2001 - A biking odyssey...
(Time runs backwards on this page...)
Date Destination Comments
Nov 1 - Dec 31 Various local rides when the weather cooperates.
Even though the season is basically over, I take the bike to work or go for a spin when it's a sunny day. This provides some dynamic range during the monochromatic Vancouver monsoon season.
Oct 1 - Nov 1 Lot's of local riding. Too busy to update the site though. Not many with insurance now that November has arrived. However, October is when I ride the local roads. Hard to beat a crisp sunny day for riding (especially after a week cooped up in the office!)
Sept 29,30 Local rides unless the weather is good enough for something longer. Sunday is forecasted to be sunny so if all goes well, I'll probably do a cruise to Pemberton area. Insurance is dropping off bikes at a rapid rate.
A great sunny day ride to Pemberton. Pemberton was so much fun we continued on to D'Arcy. Bikers were out in force. We met a group in Pemberton who were finishing the Duffey Lake loop. Their last major ride of the year. About 600kms and a great day.
Sept 22,23 Nothing planned.
My arm was twisted on Sunday and we did the Merritt loop again. This time with four people I didn't know and taking 5A to Princeton, returning through Manning Park. The weather was excellent and certainly too good to pass up!
Sept 15,16 Given the warm, sunny, summer weather I'll be riding both days! On Saturday I hope to get a run up the Sea2Sky somewhere and Sunday it'll definitely be a ride to Merritt (via the Fraser Canyon returning via the Coquihalla).
The weather was great so we managed rides both days as planned. The chicane at Kingsvale has been removed and the road is open again. This improves the Coquihalla route since we can bypass the top end, taking the excellent Coldwater road to Kingsvale (picture above is from that route) before rejoining the Coquihalla.
August 20 - Sept 11 A couple major trips and several minor ones even though I haven't updated the site recently.
My brother and his wife joined up for a nice multi-day ride in Southern BC. Perfect weather and open roads. Pemberton, Lillooet, Merrit, Kamloops, Princeton, you name it we saw it. All in all great fun.
This was followed by a trip to Spokane Raceway Park to watch a couple buddies race. Pictures from race day are here. We headed east in Canada, south via the Columbia River and returned via the North Cascades with plenty of detours inbetween. Of course the unlucky motorhome driver / team had to endure the long and straight I-90 to I-5 route. Racing looks fun if you can handle the expense and don't mind the occasional crash...
August 5 - 20 Holidays and great weather so I'm riding everywhere!!! Too busy riding to update the site except in arrears.
Various local rides plus a couple long ones for a change of pace.
2500 kms in the Okanagan with perfect sunny (hot!) weather. My favorite road was probably the Apex Mtn route off the 3A bypass into Penticton (including a run up to Apex). Westbank to Vernon along the west side of the lake is always fun due to the extensive connected esses. There are a number of roads between Penticton and Osoyoos that were fun too...no need to fight the traffic of the main highway!
2500+ kms run to Bella Coola. A nighttime ride (left Burnaby at 8pm) through the Duffy Lake road, up 97C and then west on #20 through the Chilcotin. Back via the Fraser Canyon. #20 from Williams Lake to Bella Coola is extremely remote with very little traffic. It's about 455 kms with a little of everything...straight stretches suitable for a Hayabusa, fast sweepers to test any bike, 100km/h speed limits while begging to be ridden at twice those speeds, a bit of gravel (hard packed) and of course the famous Bella Coola Hill. The 80km run inside the Bella Coola Valley is a great destination ride in itself. Overall it's a route you'll hate if you're tired or in a hurry but one you'll appreciate if you're adventurous or looking for freedom! Just watch your gas since stops are few and far between. The weakest part of the trip is from Cache Creek to Williams Lake...too much traffic and too slow to be interesting IMHO.
August 4/5 A cruise to D'Arcy and environs.
Rain again. Since I'm on holidays there's no sense in pushing it, I'll leave the longer rides for sunny weather. So instead some local riding in between the raindrops.
July 28/29 Marginal weather again this weekend. If Sunday is good enough I'll try the Merrit run.
Sunday morning was marginal and the forecast for rain so my fairweather friends cancelled. But by 11am I was restless which meant a solo ride to Merritt. Great fun, I had a blast. Warm and sunny all day.
July 21/22 Rained out last weekend so try the Merrit ride again. Hockey in the morning means leaving at 11am.
Played two hockey games so left Merrit ride for another day. Did manage a ride to Hope and area on Sunday via backroads. Nice sunny day.
July 14/15 No hockey Saturday so planning a ride up the Fraser Canyon, over to Merrit, down to Kingsvale and back via the Coquihalla. Should be fun. Easy day's ride.
