Gremlin's Tall Stories

An alarm rang at 5.30am. What bastard set that? Mmm, me. Murray was already up, he must have some weird internal clock. Crawling out of bed, I rapidly packed and geared up. The reason for the early start was a ferry. We were bound for the mainland, north again continuing through the province of British Columbia.

Our bikes were parked across two levels, and as I brought it up (not wearing my gloves) the group was already leaving. Not knowing the ferry location (there was some discussion it had changed) I carried on… sure was chilly without glubbs.

We had a scenic route through some flash neighbourhoods… big houses and green lawns. We must have lowered the neighbourhood a few notches with 17 bikes rolling through, except the early morning exercisers seemed rather amused.

Reached the ferry, paid the almost $40 fee and lined up in the correct bay. Suppose the price isn’t bad compared to the Interislander, but the ferries are smaller and the sailing takes 1.5 hours. These guys were much more motorcycle friendly. Still no tie-downs, but plenty of blocks and because of all the small islands, the sailing was calm. One of the workers even commented the American ferry was crazy We were able to stay with the bikes if we wished, or check on them during the voyage.

The biggest chock wasn’t quite enough to stick under the bike, with it still able to rock, until I remembered the suspension. Turned the bike on, and took it off 2up suspension, which lowered the rear. Ah, useful gimmicks aye? Helped chock the bikes and headed upstairs in search of the breakfast buffet. Following the signs I found the Seaview Lounge, which had no-one in it, but the staff were excited to have someone… puzzling. The Lounge was a quiet area, no cell phones should ring, complimentary papers and tea/coffee/fruit/croissants etc.

2 plates of melon, 6 croissants, 5 containers of orange juice and 3 cup cakes later, I felt I’d put a decent dent in their display and spent the rest of the nice calm crossing writing up days of activities for the blog. I even used the flash toilet in the lounge, which was fully automated for disabled access. Press button to open door, then you had to wait for it to close automatically. Once closed, press a button on the wall to lock the door. Once done, press button for flush (avoid the panic buttons… don’t want people piling in), tap sensed when hands were present and water came out. Paper towel machine was also automatic, pushing out another section when you pulled one off. Press button to unlock, press another button to open the door.

Confusing? I struggled to figure it all out, and so did one other person who came from the riff raff (not the lounge). Shortly before we docked, the captain asked for people to head to vehicles, so off to un-chock the bikes again. Exiting the ferry was easy, as we were already in Canada and the lanes headed straight onto the freeway, which did have its disadvantages. We managed to stay mostly as a group, but made a few wrong turns, then got completely separated trying to make our way through Vancouver to Stanley Park.

I stayed at the back, pointing a few people in the right direction and we all made it to Stanley Park. A quick re-group at the entry and we carried on to the Totem Poles. Stanley Park is huge, speed zoned as 30kph and one way, with a lot of cyclists and pedestrians (not to mention tourists) enjoying the views. Group photo at the poles, I waited for a horse and carriage to take a photo, but gave up after 20 odd minutes. In the meantime I’d been described as a tree leaner to the occupants of one tour bus

Headed up the Sea to Sky highway, and blimey, the view was incredible, with almost no vista points to pull into, as it was a 2 lane highway with concrete divider down the middle. Hopefully one of the pillions managed to take some good photos. The road surface was top notch due to Whistler hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. Instead, I headed up some side roads to find an elevated view, which I somewhat managed. Some park ute took objection to me heading up a gravel road at the end of a street, pointing me back the way I had come… guess it wasn’t public access then…

Filled up with some gas once I saw a sign saying next service 55km, and I only had 75km left. Saw a Yamaha R1 and KTM RC8 filling up, and found out from them why some pumps were more expensive than others. Avoid the full service pumps then! $40 later the pump stops pumping… hmmm, two twenties wasn’t enough. I go inside to give another $5 to continue filling mentioning “Sorry, still going”, and the tank is finally full at 29.5L for $43.50 Canadian. A British fellow pulled up to fill on a very red Norton I think and promptly couldn’t get it started afterwards. He thought he would be fine, so declined a push. Being a tourist, not exactly like I could offer much more, so headed off on my well-engineered German steed.

