Chapter 8

Arrival........8 days ............4500 +/- km. Other than the big black cloud right down to the ground @ the Alta. border, perfect riding weather - no complaints. No issues. A couple of rants, a couple of letters to write, and, maybe by tomorrow, there might be some slight exaggerations made to the way the ride unfolded. No serious embellishments though............

Oh, there is an admission..... For the first time in over 40 years, I forgot to raise the kickstand when departing Espanola. Hale was gesturing wildly, but I thot he was having some type of seizure - disaster avoided only at the very last moment just before a hard left turn........hmmmmmm......

As I have no electronics for the return trip, this bloggin thing is a one way street...

There will be a 'post script' and an 'epilogue' added, with some really choice video clips (youtube worthy) added later..but for now..

Here endith the blog by the Dogs, on their hogs....


Some Pics ...

The Wawa Goose ... should have made an appearance in Chapter 7

Similarly, Batchawana Bay should have been in yesterday's blog with the only picture which was also of Batchawana Bay ..

From above ...

 On the beach ...



In Chapter 4b ... much was made of DH driving the wrong way on not only a one way street but also willing to tackle the eastbound Trans Canada while heading westbound. Anyhow, somehow the senior statesman in this group managed to go the wrong way on this road in Blind River. Obviously signage must have been an issue! Not only were there tow signs, but please note the size of the official One Way sign in proportion to the stop sign ... an easy mistake ... perhaps the name of the town was a contributing factor!

With butts dragging we finally made it to Port Severn and the Hale Cottage ... the good news is this was the morning view we were able to wake up to!

Location:Port Severn, ON

Chapter 7

Oh the memories....our timing was way off, actually off since leaving Victoria, caused by a 9 ferry start instead of 7 am start; and then Hale's continuous lolly gagging, and by my 11:00 am start one day (no comments please) , and by the strategically placed Timmies, along with highway signage. (and bolt stops) The result ? The Headley/ Marathon/ Sault Ste. Marie  3 day/ 3 stay  timetable was disrupted. Thus, we blasted past Marathon about mid day. Back in '73, Marathon was were the geezers (now) partied hardy. NOT. Hill wimped out and moteled it. Something about a pillow. Kerr & I - party animals - roughing it at the side of the road - a case of 24 each. Next morning only 8 of 48 beers had been consumed. Hmmmmmmm.  Had our timing been right, with Marathon as a stay over,  I'm sure that with enough time, I could have located the 40 abandoned bottles of Calgary Export Ale left at the side of the road 38 years ago. To this day, I don't know what OldHog49 was thinking. And I sure wasn't . But then again, the other old geezer (now)  doesn't know what he missed. (and just how do you pack a 2x4 on a Commando?)


Forgot to mention that we did some Harley shopping in Thunder Bay yesterday. Hale bought gloves. How I wish I had a pic. These gloves had little loops between the fingers - so that you can grab the loops with your fingers and pull the gloves off..............only The Donald ! )

DH: Paid $140 after discounts for a Comfort Inn in the Soo!   What is this world coming to ... the good news is the Timmies was virtually next door.   Speaking of next door we were out on our balconies have a brew and a smoke and the lady next door to Jim's room decided to have a conversation ... well, she was from Brantford, knew the Pates ... yada yada yada ... more farm stories ... yawn!   Oh well, she was a nice enough lady though she somehow thought to go from Vancouver to Toronto you had to do so via Nunavut ... I suppose you could but we'd likely still be on the road.   We tried to convince her otherwise, but she seemed pretty determined that we were wrong as her 8 year old son had done a project on Nunavut ... whatever!  I do believe she came about her blonde hair naturally.

Chapter 6

Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Jeckle or Hyde ?
we're slowly making our way to Hog Town, Dog legging it km by km, and Hyde reappeared today. B.I.L. Started the day with a 6 am workout in the exercise room. A hard core road trip like this is all about Trans. Fats, cholesterol, greasy gut burgers, carbs. And junk food. Hale ordered a " fruity yogurt parfait" for breakie.....he's gone all corporate on me, and Dog gone it, we ain't no where near Bay St.

made 500 km today. I think the Dogs are panting a bit. Staying in the lowest rated motel in the town. Yikes.