Poured rain, cancelled.
July 7/8 Ooops, forgot to list this. Oh well, went to Mt Baker. Great weather, good ride. About 400kms.
June 30/July 1 Long Weekend Planning a 2 day trip to the Sunshine Coast and then Strathcona Park. Likely stay overnight near Campbell River. Back home via Nanaimo.
Ladies couldn't come so we decided to leave the Sunshine Coast for another day. I had been dreaming about Duffey Lake, #8 to Merrit, 5A to Kamloops, over the Monashee range, Needles, Nakusp and more!! Luckily my riding buddy is flexible so that's what we did...at least until the flat tire north of Whistler! Towed the bike back to North Vancouver thanks to BCAA (the roadside tire patch wouldn't stop the leak...) and put on a new tire. When the ride restarted 8 hours and $300 later we decided on a combination of the Duffey Lake and Merrit loops instead. Everything else went well and the weekend turned out fine after all!
June 23/24 Marginal weather developing. Still, the plan is to ride to Lillooet (ie Duffey Lake Road) and return. Leaving at 10am(ish) so it remains to be seen whether I actually get to Lillooet! It doesn't really matter though as long as I get out of the city and have a decent ride.
Rounding Horseshoe Bay in the morning I almost gave up...angry clouds everywhere with plenty of rain in sight. Too dumb to quit, I pressed on managing to avoid rain until almost Whistler. After wading through Whistler the skies cleared for a dry run to Pemberton. And after that, sunny skies and comfortable temps the rest of the day!! Duffey Lake Road is simply great and as usual I was having too much fun to stop for pictures. Bikes were out in force typically in groups of 2 or 3. On the way back I managed some pictures and a snooze or two (a sunny and warm day after playing hockey in the morning...what else would one expect!!). Overall it was 9 hours and 600 kms. Still my favorite biking road.
June 16/17 After two weeks of itty-bitty rides, it's time for a real one. The Duffey Lake loop or something similar.
We ended up going to Manning Park. The freeway to Fort Langley, the Albion ferry to #7, then out to Hope for lunch and finally into Manning Park. We turned around at the park HQ after taking a cruise up the Cascade Lookout. This is a great, narrow, switchbacking road about 7 km long ending with a magnificent south facing view of the area. Another 6 km on well graded gravel takes you to the microwave towers for a more northerly view. Our view was marred by the rain and snow that hit just as we got there...so we descended and zipped over to the Lightning Lakes before heading back on the freeway. The freeway is exceedingly boring so by Mission we detoured to the backroads until home. 500kms, mostly sun, a bit of snow and rain and a couple decent pictures (hopefully).
June 9/10 Last week washed out, this weekend's forecast is the same. So impromptu rides only.
Between the rain, playing a couple hockey games, watching the Stanley Cup final, attending a violin recital, going to the symphony, attending a jazz dance recital, fixing a drain problem and watching the Laker game I had little riding time this weekend. But I did manage a good burn along River Road to Iona Beach, a cruise through UBC, a whirl around Stanley Park and a bit of posing downtown (after all, I *did* just wash the B12...).
May 26/27 I haven't been to the Hemlock/Harrison Lake area this year so that's the current plan.
Solo ride. Left at 10am, back at 6pm, dinner in Harrison. Hemlock Valley pavement ended in the same spot as always (!) but the gravel was in good shape so I continued to the ski area. It was great fun cruising in a t-shirt along a dusty road listening to Mahler on the stereo (or was it Elton John? Oh well, close enough.) After Hemlock I checked out Weaver Creek road (where the pavement also ends too soon) before retracing my steps back to #7 and heading on to Harrison Lake. After dinner and a cruise around Harrison Lake I beat it home along #7. A few pictures and lots of sun made it a perfect biking day!
May 20/21/22 If the weather's nice I'd like to try the Duffy Lake Loop. Haven't got any takers yet but I'll go by myself if I have too... UPDATE: One person crazy enough to come...but we've decided to go to Tofino/Long Beach instead.
Tofino/Long Beach was great!! We left at 10am Saturday morning expecting to catch the 11:45 Horsehoe Bay/Nanaimo ferry and rolled right onto the 10:30 ferry without so much as putting a foot down! We stayed in Ucluelet (Tofino is trendier) and cruised the area Saturday evening and Sunday morning before heading back on the 3pm ferry. The road (#4) is an excellent biking road especially from Port Alberni onwards. Plenty of scenery and twisty bits that make it awful in a car but awesome on a bike! The only downsides were terrified drivers (ie slow) and poor pavement at times. Watch for wildlife. We saw deer and black bear. Painfully high traffic counts dropped to tolerable levels after Port Alberni. With side roads, the odometer claimed 800 kms round trip. But it felt like 200kms....far too short...I hated to come back. I'll post photos if they turn out. One of the top biking roads in BC.
