The
Squamidian Report – Sept. 8 / 12
Issue #537
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
That forest fire I mentioned a couple of weeks ago seems to over with now. There has been no sign of smoke and no sign of water bombers and no mention of it on the fire reports. However, we have had two more smaller fires close by this past week. One was within the town’s boundary, across from the casino and behind the Totem Hall building. It was caused by a discarded cigarette. The other was just south of Porteau Cove between the highway and the rail lines. The assumption is that it was also caused by a discarded butt. For the life of me I can’t understand the morons that toss their filthy butts out their car windows. They should be shot.
On a very different note, I’m still picking blueberries from my little patch. Admittedly, I’m down to a small bowl every day or so now but given that this is a full week into September and that my berries are normally over with by the end of July, I sure can’t complain. It has been an incredible crop. There are probably only another couple of bowls worth of berries left to be picked as they ripen. I’ve eaten more blueberries this year than ever before. That’s the up-side, the down-side is that I’ve eaten more ice cream than ever before because we all know that nothing goes together quite as good as blueberries and ice cream, with the possible exception of cherry tomatoes and olives. Who would have thought that after our cold wet endless run of miserable weather that caused the berries to be over a month late, it would end up being a bumper crop. However, once the weather finally changed, it was very nice, often warm, and very sunny.
I had the rear tire on my motorcycle replaced this week as well. It was time. The old tire had 31,500 kilometers on it and for a motorcycle that’s pretty darn good. Those tires start off with 10 mil of tread depth and there was still between 4 and 5 mil left, but it was so cupped on the shoulders that it looked and rode like an old snow tire. It howled so loud at riding speed that it sounded like a weird siren. Those tires have a dual compound composition. The center where most riding is supposedly done is a harder rubber to resist wear, and the shoulders where the cornering is done is a softer rubber designed to grip the road surface when leaning into those corners. I don’t think the designers had mountain highways in mind when they formulated bike tires because we tend to spend much more time leaning over onto our tire’s soft shoulders than riders who live where the roads are straight and flat, so we wear out those soft shoulders faster.
These Dunlop 407 OEM rear tires and the Dunlop American Elite which I have been using as replacements are otherwise good tires. They ride well, handle well and last much better than the 402’s that were on the pre-2009 touring bikes. I’m now coming up on 60,000 kilometers and am now basically on new rubber again for both wheels. I had replaced my front about 12k ago and the fronts last almost 50k so I’m good for another 30k before I need to worry about either of them. It sure is nice to ride without that old tire howling under us. Peaceful, quiet and relaxing. Well, ‘Harley’ quiet which is more of a deep rumble but you get the picture.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Since Doug and Sue moved to BC I’ve been envying their breathtaking rides through the Rockies! So when I had an opportunity to watch a special TV program about one of the famous mountains passes the other night, I jumped at the chance. I had to stay up until 1am to see the show but figured it would be worth the wait. The show was a special about another passion of mine, rescue work and it involved “Heavy Rescue Rigs”. This wasn’t about Fire Department style rescue it was about heavy towing equipment type collision work on one of BC’s busiest highways, the Coquihalla mountain pass highway! I was totally shocked at the number of big rig crashes that happen on that stretch of highway! They didn’t say what time of year the show was filmed but I’m sure it was in the winter. The show was narrated by the owner of the company that starred in the show. He has 26 of the biggest tow trucks in the world that he operates year round and most of his business is generated by the Coquihalla highway. It was noted that this stretch of highway is not only treacherous in the winter but at other times of the year when the elevation at which the Coquihalla reaches allows ice to form on the road as well as flash snow storms because of the surrounding mountain terrain. It’s amazing how quickly this pass can be inundated with virtually meters of snow! They do have a system of warning signs and lights at the foot of the climb into the elevated portions of the highway telling truckers and car drivers of bad weather ahead. The signs warn drivers (especially truck drivers) to pull over to the side and install the snow chains that all trucks must carry and use in BC. They didn’t say if private vehicles such as cars are by law bound to use chains in bad weather but I think I recall Doug telling me that chains are required in BC for all vehicles. Or maybe that it is not against the law to use them in BC as it is in other Canadian provinces! Anyway, the truckers all carry them while driving in BC and are wise to use them in the mountain highway elevated areas! The show was about the crashes that happen on the Coquihalla and believe me, there are hundreds of serious crashes up there every year!
They showed trucks literally torn in half with their cargos strewn for football field lengths on the roadway. This tends to tie up traffic for hours at a time and of course costs the shipping companies millions of dollars in delayed deliveries every year. Consequently, the Heavy Rescue Company that responds to these crashes makes big bucks from the trucking companies when they respond to clean up the messes that occur on a regular basis. They showed one of the Rigs spend half an hour pulling a transport wreck off to the side so the traffic could get through and he handed the driver a bill for $500.00 and that was just to move it out of the traffic lane. Then they had to tow it to their storage yard until the trucking company could reclaim what was left of the Semi. This was an additional cost of $500.00 per hour as well as a $250.00 per day charge for storing the wreck till the bill was settled. The owner stated that it was an expensive proposition for the trucking company involved, but for him, it was a multi million-dollar investment in Rescue Rigs to be able to perform these specialty rescue tasks. He owns the only company of it’s kind in Canada and quite possibly has the largest and strongest fleet of huge tow trucks of this type in the world. He has 26 of these giant tow trucks and each of them has a 20-ton crane on the truck as well. Each truck costs approximately $125,000.00 and then he has to equip each truck with tools to assist in the job that its driver/operator has to do. There’s no doubt he’s got a huge investment of his own but with the repairs and maintenance costs to each vehicle, he says it’s difficult to make a profit after also paying his staff to operate the rigs 24 hrs a day. So after all was said and done, it was understandable that he has to charge up to $1000.00 per hour for his services!
There are a total of 5 episodes to this series and I’m going to try to watch them all if I can find when they’re on! It was very interesting to watch and it also made me worry about Doug and Sue riding on those highways on the Harley. They said that the sudden storms and icing can happen any time and with little or no warning to motorists or bikers!
Maybe I’m not so envious after all now that I have seen a first hand viewing of what can happen on the highways of BC! I’m sure Doug knows how to handle planning their trips so they don’t run into such problems on Big Blue!
I think I’ll stick to the rolling terrain of Ontario for my motorcycle riding and of course stay on four wheels when the temps ain’t within Tee Shirt range!
That’s it for this week folks!
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>
Costco has their Christmas stock on display already!
Don’t be caught shopping at the last minute this year, there’s no excuse for it, according to Costco!
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.