Wheaton and wifey - North by Northwest

[Redfish Hunter]

Why does it have to be a BALD eagle? Why can't it just be an eagle?

Good Stuff. Keep typing.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Are they just the nicest or what? Dave & Sylvia = Awesome.

^^^^^Yep!!

 

[escapefjrtist]

Nicely done Mark!

Glad we followed Fontanaman's suggestion and ran up his east side shortcut...me likes those kind of shortcuts!

--G

 

[Heen]

Wheatie,

I am enjoying this all over again. You are getting me excited for my trip to Nakus. Thanks. (I leave a week from today.)

 

[Fontanaman]

Nicely done Mark!
Glad we followed Fontanaman's suggestion and ran up his east side shortcut...me likes those kind of shortcuts!

--G

Fontanaman knows nothing, except getting the Destination Hwy books and map for BC, Washington and Northern California.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Wednesday, July 13th On to Nelson!

So Wednesday morning comes along and it's time to leave the lovely lake abode and continue on our itineray...





So we packed up our belongings and loaded the bike. However, before we leave Oyama, we are having breakfast in Vernon. You see, Dave is the member of a supersecret society known as CABs, and they have their meetings on Wednesday mornings. This particular Wednesday was "Bring a foreigner to breakfast" day, so I was the lucky one to eat breakfast with the group, being poked and prodded to see whether I "think like a Canadian or not", or "have six fingers", or "what the heck! is goin on south of the Canadian border anyways!". This was a guys only thing(I think the women wanted a guy-free Wednesday morning), so Sylvia and Louanne and another of the women gender gathered at another location for breakfast.

I think their place was kewl...a river runs through it.





So they ate, and were done...but we hadn't gotten our food yet. New server on her first day or something like that. Well, the food was good, really hit the spot. The conversation was interesting to hear and listen to. CABs stands for CandyAssBikers...and you can't join it. Fun and interesting group...

...but it was time to get going. We had many kilometers to go that day, eh.

So we did not say good bye to the FastJoyRiders after breakfast because they were coming along! At least part way....



After breakfast in Vernon, we headed east on Hwy 6 and took the ferry to "Fokker"...



Nice day for a ferry ride, eh?



Very common sight in these parts, beauty, eh?



After the ferry ride, we headed with the FJRers up to Nakusp (nuh-KUSP)...where we shared a coffee and then parted ways.

On to Nelson!





We are alone again as a couple, and although friends are great...sometimes you just want to explore things as a couple, just you and your companion.

Last of the photos...but the scenery in BC just keeps coming at you.



So we got to our fine abode in Nelson. It was a nice place, a pricey room, but close to the beautiful Lake/River, and a train track ran behind the hotel, and there were earplugs sitting on the dresser. I knew there were train tracks nearby, but ear plugs? Uh-Oh! Actually, it was not bad at all, a short horn at 5am, then back to slumber. It was not right in town, so we knew we were going to walk aways. We could have gotten closer, but quite frankly, we didn't want to pay the prices...so we walked and got our 20 minute very brisk pace exercise walk in before and after dinner. It was all good. It was nice weather in the morning, but it looked like a front was coming through, so there was a little rain as we walked about the interesting downtown and tried to select a place to eat. A downpour began and that made our decision easy, we are eating here! We ate Chinese and shared a dish, it was good and hit the spot. I like Nelson...a little quirky in some places, but you want a little interest when you are touring.

We walked back to our hotel, but diverted along the river/lake where there was a grocery store, so we decided to get some items for tomorrow's lunch, nuts, fruit, cheese/crackers (Did you know "Thin Wheats" are a $1 less than "Wheat Thins"?) We were going to Ainsworth Springs tomorrow and wanted to have something to munch on.

So that's all for now. Tomorrow: Ainsworth Springs!

 

[Panman]

Your blessed Mr Wheaton, a wife that can physically be able to go out and ride with you.

Now on with the ride report sir.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Thursday, July 14 Ainsworth Springs!

Ever since Panman mentioned it, I knew this was going to be one of the day's destination, as this is right up Louanne's alley!

