I am back from my whirlwind, motorcycling adventure! I woke up this morning and immediately wanted to get on my bike and ride. For four mornings in a row I got up, got ready, and headed out with my dad for the day's adventure.
We traveled from my apartment in Bellingham, WA to Princeton, BC, then to Kamloops the second day, Pemberton the third and back home on the fourth day.
I wasn't nervous until the last second (per usual) before we left and then I was petrified, why you ask, because I had to get on the freeway for the first time to begin our trip. UGH.
Before I get into trip specifics a word on what I packed: lots of socks, extra shoes (never wore), extra pants (didn't wear), lots of Mojo pretzel & peanut butter bars (ate a few), layers layers layers (wore all of them, all the time. I packed a sweater to wear, and on my bike I was wearing: t-shirt, sweatshirt, a jacket-liner that broke the wind, and my leather jacket, I wore thick tights under my jeans with socks and boots. I also wore a neck warmer thing, earplugs, sunglasses or my glasses, and my helmet. Lots of stuff but it kept me warm (mostly, more on that in a minute). I also brought my 2 liter
Platypus bag aka my Platy and some lemon/lime Mio stuff to put in the horrible tasting Canadian water.
We also packed out minions in our tank bags! Dad had a small version of Stuart and I had a poofy version of Dave. They didn't stay under the plastic because that would be cruel but they were fun travel companions and you will see more of them in a minute!
When we left my main issues on my bike were cornering and downshifting. To get on/off the freeway successfully you have to turn a sharp left and then speed up quickly and enter traffic. Then to exit you obviously have to slow down which on a bike means downshifting quickly in order to stop. Let's just say that part didn't go so hot. I didn't crash but I hadn't quite mastered the art of giving the bike a little blip of gas right before I shifted down.
Once we got through the border, without so much as taking off our full-face helmets, we started making our way to Princeton. We were on highways most of the day and go up to so crazy high elevations above some bodies of water and valleys. We made a small detour to Harrison Hot Springs where my friend Wendy and I spent a wonderful weekend last year. I even took a photo in the same place I had Wendy take my photo a year ago!
I can't remember much of the rest of the ride because I was busy trying not to freeze to death. Temperatures dipped down to 50º which if you've ever ridden a bike with no windshield going 120km/p (~75mph) you know that's really really cold. I was wearing just about everything I brought with me including my stupid thicker gloves that made my hands feel like I had oven mitts on them.
We arrived in Princeton and I thawed myself by a space heater in our strange little motel room. We had a great Greek dinner and I got in some quality trash TV time after dinner.
The next day we took Dave and Stuart out for a nice breakfast at a great bakery in Princeton before heading out for the day.
My biggest annoyance on the trip was the lack of rest stops. Apparently Canadians don't believe in rest stops or pull outs or anywhere to stop and drink water and stretch my crab-claw hands. I had to stop way more than my dad probably would have liked but too bad, it was nice to get out and stretch and take some photos and drink some water. We also averaged about 200 miles or less a day so there was no reason to be in a huge hustle.
Once we arrived in Kamloops we made our way to a large waterfront park filled with kids and water-fowl. Including our lunchtime pals these ducks. I needed some time to relax and decompress as the temperature had risen significantly and we had maneuvered through some busier streets than I had expected.
Kamloops was surprisingly beautiful and the view from our hotel was pretty epic. We had a beer and took a nap and went out for some amazing ramen at
Tiger Ramen and then slept some more.
The next day was our most incredible leg, en route to Pemberton BC which is close to Whistler. Lots of high mountain roads winding through the hills. I kept up with everything fairly well and even went through some gravel (AHHHH!!) and narrow one-lane bridges.
We also finally got a photo with the two of us
in it thanks to some nice German tourists!
We had dinner in Pemberton (we stayed a little bit outside of the main town) and then went to a small recreation center to eat a killer espresso brownie and watch a water show courtesy of the kids fountains and jets that I had to turn on, because why not. The views were nothing to sneeze at:
oh! I brought my Kindle, Agnes, and read a lot of Harry Potter.
The last day we had breakfast at another cool bakery, this time in Pemberton, and made our way towards Whistler. Unfortunately the entire highway between Whistler and Vancouver was reduced speeds and lanes due to a ginormous, distracting, slow bicycle race. Why someone would want to ride a bicycle from Vancouver to Whistler I may never know.
We ended up stopping a fair amount because I had a hard time focusing on all the SPEED UP slow way down STOP watch out for people and cones and bicycles and people running around everywhere.
Once we made it through all the Whistler shenanigans we wanted to stop for lunch so dad exited in West Vancouver (hey dad, I figured out where we were!) and unbeknownst to him dropped us off at the biggest hill I've ever seen in my life and immediately put my stomach in my throat. Hills, on a motorcycle, no thank you. I don't like heights and as mentioned before shifting down wasn't my strong suit at the beginning of the trip — luckily for me I had gotten a lot better and while I was about to die the whole time I made it down the hills without much trouble. This Google Map photo does not do it justice but just imagine that going to the bay is STRAIGHT DOWN.
We got back to Bellingham early Saturday afternoon after an exhausting day. It ended up being about 89º on our way back which was much warmer than I have ever ridden in and was disgusting. Waiting in line at the border, idling and moving really slowly was no fun but we made it back in with little fanfare and after a brief sojourn to Blaine to get lost we made it back to my apartment and better tasting water.
I learned so much on this trip I don't even know where to begin. I was thrilled each day to gear up and get going and spending that time with my dad was incredible. I am forever thankful for all his help, guidance, encouragement, and navigational skills.
Now I have 4 days off the beginning of October and want to begin planning my next adventure!
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