Going down the west side of Logan Pass, road under construction

West side of Going-to-the-Sun Highway, from the bike

There were parts of the road where the road was almost as spectacular as the scenery in terms of the roughness. Lots of twists, a few tunnels and surprisingly, not as much traffic as I thought there’d be.

Twisty roads going west on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway

Tunnel Entrance west on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway

Our neighbour at Johnsons Campground has suggested that we stop at a cafe in West Glacier called Eddie’s. It was just after noon or 1pm or so – somewhere along the highway we’d switched from Mountain time to Pacific time so we were a little confused with the exact hour. So we rode around until we found Eddie’s, then we rode around some more looking for a place to park. As usual, there’s safety in numbers and we eventually just parked the bikes beside a couple of others.

Parking the bikes at Eddie's

First, in the picture above there’s a bike in the top right corner of the picture – it’s from Indiana. Turns out the guy riding that bike, from Indianapolis, was on a big adventure after retiring and was riding west to the coast to see his daughter in San Diego. He was pretty much making up the route on the fly and we got talking about roads and routes in Washington, and I suggested a couple of different roads based on the Destination Highways Washington book I have covering the best rides in the state. He left, and we did shortly after.

Second, while we were getting geared up to head out, we got talking to a guy riding an nearly new Harley parked on the left side of Louise. He’s from Reno, Nevada and owns a motorcycle parts store there. He had tons of stories and it was kinda hard disengaging to get going!

The rest of the day was to simply involve riding south to the small city of Missoula, past the large Flathead Lake in western Montana. We opted to go down the east side of the lake, which is a bit shorter. As we rode just south of the small town of Bigfork at the north end of the the lake, the thermometer on my bike was reading 39 C, so we stopped at a gas station somewhere in Woods Bay.

While we were stopped there sitting in the shade drinking water, we experienced the first of what was to be a regular occurrence on this trip.

Water and Shade at Papa's Market

I managed figure out the road with my laptop, then plugged in the GPS’s and downloaded the new route. It added about 20 miles to the route but promised to be much more fun. We could easily make up the time on the Interstate into Missoula. With our drinks finished, we saddled up and headed back up the road about 8 miles the way we came to the intersection with Highway 83, aka Swan Highway, aka Daryl Soltesz Memorial Highway. I don’t know who Daryl is or was, I just looked on Google, but I suspect a Montana State Trooper killed in the line of duty. What ever the road is called, Kevin was right, this was a great road, very scenic, little traffic, and great pavement.

Pavement on Highway 83, Montana

We stopped at Seeley Lake for gas and I think the temperature was over 40 C at this point – darn hot!

Getting gas in Seeley Lake, MT

Holiday Inn at Missoula, MT

After I’d checked in, I asked the clerk for a dinner recommendation and he suggested a brew pub a few blocks away called, I think, the Kettlehouse – memory’s a little faded now. The meal was good, the service a little sketchy, but the walk down and back to the hotel was nice. We then proceeded to crash for the night.

ian

Looking west up to Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway

Logan Pass parking lot

After packing everything up, we headed down to the Johnson’s Cafe for breakfast. The breakfast menu is a little different in that they serve the food “family style” – essentially everything that you order comes out on one plate, then you spoon off what you want onto your own plate. The food was excellent and as is the case for most American food establishments, the quantity of food was huge. It’s hard to leave hungry! We stopped at the office to try to connect with Robert over FaceTime, but the internet at the campsite wasn’t good enough or it blocked video out. Anyway, this dog:

Hairless Husky - 15 years old and suffering from cancer

The Going-to-the-Sun Highway begins pretty much at the Glacier Park gates where we paid our $12 each park entrance fee and stopped just inside the gates at the information centre to apply some sunscreen and take a few pictures.

Does my butt look baggy here?

Only the shadow knows ...

Starting out on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway

We pulled back out on the road and headed west towards the Pass. The road started innocently enough, but as we got higher and higher, the road got more and more interesting. Once we got to the pass we thought we’d been on the best the road had to offer, but no … the best was yet to come. But more on that later.

