Motorcycle Adventures

Well we had plans to go to ride the Oregon coast near the end of July. Sadly our little dog Mandy had to have urgent dental work done unexpectedly. We found this out just the day before we were due to leave for our trip. Mandy’s dental work was booked for Monday morning, and we cancelled our trip

Mandy’s procedure went very well, and after a couple days we felt we would be ready to do something for our vacaton. We were very kindly invited to stay with friends in Calgary. I won’t right any more about our trip in this blog. We had a very nice time.

Well it’s almost time to go on my first overnight adventure of the year…

I have both Thursday and Friday off this week, making for a wonderful extra-long weekend.  I’m going to head off to Osoyoos again for a little camping weekend.  So far weather looks quite good – with Thursday and Friday being fantastic, and Saturday looking like a little rain might be possible.  Sunday looks good again.  Hopefully the weather holds like this.

I packed everything up today so that I can take care of any last-minute items tomorrow night and not need to rush.

Should be a nice relaxing weeend.

Well those of you who know me know that I love to plan.  This year I have three holidays, in July, August, and September.  At least 2 out of these thee will be motorcycle trips this year, and I have a funny feeling all three will end up being a motorcycle trip.

In January 2009, Eryk is getting his new BMW, and he and Michelle can start to enjoy their new bike.  In August all 4 of us are going to go on a motorcycle trip together – that will be the highlight of the motorcycling year for me.

As those holidays are now the main thing I’m looking forward to, it’s time to start planning. Originally the idea was to take a trip over to Vancouver Island, head as far north as we could go, and then take a ferry further north, into the Queen Charlotts.  From there we would travel back down to the coast.  While I think the trip would be interesting, on further investigation, I’ve discovered that the drive itself is perhaps not the best for our trip.  It’s relatively straight and uninteresting, and for our trip of the year, I’d really like it to be beautiful with lots of wonderful things to see, and as it’s a motorcycle trip by design, it needs to be fun to ride.  It is also a long trip, with a lot of necessary kilometers to get back home.

The more I think about it, the more I think a trip to Nelson might be the best bet.  As you probably know I already love Nelson, and the idea of revisiting my favorite little town hardly needs serious arm twisting to get me on board.

There are several things that sell the Nelson idea for me. Firstly, the roads are beautiful.  I really enjoy the ride and am sure that we would all really enjoy the trip.  It would be nice for Michelle to see Nelson as so far she is the only one who hasn’t seen Nelson ye – at least not by way of the motorcycle.  Because of the beauty of the surrounding area, I also like the idea of using Nelson as a base camp of sorts, from which we make trips to the surrounding areas. There are beautiful roads and areas around Nelson and dipping down into the US that we have not explored.

I suspect that not all of us are going to want to ride all the time every day, and moods will dictate some of what we end up doing.  We may also not always want to ride in our group of 4.  Someone may wish to stay behind, or just a couple of us might go for a trip.  Using Nelson as a base camp, makes it possible for the 4 of us to have maximum flexibility. If someone wants to stay behind, they can. Nelson is the perfect place to hang if someone does want alone time, or if the weather isn’t very good.  What I propose is that we book the White House Backpackers Lodge for the duration of the trip, give us all a place to stay.  A room is only $50/night and includes a double bed and some privacy.  Eryk and Michelle and Nicole and I would each have our own room giving us even better privacy when we, eh-hem… Need it

There are many trips that we can take from the Nelson area – most are day-trips with a round-trip distance of up to 350km.  A few are part of the larger Selkirk Loop, which extends north of Nelson, and South into the US.  The US part of the loop is a longer ride that would probably be best served by an overnight stay or two. See a map of the Selkirk Loop for some ideas about the motorcycle trips from this area. The two grey maps are maps of a couple of the northern loops from the area – easily done in a day including some relaxation time and stopping.

