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 ...


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