Sunday, June 21, 2009

Well it finally happened. I remember sitting in Michigan for a couple years looking online at all these great motorcycle camping trips and I finally got to do it. I went on a 3 day 2 night trip into BC for an organized ride with about 45-50 riders total. (only 2 Americans, eh?) I was easily the youngest (and poorest). Some of those guys had more money in accessories on their bikes than I paid for my entire bike. It took about 4 hours to get to the starting point. I met another rider across the border and we gradually picked up more and arrived with 7. I had to weigh in at work before I left to see how much the cat weighed fully gassed up and with gear ( and me of course). It was a great trip that was really cheap too. No entry fee. 10 bucks for 2 nights camping. 50 bucks total gas. Food was great and not too expensive as we were eating in little mining towns, not tourist traps. I am pretty antisocial, but really enjoyed the companionship. By the end of the first day, we had our little group of 6 with similar riding styles, personalities, etc and it worked out great. There were lots of great riders that just wanted to race through and be the first, but we wanted to take our time a little more with pictures etc. (even though everyone was a good rider in our group) One of our group is just across the border and we will be showing eachother some forest roads in the future. It was a really interesting group as many have travelled in all sorts of places world wide. This is a rare ride because it is designed for the larger adventure touring bikes as opposed to the dirt bike with blinkers type. I was surprised how fast a lot of the high gravel roads were- we we're going 50 mph all of the time. You go a lot faster when you are in a group than when you are by yourself. That lead guy is always nervous about not going fast enough, even though everyone behind him doesn't care at all.
On the way to Clinton to start.

Once you get to the other side of the first range, it is really desert like- not much rain like I am used to.
Well, we almost died on the way up. If one of the riders going up didn't have a smaller tank, we would not have stopped to top off his tank and we just missed this accident by a couple of minutes. Scary to think what could have happend. Those 2x6's could have wiped out the bunch of us. I think the truck came into the corner too fast, rolled, and lost his load (2 trailers). One of the riders with us is a fireman and checked out the driver- he was only scratched up even though his truck was mangled.

Thurs night campsite
Getting ready to leave Fri morning. Not much chrome in that parking lot.


















Fri night campsite









Going really fast on the way home Sat. Only took 3 hours and made it home for supper. Great windy road, but I picked up a lot of wind off the Thompson River.




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