I’m recently returned from a five day motorcycle adventure. Myself and four others set out to do a loop of British Columbia, Canada – encompassing some of the best motorcycle riding in the country. This was the fourth trip I have organized and lead. It was the first trip where the group faced some real adversity.
Adversity comes in many forms on a ride. Accidents, weather, temperature, poor planning, sub-standard accommodations and a failure to meet ride expectations are just some of the adversity you can encounter on a ride. Unfortunately, on this ride we bumped into all of these.
Because it turned out to be a rough trip, I’ve decided to keep names out of it. I’ll tell my story, it’s up to others to relate their experience in their own way and time. In this ride article I’ll detail how the trip went and the lessons I learned as a result.
The Beginning...
Mostly fresh-faced, five of us arrived Monday morning at 5:45am at the meeting point. The morning was cool and the sky was mostly clear as the sun began its climb. We had to start with a discussion of the weather.
The weather predictions for the next five days along our route were not looking good. Rain was forecast. I considered this a last chance for all of us to reconsider whether we wanted to go. My traveling preference is not to ride in the rain unless it’s a complete surprise. It slows you down, obscures the beautiful scenery along the way, chills you and makes riding generally miserable. So, why do it unless you absolutely have to?!
Here’s a problem with having to organize a trip months ahead of time. People have to book time off work and you just can’t predict what the weather will do. So, I stood in front of the others and put it out there that it wasn’t too late to cancel the trip. Rain would basically ruin the intent of the entire trip, that to enjoy majestic vistas and ride some of the best roads in Canada.
As a group we looked hard at the weather and made a call to proceed day by day. If the weather turned on us as we were traveling, we could always turn around or change directions to avoid it, or so we hoped.
So we saddled up and made our way north to Nanaimo to catch a ferry over to Horseshoe Bay, north of Vancouver. The ride to the ferry was fast and uneventful. We ran into some low cloud on our way, but it cleared up nicely and was warm. A new facet of this trip was that all five of us were in communication via our Cardo Packtalk communicators. It was novel and interesting to be able to share our thoughts as we ate up the kilometers.
Upon reaching Horseshoe Bay, we swung north and began a bit of a highway grind with lots of traffic as we wound our way towards Squamish and Whistler. By the time we reached Whistler, it had cooled down somewhat and was looking like rain, so we pulled into Whistler and parked illegally in covered tour bus parking stalls to put on our raingear.
All dressed up, we pushed north towards our first real stop of the day, Pemberton, BC. Fortunately, it didn’t really rain and although we saw some sprinkles and short sections of wet road, by the time we reached Pemberton we were still dry. Our first stop was supposed to be a crowd favorite, the Blackbird Bakery. Unfortunately, I hadn’t checked and they weren’t open on Mondays. We’d chosen to do our trip from a Monday through Friday to avoid the worse of tourist traffic. So, cinnamon buns would have to wait for another day!
At this time, the group decided to split into two. Two of our riders wanted to take an alternate route towards our destination for the day – Lillooet, BC. They wanted an off-pavement option and a route called the “Highline Road” was strongly calling. So, the two of them took off on their adventure and the remaining three of us set off towards Lillooet along the Duffey Lake Road.
As soon as you depart Pemberton heading north, the traffic mostly thins out and the majority of the people on the road will pull off to let faster traffic by them. For whatever reason, CanaDream RV’s seem to never pull over though!
Fortunately there are lots of sections you can pass safely and we did that. A benefit of having communications with everyone was that the leader (me) was able to communicate back when it was safe for the other riders to make a pass which all appreciated.
The Duffey Lake Road is a very popular motorcycling road. It features long sweeping curves, tight hairpins, and ends with an extended, winding climb up towards Lillooet through a mountain pass as you travel north.
It was during this climb that three of us experienced our first real rain of the trip. Fortunately, we were dressed for it and while it slowed us down, it was only the last twenty kilometers or so. We pulled into Lillooet a little wet but otherwise quite satisfied with a speedy run up the Duffey.