After his corporate breakie this morning, Hyde scarfed down 8 slices of pizza for dinner. One strange stray Dog, this Hale. (B.I.L.-- brother in law)

Now then we have tried to keep this PG13 but may have to reclassify to R 18 . We do at least a rant a day, we just haven,t published prior rants. but today....


Rant 1:
Kakabeka Falls, $5.50 for a two minute visit. No avoiding as the ranger broad was there all happy raking in the dough.... A major Rip....

Rant 2:
the shell station pump in Thunder bay was the absolute worst. took 5 minutes to figure it out. No slot, lever to start it, but buttons had to pushed, info entered, and then the push to start button..... Brutal.

Rant 3:
the timmies line up at ( can,t remember) had no line up protocol whatever. A free for all ensued. I do believe it,s time to WRITE A LETTER.


Pics from today ...

Abandoned church in Upsala ...

Tourist shot and ripoff ... Kakabeka Falls

 Another vid ... this one of Northern Ontario not far east of the Manitoba border ... spectacular!

The Blog Meister hard at work ... It's 10pm and very light out ... R we north of the treeline?

Lot's of references to dogs in the blog ... old ones and it seems only fitting that a guest appearance be made by Super Dog ... aka Griz ... who seem to be missing the really old dog ..

DH: it's been kinda weird being back in Ontario and it was not off to a good start (but more on that later and the cause of one of my howlin' dog rants) but the change in geography is just amazing ... twisting roads cutting through the Canadian Shield and around every corner there seemed to be another blue sparkling late. Northern Ontario is stunningly beautiful. I've the bogs and spindly Black Spruce forests have their own charm. It's too bad that when many think of Ontario they think of Toronto, but this province too has much to offer and as far as large metropolitan cities go ... well even Toronto is pretty special. Having said all that there are hundreds of communities in interior of BC that I would love to retire to ... Rock Creek here i come in 10 years! Be prepared!

As JWK noted we've been holding back on our rants a little, but I'm afraid the flood gates are now open!

My biggest beef is entering Ontario from Manitoba ... there is the usual border sign and a small sign noting the Ontario Tourist Pavilion is a couple of kms down the road. We arrive at the rather substantial building only to find out that it is closed for the season ... WTF it's the end of June and our Tourist Information Building isn't open?!!!!! How hospitable is that? Is this yet another Dalton cutback? Not only do tourists welcome and need these information kiosks but so do the businesses along route who count on the almighty tourist dollar ... and what about the university and college students who "man" these buildings and provide invaluable support to travelers! On one hand the governments talk so much about the almighty Tourist Dollar and then this?!!!!

Okay, so I'm a little ticked and we hit the road again only to be confronted with a series of large signs telling me I can't speed, if I do here's a table of the potential fines ... another telling me seatbelts are mandatory ... another telling me that my car could be impounded for speeding more than 30 kms over the speed limit ... yet another telling me that "radar detectors" are illegal ... yada yada yada. Although all good rules in their own right ... all I could think of was "police state" ... not the least bit welcoming at all ... :(

I was going to rant a little about chin wags and wannabies ... maybe tomorrow ...

Location:Nipigon, Ontario

Chapter 5

The dawdling Dogs.

Don & I can't seem to sync our dawdles. Someone let the sleeping Dogs lie. "Wheels in the well" (air force) by 11:00 am. Twilight Zone stuff, as four hours seemed to have just disappeared on us.

Uneventfull, pleasant run to-day. Hale had a cigar going (Cuban @ $20.00) at 120 km.
Sort of inappropriate, I'd say. On the other hand, that transgretion pales to insignificance............
I caught Hale driving distracted. Head down, hands not on the handlebars but in his lap doing something electronic at 120 km. Worthy of a youtube clip ???
(Al: that's 120 km from the BC to the Ont. border)

There was much talk and discussion of CVO / Screaming Eagles because at 110 Km/Hr uphill with the throttle FULL ... lots of noise but very little Ummmph with the 'little motor'. We both want to run with the Big Dogs ...


Some Pics from today ...

The Thumbnail doesn't do it justice ... this is plain ol' butt ugly ...

Jim "BSA" Knight is totally mystified about it all ..

