn’t actually a town, just a name on the map.
Next morning dawned clear and cold and as we rode north the sky became mostly cloudy which made it a bit colder. Good thing for heated vests, wish we had brought thermal long johns. In Valemount we found a tiny bakery / coffee shop where everyone was speaking Swiss or German. Warmed up there and continued on. Highway 5 ends at #16 and we turned east into Mount Robson Park. We even crossed the upper end of the Fraser River. We left that park and entered Alberta and Jasper. Then it was the Ice Fields Parkway, the highway from Jasper on down to Lake Louise, through some very rugged mountains. We fuelled up in Lake Louise and then headed over the Kicking Horses Pass to Golden where we spent the night.
If we had though it was cold before, Golden to Revelstoke was down right frigid. By the time we hit Kamloops again it had warmed up nicely. This time we took the CoquIhalla down to Hope and on in through the Fraser Valley. After crossing the Port Mann, Ryan headed for his place and I continued on up to Squamish. I’ve posted some story and a dozen pics to my web site at this address. We had a great road trip, the kind of thing memories are made of. Can’t wait for the next one.
http://www.thedougsite.net/11-Rides/IceFieldsLoop/IceFieldsLoop.html
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You all probably remember my blueberry plants. Well, I’ve been having a very bountiful crop this year despite our very cold wet late season. The crop is about a full month late. Normally it would be spread out over the month of July. This year its spread out over the month of August. The berries are big and full of flavor, much better than the store-bought kind. But I’ve been having a problem, just as the berries ripen, small grey birds come and peck holes in them. They don’t eat the berries, just the seeds inside. They are making a real mess and have destroyed a lot of the crop. I’ve had to start picking the berries just before they are properly sun ripened. There is one silver lining… one of the little buggers flew into our deck window and broke his miserable little neck. Looks good on him, hope his buddies do the same or go somewhere else.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Wow, another week gone out of an all too swiftly moving summer and the only thing we have to show for it is more sweat and higher hydro bills. Oh well, if you want to keep cool, ya gotta pay the piper and in this case the piper is Ontario Hydro! The only thing the new “Smart” meters have accomplished is they’ve kept the women of this province away from in front of the TV screen after 8pm at least a night or two every week. The rates being lower for Hydro consumption after 8pm is ridiculous if you ask me! Where the hell are we living anyway communist China? I’m getting really fed up with this damned Liberal Government making the rules without any input from the people they are supposed to be serving! The sooner we dump their egotistical asses out of power the better! Soon they’ll be telling us we’re only allowed to own one vehicle per household and can only drive it to and from work! The way they’re dictating the running of this province is a bloody shame and I can’t wait till this fall when their sorry asses will be on the opposition side of things in Queen’s Park! ‘nough political soap boxing for now, just wanted to stir a few thoughts among the masses to get things rumbling for the upcoming election for the province! We’ll talk more about this subject soon enough.
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I know I promised to tell you if there was anything interesting or exciting about our vacation in Muskoka area last week but I’m afraid all we did was relax, eat, sleep, relax, and do a little fishing for the week and it was over! We truly did however enjoy the time away from the city! We stayed in a lovely trailer/cottage that belongs to the mother of a friend of ours and our friends own one across a green area about 200’ from our accommodations. These “trailers” are like cottages rather than something on wheels. The lots are huge and the only way you would know they aren’t cottages is if you lifted the skirt around the bottom edge of them to reveal a set of wheels. Most of them are covered in log slabs and don’t look like trailers at all. They were located on the edge of the Severn River about a kilometer west of Hwy 11 and 18 km south of Gravenhurst. The Severn River is part of the Trent-Severn Waterway which I believe runs from the St Lawrence River up near Kingston all the way across mid province Ontario and ends when it empties it’s water in to Georgian Bay! The spot we were staying at is called Shamrock Marina Park! It started out many years ago as a trailer and camp ground but it’s now been bought out by a conglomerate from BC who owns many such sites across Canada and is being totally revamped. The new owners are requiring all of the old trailers that have been there for years to be replaced with modern “Cottage” style semi-permanents units that look like something out of a Viceroy catalogue only smaller in scale. There are quite a few already done that way and I think they are giving their residents 2 more years to make the switch.
The development has a nice 2 acre harbor for the boats of the unit owners and direct access to the Severn River for their boating pleasure. Our friends have their “cottage” on the mouth of the harbor right on the river bank and the one we stayed in was the first lot in from the river and on the shore of the marina harbor with Stewart and Brenda’s (our friends) boat moored at a dock right at our front door. We spent a day on their boat a lovely 20’ bow rider with comfortable seating for 8 people! We headed out around 11am and cruised the river into Sparrow Lake and on down the river system all the way to the next lock. When we reached the lock we tied up at their docking space and disembarked for a stretch of our legs and a lovely lunch in their picnic area. We then turned around and headed back toward Shamrock Marina. On the way Stewart made a detour into a beautiful secluded bay area where we were able to drop anchor and take a swim for an hour or so in the crystal clear water. We swam and bobbed around and had a few laughs until we were pretty much pooped out and then climbed into the boat once again and returned to our campground.
The run was actually quite a distance and took about 2 ½ hrs each way. It was fun to see all the lovely cottages along the waterway and check out the many beautiful boats docked at their moorings. I got a kick out of some of the names of the boats along the way. Some of them were quite humorous. One of the bigger ones we saw was called “Still Payin” and another was “The Wife’s Diamond Ring”. Funny how a lot of the names had to do with money or the lack of it! LOL! Seems to me if you can afford a cottage up in Muskoka and a good sized boat to go with it you ain’t hurtin’ for cash! Even the simplest cottage along that waterway is worth (or at least costs) a million or more unless they’re pure junk and then the land is worth the bucks! I don’t think I’d ever want to be a cottage owner! It’s nice to rent one and spend a week or two each year enjoying “The cottage life” but, I saw people at their cottages mowing their lawns, washing their windows, doing loads of landscaping with big limestone rock walls etc and generally working to maintain their “Second Homes” on their vacation time! Why would I want another house and yard to look after and call it a vacation? I have enough work to do around our principal residence without driving 3 ½ hrs every weekend in heavy traffic and back again just to spend half my “cottage” time on upkeep of a second home! I think I’ll stick to renting when the urge strikes me! At least then I’ll have the choice of vacationing somewhere different every year. Granted, cottages are nice to enjoy but I’d rather enjoy it when I’m there and know that someone else will be mowing the grass before I rent it again next year!
We did have a ball up north and Bailey our little poodle loved it too but it was nice to get home again when the week was done!
That’s it for this week!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg.
PS: Something To Think About>
The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls was frozen solid! ( I have pictures to prove it!)
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
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