We are staying in the Prestige Inn, Nelson and the rooms were good for a couples trip. I can probably stay in a pretty economy type motel - if it is clean. Now, Canadian motels are relatively expensive, but this was a good one. However, the wifi must have been at the other end of the hotel as we had zilch. :-/

So off we wander off to the sister hotel a 5-10 min walk for the breakfast. The sister hotel was right on the river front and very picturesque. The food was awesome and you got a $10 credit per person towards the breakfast...so take $20 off the hotel room rate and the rate was almost reasonable. The breakfasts were done at a restaurant by some chefs, not some do it yerself breakfast.

The result was a full breakfast that kept you going long into the day and tasted in the absolute beautiful scenery.



Split both of these breakfasts between us, this one - French toast with syrup and berries



Great food surrounded by charming beauty..



I love old bridges too...



Well, at first we weren't excited to have to walk to another hotel for breakfast, but it was a beautiful path along the shore and loved the breakfast. Totally unknown at the time of trip planning, but definitely something we enjoyed.

So, today was going to be a Hot Springs day, sunny and blue skies looked awesome. Short ride to Ainsworth, about 60km, but the scenery and roads are good.

Overview of the region...



The road we traveled..



The pool at Ainsworth Hot Springs



If you notice in the photo above at the word "Caves", you walk in there and it gets real hot and the air is superheated like a sauna. The source of the water for the pool.

Just sitting on the ledge in the pool, soaking all this work/smork out of your mind...this vacation was definitely stress relieving. It's good to get away and recharge.

Stunning scenery to your northeast..



Looking to the southeast...



So after a good long soak, we left the hot springs and ate a late lunch from our grocery store right there at a bench overlooking the scenery (there was no food allowed in the hot springs pool area). I enjoyed the little set of twisties close by Ainsworth. It's probably good I don't live in our sister country of Canada...I would eventually get my bike impounded...and not because I'm doing anything dangerous. The roads are so good, it's hard to look down at your speedo and see you're already at impoundment speeds.

Oh well, it really is beautiful up here in Canada. I can see why BC is so popular, the mountains and lakes are just so stunning! So we got back to our hotel and chilled for awhile...just relishing the trip. When suppertime came we...

well blimey...I can't remember where we ate that night. Ooops. Well maybe we didn't. I'm sure I didn't drink to excess, cuz that's not my style. So, that's the end of Thursday's report...Friday we take a short ride east and south on some twisty roads...

...stay tuned.

 

[escapefjrtist]

Outta **LIKES** dammit.

Last time we were at Ainsworth it was overcast and drizzling...guess I better go back on a sunny day. Stunning scenery/pics Mark!

--G

 

[user 6393]

Kaslo/Ainsworth/Nelson are amazing on a sunny day........

Nice!

 

[Tyler]

I'm having major flashbacks from a trip to the PNW three years ago and one to Castlegar the year before that... I would have to concur with your opinion of the PNW folks... really wonderful people... a bit wacky but that's how I like them... birds of a feather, ya know. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the trip!! B)

 

[El Toro Joe]

Damn Mark, what an epic trip. Oh, and nice socks.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Friday, July 15th - One week on the roadtrip

Yes, had breakfast again.

Louanne had Chocolate Chip pancakes...I had some eggs and bacon.



The plan today was to take a short ride, we'd take a ferry at Balfour and head south to Creston then decide what we wanted to do after that.



There were some cars ahead of us, so we didn't get parked at the front of the boat.



You can see in the background of the photo that a front is coming in from the west and we were gonna get some today!

Looking south in the direction of Creston...hoping the front holds off while we (I) have fun on the road heading south. :-/



The Ferry master unloaded us in pretty good fashion and Louanne and I were able to get to the front of the mob heading south in no time. It did not seem like the bikes in front of me wanted to head out too briskly so we made to the front and enjoyed the curves...Yay!



The front was holding to the west, so we did the good road in the dry. No BC radar on this day. Having had my jollies on the curves, we stopped at an overlook just north of Creston.



