Riding With a Support Vehicle

The past winter and spring have had the worst weather for that time of year that I can remember. Starting in mid-October we have been subjected to a never-ending series of wet, cold, grey days. I pride myself on being able to take one of my Collector British motorcycles out for at least one ride for every month of the year. This year I had two or three rides in November, one in December, and barely managed a ride on the afternoon of January 31st. February was a little better but not much. Over the past five months I doubt that we have had more than four consecutive days without rain and temperatures have been below normal so far in 2022. 

This leads me to the reason for this reminiscence of the past winter and spring. One would hope that the beginning of June would see some respite from this weather, but it doesn't seem to be. Tomorrow, my friend Garry and I will be setting off for a one week motorcycle trip to the Okanagan. Right now the rain is falling steadily and it is forecast to keep doing so until at least late tomorrow. So the first part of our ride will be wet and cold. We are travelling with our wives who will be driving while we ride. Weather won't mean much to them.

Garry & I left Campbell River at 1:00, hoping to beat the rain. The ride was mostly uneventful except for a light shower south of Courtenay. I was wearing my helmet with a visor for the first time and it was a totally different experience riding in the rain without feeling like my face was being peppered with little bullets. Darlene and Gretel left later and arrived after Garry and I had made a visit to Montana's for ribs. We stayed overnight at the Griffins' condo. 

Ready to Roll

Darlene and Gretel had reservations for the 10:15 a.m. ferry to Tsawwassen so we left around 8:30. Again, rain threatened but didn't arrive so except for a rather cool 14C ride we arrived without incident. While we waited two other bikes arrived. One guy and his wife riding a Honda Gold wing with front wheels like a Can-Am Spyder. They were towing a tent trailer and heading on a six or seven week's ride to Alaska having left Victoria this morning. Unfortunately for them, they had reservations for Horseshoe Bay, where they were to meet their friends. Our ferry was going to Tsawwassen, at least sixty kilometres from Horseshow Bay. The other bike was a 2021 Harley-Davidson Street Bob with a beautiful orange and black tank with a large H-D 1 on it. He had picked it up from a shop in Nanaimo and told me that he had already had it up to 150 kph. He staid it rode like it was on rails.

Three wheel Gold Wing

The bikes ready to board the ferry

Duke Point, BC

When we got the go ahead to get on the ferry, Garry's bike wouldn't start, so there he was trying to perform emergency surgery on before the ferry left. Fortunately it started, he made the ferry, and there were no further issues.

The ride out of Vancouver was quite smooth with a few minor backups but we made it from the Richmond Ring Road to Highway 1 in good time. We stopped at the Starbucks in Chilliwack for a break then carried on to Harrison Hot Springs where we checked in to the Harrison Spa Hotel; a 1950s type motel that is in the process of having a seven or eight storey condo or apartment building mere inches away from the motel wall. The builder look to be using every square centimetre of their lot.

Views of Harrison Lake

Darlene with one of the Harrison Hot Springs locals.

For dinner we walked to the Black Forest restaurant, a German establishment. The meals were pricey, but good. The weather is still very cool and cloudy and the temperature never exceeded 16C. This weather continues to blow. The best I can say about it for the past two days, it that it didn't rain except for an occasional light shower. I hope that tomorrow will be a better day weather-wise. And I hope to have more photos for tomorrow's entry.