As we got off the bikes at our hotel, we got our first real shock of the trip. A phone call came in over the Cardo. There’d been an accident on the Highline Road, one of our crew was down, injured and his bike was wrecked.
Now What?!
My emotions were all over the shop, worry and concern for our fellow rider first among them. The uninjured rider had to return to Pemberton, back down the mountain in order to get into cell service to call us and to get help for our injured friend. At this point we knew that the front end of the bike was damaged and that he had hurt his hand in some way.
It was at this point, as we were standing awkwardly in front of our hotel wondering what to do, when a cute little kid – obviously the owner’s – banged on the window and yelled “CHECK IN?!?!” We shook our heads, not ready to do that yet and unsatisfied with our answer, he came outside and screeched, “CHECK IN?!?!” again lol. We more firmly shook our heads, no and he gave up and went back inside.
Our uninjured friend, currently in Pemberton was on hold with a towing company, trying to arrange a wrecker to go up the Highline and pick up our stranded friend. It was then that the generosity of strangers began to kick in. A rider on a scrambler pulled into the gas station our uninjured friend was at and came over to say “Hi”. Upon hearing the story, he offered to ride back up to our injured friend and let him know a tow truck was on the way. What an amazing guy!
We had a bit of a hard time getting hold of a towing company that would go up there, but eventually did. Once he was sure the towing company was on the way, our uninjured friend decided to make his way up the Duffey to us. Again, the generosity of strangers kicked in. Four experienced dual sport riders ran into our injured friend and were able to bend the rim back, put a tube in and get him moving again. They escorted him down off the mountain to Pemberton. Our injured friend’s ride was over and by mutual agreement, he would be left to figure out how to get himself and his bike home to Victoria. There’s more to that story, but it’s not mine to tell.
About 7pm, our uninjured friend caught up to us in Lillooet and we regrouped to eat supper, talk about what happened, the weather and what to do next.
The Second Day...
The weather was forecast to be rainy across our route for Day Two in the morning, clearing in the afternoon, so we planned a late start. Four of us left Lillooet at 1130am and headed east towards Nakusp, our destination for the day – some 480km away. Our route would take us north along Highway 99 towards Cache Creek and the #1 Highway east. The first really good riding of the day happened after we passed through Kamloops and transitioned to Highway 97 from Monte Creek to Vernon. Some nice, long sweepers and very little traffic along this road.
In Vernon we stopped for a bite to eat about 4pm to get ourselves ready for the next leg of the journey – Vernon to Nakusp via the #6 Highway, arguably one of the best roads in Canada for motorcycling. The traffic really began to thin out around Lumby, leaving us with a couple hundred kilometers of mostly traffic-free riding along 60-80km/h posted sweeping corners. So many corners. We paused for 15 minutes at the summit of the Monashee Pass to get some warm layers on as it had cooled down. The section from the Rest Area at the summit down the mountain towards Needles seems like one corner after another. We were constantly counter-steering and leaning into 50km/h posted corners one after the other. We got down to the ferry at 7pm. An hour later we were across the river and in Nakusp at our hotel. The ride from the ferry to Nakusp was chilly in the shade and I was stressed looking for deer and elk. By the time we pulled into the hotel at 8pm, one of us was completely DONE. So three of us quickly went off to get some supper at the Arrow Lake Tavern Bar and Lounge. Being a Tuesday night and near closing time, it was quiet and the service was quick. Food was good, but a bit over-priced. A late night of bevvies, card playing and hanging out happened and so ended Day Two. In hindsight, a 480 kilometer, 8.5 hour day is easily doable, however arriving somewhere at 8pm is less than desirable.
Day Three:
Day Three was a late start also. This, mostly because it was to be the shortest day of the trip. Only 120 kilometers to do to get to Toad Rock Motorcycle Campground. Our plan was to make several stops along the way. First we went to New Denver and visited the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre. None of us had any real idea of the scope of the resettlement of ethnic Japanese/Canadians that occurred as a result of the Second World War. There were many camps set up throughout the interior of British Columbia and the Memorial Centre is a piece of one camp that has been maintained as a historical site.
