I Don't Like Rain Much

So, the plan was to leave for the ride to Kamloops on Monday on Monday morning but just before I went to bed I checked the weather forecasts for Campbell River, Nanaimo, Squamish, and Kamloops.  Weather forecast said no rain until late in the day at each location but then showers until Tuesday.  At 3:20 a.m. I woke up and coincidentally Darlene was awake too.  I said, "I'm going to leave this morning and I'll beat the rain." Six hundred kilometres of rainy riding is not in my dictionary under 'Fun Times'.  And I had spent an hour and a half cleaning Big Red to within an inch of her life and then waxing her so she looked stunning and I didn't want to waste all that work riding in the rain.

 

Up at 6:00 a.m. after about three hours' sleep  and a great deal of thought about what I should bring on this trip and what I brought last year that I could have done without, I very carefully packed my tourpak and panniers and there was extra room.  Needless to say, rain gear didn't make the cut.

 

Finally, after finishing my packing and taking some time to show Darlene how to use the Blue Ray payer with the TV, and showing her how to use Netflix, I headed out to my friends' place to pick up my Harley hat which I had left there last night only to remember that I had forgotten my sandals. Can't walk around in motorcycle boots for twelve days, so I swung by home, picked them up and hit the road at about 8:20 hoping to catch the 10:30 ferry from Nanaimo.

 

Less than 25 kilometres south of Campbell River, the rain started.  Not heavy rain but just enough to wet the pavement so all that accumulated road dirt would spray up onto my newly cleaned, waxed and shiny bike.  All the way to Nanaimo.  When I pulled into the terminal my shiny clean bike was worse than it had been before I cleaned it.

 

I met a guy and his friend who were riding from Port Alberni to Vancouver on a 2011 CVO (don't know the model) that he had paid almost $40K for.  He was complaining that even with an appointment the dealer who had sold him the bike and who shall remain nameless, wouldn't guarantee him an oil change time after an almost three hour ride to get there.  Needless to say, he was not a happy customer of said dealership.

 

The guy from Port Alberni & his CVO

 

The rain continued in Horseshoe Bay but despite that there were dozens of road bicycle riders doing the trip for either Vancouver to the north, or back to Vancouver.  With all the elevation change I had to think that these guys and gals were in pretty good shape.  As a cyclist, I hate hills.  OK, I'll clarify that. I hate hills I have to climb.  Although ones I can ride down are pretty good.

 

Just before I arrived at Shannon Falls and the Stawamus Chief, the rain stopped although the skies remained grey.  Since the improvements to the highway form Vancouver to Whistler Highway 99 is a good ride.  From Squamish north the scenery keeps getting better and between Whistler and Pemberton it is difficult to focus on the road with all the snow capped mountains.  Halfway between Whistler and Pemberton the sun came out and by the time I arrived in Pemberton it was clear and sunny with a temperature of about 30C.

 

Shannon Falls near Squamish

 

Shannon Falls

 

Leaving Pemberton, I rode the Mount Curry Road which is as fine a motorcycle road as you'll find anywhere.  It runs along the Lillooet River to Birkenstock Lake where it becomes the Duffy Lake Road, which itself is an excellent motorcycle road with lots of curves and an elevation change of almost a thousand metres in less than ten kilometres.  However, the cloud closed in and I rode through more rain until I was almost at Lillooet where the skies became blue with large clouds and the temperature again climbed into the high 20s. 

 

Birkenstock Lake

 

Birkenstock Lake near Pemberton, BC

 

Mountains near Lillooet, BC

 

Near Lillooet, BC

 

Seton Lake near Lillooet, BC

The ride to Cache Creek and Kamloops was the way a ride should be with sun and dry pavement and I arrived at Jim & Sue's place at about 8:30, very pleased that I had made it without having to face really heavy rain.  The ride today was 604 km so this morning I made sure to enter the info in H-D's Ride the World event. It used to be called 'Million Mile Monday but it was good to be able to make my contribution.

 

When I awoke this morning it had already rained and the skies looked like more was to come.  When I texted Darlene in Campbell River this morning she said that it was pouring there.  And the rain really started to pound down here in Kamloops so I was feeling really smart to have left when I had just a little bit of rain to deal with rather than to leave in a downpour.

 

So the plan now is to leave tomorrow and after the first day we'll look at the weather forecasts to see where we'll go.  Going east in light of what has happened in southeastern BC, and southern Alberta is not in the cards for us and we have decided that we'll chase the sun during this ride and whatever we see will be great.

 

This is a ride that I have been looking forward to since last November when we first started talking about it, and if everything works out we'll be on the road tomorrow.