Going-to-the-Sun Highway looking east

We stopped at the pass where we parked the bikes with a number of others (safety in numbers) and went for a little walkabout. There’s still some snow at the pass – it only opened in late May.

Louise and snow at Logan Pass

Walkabout at Logan Pass

Inside the info centre and store I found a hoodie sweater (because I needed another layer – I was chilly last night) with the Going-to-the-Sun on it, bought it and I think I’ve worn it every day since.

There were a number of bikes parked in the lot, but all were up front at the end of the car-parking rows.

Motorcycle Parking Only

The plan was to head south to Nanton, then take Highway 533 to the Cowboy Trail – Highway 22 south. We’d stop at Pincher Creek for some food and gas, then continue down past Waterton National Park, through the Chief Mountain border crossing into the US and stop for the night at Johnson’s Campground in St. Mary, Montana, right on the eastern gate to the Glacier National Park.

Along the way, I learned how to take photos with my Sony pocket cam, from the bike. We had a great meal at Johnson’s Cafe and met some nice folks on a motorcycle from Salt Lake City, Utah, who camped right next to us.

Tomorrow, we tackle the Going to the Sun Highway over Logan Pass right through the Glacier National Park.

So here’s some pictures!

Today is Canada Day! Happy Birthday Canada! To celebrate, we went for a motorcycle ride.

Bikes parked at Barrier Lake Information Centre

We were supposed to go with a group. A few days ago, Louise got an invite to go with the Chinook Outriders, (a chapter of the Women in the Wind which is a North American-wide organization of woman riders), on a trip to Field, BC for today. She waffled, until Wednesday night, then we arranged to get the 1000K service done on the VStrom on Thursday.

So today, we were to meet up with the group at a gas station just off the TransCanada Highway on the west side at 930am. We got there right at 930, but there were absolutely no other bikes in site. Figuring the rest of the riders were maybe a few minutes late. we waited until 945, when Louise checked her email. Turns out that it was supposed to be 9am not 930! We were 30 minutes late! It’s not often that Louise makes that kind of mistake, so no worries.

We decided that we’d do the Highwood Pass Loop on Highway 40, in reverse. We’ve done it a couple of times from Longview south of Calgary and north onto Highway 1A and then east through Cochrane and into Calgary on Crowchild Trail. That meant lunch in either Longview or Black Diamond/Turner Valley.

I told the GPS to head to Longview and it promptly went crazy as we headed west as it told us to go east. From the gas station in Valley Ridge, we went east a bit to take Stoney to Crowchild then go west to the Kananaskis. Bitchin’ Betty (whatever the name of the Garmin voice I’m using right now), kept telling me to turn back, turn left, do a u-turn – nearly anything to get me going east and I presume to Deerfoot to go south. I ignored it and went the way I wanted to.

Every thing was going great until we turned of the 1A and onto the 1X so we could head over to the Kananaskis turnoff on the TransCanada. I was in the lead, took the left and I watched Louise come around in my mirror. I started freaking out because as I watched in horror, she went way wide in the turn and slid off the road and into the ditch!

I whipped the bike around on the road and roared back up to the corner, got off the bike and ran over to Louise. She was up on her feet and said she was OK. After looking her over and giving her some hugs, we picked up the bike and started getting organized to get the bike up out of the ditch and back onto the road.

Lots of cars passed by without a single glance, other than one car whose driver stopped and called out if everything was OK. I was sure that Louise was OK, so I gave them the thumbs up and they drove off. But that was the only one, until just as we were about to let out the clutch and run the bike up, a truck driver pulling a tanker of some sort, stopped, hopped out and asked if we wanted a hand. My first inclination was to say, “Naw we got it covered,” but instead I decided that the help would be great, so I said yes. He rushed over, got behind the bike, then I let out the clutch and just like that, had the VStrom back on pavement.

We looked the VStrom over carefully for damage, but the crash bars and frame sliders did a great job of protecting the plastic bits of the bike. The only bit that we had to address was the clutch lever, which had been rotated on the bars from the impact. I got my tools and in no time got it fixed.

