The day
started at a slow, relaxed pace, as I like. It was Monday morning and we had
decided to leave my paradise named Fernie with our eyes set for the coast.
Colin was his normal morning self, getting up and ready for the day before
Kevin or I thought of moving. Coffee was on, which was reason enough to get up;
that was a motivational tool he used often.
Kevin had a
few days off work and decided he was going to join us for this first day of
riding and a night of camping at a lovely little place called Fletcher Falls,
just north of Ainsworth Hot Springs. His model E DR-Z didn’t have bags of any
sort so he filled a backpack with a sleeping bag and mat and we were off.
Our first
planned destination was Creston to take in the Kokanee brewery tour, and with
our late start to the day, we were shooting for the second last tour. Shortly
after Kev filled his stock tank with gas in Cranbrook we were sailing west
again, with a tight possibility of making the tour. Not more than 5 km out of
the city, however, I had to pull over. I felt a sensation that I had
experienced once before at highway speeds where my back end just started
feeling greasy on the pavement. Over a matter of ten seconds or so it got worse
and worse and I knew I had a flat.
To the side
of the road with Kevin following, I went and got quickly to work finding a
piece of wood to prop under my right-side footpeg. I had the wheel off by the
time Colin had realized we weren’t behind him anymore and came back looking for
us. Now the tough part – breaking the bead. I used the kickstand of the DR-Z
and the heel of my boot, along with Colin’s weight and a lot of my cursing to
finally break it free of the rim. Spooning the worn tire off the rim was next,
followed by swapping the blown tube with a spare I pulled out of my pannier.
Breaking the bead was one thing, now it was time to seat it again, and all we
had was a small hand pump I had brought along; still needed to buy a little 12
volt compressor. I had it seated pretty well at 10 psi, actually, but it was
miserable going after the plastic threads of the pump gave way and it wouldn’t
stay attached to the valve stem anymore. Fortunately we had other bikes, so a
bit of rope to secure the wheel on the back of Colin’s bike and I made my way
back to Cranbrook to fill it at a gas station. Click, rumble, rumble, psshhtt,
twist, twist, and I was moving again.
I struggled
getting the wheel and all spacers, cush drive, sprocket, and brake lined up to
slide the axle through, but with Kevin’s help I got it all back together. We
had now burned a bunch of time and had not only missed the tour we were
shooting for, but were 10 minutes late for the last tour of the day. The kind
lady working the desk said we could meet up with the group halfway through and
she didn’t even charge us. We missed the brew house and fermenting sections
which I was most excited about having been making beer for the last several
years, along with Kevin and Colin, but we still got the most important part of
the tour – the free beer tasting!
After the
tour in Creston we rode an absolutely amazing road along the east shore of the
Kootenay Lake as far north as we could. The Ainsworth Hot Springs were on the
west shore which we reached in the dark after waiting an hour for a ferry to
take us across. Although I was hesitant to spend $12 on a resort hot springs,
Colin talked me into it, and boy was it great to relax the body and muscles.
Another 12 km or so up the west shore and we turned down a dark road at
Fletcher Falls. We each filled a duffle with things we’d need for the night and
hiked down a kilometer or so to the lake where we set up, started a fire, and
enjoyed some more of BC’s own under the magnificently starry sky. This happened
to be where I learned I lost the mounting plate for my tripod, and so after
setting everything up to shoot the stars over the lake, I couldn’t.
The view from our campsite at Fletcher Falls
Kevin left
us in the morning, heading back across the Ferry and onwards to Fernie, and
Colin and I had a very relaxing day. We made up some coffee, did some writing,
took a nap, and packed up.
Coffee making set up
It must have been at least 3 pm before we were moving
on the bikes again. We didn’t make it far this day, but after taking another
short ferry we followed a worker off to a small village called Edgewood where
we camped on a pristine little lake for the night. Houseboats sat all along the
shore where their habitants had a great view of some foothills in the
background.
The bikes at some point this day
The view from our site in Edgewood
I slept with my fly open this night and woke up to this view
From
Edgewood the next morning we continued westward on more amazing roads, leaning
the bikes back and forth around curve after curve. I learned today that my tool
tube was a bit wide and mounted a bit low as I felt it contact the ground
around a few corners. The end caps on both sides were now ground a bit flat;
I’ll have to keep that in mind in the future.
In Vernon we
stopped to check out the National Army Cadet Training Centre and got a bit of a
guided tour from a fellow KLR owner who happened to be the Sergeant in charge
of the base in the off season. It was a neat little experience as we both work
with the Cadet program and had never been out this way before. We carried
onwards again with our sights set to ride the Sea to Sky, highway 99, from
Lilooet to Whistler. That road is killer! The speed limit is only 60 km/h which
should tell you how twisty it is, and how fatal the falls would be off of a
corner. The bikes handle it great at speeds a bit higher than I’ll specify.
We got into
Whistler with some rain and soggy boots and I took us to a little spot I knew
we could camp for free in the woods. After setting up we met my friend Alissa
on a bus heading into the Village to go have a few drinks at a bar. A lovely
visit was had that night with her and her boyfriend and we made our way back to
our totally legal campsite for the night. There is more of Whistler to come in the next post for sure. We’re so close to the coast we can
taste it now.
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