The Portage la Prairie water tower ... a thing of natural beauty ... lol

Location:Dryden, Ontario

Chapter 4b

perfect day..perfect ride
well almost...... the donald .....
1) just a little razz, and the donald goes all hen-pecked & caves- the goat is gone and he' s all cleaned up and pristine again. hardly fitting for a road trip.
2) the donald committed a sin. drove up the wrong way on a one way street. A BIG DEAL. the one way street was the off-ramp from the Trans Canada Hwy - speed limit 110 km where everyone does 130 + . he missed "wrong way" "do not enter" Could have been catastrophic. but he did recover nicely, and quickly, but then promptly drove up a normal one way street the wrong way.
TORONTO guys.......

I'm going to beat Don to the punch here, fess up, and let's just let sleeping dogs lie please.
Ordered "Mac & Cheese" at a bar.
Paid 12.00 for Kraft Dinner

Chapter 4a

We've entitled this one 4a because we had a very long ride yesterday ... nearly 800 kms and were out of gas to post .. more to follow but here are some pics ...



Some ghost town along the Trans Canada ... kept waiting for "Skeeter" or "Jim-Bob" to come out to assist ... is that Dueling Banjos I hear in the background? Yikes!

Same spot ... different guy ...

Another fixer upper ....

 Holy Hole in the donut Batman ... what the hell is this?

Tourist stop in Indian Head ....

and it's called Indian Head because ...

The Swing bridge in Wolseley, Saskatchewan we weren't impressed with this guy taking his mountain bike across so we rode our Harley's across ... much more impressive ... they were very dirty and needed a wash anyhow ...

Here's a clip of the Jimbo Rambo on his hog ... turn the sound down ... just garbled wind noise and some music in the background ... my first video ... all credit to my HTC 1X .. awesome phone ... not $15 a month like Jim's tho ... :)

Here's the link ... you may need to cut and paste it into your browser .. http://db.tt/m4bhwppP

Location:Portage la Prarie

Chapter 3

Not what you would call a quick start to the day, but what the hell we only had a mountain range and a province standing in the way of our destination .. Swift Current, Saskatchewan!

Motored quickly to Fernie and onwards to the Crow's Nest Pass. Lot's of ugly looking clouds ... grrrrrr. Well the grrrr turned into a brrrrr as the pass was freakin' cold ... not as cold as in 2004 when it was zero degrees Celcius so said the older man I was traveling with as he stroked his beard ... jeeeesh, all that was missing was the corn cob pipe!

Anyhow, the weather turned for the worse and it started to rain as we approached Pincher Creek and mother nature decided to throw a little thunder and lightning into the mix. It was interesting as we sped along towards Fort Macleod as we were actually speeding into the worse part of this storm. But there is no refuge so what the hell you may as well spend as little time in it!

It wasn't long before the Rockies and foothills were behind us and we were not traveling through the grasslands of Southern Alberta. What an amazing change in topography and climate in only a few hours! In the morning we were blasting through valleys, then climbing the Crow's Nest Pass, then seeing the devastating power of the mountains as witnessed by the Frank Slide, then marveling at the positive power of nature and the hundreds of huge wind turbines in the Pincher Creek area, then getting scared shitless by Mother Nature who was throwing these lightning bolts around, then the temperature warmed dramatically as we entered the rolling grasslands of Southern Alberta soon to be followed by the wheat fields and the ever present CPR by the road.




Some Pics from today ...

Jim ... putting his skirt on! Rain was in the forecast ... and I got a little wet ... but man on!

From the Timmies (imagine that!) parking lot ... note the clouds in the distance ... cold and rainy in the forecast!

via Crow's Nest ... all pics taken speeding along en route ... so to speak ...

The Infamous "Frank Slide" ... google it ... I'm tired ...

Good ol' CPR with a functioning ol' Grain Elevator in the distance  ... the real deal wood, not concrete or steel

 Ah, a close-up of the said grain elevator ...

We made it to Saskatchewan! From Cranbrook BC, to Swift Current, Saskatchewan in one day ... 725 kms ... not bad!

Finally, the old Dogs found their legs, and ran 725 k to Swift Current. Not too shabby.
Now, there has been a bit of slag tossed around. Works both ways...

The Donald has a little kid goat happening on his chin. Fair enough. But add to that a day or two of stubble. Multicoloured at that. Then, add in some yellow riding glasses to this picture, sit him on his bike with both feet splayed out on highway pegs, and..................it is not a pretty picture. Considering that the old Donald was wool suit, silk tie, leather shoes, silly little silver car (Porsche) then this Jekyll/ Hyde thing is rather disturbing.

