Motorcycle Adventures

We went to bed last night at midnight, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that we got up a little later than usual. We were up at 7:30am, got ready, packed, and went into town for a great pancake breakfast at The Red Fish. Did I mention I really like the Red Fish? I had oatmeal and poppyseed pancakes… Very good! I think I have a like minded eating buddy in Eryk – it wasn’t hard to make the choice for all three of our meals in Nelson!
After a great breakfast, back to The Alpine Lodge we went to load our bikes, drop off our keys, and we set off back to Osoyoos.

It was a little later in the morning this time, and so the temperature had already started to climb. It wasn’t long before the temp rose to the 30’s. The ride was a great ride, but quite warm. We started off on a section of the 3a that wound its way through wonderful countryside. We seemed to be the only ones on the road, and in fact, it was only because my GPS had sent us along this lesser used highway that we were on it in the first place.

After about 40km, we connected back to the main highway, quicky found the nearest gas station as we were running out of gas, and continued on our way.

the temp continued to rise as we rode, eventually hitting 38 degrees. It was getting a little too hot for comfort. The wind hitting us was no longer cooling very much (Ok, who am I kidding, the wind was not cooling at all). We were very happy to get into Osoyoos and get our of our riding clothes…

We had reserved our campsite a couple nights ago, so we drove right up to it and set us camp as quickly as we could, and then, then it was time for a nice swim in the lake!

We had a great swim, a little snack, and then watched a thunderstorm come in. I think I even got video of some lightening! The sun shining through the clouds was beautiful. We spent a long time sitting on a dock, feel in the water, just watching. There was lightening and thunder, but it was all in the distance, just behind the town of Osoyoos, but close enough that we saw the lightening strikes, and we could smell the rain.

It never did rain on us very much. There was only a few drops, and with the heat, those evaporated very quickly.

After our light show we relaxed in the tent – Eryk reading, Al listening to the Vinyl Cafe on his Ipod.

Closer to 9:30 I went for another barefoot walk, which I have come to love so much… The pavement is so wonderfully warm and comfortable to walk on, and the sidewalk winds its way along the lake for quite a while. It’s the perfect place to go for a walk.

After I got back I tried to sleep, but the temp would not go down… The hot sun was gone, but the clouds that came in with the thunder storm had trapped in all the heat, and all the rock and sand and concrete must have been radiating it back into the atmosphere… It acctually felt as though it got hotter than 38 degrees.

It wasn’t until some time around 3am when it finally started to cool down, and we finally had a chance to sleep.

We had an early star today! It will be getting a warm for sure! We were up at 5am, after quite a good sleep on my part, and an OK sleep on Eryk’s.

The air is much cooler this morning, but it will warm up quite quickly I’m sure.

Its just about 7am and we are 95 percent packed and ready to go.

Off to Nelson we go!

—

Later:

We had a wonderful ride to Nelson. The weather was perfect because we left so early, and the highway almost completely empty… Fantastic! The section of the highway between Osoyoos and Nelson is just fantastic!

We arrived in Nelson at 11am, checked into the Alpine Motel, showered, unloaded our bikes, and went to have lunch at the Red Fish restaurant.

We had a great stroll around town looking in as many shops as we could (many were closed because of it being Sunday). We then went back to our room, and relaxed for the afternoon. I took a nap, while Eryk surfed the Internet…

After our relax, Eryk put his charged battery back into his bike, and I washed our bikes a bit to clean off all those dead bugs. Afterwards it was back to town for Dinner (Red Fish again – great food again) and then for a bit of a walk down to the water. Now it’s 10:30pm and we are back and ready for bed…

Tomorrow back to Osoyoos….

I’m so very pleased that Eryk and I have gone on this adventure together. Its been a great day.

We left New West around 7am. It was already almost 20 degrees by 9am on our way to Hope. Not a cloud in the sky.

The traffic was quite a bit heavier than when Nicole and I took the route a couple weeks earlier. We came across a massive traffic lineup on the highway, and as Eryk’s bike was starting to over heat, we decided to take the shoulder for a while. We must have saved ourselves almost an hour of waiting in line! It was great. We were not the only motorcycles taking advantage of our small size – there must have been 25 of us taking the shoulder.

We filled up with gas in Agassiz, and passed hope all together. Our first real stop was Princeton, where we stopped for a subway. It was getting quite a bit warmer and we were really started to feel the heat.

The day turned out to be very hot. On our last trip we were cold riding through Manning Park, with temps as low as 5 degrees. Today we were sweating though 25 degrees. As we neared Osoyoos, the temp climbed to 37 and has stayed there for the rest of the day.

