North by Northwest Tour 2018.06

In June 2018, our Les Canards Sauvages motorcycle club toured British Columbia. There's a map below showing our exact route. But essentially ... Seattle - Vancouver BC - Whistler - Pemberton - Lillooet - Quesnel - Prince George - Houston - Prince Rupert - Port Hardy - Gold River - Tsawwassen - Nanaimo - Seattle. A bit over 1,500 riding miles. Here are the photos and commentary.

Between Lillooet and Quesnel, we stopped to stretch our legs and found this vintage auto dealer next to the convenience store. Stardog Champion poses next to his next project.
Prince George: There's a neat BC Rail museum where we spent some time walking around and through some old trains. And if that weren't enough, here's the restored interior of a club cal. Now THAT's traveling in style.
Northwest of Prince George, we spent the night in Houston, BC. When we awoke, it was clear to the east, raining overhead and threatening to the west. Riding out of town with the sun at our backs, oncoming trucks were kicking up gigantic spray clouds behind then, which were lit up in fantastic rainbows by the rising sun. They looked like they were rainbow-powered, or maybe nuclear-powered.
As we departed Prince Rupert, we had low cloud, some fog and rain. Very pretty is a soft majestic way.
Water churned up by our engines at Bella Bella as we were docking. Just like the colors and patterns.
Next stop was Gold River, a no nothing town in the middle of no where but with a spectacular road from Port Hardy to get here. We've ridden this road before and liked it tremendously. It seems to happen a lot, a road we've ridden before seems straighter and less challenging the next time. Hypothesis: Our skills are better than the last time. But we joke about straightening the road. Generally the roads in BC are very very good. And conservatively marked in the corners. We generally ride in MPH how they're marked in KPH. 50 KPD = 50 MPH speeds. 80 KPH ... well you get the drift. The bikes are way good enough and these speeds are well within our skills.
Stat Pack II: The numbers are MPH and the size of the box is proportional to the amount of time we spent riding at that speed.

Prince George: There's a neat BC Rail museum where we spent some time walking around and through some old trains. Very cool. Phantom stands in front of this vintage steam locomotive.
Prince George: There's a neat BC Rail museum where we spent some time walking around and through some old trains. Alpha Duc stands on the front of a vintage diesel locomotive.
Between Houston and Prince Rupert: My favorite photo of the trip. We stopped at a picnic area for lunch and I shot this as we returned to the bikes for the last leg into Prince Rupert.
I really like BC Ferries. They are modern, comfortable, clean. Cabins if you want them, comfortable seats if you don't. Multiple good restaurants with a variety of styles of food. Absolutely first rate. Not cheap, but a good "value." Les Canards Sauvages recommended.
We took a rest day in Port Hardy, rented a car and drove 70 miles on a dirt road to the beach. Wonderful Pacific Northwest beach - clod water, brilliant sun, pleasant temperatures. This is from our hike along the beach.
Hiking around Gold River before dinner, we discovered what may be the world's most perfect swimming hole - in warmer weather, of course. If Global warming raises the temps at Gold River about 20 degrees, this will become a crowded spa, maybe.
Stat Pack III: another look at speed in MPH. These were recorded by my Garmin GPS every few seconds during the ride.

Prince George: There's a neat BC Rail museum where we spent some time walking around and through some old trains. Very cool. This is a detail of the rusted side of one of the locomotives.
Prince George: There's a neat BC Rail museum where we spent some time walking around and through some old trains. In the winter, there's a lot of snow in this high country and the tracks had to be plowed by rail snow plows like this one.
Between Houston and Prince Rupert: Near the location of the prior photo. Phantom is pointing to the weather that's about to drench us. We're not sure what Bob's doing. We all have gang names: Alpha Duc (my daughter); Stardog Champion (my son-in-law); Phantom ( a riding buddy); and Alejandro - Love Coach (me). A friend who was going to ride with us (Bob) doesn't have his gang name yet, so on the T-shirt, he was just Bob. Turns out he couldn't go, but the T-Shirts were done. So another friend took his place and now has the gang name of "Bob."
Looking forward through the windows from our seats early in the trip.
We took a rest day in Port Hardy, rented a car and drove 70 miles on a dirt road to the beach. Wonderful Pacific Northwest beach - clod water, brilliant sun, pleasant temperatures. If you turned around from the spot of the previous photo, you'd see this. Water maybe 60 degrees, air, too.
Between Gold River and Tsawwassen, our next ferry, we stopped and hiked out to this neat suspension bridge, maybe about 100 feet above the river below.
Stat Pack IV: Elevation of our ride in feet above MSL.

Prince George: There's a neat BC Rail museum where we spent some time walking around and through some old trains. Very cool. This is another detail of the rusted side of one of the locomotives.
Prince George: There's a neat BC Rail museum where we spent some time walking around and through some old trains. Alpha Duc's calling ahead to check the weather. It's been hot ... 97-99 but the weather is about to change!
Between Houston and Prince Rupert: You wouldn't know it from the photo but just to the west, we were about to become completely drenched. As they say, no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothes. I was about to discover my eight-year-old waterproof BMW gear had finally worn to the point it was no longer waterproof.
And looking backwards at our wake. The trip is about 325 miles and takes about 18 hours. Sounds boring but in fact it's quite relaxing and a stop at Bella Bella breaks up the voyage, if only briefly.
We took a rest day in Port Hardy, rented a car and drove 70 miles on a dirt road to the beach. Wonderful Pacific Northwest beach - clod water, brilliant sun, pleasant temperatures. Driftwood detail, here.
Between Gold River and Tsawwassen, our next ferry, we stopped and hiked out to this neat suspension bridge, maybe about 100 feet above the river below.
T-Shirt Front

Prince George: There's a neat BC Rail museum where we spent some time walking around and through some old trains. Very cool. This is a detail of the rusted side of one of the locomotives.
Prince George: There's a neat BC Rail museum where we spent some time walking around and through some old trains. Another static display at this neat museum. Recommended.
At Prince Rupert, we boarded a 18 hour ferry that would take us to Vancouver Island. Here are all the bikes (ours and many more) all blocked and lashed down for the trip.
At our stop in Bella Bella. Alpha Duc and Stardog Champion.
On the way back from the beach ... maybe 35 miles from the water, maybe 35 miles from Port Hardy, there was this pub along the dirt road in absolutely the middle of nowhere. Since we had no schedule and nowhere to be, we stopped for a pint ... or two.
Stat Pack I: Here's our route. The width of the line is proportional to elevation between zero at sea level and 4,200 feet and the color is related to speed where lighter is slower and darker is faster (up to a max of about 105 - strictly in short mountain passing lanes, ahem). Note the gaps in the route correspond to ferry crossings.
T-Shirt Back