May 12/13 Marginal weather forecasted (rain Sunday) so nothing major planned.
The weather was fine. Not much sun but no rain either. A riding buddy licensed his bikes, grabbed a friend and joined up for an impromptu ride. They made the mistake of making me lead which meant everyone was soon lost. I don't ride in a straight line for long...Steelhead, Harrison, Albion Ferry, Fort Langley, you name it we saw it. All three bikes had passengers but only one should have considering it was about a 6 hour ride... Riding with two Ducati's made we think about licensing my Bandit 1200. The Wallowing Walrus (tm) is great for passengers but a person needs a wheelie fix once in a while !!!
May 5/6. Beginning to feel like a longer ride is in order. Current plan is to head to Pemberton on Sunday.
Pemberton it was. Sunshine all day, comfortable temperatures. The Squamish to Whistler section is better than I remember it, perhaps because we hit a lull in the traffic and managed to blast through the twisties. Lunch in Pemberton. A look around and then back. We navigated the west side of Alta Lake on the way home to avoid Whistler's main drag. Traffic was brutal from Squamish to the 2nd Narrows but flowed reasonably well. Some good pictures (hopefully) and a great day.
April 28/29. They are forecasting steady rain so nothing major is planned. But if it dries up at all, I'll head out somewhere !!
After rain, sleet and hail Saturday morning I was surprised to see sun in the afternoon. Being opportunistic, I immediately fired up the bike for a quick ride. It was the first solo ride of the season so the freedom of having no destination in mind was a nice change.
I started west but soon detoured east ending up on the Barnston Island route (can one "detour" from a route they hadn't planned??). At the Barnston ferry I veered right and proceeded to Fort Langley (which reminded me I hadn't eaten lunch). Abbotsford appeared to be the edge of the clear blue sky so after lunch I tested that hypothesis with a ride to Glen Valley. Not liking my proximity to clouds I then headed south back towards blue sky. I had intended to take 0 avenue to White Rock but deemed 52/56 avenue close enough (a fine stretch from about 280th to Langley). From Langley I headed to Richmond on backroads using the criteria that I couldn't take a road I knew. Richmond to the Patullo and into Burnaby saw me back at home 200+ kms and several hours after I had started. A large clear patch in the clouds meant a warm and sunny day ride after all!
April 21/22 Saturday is forecast to be warm and sunny...so a decent ride is in order. The Skagit Tulip Festival makes a good excuse to head south so we'll probably explore the roads in that direction.
Saturday was an excellent sunny day. We left at the crack of dawn (ok, 10am) and headed south on I-5 for a taste of freeway riding on the Goldwing. With new fork springs, my home-made backrest and highway pegs, it settled in very nicely...we could have cruised all day. But by Fairhaven we were ready for some twisties so followed the coastline via Chuckanut Drive to Skagit Valley. Normally we'd turn left at Bow Hill to pick up the excellent Prairie road but today we headed to Edison taking FarmtoMarket road into the heart of tulip country. By the way, expect serious traffic congestion near the tulip fields on sunny weekend days... :((
After admiring the tulips and taking the obligatory pictures, we headed to Mt Vernon and then over to #9 and Sedro-Woolley for a late lunch. After lunch we were ready for some serious riding which meant a spirited run to Acme and a detour to check out Mosquito Lake Rd (a superb twisty route marred a smidgen by somewhat coarse pavement texture). From there onto #542 then #547 to Sumas. Once back in Canada we decided to take Vye Road and 16th Avenue to White Rock. A quick blast along #99 to #91 saw us return home 400 kms and 8.5 hours after we started for a perfect biking day!
April 13/14 If I get my new Progressive Fork Springs installed I'll have to go for a test ride (I'll make the Goldwing a canyon carver yet!). Good weather...Squamish. Marginal weather...Belcarra.
Progressive Fork Springs installed without a hitch. Firms up the front end nicely. Someday I'll install rear Progressive shocks and tame the Wallowing Walrus (tm). The weather was good which meant a brisk ride to Squamish and Paradise Valley including pictures that may make it to the website. More good weather on Sunday meant another fun ride to Sylvester Road and a few more pictures.
April 7/8 Riding season has begun!!! If the sun's out I'll see if Squamish survived the winter... Otherwise something closer to home (Langley/Sumas backroads sound good).
Didn't get to Squamish...didn't get to Langley/Sumas either...but did manage Kanaka Park and then on to the Keystone area for a great ride including some pictures to go on the website!
Jan, Feb, Mar 2001 None : Gone Snowmobiling - It's winter, silly. Biking season is over !!!