We set up camp, had dinner, and had some great conversation while sitting around the picnic table. Later, we drove into town to pick up a few bytes to eat, and then had a swim in the lake.

A great day. So nice to connect with Eryk, to ride this route again, and to have such wonderful weather.

Before bed I’m enjoying a wonderful barefoot walk along the sea wall on wonderful warm pavement. Its still probably 25 degrees, and its 10pm!!! I’ve been walking for just under and hour.

Tomorrow on to Nelson!

Well we are getting closer to our 4 day trip to Nelson… Eryk is working on the final finishing touches for his bike… There was some stress about whether everything would be done by the time we leave, but the mechanical issues seem to have worked themselves out thanks to his perseverance.

We looked at the long range forecast for the Vancouver, Osoyoos, Nelson run and were shocked to find temperatures ranging from the mid and high 30’s to the mid 40’s…  Fantastic!  That will be a great change from the colder weather Nicole and I encountered.

4 Days and counting….

This time I’m pleased to be going with my friend Eryk… After a talk the other day, we decided to go back to Nelson. The route is so incredible, it was easy for me to choose to travel it again. Knowing the area and the stop offs will also help in this shorter trip. We have four days, from Saturday the 28th, to July 1st.

We are going to stay overnight in Osoyoos, and then go to Nelson on day two. Day three we head back to Osoyoos, and then back home… It will be a quick trip for the distance, but I’m really exited to show it to Eryk.

Eryk is working hard on getting the last final details done on his Honda CBR – Front forks need to be finished and a few small bits need to be done, like an oil change

Here is a map of the trip again, as well as a great distance/elevation map I was able to create on a website:

We had a wonderful ride home… The weather has been warm and sunny the whole way through, and the roads are so great. I got up early at 6am to take advantage of the bathrooms and showers before anyone else was around, then started to pack up the tent from under Nicole Things were half packed by the time Nicole got up.

We enjoyed a nice breakfast, continued packing up, and left by 9:22am. The ride was uneventful, but beautiful. We stopped in Hope for lunch, and then continued home. We arrived here just before 4pm.

Our Trip:

We have had such a wonderful time traveling together and exploring a bit more of BC on our bikes…   We have learned a lot.  We have learned how to ride together.  We have learned to always be prepared for all sorts of weather – riding through the mountains the weather changes quickly, and often.  We have learned not to camp in the beginning of June – at least not in Nelson.

It was really one of the most enjoyable vacations I’ve been on – I can’t wait to do it again.  It’s such a different way to travel -with so little, and yet it is so rewarding.  Riding a motorcycle lets you experience the environment you pass through so much better than driving in a car.  You feel the air temperature, smell the scenery as you pass, and are so aware of everything around you.  I feel live I’ve not just ridden on the highways, I’ve experienced them.. felt them…

It’s nice to be home, yet I’m sad that we are not still out on our adventure… I’d rather be back in that tent… Sitting on the beach in Osoyoos. It was great to spend so much time with Nicole.

A huge thanks goes out to Michelle, Eryk, and Erin for taking care of our kids while we were away.  Clearly they were happy and well taken care of.  They’ve been keeping close to us all day while we’ve  been home.  It’s great to see them again – but it was great not to have to worry about them while we were away.  Thanks to our fantastic friends….

Today we had the sort of day that we had really expected to have while camping all along.

We woke up, well rested, with the air already warm and inviting. We had a great breakfast of fresh bread Nicole picked up from the store yesterday, and then decided we would enjoy a long walk into town to check out the Saturday Market.

The walk was great. In shorts and a Tshirt we we both really warm. the walk was a few kilometers long to get into town. We found the market without any trouble. There sadly wasn’t much at the market. We think it was still too early in the season for most vendors. We did however find a lady who had pies for sale, and she made them without any dairy too! When we expressed some interest, she told us she was out, but that she could deliver a freshly baked pie right to our campsite later in the day. The pie, including this amazing delivery service was only ten dollars!!! We were sold. Wow, pie to look forwards to

We then continued walking a little and stopped for lunch soon after.

The walk home was long and leisurely, and by the time we got home, more than 4 and a half hours had passed since we left our camp.

We spent much of the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the beach by the water. Our pie arrived earlier than we had expected, and so we made dinner early too – just so that we could dig into the pie.

Dinner was goodan the pie was fantastic. And just because we were on vacation, we ate the whole pie in one sitting, right out of the dish!!! Can you believe it!