Meanwhile, I have pictorial evidence to back up the following:
The Donald is standing in the middle of the Trans. Can. Hwy. ,as in, on the double yellow line, taking pictures.
Plus, despite spending half his life on the GO- TRAIN, he then stands in the middle of the train tracks (main CPR tracks) and takes more pics.

This man needs watching ............

Location:Swift Current

Chapter 2

Interesting evening @Princeton. 3 rough hard core bikers from Calif. next to us. Stripped down Hogs with ape hangers etc. Real men !! Wait. In the morning, from inside their rooms, out came the windshields, the racks, the sissy bars, the packs, and the duffel bags. Just a bunch of old dudes. Had a continental breakie, with a hard boiled egg. Cracked her open - not hard boiled - raw ! Don was very embarrassed. The ride from Princeton through Headley, Bromley Rock all the way to Keremeos was incredible - not one vehicle in front of or behind us the entire way. The Hogs ran strong, but the Dogs were panting a bit. Actually, the Hogs were panting...on some of the passes, out to pass, the throttle WFO, lots of loud symphony type noise (to HD lovers)- - but nothing happened !! Al  Steenbergen insists the only way to go is 110 CI. There was admittedly much talk of stage 1, stage 2, hot cams, bigger engines (103/110), and Screaming Eagle stuff.............. Speaking of passes, @ the Kooteney, there was ice on the lake. And we were looking down at the lake !

Saw 2 dudes on Silverwings outside of Osooyoos (who can spell that ??) Classics are the way to go - for short trips; or, with a chase vehicle)

Ran into 2 Indians in 1 day (the new ones, not the originals) (as an aside, the originals were: Indian Motocycle - not Indian Motorcycle)

Ran into a group of fellow bikers checking into the same hotel in Cranbrook. Losers - they had reservations, and were at the correct hotel chain - but were in the wrong city.  No joy there..........

Osoyoos ... love this place!

A couple of 'Interior' dudes on their old Hondas ...

Lost Creek

Also "Lost Creek" ... I mean ... really!   I was travelling with this guy! 

Don't you think he kinda looks like a retired Minnesota Governor? Is it Jim or Jesse?

To my family, you owe me for keeping my shirt on!

An 'Indian' in Creston ... or do I have to say an "Indigenous"

Our lodging for the night in Yahk Prov Park ..

Some Pics Up to and Including Chapter 1

My ride temporarily "derailed" at Lytton ... empty wheat train heading back east

On Hwy 99 (aka Duffey Lake Road) over Duffey Lake looking at Mount Currie

Same spot as above pic but looking east down Cayoosh Creek ... log jam leading into Duffey Lake

Mt Donaldson ... sounds appropriate ... as viewed from lookout just north of Squamish

Pic for Chapter 1 ... Jim having a coffee and a bolt at Manning

A fixture ... a Marmot at Manning

Posted by DH

Chapter 1

Launch day

Early morning as usual: coffee,cig,robe,outside in foggy misty rural stillness of Sooke when the pristine silence was shattered by two long send off horn blasts from Al Steenbergen (CVO,Springer #666 of 1500, FatBoy,&'76 XLCH) - thanks Al !!

Away by 7:15 in the fog and was happy to participate for the first time in 7 yrs (retired) in the Colwood crawl. Very enjoyable ferry ride - new coffee called Schooner in stead of the usual BC Ferry dregs. Therefore no need to letter write this time.

For those who have ridden with me - true to form, I got us lost by missing the Ladner Trunk turn-off for Hwy 10 . Now that's embarrassing ! Lucky thing though, terrible accident had closed the road just before 99.

A bear & marmots in Manning, along with snow at the side of the road.

The ride was fun - enjoyable - all 360 K (Don's was much farther) But this iPad typing thing is totally exhausting..........


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Princeton

Prologue (continued)

Day 1 of My Adventure ...

Packed ... ready to go but waiting for number 2 son (Matt) to wake and grab a quick breakie and some fuel for the ride for me.

Off from Kelowna ... head west young man ... well, not so young anymore but what the hell (and certainly younger than this old fart I'm going to be joining up with ... those with English degrees can chastise me for ending a sentence with a proposition!). First stop Merritt ... literally blasted across the 97C as it was a later start then envisioned (surprise) hit my first mountain range and literally froze en route ... went from all this heat and humidity to 50 degrees fahrenheit and the wind chill at 80 mph is well ... chilly! For those Gen Y's get a freakin calculator and figure it out!