Next stop was Whistler, which I found far too commercial, with paid parking if you wanted to stop in the town. Stuff that, pulled into a no parking zone to grab a quick picture of the town and carried on. Around the lake, I stopped for pictures of the lake with Whistler in the background. A tour stopped behind, driven around in a Hummer, so I took some pictures of that. They noticed and laughed… Tourist taking picture of tourists

Pemberton wasn’t far down the road and Ken had recommended it for the lunch stop. Shortly after Whistler there was a road sign saying “End of project”, and boy, they weren’t kidding around. At the sign there was a bump as you headed onto a rougher road, and it stayed that way. Ken was spot on about Pemberton, it was a much nicer place and Murray turned up towards the end of lunch. We chatted to a local about weather, tourists and also another Canadian who was driving his very nice silver Corvette L6 for a bit of a play.

Moving on, the road first got much worse, almost made of tar snakes, then got bumpy and finally got quite good (bar the 60kph speed limit because it was winding ). Left a few of the Harleys behind in the corners and came across an Aussie couple at the top… they’re bloody everywhere. I said to the nice blonde we could be friends since we’re on the other side of the world, and she took my picture with the BMW for me. None of the Harleys had arrived yet, so I carried on, stopping several more times for pictures. The Harleys came by, so I chased after and stopped on a corner to take some pictures of them. A Triumph XC800 was parked, so ended up chatting to him, and he was enjoying the bike.

The word beautiful has been heavily used so far, so perhaps I’ll now use magnificent, stupendous and jaw dropping? I won’t bother trying to describe the mountain ranges we were riding through, hopefully the pictures will do the talking.

I played leapfrog with the cars, moving quicker, but then stopping to take pictures and getting passed again. I remember at one point, stuck behind cars, and looking at the mountain on the other side of the valley… and I kept looking up and up until I finally saw the top. It really did make you feel like a bit of an ant.

I was stopping so many times, clambering off and on the bike I eventually thought, bugger it, I’m not stopping again, I’ve got enough pictures. Then I passed the hydro station… and stopped. Even went down the access road and took a waterside pic. By now the temperature was climbing past 25 degrees, I still had the waterproof membrane in the jacket, so I didn’t stop after that, arriving in Lillooet, somewhat reminded of Murchison because of feeling like high country, except we were still surrounded by much taller ranges.

Checked in about 5pm, 27 degrees, no pool. Getting the bike onto the centre stand the rear wheel bumps into the curb, so I roll the bike forward and put it on again. As I pass balance point, my boot slides off the centre stand (didn’t notice I’d stood in something slippery) and the bike drops forward. Kept the balance, but as it rolled forward on the hill and I tried stopping it, it fell to the right, and fully loaded, didn’t have a chance. Crashed over on it’s side, I went over after it.

One of the Dargaville boys was there within seconds and we stood it back up. Some scratches on the crash bar, little scrapes on the panniers, nothing really. Got to love the extra protection. The extra crash bar extensions from AdvDesigns also did their job… again. Murray already had the aircon going in the room, so flopped on the bed and did some uploading and organising of pictures.

Once the rest had arrived, they got stuck into some beers and rang me to say they were heading for dinner. In the end, only 4 of us tried out the Japanese place, as it was Sushi night. Ken and Jan think that Sushi like foods will be hard to come by from here on in, for a couple of weeks. We struggled to identify one of the sushi I had, but it was all yummy and I caved into blueberry pie for dessert.

On the way back to the motel I saw a large piece of greenstone, the size of a backpack, mounted on a pedestal on the sidewalk, someone had donated it. Took some evening pictures of the town and did some blogging before shower and bed.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8Bc8fkC236grZXrq5