After we traipsed around the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre, we went 20 minutes down the road to Sandon, where we visited the former mining townsite that is maintained by volunteers and through donations. One highlight is one of the last operating Tesla power generating stations in North America in the Sandon Generating Station built in 1897. You need to take a 5-10 minute trip up a gravel road to get to Sandon, but it’s easy for any bike when it’s dry.
Next on the agenda was the #31A Highway from New Denver to Kaslo. Another one of the most fun roads in the province. Almost no traffic and big 60-80km/h posted sweepers. The weather was warm and the roads dry. A quick look in my mirror in some of the exciting bits showed the rest of the group tight up my rear – clearly they were loving the corners!
We got into Toad Rock Motorcycle Campground about 4pm. Leah, who greeted us was very friendly and accommodating. We quickly dropped off our gear and then headed down the road towards a pub in Balfour we could watch the Avalanche play in the first game of the cup finals. We wound up at the Balfour Beach Inn. The hotel itself looks a bit suspect, but the restaurant was surprisingly good. Some interesting choices, decent portions and reasonable prices.
After a good game it was back to the campground for the night. Being the middle of the week and early in June, there were only a couple other people at the campsite. The four of us went down to the social area and played some cards while the other campers watched a movie. We had rented a couple cabins for the night. The cabins were a bit rudimentary, one had electricity, one didn’t. Two things put a damper on our stay there. One was the mosquitoes which were pretty bad and the other was a set of dirty sheets on one of the beds. Being late and over-served, we improvised rather than asking for new sheets. It was a fairly early evening as we had an early and long day planned next.
Day Four: The Longest Day...
Waking up at 8am, I headed out the door of the little cabin and saw that two of the group were already dressed and had their bikes packed. They’d had enough of the mosquitoes and immediately made tracks towards coffee and breakfast in Nelson. Shortly afterwards, the remaining two of us saddled up and got on down the road.
Parking in Nelson turned out to be harder to manage than expected. Everywhere seemed to be either private or pay parking. So in typical fashion, we parked illegally and sat down to eat an amazing breakfast sandwich and coffee from Empire Coffee.
One of the things I learned on previous trips is that the last day of a trip usually sucks. It’s usually a long trip down the road to home – boring, straight highways with loads of traffic which results in fatigue and stress. You end the day at home, exhausted and spent. So, I decided to plan the second to last day to be a long day and leave a short run home for the last day so we could relax on our last night and enjoy some bevvies and social time. Sounds good in theory right?
Day Four was Toad Rock Campground to Chilliwack, a trip of just over 600 kilometers. I estimated that with breaks along the way it would take us 10 hours on the road. Leave at 8:30am and arrive at about 6:30pm. It would be a long day, but manageable.
What I failed to consider in my plan for this day was adversity. The weather cooperated almost as far as Osoyoos. We hit some rain about an hour before Osoyoos and had to pull over in front of someone’s house under a tree to get our raingear on. The roads up out of Nelson, through Grand Forks and on to Osoyoos were fun in a lot of places but the rain slowed us down considerably and all of our breaks through the day took longer than I expected. Consequently, we didn’t leave Osoyoos until 3pm with 300km still to go. I knew at that point we were going to be late getting into Chilliwack. The plan was to stop in Hope for supper because where we were staying in Chilliwack was a bit light on good food stops and The Home Restaurant in Hope serves good home cooking and amazing pies.
Where the plan really broke down was between Princeton and Hope, through Manning Park. The #3 Highway in both directions from Princeton to Hope is in atrocious condition. What I had failed to plan for was the condition of the highway after the floods last year. While the #1 and #5 highways were closed last year, the #3 was the only route open to trucking and all the trucks moving essential goods west to Vancouver had wrecked it.
Compounding poor road conditions was rain and low visibility. Add to that, we’d already been on the road 8 hours at this point and you’ve got a recipe for misery. When it became evident it was going to start raining, we were in Manning Park and there was nowhere safe to pull off the road and put on raingear, so we spent the last 45 minutes of the road into Hope soaked and freezing whilst dodging crater-sized potholes.