This was the first time that Louise had had an off, and I am so proud of the way she handled it. I know she felt like crap, but she wasn’t hurt, the bike wasn’t hurt – so it was ok. A wakeup lesson for sure, but we were all ok. Instead of begging off and going home, she simply said we should get going to Longview for lunch. I’m not sure that most people, in a similar situation, would shrug it off and get back on with most of a days riding ahead, but she did and I’m really proud of Louise.

The VStrom post-repair on Highways 1x and 1A

So we rolled on, into some pretty gusty winds, back onto the TransCanada, the east to the Kananaskis Turnoff onto Highway 40. Once out of the Morley flats and heading up into the mountains, the scenery gets really pretty, with mountains both on the left and right. Running past the south end of Barrier Lake, we saw at least a couple of dozen kayakers and canoeists on the water – proboably part of a class or something since they were all wearing similar lifejackets and helmets and in similar looking boats. Soon we came to the Barrier Lake Information Centre and we stopped for a quick bio break.

After finishing our bio break, we continued on to the Highwood Pass, which is the highest paved mountain pass in Canada at over 7300ft!

When we rolled into the parking lot, we found that we’d caught up to the Women in the Wind riders! They were all cruisers and most were dressed in their pirate garb, and although we were invited to join up with them, we decided to head off on our own to Longview, Turner Valley or Black Diamond for lunch. Once we reached Longview, we decided to continue on, eventually settling on a little place in Turner Valley called the Chuckwagon Cafe or something like that. Whatever it was called, the food was great.

With lunch done, we headed back out and super-slabbed it back home.

ian

With the bike all packed up by 845, I hit the road. Light drizzle pretty much followed me out of town and continued all the way south until I hit Highway 3. Then it rained. And it rained for while, then on and off.

My plan was simple, head to Creston to top off the gas tank and grab a breakfast supplement and a coffee, then on to Sparwood, BC to fill up and have some lunch, then just push on to home. And in spite of the rain, that simple plan held together all the way, when I got home just before 6pm.

While the rain was pretty easy to take, by the time I made the Crowsnest Pass area, the wind really picked up and it was blowing like crazy all the way Highway 22 and Highway 2 into Calgary. But I made home safe and sound, after racking up well over 2000 kms on the bike.

Many thanks to Apple SE team, my former tribe for graciously contributing to my gas fund – I used up the entire amount and left nothing on the table.

Now I did have pictures, but before I thought to off-load them, I managed to run the iPhone through the washing machine. So I might have lost them – we’ll see.

Thanks for following along!

Ian

So the plan was to check out some squiggles on a map, then redo the Pass Creek Road that we did yesterday, backwards this time, then head up to the ferry at Balfour, ride down towards Creston, have lunch, and head back to Nelson. It was a good plan, but totally defeated by a wrong turn and ruthlessly slow chicken drivers on the highway north of Nelson.

Both Guy and I were looking at some squiggles on the DH map between Nelson and Castlegar, on the east side of the river. They looked intriguing and we were determined to seek out how good the Granite Road was. We were able to easily find the start at the Nelson end of the road and we happily roared down the road (well, as much as our FJRs and STs can roar). It was pretty fun, with lots of twists, and only a little gravel in some curves. But it was over too soon! We came around a nice 180 degree curve and we were right back at the highway.

Wondering why it was so short, we carried on to the same little road we were on yesterday – the Pass Creek Road, except that this time we entered it from the south and road it backwards. While many parts were recognizable, it was almost a different road. It too, was over too quickly, but at least we ran the entire road!

From here, the plan was to go back up north through Nelson to Balfour and catch the 1040am ferry. The GPS said we’d make it to the terminal by 1030am as we rolled across the Nelson Bridge, but then we got stuck behind a whole bunch of slowpoke chicken drivers. Yes, some of the curves on Highway 6 north of Nelson have a 40km speed suggestion versus the regular speed limit of 90km, but that’s no reason for the cage drivers to slam on their brakes and creep around the curve at a walking pace. So it was with mounting frustration that both Guy and I watched the arrival time on the GPS go up minute by minute. We arrived right at the revised on the fly arrival time – 1044am.