From Merritt up hwy 8 to Spences Bridge ... awesome canyon-type ride ... stinking hot but what a ride! First stop to take pictures and pulled off on the soft shoulder and put the kickstand down and started to hop off the bike and it started to topple ... fortunately I was kinda anticipating this so managed to keep the beast shiny side up. Needless to say, all future pics were from the saddle with my cell phone!

In Spences Bridge the North Thompson River was spilling its banks and the there was a lovely campsite along the shores except it was under about 5 feet of water!

The ride down hwy 1 to Lytton was uneventful other than the North Thompson which was totally wild. I've seen supposed class 4 rapids on the Niagara River but these rapids were truly scary ... literally mountains of water cascading in the air.

From Lytton to Lillooet was another river hugging ride. This time along the Fraser and although tamer the "spring" melt was still very evident. On a motorcycle, it is simply amazing the temperature swings you can feel as you go from hot and arid conditions to riding alongside the glacier melt. In a car you miss 90% of the sights, sounds, smells and overall environment.

In Lillooet I had to "ford" the main street as water was running down the mountains onto main street and being diverted to what appeared to be the only sewer drain that was working to be ultimately deposited to the Fraser River.

The ride out of Lillooet along Duffy's Lake Road (aka hwy 99) was simply amazing ... the best ride I've ever been on. Truly spectacular! Quite simply BC has it all ... I now understand why those from the east never come back!

Made it to Squamish by early evening and tomorrow I link up with the older guy ...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Post #3 - Prologue

First blog ever. I"m not a trekkie but for some unknown geeky reason I want to start off "Star Date ..." shoot me if this is what blogging is going to do to me.

Anyhow, JFK has laid down much of the 'history' on why this hasn't happened the last two times, but we're off to the races this time! This will be my first lengthy bike trip and I'm very excited it's finally happening!

It's even better as I'm ... as they say ... "between jobs" ... "between careers" ... "unemployed" ... no email, no voicemail, no worries! Actually, I will be starting a new job in mid-July leaving one great employer for another so things are really pretty ducky! In the interim, I get to do this trip! Life is good.

In preparation for this event I had my Harley Ultra Classic (HD) shipped to Kelowna from Toronto in early April and although I did make it to Kelowna with my family in late April and the HD and I had a little spin we have been suffering from separation anxiety since. On Tuesday (April 19th) we were reunited. It was being stored at my youngest son's apartment in downtown Kelowna (as an aside he's in 3rd year at UBC in Kelowna and I did remember to hug him first before hugging the bike!). I left the heat and humidity of Toronto behind ... the humidex was 40 degrees celcius which I think translates to 104 degrees in real man's language but basically = stinking hot!

Intro

1st post:        3 words "a simple test".

2nd post:       Preface.

This blog is in preparation for a much delayed adventure back to TO via motorcycle.

Back?

The first half of the trip occurred in May 1973, TO to Vancouver. This adventure had the participation of John Kerr (Water Buffalo) and Kerry Hill (The Vintage).

Life got in the way until 2010.

2010: The 'big (return) trip' was on - with brother-in-law Don Hale.
But the medicine guys intervened in 2010 -  trip cancelled.

The rescheduled trip was then set for 2011,  with the original crew, John & Kerry, joining to make the return trip to TO.  Just like old times......   Back to the seventies......  Recapturing lost youth...
But, bad shoulder nixed my inclusion. And Don cancelled re: work conflict.
The other two (OldHog49.blogspot.com), John & Kerry, completed the adventure that took 38 years to consumate.

2012, finally my turn ! Unfortunately John & Kerry had to pass this year ( or: been there.. done that.. ?)

Caveat:

I type with one hand, or get my son to do it. My cellphone costs $15/mth. Therefore, my brother-in-law, Don Hale , very tech savey , & UTD, will pose as my scribe for the duration of the trip.  In other words, I'll ghost write. Or dictate ... (gee....hope Don's ok with that ......)

Thus brother-in-law Don will author the blog. (and he too has lost time to make up since he also cancelled in 2011).

With a little bit of luck, some perseverance, and Don's high-tech equipment, an attempt will be made to at least approach the high-quality of OldHog's blog from 2011 (but don't hold your breath!).

At this point, launch day is June 21st, 3 more sleeps, weather and health permitting...

A simple test...