After dinner we went back to the beach and watched the sun go down. It was wonderful.  We took some nice photos of each other while setting on a dock section that had been pulled out of the water…

On our way back we stopped to chat with our neighbours who had recently ridden on their three bikes from Calgary. Nice bunch of guys. We shot the breeze with them until almost midnight before finally going to bed. Great day.

Warm and sunny – that’s how it started, and that’s how it stayed.

We got up at eight. Nicole got ready quickly, we both had breakfast, and Nicole left for Nelson to have a Sauna and a Massage. Poor Nicole had rough morning!

I relaxed and lazed about for a while before getting ready and going to meet Nicole in Nelson for Noon.

We met at the Red Fish, our favorite restaurant, and had a wonderful lunch on the patio. It was hot! I enjoyed my lunch barefoot and in shorts and a t-shirt. Such a nice change.

After lunch I managed to get us lost. Once Nicole lead the way back, we were on our way to Osoyoos.

We jad decided to go to Ososyoos because its like a little desert, and so finally, camping was to be in our future.

The drive was fantastic. I can’t say enough about the route between Nelson and Osoyoos is a bikers dream. The weather was perfect the whole way though this time, though temperature regulation is always challenging though this area. There are several climbs and descents though the mountains on this route and so what started in Nelson as 24 degrees became 27 degrees and then went as low as 15 degrees on some of the passes. Osoyoos was a wonderful 26 degrees when we arrived.

We used the GPS to find a couple of campsites, and looked at locations in both before deciding on the best spot.

We are right on the lake (across the street) and have a cute little cabana that has a fridge, a sink, and a picnic table. Its a great little shelter. Our tent is right in front of it, and our bikes on either side. Its really quite a nice set up.

We had dinner, and afterwards Nicole rode into town to pick up breakfast supplies while I finsihed setting up.

We then went for a wonderful walk along the shore, and then came back to roast marshmellows and have a drink before going to bed in our tent.

I haven’t checked but the outside temp is probably about 16 degrees. Perfect.

Another nice sunny day in Nelson. We enjoyed a leisurely morning, and a nice breakfast at the Circle Cafe. After walking back up to the motel, we picked up our things, paid for our room and said good bye.

We were excited to go camping, and the temperature was 19 degrees – finally warm enough for us to camp.

When we got there however the temperature had dropped from town to 15 degrees at the campsite. Being right next to such a big lake must have cooled down the air enough to drop the temp so much. I was very unsure about camping. The temp would drop at least 10 degrees overnight, and we aren’t equipped to camp in 5 degree weather. After Marie, the owner of the campsite went and printed the weather forecast for us (which had highs of 19 for the next week) we decided it probably wasn’t going to get any warmer here and we packed up our tent.

It is sad to be on a trip where we wanted to camp all the time, and end up staying in motels, but there wasn’t much we could do about it. We were however happy to have experienced the Toad Rock Campsite, and most of all to have met Marie.

Marie has every detail taken care of. She is great to talk to and cares about her campers in a truly genuine way. She was great to communicate with over email, and while we were there she was bringing us fire wood and making sure everything was going well. She has a relaxed no stress way of running her campsite that we really enjoyed. I couldn’t think of a better personality pf philosophy to run a campsite than Marys. Well be back for sure, and highly recommend Toad Rock.

After leaving the campsite we decided to ride on to Ainsworth Hotsprings. There we found the Mermaid motel, which has an interesting history. The original building which is still use, and is the oldest building on the Kootenay Lake still in use. It was built in 1871 and is currently used to house workers affordably, who work for the hotsprings. Originally, it was called the welcome in, and fed passengers who came to the hotsprings on a sternwheeler.

We were greeted by the most enthusiastic, pie baking owner. And we paid for our “sleeping unit” (motel room), unloaded our bikes, and rode on to Kaslo.

Kaslo is a wonderful cute town about 25 km from Ainsworth.

A great place to visit, it has an old paddle wheeler called the S.S. Moyie. Built in 1898, It has been been restored to its original condition. We arrived just before they closed and had the opportunity to quickly go aboard and have a look around. It took a lot of photos. It was really interesting! Sorry the photos aren’t the best as we were in such a big rush

Afterwards we found a little restaurant, and after sitting down at very fancy tables, and looking over the hugh expensive fancy menu, we ordered a lemonaid slushie. A little awkward.

After our 12 dollar slushies, we had a quick walk though town, bought various forms of sugar and fat for breakfast (yum) and then went back to our bikes.