The ferry was still there, but the loadmaster (or whatever they call the person at the lineup who decides who gets on and who doesn’t), had already turned away a small group of bikes ahead of us. One more truck got onto the ferry and that was it – no ferry ride for us today.

So we had a quick bio break, then figured out a new plan. We’d go up to Kaslo for pie, over to New Denver, then back south to Nelson. Off we went up Highway 31, a very scenic and relatively entertaining road, which is Destination Highways #60. There’s one spot just south of Kaslo where the highway crosses a creek that runs into the Kootenay Lake, where the bridge is on a hairpin that goes almost 180 degrees – the road here makes a serious U off the line of the road along the lakeside. We got a little spread out along here, Rod was far out in front and arrived at Kaslo with enough time to have a full cigarette before Rod2 and I arrived, Guy was about 5 minutes behind me.

With the bikes parked, we sauntered into Theresa’s for a coffee and pie (cinnamon roll for me). While we were polishing off our treats, some Harley riders pulled up out front, beside our bikes. The riders got off, removed their beanie helmets, and their leathers, all with the HD logos prominently displayed. All the bikes all had the typical Harley straight pipes treatment and had all the other patrons of the place shaking their heads.

As we left, one of the patrons started talking to me about where we were from and about our bikes, came outside, went right past the Harleys and walked all around the two FJRs and the two ST1300s, asking lots of questions.

Geared up, and mounted up, we rode out of town on Highway 31A, DH 5. Not far out of town, this road become a great road, lots of sweepers, almost all curves from Kaslo to New Denver. The highway runs along the Kaslo River, which is running very very high. At one point where the road runs through a narrow canyon, the river is coming very close to washing out the highway. When we went by, there was a BC Highways guy in a truck watching the river – no doubt trying to determine how long the pavement would last. We had been following another government truck on the road and the driver obviously knew the road well as he stayed well ahead of us and while we weren’t riding hard, we were pretty spirited in the curves.

Riding through the outskirts of New Denver, a number of what looked to be feral dogs, or maybe they were coyotes, crossed the road in front of us, completely oblivious to the bikes going by. Maybe they were ghost dogs and knew we couldn’t hurt them. We didn’t stop in New Denver, instead we figured we’d just run back to Nelson and get some food at the hotel.

Highway 6 is number 25 on the DH hit parade and it’s kind of two roads in one. The northern part has a number of sweepers with some great views from along the lake, both down at lakeside and up high as the road climbs and dips beside Slocan Lake. The southern part of the highway runs through forest and is really curvy as it follows the Slocan River to where it joins the Kootenay River.

It was near the start of the curvy part when the wind and rain started. Guy stopped to close the vents on his jacket and Rod2 mentioned that he wanted to stop in Winlaw to get his rain gear on. While we continued south to Winlaw, the wind really picked up and was tossing tree branches at us. A pretty large piece of a fir tree bounced off of my helmet at one point! So we stopped at a little cafe parking lot, where Guy put his rain gear on and Rod2 ducked into a shelter to put his rain liner on under his jacket. Rod’s jacket was mostly waterproof, so he just had a smoke, and since I was wearing my Aerostich, I didn’t have to do anything. While I was standing there, a hippie came across the highway to tell me that he had just heard the highway south was closed because the wind had caused a tree to come down across the road and onto some power lines. We figured we’d head down anyway, worst case, we’d get some pictures. Rod2 came out of the shelter, headed towards his bike, so Rod1 and Guy headed out. I held back for a bit waiting for Rod2 to get going. When I saw he had his gloves on, I pulled out onto the highway to follow the other two guys. He never caught up to us and it wasn’t until later at the banquet that we found out what happened to him – more on that later.

The hippie guy was right, there was a tree down across the road and hanging on some power lines, and it hadn’t been down long – there was only a half dozen cars ahead of us. We rolled up to the back of the line and since we didn’t know how long it would take, we shut off the bikes and popped our helmets off. Then we watched behind us to see where Rod2 was and ahead to watch the progress with the tree. It didn’t take them long to get the tree down, after only about 10 minutes of waiting a pickup truck was pulling the top of the tree down the road towards us in the other lane. In no time, the line of cars ahead of us was moving, so we quickly geared up and started off ourselves, but still no sign of Rod2.

