As planned, Garry and I said goodbye to our good wives and rolled out of Campbell River just after 12:30 on the first leg of our ride to the 75th Black Hills Rally in Sturgis, SD. The weather was perfect as we made the run to Nanaimo where we stopped to refuel and then headed to the Duke Point ferry.
As we waited in the lineup to board the ferry we figured that we were going to have the only motorcycles on the ferry until minutes before loading we were joined by a couple on a 2015 Triumph Bonneville. On this ferry we were relegated to the bottom deck with the semi trucks, apparently because some idiot a while ago had dropped his motorcycle on the upper ferry deck. In typical BC Ferries fashion the decision was made to place all motorcycles on the lower deck because, apparently people who can't ride motorcycles on the upper deck can do so on the lower deck. I'm not sure about the thinking processes that arrived at that solution to a problem that probably doesn't really exist, but some idiot (either a rider or a BC Ferries executive, or both) has messed up the ferry ride for all riders for the foreseeable future.
After we parked we had some time to chat with the young couple, Charley Carroll and Jessi Odenbach who are from Chicago. They rented the Bonneville in Portland, OR, and headed for Astoria, OR, where they crossed the bridge over the Columbia River and headed up the Washington coast on Highway 101. The highway is beautiful running along beaches and haystack rocks and through the coastal rainforest before arriving at Port Angeles and taking the Black Ball Ferry, Coho, to Victoria.
Jessi Odenbach & Charley Carroll from Chicago, IL
Today they were heading to Vancouver for two days then they were riding to Seattle before finishing their ride back in Portland. Charley restores old Honda motorcycles and his daily rider is a 1965 Honda Super Hawk. It's pretty great to think that a young guy like Charley loves, restores and rides old motorcycles and the one he rides every day is half a century old. Jessi is getting into riding with a Honda 90 while she learns. I suspect that quite soon she'll be riding her own motorcycle rather than being a passenger. It was great to meet them and I hope they ride safely for the remainder of their trip.
On the ride across I went to the upper deck to take some photos. As I was enjoying the sun I mentioned to a guy standing beside me that Mount Baker was easy to see. He brought his wife over to see it and we began to chat. The couple, Dina and Patrick are forom Basel, Switzerland and they had spent six days on the west coast at Tofino with trips to Ucluelet, and Port Alberni to take the steam train to McLaren's Mill, a hundred year-old steam sawmill outside of town. They really loved the beaches there including Tonquin and Chestermanns Beaches. One of their highlights was seeing a bear sow with three cubs.
Dina & Patrick from Basel, Switzerland
When Patrick asked me where I was from I told him, then mentioned that I was lucky to live in a place where people paid thousands of dollars to come and visit. Patrick wryly said, "Like us."
Their plan was to spend two days in Vancouver then six more days in Los Angeles before flying home to Basel. I suspect that the best part of their journey will be the time they spent on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Our motorcycles on the bottom deck of the Coastal Inspiration
Leaving the ferry we took the new road around Vancouver and after passing under the new Port Mann Bridge we were spat out on Highway 1 where the rush hour traffic had thinned out noticeably. East of Abbotsford, Mount Baker dominated the skyline. If this dormant volcano ever becomes active again, I suspect that people in the Lower Mainland are going to have serious problems.
It was a quick run to Chilliwack where I picked up two memory cards for my GoPro3 video camera and we refueled before heading to Hope, BC. As we approached Hope the terrain became mountainous, and by the time we pulled into town we were surrounded by mountains on three sides with the Fraser River on the fourth.
It seems that the local motels weren't too busy and we were able to get a room at the Slumber Lodge Motel. As we were unloading out bikes we noticed two guys eating off the tailgate of their Toyota Tacoma pickup. We had a brief chat and it was then that I saw that they were dismantling lobsters.
Dismantling Atlantic lobsters
Steve (r.) watching his friend disassembling sixteen Atlantic lobsters.
After dinner we again spoke with the guys who were from Nova Scotia. They are working on building a new hydro transmission line to the coast. One of the guys had just returned from Nova Scotia with a case of lobsters - sixteen of them, and he was disassembling them in the back of the truck. Steve, one of the guys offered each of us a piece of lobster. Naturally, we took him up on the offer, and, it was very tasty. It was a great way to end a terrific first day of our journey.
Tomorrow we will take Highway 3 and try to make it to Castlegar of Creston, whatever works at the time. This journey is off to a great start.
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