We rode back to Ainsworth, changed, and went to the hotsprings! Oh they are nice. Like a warm bath tub. Now in my opinion, all pools should be this temperature. It was nice to relax in the warm water. There are these interesting caves, where the water apparently comes from. You can walk right into them. Its a big loop, but despite all the excitement created in the ads, there isn’t anything to do in them other than gawk at how gross the walls of the cave are, and walk though them. There isn’t even a place to sit.

After our “swim” we enjoyed a nice dinner at the hotel retaurant, and then went back to our sleepinf unit for some satalite TV.

Ah well we did have a wonderful day after all. We chose to stay an extra day as the weather was still too cold this morning. 4 degrees when we got up – and that’s too cold to camp. We didn’t want to go to the camp in the hopes that weather would be warmer and then not have things warm up after all – so much easier just to stay put.

We had a great morning, with Lunch out at the Circle Cafe. Nicole went back to the motel to do some reading for school, while I had a great walk in town. I stopped into this incredible shoe store to buy some Birkenstock shoes. Oh I had forgotten how comfortable they are – had some years ago that I loved.

Then I continued on for a nice walk down by the water. One of the hotels has a marina, and a nice pier that you can walk out on.

All this time the sun was out and the air was getting warmer and warmer. It’s amazing to me that it can be 4 degrees in the morning, and by afternoon, it can be 19! After getting back from my walk, I washed our bikes. It was exactly the sort of thing that I felt like doing. I wanted something that was a little active, so I felt like I was getting something done, but something still relaxing. The warm sun felt wonderful and the bikes really needed a wash.

Then it was time for a nap! We both had a great nap, and then went out to our favorite restaurant in town, the Red Fish.

Clouds have started to come back in, and on the way back from our after-dinner walk, we are having some rain, but it’s rain with beautiful sunshine at the same time. It’s all very pleasant, and it’s still 16 degrees.

So, tomorrow we hope for sunshine. Every forecast that we can find for the entire southern BC seems to be sunny – so we have high hopes that we’ll head off to our campsite. It’ll be great to ride the bikes again – in fact the road that leads to the campsite is quite beautiful, and we have so far only ridden it while it was raining.

We are toying with the idea of going past Toad Rock and doing right to Ainsworth Hotsprings for a little relaxing dip in the springs. We’ll see what we feel like tomorrow.

Kootenay Lake Ferry (Longest Free Ferry Ride)

ROUTE: Across Kootenay Lake, 35 kilometres east of Nelson on Highway 3A, between Balfour (west side) and Kootenay Bay (east side), 70 kilometres from Creston on Highway 3A.

DAILY SCHEDULE:
The M.V. Osprey 2000 sails from Balfour, 6:30 a.m. – 9:40 p.m. and from Kootenay Bay, 7:10 a.m. – 10:20 p.m.

SUMMER:(June 12 to September 3, 2008)
In addition to the above M.V. Osprey 2000 schedule, the seasonal vessel M.V. Balfour provides daily extra service on the route from Balfour 10:40 a.m. to 5:20 p.m., and from Kootenay Bay 11:30 a.m. to 6:10 p.m.

(Times listed are Pacific Time Zone)

Follow this link for a detailed schedule

CROSSING TIME: 35 minutes. Additional sailings in summer.

M.V. OSPREY 2000 CAPACITY: 80 Vehicles – 250 passengers

M.V. BALFOUR CAPACITY: 28 Vehicles – 150 passengers (SUMMER ONLY)

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Schedule Information: 250 229-4215
Western Pacific Marine
General Enquiries: 250 229-5650
Fax: 250 229-5679.

Well it was the plan to go back to our camp site today. Forecasts called for sunny warm weather. This morning however it is 4 degrees, and raining, so we will stay in town one more day.

Forecasts for almost all cities in lower BC call for sunny skies and a high of 25 degrees for the next four days – so there is hope yet!

Now we have to bust ourselves with the difficult task of relaxing!

Today was day two in Nelson. We are staying in the Alpine Motel (which has the most friendly staff!)

Today was a nice relaxing day. We had a great breakfast at The Full Circle Cafe – they have all kinds of great food, in fact Nelson in general has the most amazing food!

After breakfast we went on a walk to do some shopping. There are some great shoe stores, but so far we both managed not to buy new shoes (that was hard). I found a great pair of fishermen’s Pants for $28, and Nicole found some great socks, and some fun metal water bottles. I think we managed to go though most of the stores on Baker street. I am amazed that such a small place has so many fantastic stores. The main drag is perfectly designed for shopping with wide sidewalks and great big trees lining the streets. Its like a calm less commercial version of Robson, but so much better.