We had thought of riding the Pass Creek Road again, (yes it’s that much fun), but it was still raining, and we figured it would be no fun wet. At the Pie stop in Kaslo, we figured we had located the highway access to the other part of the road we missed this morning, it’s called Blewette Road. So instead of just heading straight back to Nelson, we ducked off the highway and followed this absolutely brilliant narrow little road up above the Kootenay River and the power dams.

Since the rivers are running high from the rain and the melting snow, the water roaring through the spillways was pretty spectacular. It was almost distracting as we went into curve after curve, with the highlight being a tight hairpin going up hill, had to take it in second gear!

Continued in Day 4 – Part 2

I can heartily recommend the Granite/Blewette Roads to all of us on motorbikes. It’s a fun road, with lots of curves and elevation changes, and you can’t get going to fast on it, plus there’s very little traffic (at least on a Thursday afternoon).

There were a couple of spots where homeowners driveways had spilled some gravel out across the whole lane of the road, which led to at least one disconcerting moment as the rear tire slid out to the outside of the lean a bit. Yikes! But all was good, no spills and we continued on carving the twistie road until it popped us back onto the main highway to Nelson.

As we entered the highway we noticed a few cars parked along the opposite side of the road. We were each wondering what was going on until we saw an obviously dead deer dragged up to the cement barrier at the road’s shoulder, and a large red splotch in the middle of the lane. So it was clear that one of the cars further up the road had hit the deer and that a few cars had stopped to help. It was a bit sobering, considering Rod and I had a deer get up on the highway between us the day before. It’s one thing to hit a deer in a car, but it’s pretty scary hitting one with a motorcycle. That would for sure wreck your whole day. It was also sad to think of the deer, it really had a bad day.

Once we were back at the hotel, I zipped back out to the gas station to fill up, that way I wouldn’t have to do it in the morning. While I was parking next to Guy, I noticed that he had just washed his bike, for I think, the third time. Earlier he had threatened to not let me park my bike next to his because mine was so dirty. So he guilted me into washing mine.

It wasn’t a really thorough wash, I just got most of the grime off, it sure looked better. Then Rod rode by and stopped to stare in amazement. He called out that he sorta thought my bike was grey and since I’d washed it realized that it was actually black. I guess it was pretty dirty. Trouble was, it rained later, then overnight and for much of the next day on the trip home, so it’s all dirty again.

I might have mentioned in a previous post that I purchased a pair of kevlar summer gloves from Motoport. Today was the first day that I wore them on the bike and they actually worked great. My other gloves were a cheap pair of leather gloves that in less than a full season of use, were already beginning to fall apart. But, the old ones were one of the only pairs that I had where the thumb was long enough to not press on the end of my thumb, so to me, they were worth much more than the $50 I paid for them.

The new ones have a long thumb which is great, they are made of stretch Kevlar which is also great, but they have zero waterproof capability. And it rained a lot today, heavily at times. If not for the hand-guards I have installed on the handlebars, the Motoport gloves would’ve been soaked in seconds and my hands getting cold in the rain. Another fellow that we rode with on Tuesday bought the same gloves in a larger size and have very cold cold hands at the end of today, because he doesn’t have hand-guards on his ST1300.

Anyway, between finishing washing the bike and the start of the banquet, I slipped into the little cafe at the entrance to the hotel and satisfied my craving for a latte. Not quite the same as a Starbucks latte, but good enough! Then I enjoyed another relaxing neck/shoulder massage for 20 minutes. Very nice after 6 or 7 hours of riding.

There was still time to kill before the banquet, so a few of us hung out in Rod’s room for a couple of pre-dinner beers. While we were, there an wicked little thunder cell rolled in from the south and headed north up the lake. This picture is looking north towards the Nelson bridge in the distance.

This view of the rain pelting down onto the lake, is pretty much the same view as what I had from my although this picture was taken from the ground floor, and my room was on the second floor.