I realize that it will be a little more expensive to do things this way perhaps than camping, but I think it would be worth it.  This way no one would feel that have to go somewhere because the rest of the group wants to, and it gives us all a chance to have time as couples and by ourselves – which I think will be a big plus on a longer trip like this! If bad weather does hit, we have a safe and comfortable place to spend our time. it also might be cheaper than many places we could stay. See a link for The White House here

Here are a couple links to reviews of some of the roads in the area:
Between Kaslo and New Denver
Kootnay Pass between Crawford Bay and Creston

I would also welcome the time to explore a little more.  I would welcome a trip to spend mond time near that wonderful beach in near Boswell, to spend a little more time in Kaslo, and to visit many more of the small communities that dot the area. I would love to drive down south and visit some of the US.  It looks as though there are many more great roads and places to visit there.

I’m open to ideas however, so if my wonderful friends come up with with another great plan, than I’m open to a different adventure.  It will be great to spend a vacation touring through the mountains on our motorcycles this summer.

That’s all for now.

Al

OK, so, after a nice dinner, lots and lots of thought, a critical look at the weather forcast, and some stressing and worrying (cause you know I have to have a little of that or the day just isn’t complete!), I’ve decided to go to Nelson.

The weather looks like it will be ok, and after finding this place, which still had a private room available for the week, I decided that it would really enjoy my time even if it was raining, if I had a place I could go to that wasn’t a tent.   The room is just $50, which is only $15 more per night than the campsite…

I will leave Sunday morning, stay overnight in Osoyoos, and then stay in Nelson for the week…

If weather is good I’ll have many opportunities to go and explore roads around Nelson.. There are many.

Then on Friday I’ll head to Kelowna to meet Larry and his family and enjoy a couple nights camping in the back yard… Apparently there is also a hot tub to enjoy!!!

Well two days ago when Nicole took a look at the long range weather forcast for Nelson, Osoyoos, and Vancouver, the weather was fantastic. There was one day with a slight chance of rain, but otherwise things were great.

Today after work, I looked at the site again, and was very sad to see that the forcast had changed. Now most days have clouds and rain, and Monday, the day I was to me travelling the most, has thundershowers.

With this forcast I’m much less excited. Riding in the rain is not fun, and when it rains a little bit, it’s no big deal, but when it rains a lot, I wouldn’t be that great to be out.

I’m going to wait until tomorrow morning before I decide what to do. I was going to prep all my equipment tonight, but I think it would be be better to wait and see what the forcast does overnight.

Ok feeling quit blue about it.

Al

Well it’s time for my last vacation next week, and I’m hoping weather will cooperate with me enough that I can go on another motorcycle trip.

In an effort to plan around meeting friends, I didn’t leave enough time to make reservations anywhere, so I may go back to Nelson as I have a good feeling that the Road Rock campground will have some space for me.

I love the route and live spending time in Nelson, so it would hardly be difficult to do the route again.

I’ll keep posting when I have a better idea. So far I’m still waiting to hear back from Mary about a reservation.

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….

Planning for our Camping trip is well under way. The idea is that we are going to have a very spur of the moment type trip, but I also wanted to make sure that although we won’t plan exactly where to go and when we go, that I have information ready, so I’ve put together maps of the towns we’ll be going through, as well as information about those towns so that if we want to stop, we’ll know what the options are. This give me a little peace of mind while still making it fun and free!

If the weather isn’t raining, we’ll be leaving on June 7th, in the am at some time. We’ll lead towards Nelson, and see how long we feel like riding before we want to stop.

We would like to stop off and explore as many of the little towns as possible, so we’ve decided that we’ll just Read the rest of this entry »

Oh now I”m so excited. If all goes as planned we’ll be going for our camping trip starting on June 7th.

Today I picked up the last bit of supples that we need for our camping trip. I also went to LD to pick up some batteries, some tooth paste, and some other small items that we can pack with us.

Today I had some fun at MEC buying some small items for our camping trip… We needed things that were really small, rather than the huge stuff we take camping when we use the car.

After getting everything home, I wanted to see how well it would fit in and on my bike.. and was shocked to see how much I could get inside the bike under the seat.

You can see in the photo, the Sleeping Bag, he Tent, the Mattress, a small folding table, the Tent Poles, and a lot of little items fit.  On top of all this the Pots, the Stove, and the utensils all still fit inside… Fantastic!

This leaves only the clothes that need a home, and they will easily go on top where the passenger would normally sit.

Plus, when we both travel together, Nicole may have room for some of these things, making even more room for my clothes…

I can’t wait to go camping!