We had lunch at a place called The Diner. It was good food – not as great as the other places we’ve eaten, but the quality of the food was excellent.

After lunch we did some more window shopping and then I went bacl to our Motel while Nicole went for a massage. This apparently involved a lot of elbows digging into Nicole’s bum, and a really hot towel.

Nicole joined me for a nap after her massage. When we woke up, we went back to the Red Fish for dinner (did I mentiom how great this place is!?). We had a great dinner. Now we are enjoying some more TV
in bed. Simple day – but really nice.

After putting out the camp fire last night we went to bed. It was chilly, but we didn’t feel too cold. By the time we woke up in the middle of the night we were freezing! The rest if the night sleep was
spotty.

We think that the overnight temp was probably somewhere around 5 degrees – a little cold for camping! At least too cold for our gear.

I got up at 5am, and went to the wash house to take a hot shower, only there was no hot water! As it turns out, the plumber was there the night before, and forgot to turn the hot water back on!

I climbed back into bed, we put our sleeping bags together for warmth, and we were able to sleep until 8am.

I had emailed Mary on the morning to ask about the hot water, and by the time we got up again, there was hot water! Yay!

Well with it raining all night, and after our cold night, we decided it was time to go into town and find a motel. Mary was very kind and let us keep our tent and gear set up at the campsite while we went into town to get some warmth.  We told her we would return in a day or two. I had emailed all the motels during the night to see about price, and so we had an idea of what we needed to pay and where to avoid.

After a wet ride into town, and a stop at the Nelson Information office, we found the Alpine Motel. Its a wonderful place, just out side the center if town. We have a wonderful clean room, with a kitchenette,
and parking for our bikes just outside the door. We also gave wireless internet, which is great for a little Internet browsing on my itouch.

After a hot bath we went into town to find a place to eat. We found the most wonderful place called the Red Fish Cafe. The food is fantastic, and we can eat almost everything on the menu.

We are totally enchanted with Nelson! What an amazing place. Its clean, super friendly, beautiful location, and has great shopping. Its just big enough to have a lot of the stores you would find in a big city, but in a wonderful little package. We are enjoying it so much that we are talking about the possibility of moving here in the future. Prices are not totally cheap, but for the price of our place, we could buy a nice house with a big lot.

After lunch we walked around, bought a couple things from Save On Foods and Walmart, and then went back to have a nap.

We just got home from another wonderful meal and a walk. Time for a bit of TV before bed.

We will stay here another night as weather us supposed to get better on Wednesday. It will be great to explore Nelson more tomorrow.

Our night in Princeton was uneventful. We enjoyed watching TV – it was terrible, but as we don’t have cable, even the ads are entertaining.

We slept well. I got up early as I often do, had a relaxing bath, and got ready. Nicole got up not too much later. We had our leftover pizza for breakfast, loaded our bikes, and off we went.

Mother nature was a little confused. We had a random offering of beautiful sunshine with clear sky, light and heavy rain at times, but always just for a few minutes, and temperatures that went from as low
as 12 degrees, and as high as 25!

Its interesting riding though the mountains – each area has its own weather.

The roads were fantastic. I have never ridden on such beautiful roads. Perfect for motorcycles! Always interesting and though breathtaking vistas. Incredible! From lush forested areas with snow on the sides
of the road, to twisty climbs up the side of a mountain.

We stopped for lunch in Osoyoos, in smitty’s. It was a nice Denny’s style lunch – the service was great, and it was really warm, so we sat on the patio.

The Road between Osoyoos and Nelson is beyond incredible. As soon as you leave town, the road climbs and twits its way high into the mountains. We stopped at a view point, where we took photos and met a group of three guys, who live in Vancouver, who also ordered their BMW (the same bike as Nicole’s) from the same dealer we did. We traded stories.

The road doesn’t disapoint at any point for the rest of the way to Nelson.

We arrived at the Toad Rock campground around 6:30pm – almost 8 hours after we left, and about 450km later. We started setting up camp after meeting Mary.

The campground is amazing! Its a big place – big enough that in a couple weeks they will host thief annual rally with more than 1000 attendees. They have a great setup, complete with hit showers, flush toilets, and an entertainment pavilion that has a bar, projection TV, tables and couches, pool table. And even a stage!

There are many other sitting areas and places to relax. Everything is clean, and Mary, the owner is very friendly and helpful.

Now if were only a little warmer. We are currently around 12 degrees, and the night is getting cooler. We are enjoying a couple drinks from the bar, and soon we’ll head to bed – ready for another adventure.