The banquet started at about 7pm, and after a little pre-dinner entertainment by our MC, Al DeVries, tables were sent to the buffet. The food was very tasty although the kitchen staff was hard-pressed to keep up with the consumption of food. All in all, the entire hotel staff did a pretty good job of dealing with us all for the week.

With dinner consumed, the time had come for the various draws to been and prizes handed out. Wile it was hardly fair to all the Honda ST owners, I won arguably the best prize of all – a free set of motorcycle tires! YAY me! Winning the tires means that I almost broke even on the hotel room cost!

So many many heartfelt thanks to Tim and Diana Graham, and the rest of the WeSTOC XVI disorganization committee – they did an absolutely fabulous job in putting WeSTOC together.

It was great meeting some new friends in addition to Guy – Rod, Ken, Bob, Al, Rod2 & Lorraine, Walt, Dwayne, Martin, Tony, Jeff and his wife and many others. I’m hoping to hook up with some of these folks later for some around southern Alberta.

Next update will be the ride home.

From Castlegar, we headed over the Paulson and Bonanza passes on Highway 3 on the way to Christina Lake for coffee and then to Grand Forks for lunch. We stopped at a view point that looks out over the lake for some pictures and a bio break in the rough.

Here’s a view of the lake.

We sort of all swapped cameras so we get our pictures taken, here’s mine.

The plan from here was to head down to the village of Christina Lake and find a coffee place. Guy thought he had the perfect place in mind, but instead we toured all around the west side of the village before turning around and heading back the way we came. The once past the village on the east side, we turned around on the highway and went back west again into the village. We stopped, where one of our group asked a civilian and presumably a native, if she knew of a place for coffee. She did and directed us to go a little further west to a place called Kool Treets. Meanwhile, Guy took off down a side road into the village and left the rest of us back on the highway. I rode up and down some roads looking for him to no avail.

So the rest of us went to Kool Treets, and ordered milkshakes and such. After most of us had ordered, Guy called to say that he was at a place up the road and had been waiting for us! We left him there, until I finished my milkshake, then I headed up to meet him and to bring him back to the rest of the crew.

With every one back together, we zipped off to Clyde’s Pub on the corner of Second Street and Market Avenue for lunch. We were served by a waitress who claimed to be the owner, but even if she wasn’t, the service was good and the food even better. During lunch I got to do some iPhone troubleshooting between bites. After driving further into Grand Forks to the same gas station that Louise and I, and Robert and I had gassed up at last year we all topped off before heading back east.

Instead of coming straight back to Nelson, we took a side trip through the Nancy Green Provincial Park and over the Nancy Greene pass, which used to be called the Strawberry Pass. While Nancy was recently appointed to the Senate, that’s not why there’s a park named after her. If you don’t recall, she was a very hot downhill skier back in the 70s and early 80s I think.

South of the park are the towns of Rossland and Trail, but we didn’t stop at either town, instead we stopped for a bio break at a gas station at the highway crossroads, then headed back trying to get to the hotel in time to catch the Motoport seminar. Riding up to Trail I could see two huge smokestacks – I guess that’s why the major junior hockey team in Trail is called the Trail Smoke Eaters. So we were late for the scheduled start of the seminar, but luckily, because so many riders were coming in late, the start of the seminar was delayed, so we didn’t miss anything.

The Motoport seminar was fairly interesting, although I think the owner is somewhat biased. I love my Aerostich suit, I’ve had it for about 6 years now, and its as good as waterproof, (and I’ve tested that a few times). Anyway, the Motoport gear is really good stuff and Louise is pretty sure she’s going to order a pair of custom-made riding pants. The jackets and pants are all made of Kevlar, which is extremely tough stuff, and the armor they use is good for racing. I asked a number of questions and talked to the owner about my ‘Stich. He did make some sense, so maybe someday I’ll replace the ‘Stich with a Motoport suit. If you want to see more information on the Motoport stuff, <a href="click here – Motoport.com.

After the seminar, I got a 20 minute neck massage, had a late dinner, called Louise and hit the hay.