Beautiful look over the plains below...



But you can see we are going to get wet heading into that front stopped up in the mountains to the west.





While we were stopped, a bicycle-tourer loaded down with pannier bags front and aft that we had passed shortly before pedaled up to us and stopped at the overlook. We chatted briefly and found out she was from Nakusp. Hope she stayed safe during the impending storm.

We decided to head west into it, and not try to cross the bay in the weather...even if they allowed it.

This was our route from the day...



You don't get a sense of the terrain from this map. Although I had run this road before with griff in 2009 in the opposite direction, I forgot that it climbed into the mountains...



..quite significantly.

So, it's never pleasant when you know you are going to head "into it". We headed west for a bit, and then the high winds came. As we came to a straight section of road suitable for pulling over, I knew then it was time to batten down the hatches and put on the rain gear. Other riders stopped to do the same. As we climbed the mountain, the gusts came and the rain with it. Not too bad, but certainly unsettling...and the temperatures plummeted. We were fine, but I caught up to a long train of cars going very slowly. I didn't want to ride in this roadwash, so as the passing lane came, I took it and passed a good number of cars and a few motorcycles. The next passing lane, we took care of the remainder. Much better. I could almost relax now with no vehicles around me and better visibility. The clouds clung to the mountains so there wasnt much scenic sight seeing, but after awhile as we headed down in elevation, the clouds lifted a bit and some beauty was there for the looking. Debris clouds here and there and a more constant rain though. We took the road back to Nelson and the rain began to lift to just a whisper of moisture by the time we got back to Nelson. As we got back, I headed through downtown and spied a restaurant I wanted to visit later in the evening.

When it was time to walk back into town, we walked all through town and I could not find the restaurant...very weird, cuz I usually remember my directions and locations pretty well. We continued on, now trying to figure out where we wanted to go, after looking at a few restaurant menus, we noticed a restaurant off the beaten path, kind of tucked away from the main streets. It was a restaurant with a Greek name that also served pizza. We stepped into this lower level half basement restaurant and it was packed and very busy. This is a good sign Louanne and I thought! Sure enough, the pizza was really good and we enjoyed the atmosphere...a lot of electricity with all the hustle and bustle. Satisfied, we walked off some of the calories on our way back to our hotel room.

Got a bit wet today, but the day was awesome nonetheless, nice ferry ride, nice twisties, adventure in the mountains, and a great supper.

Tomorrow, we head on to Golden, BC!

 

[1911]

WOW! What an adventure.

It's taking me a while to get through this rr. For some reason I keep getting hungry in the middle of this thing and have to go get something to eat.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Saturday, July 16th - Heading to Golden, BC!

Nope. No breakfast photos to drool over this time. Had a good breakfast, but ate inside as it had rained overnight and the tables and seats were wet. It looked fine outside, but the forecast was for scattered rain. Like many days on this trip, the radar wasn't looking good for parts of the route. However, that was not really a concern. I mean, why else would we stuff the raingear on the bike if we didn't have it for those times? We are heading to Golden, but not by the route previously indicated.

This is how we are heading to Golden...



In many ways to ride this section of road...



...because it would be a crime to spend three days in this portion of BC and to not have ridden it.

I was hoping for dry pavement, not sure I am going to get my wish, but it seems that the radar indicates wetness from Nakusp and to points north. So all packed up, geared up, we start up the FJR and leave Nelson for new places...places we've never been. We head north and east, then north once we get to Balfour, past Ainsworth, seeing beautiful scenery in the morning light. Lake to the right, mountains across the shore, twisty roads in front of me...all is right with this picture for sure. Now, once we got west of Kaslo, Louanne didn't get many photos...hmmm, I wonder why?

Actually, I wasn't crazy on the twisties, just having fun.

Here's one photo she felt comfortable taking on that road...



We both loved that road, the river follows along that road for much of the way and the morning light was reflecting that cold rushing water and turning it silver and golden. Kilometer after Kilometer. She also loved the the white-capped mountain peaks in the background. Like I said, we BOTH loved that road.