We arrived in Hope at just after 6pm. The Home Restaurant is very popular and it was after 8pm before we got out of there. We pulled into the hotel in Chilliwack at 9pm, 12.5 hours after we left Toad Rock. Thankfully, the gang had enough energy left to hit the pool and hot tub in the hotel and then we settled in for a night of smokin’ and jokin’.
The Final Day - A Short Burn Home:
The last day of the trip began at 11am. We packed up, saddled up and hit the road towards Coquitlam where we were invited to one of the group’s parents place for some amazing hospitality, food and a swim. Being the last day of the trip and after a very long and trying day, we relaxed for a couple hours and then after a couple wrong turns trying to get out of Vancouver, headed to the ferry and home. I got home just before 8pm.
Lessons Learned:
If you’ve managed to read this far, you’ve probably been able to imagine some of the challenges we faced based on your own experiences. What I’d like to talk about now is what I learned on this trip about leading and facing adversity. My military background strongly influences my behaviour in many aspects of my life, not least of which is dealing with adversity. When faced with a challenge, I often put my head down, grit my teeth and get ‘er done. This is my default response to unpleasant or difficult situations.
Based on this trip and after some introspection, it’s clear to me that when leading a group of riders, I need to try to be more aware of how others are responding to the challenges the group is facing. As an example, my comfort level with riding in the rain may not be the same as someone else’s. Although I feel the pace I am setting is safe, someone else may not feel the same way, and as a leader I have to balance the need to progress with the needs of the individuals in the group. More rest stops or a slower pace may be required. It’s not really enough to expect people to “ride their own ride” when you are traveling in a small group. You can only go as fast as the slowest rider unless by pre-arrangement you are splitting up the group for a particularly fast or technical section.
On a trip, having voice communications with all the other riders can be highly advantageous. The leader and group members can discuss on the fly things like stopping or the pace. As the leader, when encountering rain, the default should be to slow down to a mutually comfortable pace. The nearest safe pullout should be utilized to put on raingear on as soon as possible. When in doubt, err on the side of caution and put the raingear on before you hit rain as there may not be a safe spot to stop once you are into the rain.
It’s also clear to me in retrospect that regardless of the departure time, a day should never end later than 6pm and ideally, no later than 4pm. After 6pm, people become quickly fatigued and fatigue leads to errors and ultimately can lead to accidents. I also feel quite strongly that riding near dusk in our area runs the risk of encountering wildlife such as deer or elk on the road unexpectedly.
How far you travel in a day will always be relative to the people in the group. If there’s just two of you and you have traveled together before and know you can do a 12 hour day, fine – do a 12 hour day. But for a group of average people, a distance of 450km per day seems a reasonable and ideal goal. By the time you stop for breaks and have some lunch, you’ll have been on the road for 8 hours which is more than enough for the average rider. The average time of a break whether for gas or just to get off the bikes seems to be about 30 minutes by the time everyone has had a drink or snack, gone to the washroom and stretched their legs. That adds up over a day when you stop every hour and a half or so.
I still believe the last day of a trip should be the shortest day. I think that when we get close to home, our brain switches gears and we start returning back to real life and it distracts from the riding. You would HATE to get all the way back to the island and get into an accident 5 minutes from home like I did once.
Lastly, when you have to plan out trips months ahead to accommodate things like vacation requests and such, you always run the risk of having to ride in adverse weather conditions. I think everyone should think very carefully about whether they want to spend vacation time slugging through the rain on a motorcycle and not be afraid to cancel at the last minute. I just don’t think riding in the rain is valuable vacation time spent.
The astute reader you are, you will have discerned a distinctly negative tone in my writing about this trip. That’s because I think the trip was very challenging for some of the group and I put most of that on myself. I want to stress though that it wasn’t all bad. On the twisties – the best riding roads the trip had to offer, we saw very little in the way of wet roads and I definitely enjoyed the riding. There were definitely some lessons I will take away from this trip, but it won’t stop me from doing another.
Thanks for reading, ride safe!