Ian

Before heading back to my room, I stopped by the Motoport display to check out gloves again. I had tried on a couple of sizes the night before and the XL seemed to fit. I guess I have long thumbs, because while a large size fits my hand, the thumb, especially on the right (throttle) hand gets crunched into the end of the thumb part of the glove and after a couple of hours used to hurt like hell. My current gloves are size XL and my thumbs fit just fine. But the current ones are kinda cheap and I wouldn’t mind getting a really good pair. I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy them, but nope, no sale. It turns out that they only brought one pair of each size with them and they wouldn’t be able to sell them until Thursday night when they were leaving. So I passed.

Back in the room, I figured I’d have a few minutes to get the blog and the tracking link squared away, so I sat down at the laptop and plunked away for a bit. I was watching the clock and figured that I had time, until it was 925am. I slipped into my riding suit and headed down to the bike. Once I got to the parking lot, I saw Guy waving at me to get a move on! So much for thinking I had time! I raced back up to the room, gathered my helmet and the rest of what I wanted to take and raced back down. We all needed to get gas, so I just met them at the gas station just up the road.

With the four of us tanked up, we headed out of town west on the 6 to Crescent Valley, where we headed north on the 6 towards Slocan, Silverton and New Denver. This road is one of the Destination Highways roads, number 25 of more than 70 roads and it was full of sweepers with some twisty bits. It was also a bit early yet, so there wasn’t much traffic out. I did see a few deer by the side of the road, but they didn’t pop up onto the road.

We stopped at a little cafe for coffee and bio breaks, and in behind us came another half dozen or so ST1300s who must have left Nelson a little behind us.

After our coffee break, headed east on Highway 31A along the Kaslo river to the town of Kaslo. This is another Destination Highway, number 5, with lots of long sweepers and some great views of the roaring rapids of the Kaslo River right beside the road and mountains with plenty of snow still on the peaks. One sight that was not welcome was a burned out tree trunk that the high water of the river weakened enough that it toppled almost onto the road in our lane. It was about 6feet into the roadway at about a 60deg angle! Would have made a heck of a mess of a bike and rider if they had hit it – it was just at the right height.

At Kaslo, we turned north and headed to a little place called Meadow Creek near Duncan Dam. This section of Highway 31 north of Kaslo is also a Destination Highway, number 33. There’s not much there, the pavement ends at the dam, so I took a couple of pictures, then we turned around and headed back to the promise of lunch at Kaslo.
On the way up to Meadow Creek, I was following Guy when a deer jumped up onto the road just behind his bike, then just as quickly, jumped back into the woods. He was out and back into the woods so quick that I didn’t need to slow down. On the way back down to Kaslo, I was behind Rod, an ST1300 rider, when (maybe) the same deer jumped out and came within inches of hitting the back of Rod’s bike. This time though, instead of right away bounding back into the woods, the stupid deer took a few bounds down the road straight towards me! I hit the brakes hard to slow down, and started trying to second guess the stupid deer as to whether he’d go left or right, so I could dodge the other way. The deer decided to jump to my right back into the woods, before I had to try and dodge him, thankfully.

This road is very different going out versus coming back. Many of the twisties are much tighter coming back to Kaslo because your riding on the inside, whereas going out from Kaso, you’re on the outside of the curve. It seemed like a way harder, much more technical ride coming back down which was very surprising! The chicken strips on my tires are only millimeters wide, and the feelers on the tips of the foot pegs are scraped up now! It’s a pretty physical workout too, because in some of the S curve sections, you really have to push the bike over to get the necessary lean angle to make the curve, then pick it up vertical again, only to push it over the other way to make the next curve.

Back in Kaslo, we had lunch at the Kaslo Hotel and Pub, where we sat at the patio that looked out onto Kootenay Lake and the mountains beyond. Excellent backdrop for a really good meal of chicken fingers.

With lunch under our belts, we saddled up again to head back to Nelson via another Destination Highway, number 60, Highway 31 to Balfour, and then the 3A into Nelson. The highway to Balfour was fun, except for the slowpoke cars, motorhomes, and cars pulling trailers with boats on the trailers! One of the best parts of Highway 31 is a really tight hairpin at Coffee Creek (I think), that was totally wrecked by all three of the above slowpokes. We crawled through there at a walking pace because the car in the head of the line up was scared to death.

