WeSTOC Day 3 – Lunch at Grand Forks

We had a pretty eclectic day of riding today. The first destination road was Passcreek Road that runs from Crescent Valley to just north of Castlegar. This road is an extension of the number 25 Destination Road in BC. It’s not very long, but it does have some excellent twisties marred only by sow blind driveways and gravel in the corners. I got a bit spooked in one corner where the rear wheel slipped out on the gravel while I had the bike leaned over hard. The deer yesterday scared me more though, just to put things into perspective.

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

WeSTOC Day 2 – New Denver/Kaslo Loop

Today was the first day of riding for the sake of riding, instead of riding to get somewhere. I met up with Guy and some of his folks at breakfast, and after deciding on doing the New Denver / Kaslo (with a side of Meadow Lake) loop, we made arrangements to meet outside for a departure at 930am.

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

WeSTOC Day 1 – Calgary to Nelson

I didn’t get a chance to update the blog last night – there was too much going on then I hit the bed early.

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.

Lunch in Sparwood, BC

As I type I’m stopped at the Midtown Cafe in Sparwood for lunch. Just got some gas and a bio break and a stretch, then a BLT will arrive and I’ll scarf it down. Then back on the road again.

The wind has been blowing pretty strong all the way from Nanton, but it’s died down a bit here in Sparwood.

Bike is running good and it’s handling good, so shouldn’t be any worries there. I ought to be in Nelson right on time!

I’ll have at least a couple of pictures in a post later today after I’ve arrived.

Ian

WeSTOC Day 0 – Tracking

On Monday I leave for Nelson, BC, which is the headquarters of WeSTOCXVI for 2011. WeSTOC is the Western Honda ST1300 Owners Club. I know Tim Graham, the organizer of this years event pretty well, and he issued a special invitation to me, and since I’m kinda between jobs right now, the timing has worked out pretty well. In fact it would have been perfect, but Louise can’t get the time off of work, so she won’t be going and I’m going solo .

Anyway, I leave on Monday morning and I’ll be blogging the trip each day, plus I’ll have me Spot Messenger updating the map in close to real time:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jspglId=08G958f5jAqlC8meXxaFMPaklqrWYJ4Y8

I’ll put the link to the map on the main blog page as well on each blog entry. Hopefully, through the blog, you can share some of the scenery and great roads that I’ll be riding for 5 days.

Ian

One chapter over, another begins

Well, today was my last day at Apple. In a week I start my new job as the Vice President of Technical Service at a local Apple reseller – Office Solutions (OSI).

This a great opportunity for my future and it offers me the chance to build my own team and function and puts me in line for an ownership stake in the near future.

I’m really excited and I can’t wait to get going.

But today was a bit of a roller coaster ride emotionally. I had lunch with a couple of local coworkers at Apple and midway thru, Michelle one of the SEs that reported to me handed me a huge card, filled with comments from the team and a couple of gifts that will come in handy for my motorcycle trip next week. I was feeling pretty good all morning, in fact I was feeling really good that it was over and the Apple part was close to over. The departure interviews had been done and I just had some logistical stuff to take care of.

Then I got the card and starting reading the comments. It was at that point that I realized that while I wasn’t going to miss the job itself and working for Apple, I really was going to miss my team of SEs. They were (and are) a great team of professionals who all got along great and were extremely competent at their jobs, making my job managing them pretty easy. It was very humbling as I realized while reading their comments what kind of impact I had on each of them.

So thank you to everyone at Apple and the partners. I’ve enjoyed working with everyone for the last 5+ years. But I especially want to thank

Michelle, Bill, Brian, Rob, Luis, Steve, Ian, Rob, Alex, Pierre, Marc, Pierre, and Bruce

For being some of the best employees a manager could have! I’m going to truly miss all of them.

And so one chapter comes to and end, and another begins. More on the OSI position later.

Ian

Ryker – the newest member of the family!

Ryker - our new dog

This here’s Ryker, our new dog. He’s a 4 year old Dachshund crossed with something – we think maybe a Jack Russell Terrier, but we’re not sure. He’s from the Calgary Animal Services, so he’s a stray that was picked up and we adopted him. He’s pretty cute, funny and needs walks, which of course is good for us!