You know, Louanne likes the curves as well, and is a great pillion...very experienced, even though we only seem to do this once every other year or so. So on this road, instead of taking pictures, is it so wrong for her to live in the moment instead of recording for the future. I don't think so...so we loved this moment, this minute...and loved it.

On this road where there are not too many sections for passing, no problem...no traffic in front of us...

...until now, we have 4 Harleys in front of us. (Great.) I was going to just settle in behind them and be a good boy, but after awhile, a section with longer sight lines appeared, so we passed them in one shot before the next curve.

Here's another shot on that road just before New Denver...



So, we get up to Nakusp and I tank up, as we can make it from there to Golden easily on that tank. As I'm putting that Canadian liquid gold ($$) in the FJR, I see some riders rumble up, a group of four. One of the riders wanders over, sees my SC plates, and says "Welcome to Canada!" I thought that a bit odd, but then I realize he must have been one that I passed while having fun on that road back there.

Louanne was in the station itself and says that he was talking to the others about some guy from South Carolina...

It was supposed to be wet north of Nakusp, but it didn't seem bad yet. A couple rode up on two bikes from the north, and as they settled in at the stop, I asked them about "rain". They said they rode over from Lake Louise and it was raining all the way from there to Revelstoke...alot. In fact, they said it rained 100mm in Banff, and was STILL raining! Well, looks like rain today...

We head north to the ferry at Galena Bay and wait. And Wait...



Finally, we see it coming...



The rain is definitely happening, so I put on my rainsuit and tell Louanne to do the same...she's not happy. She doesn't like feeling like the Michelin Man, etc.

So we changed gear before the ferry arrived.

The rain happened before we got to Revelstoke, and got onto the main highway. There are no photos because of the rain and Louanne protecting our camera. I talked about the passing zone phenomena in the other thread, so I won't repeat it here. But cars that were going along sedately and blocking 12 cars AT the limit, suddenly are Formula 1 drivers the whole length of the zone...then back down. Read the other thread if you want to know how I dealt with that.

One thing that I was stunned at, even through heavy rain and nill long distance visibility was the awesome scenery I was missing with this weather as debris clouds drifted and a sneak peek at the tall peaks in this area showed themselves! Wow! It was a fleeting look, but someone go up there and take some pictures, why doncha...I think east of Revelstoke to Golden might be awesome...don't know, but it could be real good.

So, we finally get to Golden and the rain has stopped to the point of occasional sprinkle...the Timmy's was PACKED! Parking lot was FULL...they sure like them up here.



We had beautiful sawtooth mountains west of town...



So, I decided to spend less in Golden, BC and went with the Pinewood Inn, a small 4 or 5 unit row of rooms run by a family. I wasn't so sure about it when we rode up to it, but I warmed up to it...



Cozy and comfortable after a wet ride.



Looking out the front window



I warmed up to it...but it was WAY on the north side of town and we had laundry to do, so we hike 5 miles into town(okay, maybe less than that)...

...but at least we had some scenery to look at.



We walked past an engineered wood lumber plant, so of course I had to take a photo of the product stored outside...



Scenery to the south and east...



To the north and east...



If you look closely, you can see the parasailing going on...



We crossed the river in the center of town...



So after walking all that way, we got our clothes clean (yay) and had stopped at the grocery store to pick up lunch supplies.

I love the scenery around Golden. My jaw was dropping at all I took in.

On the way back to the motel, the skies were opening up and clouds parting...



Just beautiful...



I love Golden, BC. Precious memories...

 

[Tiger_993]

Stunning scenery and thank you for sharing!

 

[LKLD]

Stunning scenery and thank you for sharing!

+1 Gunny!

 

[Tanker]

Fantastic stuff Mark!

 

[JamesW]

Pictures and narrative are so nice and all that stuff is only a day or 2 ride away for those of us living in the PNW.

 

[escapefjrtist]

Keep it coming Mark!

Enjoying the virtual "ride-along" north of the border. ;-)

--G