It was mid-afternoon and traffic was substantially heavier, especially as we got closer to Nelson. So that sucked the fun out the last road of the day. We crossed the Nelson Bridge and made our way to the hotel, just in time for the next attraction!

Tim Graham, one of the organizers of WeSTOC, had arranged to have a helicopter fly by with a photographer on board, to get some aerial shots of the bikes and people in the parking lot. By 4pm or just after, everyone was on hand and milling around, then the chopper showed up.

I consciously left my distinctive blue Aerostich riding suit on, and for fun put my blue Yamaha cap on. Thankfully the Honda enforcers weren’t there so I didn’t get beat up for wearing my Yamaha hat at a Honda event! So when I get the aerial photo, I should be able to quickly spot myself.

Back in the room, I changed out of the riding gear, washed out my LD Comfort Shorts (like biking shorts, only without the padding in the bum), and sat down at the computer to get the Spot tracking links figured out and to update the blog. With that done, I headed out to get some dinner. Along the way, I managed to acquire a WeSTOC t-shirt, a WeSTOC poster, and a white Honda cap! Tim the organizer, his wife Diana and few other folks he knows hadn’t had dinner yet, so I joined them outside on the patio for a pretty Halibut burger. Service was very slow though, there were lots of bikers all ordering dinner at the same time, as well as about 50 or so Red Hat Society ladies, more info on the Red Hat Society can be found here .

After, dinner, I was done, so back in the room, I called Louise, wrote this up and off to bed.

Ian

So now that I have some time, I’ll write up the blog from yesterday. I managed to leave the house at about 845am or so, then gassed up before heading south on Deerfoot Trail. Traffic was pretty quiet all the way south to Nanton, then over to highway 22 south.

The only traffic jam was a bit of a wait for a cattle drive! Some cowboys were driving about 100 head across the highway from a field on the east side of the highway to the west side of the highway. They were pretty well-behaved cattle, except for one calf who got separated from it’s mother and wandered down the ditch a bit before a cowboy on horseback shooed it back through the gate.

The last few times through the Crowsnest Pass, that might have been it for wildlife, but this time I saw a number of deer in the woods near the edge of the highway. None were looking like they wanted to attempt a road crossing, so they were all pretty benign sightings.

The rain started just east of Fernie and it rained pretty hard for a few kilometers. The good thing about the rain was that it washed much of the bug guts off the windscreen and visor. Just west of Cranbrook, Guy Metcalfe, a fellow FJR rider and also headed to WeSTOC, caught up to me and we rode the rest of the trip together. It was better riding with someone than riding alone, but It’s nothing like riding with Louise.

It’s still pretty early in the season yet, Kootenay Pass between Creston and Salmo still had lots of snow in the ditches and up the sides of the mountains. The passing lanes up the summit and down the other side were pretty treacherous for the bikes, they were almost totally sand-covered from the winter sanding.

Guy and I made it Nelson just after 3pm, parked the bikes, checked in and I had a quick shower. After registering and taking care of entering draws and signing this and that, I took advantage of a 20 minute shoulder and neck massage that had been arranged for incoming riders – as you might imagine, that felt great!

I sat down with Guy and some folks that he knew for a couple of beers, then we had BBQ burgers in the parking lot. After the burger, I had a hankering for a Starbucks latte. There is one in Nelson – down the road at the Safeway!

Coincidentally, there is the last remaining streetcar that has it’s tracks right in front of the hotel. They were offering rides for a “loonie”. So I rode the streetcar up the line to close to the Safeway, got my latte and walked back.

After that, I retired to my room, chilled for a bit, then off to bed.

Here’s some other pictures from Day 1


Stopped for a quick drink of water in Nanton.

My FJR parked at the hotel

Line up of Honda ST1300s at the hotel – hey that’s a white Burgman 650 Exec in the foreground, with a black FJR next to it!

Cycleport/Motoport are on hand showing off their line of Kevlar riding suits.