Planned route - Leg 9, The journey home

Leg 9 is the final stretch home and I’ll choose the route of this final segment when the time comes. I’m considering two routes; a northern journey back along Hwy 3 or south through the US. My energy level will be the determining factor.

(click Northern Route map to enlarge)

The northern route takes my along Hwy 3 and back over the Hope – Princeton Hwy traveled during the beginning leg of the trip. If I’m beat, this is the shortest distance home and therefore the preferred road.

(click Southern Route map to enlarge)

If I still have not played myself out over the prior 3,300 km, I’ll head south into the US portion of the Okanogan Valley and then swing west through the ‘old west town’ of Winthrop, WA. Having been over Hwy 20 about a month ago, I’m somewhat familiar with the route and know it’s a fun but easy trek home from here. When I get to Sedro Woolley, it’s north on the twisty Hwy 9, over to Lyndon and back into Canada and home.

At this point, I’ll have traveled about 3,800 km on my primary route, plus any side trips and such that get added along the way.

Planned route - Leg 8, Interior & Okanogan

Leg 8 starts from wherever I dropped my kickstand the day before and takes me down to Osoyoos in the southern Okanogan. But, as motorcycling should be, the trip is not about the destination – it’s all about the journey.

(click map to enlarge)

From Vernon, I head south on the familiar Hwy 97 down to Kelowna. Then its back to bike roads as I head east on Hwy 33 which swings south through Carmi and joins up with Hwy 3 again at Rock Creek; 50 km east of Osoyoos.

Planned route - Leg 7, Naksup & Needles

Leg 7 is where the route begins to become vague; it’s more direction than destination.

(click map to enlarge)

These are said to be some of the best bike roads anywhere and with all the twisties, the ride time adds up faster than the miles. Nakusp is 385 km from Creston, Lumby – 552 km and Vernon is 578 km, but 8:40 ride time. As this in not an endurance test, I’ll stop when and where I get tired.

Planned route - Leg 6, Going-to-the-Sun

Leg 6 is the beginning of the real journey. Here I say goodbye to Linda, my mother in-law and sister and brother in-law (living in Pincher Creek) and head south toward what is said to be one of the most scenic highways in North America.

(click map to enlarge)

I head south to Waterton Park and then cross the US border and connect with the “Going-to-the-Sun Hwy” through Glacier National Park. This road crosses the famous Logan Pass at an altitude of over 6,600 feet. Then its down the western slope and through Whitefish, Montana before heading back north to Canadian soil south of Elko, on the Crowsnest Hwy.

I’m planning to take a short side trip off of Hwy 3, up through Kimberly; an area I used to travel through on sales trips monthly. If the trek over Logan Pass took more time or energy than expected, I may cut this segment out and proceed directly through Cranbrook and onto Creston where I’ll spend the night with one of Linda’s aunts.

This leg is about 620 km or 7:40 hours ride time.

Planned route - Leg 5, Southern Alberta

I’ll probably hit the road a little earlier than Linda and Mary Lou for leg 5 of my trip; from Calgary down to Pincher Creek. Once again, while they’ll take the direct route, I’ll wonder off it just a little bit.

(click map to enlarge)

I plan to get an early start heading east of Calgary and then swinging south on highway 24, down to Vulcan. Why “Vulcan” you ask? Well, when riding a Kawasaki “Vulcan” one cannot pass up the opportunity to snap a picture of it with the town of Vulcan’s sign in the background.

Then, with my picture safely stored in my digital camera, its west all the way over to Longview on highway 22, south of Turner Valley. A friend in the Langley Road Rider Motorcycle Club told me about a restaurant in Longview, claiming it to serve the best steak he has ever eaten. Now, anyone who knows me well can figure out why I’m taking this side-trip. A great steak for lunch and a drive down through the Alberta back country is too much to resist.

This section of my route brings me out onto highway 3 (Crowsnest Hwy) about 20 km west of Pincher Creek, the destination of this leg of my trip.

Planned route - Leg 4, Calgary

While Linda and my mother in-law, Mary Lou, take the direct route down highway 2 to Calgary, I’ll travel some of the old roads I used to wonder years ago when doing sales throughout Alberta.

(click map to enlarge)

I’ll come south to Ponoka and then swing east to highway 21 and then head south through Trochu and Three Hills. Then it’s a short jog east through Drumheller to see the hoodoos from the seat of a scooter before hooking up with the Trans-Canada Highway which will take me into Calgary. Skirting around Calgary to north side and my brother in-law’s place will end this leg of the trip.

Planned route - Leg 3, Edmonton

Linda, my wife is flying out to Edmonton, where I’ll picker her up in the in-laws’s car and bring her back down to Wetaskiwin. We’ll be ‘sort of’ traveling together for the next few legs of the trip but in different vehicles and by different routes. She is taking her mother on a trip around Alberta to visit relatives.

Now, onto leg 3...

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Leg 3 will be a simple day trip up to the north side of Edmonton to visit family.

(click map to enlarge)

My wife, and mother/father in-law will be going to Edmonton as well, but probably taking a more direct route there. On my way up, I plan to travel by secondary highways and ride by my old Edmonton address to see what the neighborhood looks like today – about 20 years later.

After what should be a great visit, it’s back down to Westakiwin. As this will likely be in the evening, I’ll travel with my wife in the car, taking the most direct route.

Planned route - Leg 2, Journey through Jasper

Leg 2 from Valemount, BC to Wetaskiwin, Alberta is a little shorter; only 570 km and 6 hours ride time.

(click map to enlarge)

This leg of the trip should be the most scenic on my trip out, going through Jasper, as well as the most boring, going from Hinton to Wetaskiwin. But at the journey’s end there will be friendly faces and a home cooked meal.

I’ll have to keep my speed in mind when going through Jasper. To the east of the town is a section of highway with very low speed limits due to sheep that wander along side of and across the highway. On my last car trip through here I became painfully aware of this with a souvenir speeding ticket while doing only 80 km/hr.

Hhhmmmmm... maybe there will be some sheep by the road again and a chance to get some good photos.

Planned route - Leg 1, The journey begins

They say you’ll get the longest mileage in on the first day of a long trip. With that in mind, I plan to put in a little over 750 km or 8.75 hr. of actual ride time on the first leg.

(click map to enlarge)

The accompanying map shows the route I plan to take with rest and meal stops indicated. This breaks the journey up into segments 1 to 1.5 hours in length which should give me plenty of stretch time, not counting photo stops along the way.

As the map indicates, with my little jog down through Princeton, I'm not planning to take the most direct route. As great as it would be to simply allow the road to take me where it may, I'll have to find a balance between free will and getting to my first planned destination in two days.

Getting the bike ready

Well my Alberta trek starts in only 3 weeks and preparations are under way.

One of the things I wanted to improve on was my scoot’s windshield. The one that came with the bike is way to short, by about 5 to 6 in. I figured I’d save a few bucks and make my own. Although my home built effort was not too bad, it didn’t meet my picky standards so I ordered a new one in the correct dimensions for me. The supplier promised to get it to me in time for my trip, plus I added a week’s safety margin to the "required by" date I gave him.

I need to beef up the bike’s suspension for Linda and me to ride two-up and planned to do this with new Precision Suspension 440 shocks with HD springs. Since these should help the overall ride and handling of the bike, even with just my heavy backside on it, I figured there is no time like the present and order the new shocks. They arrived a couple of days ago and now it’s time to bolt them on.

3,800 km trek only a month away

The days remaining until my September trek are counting down.

September 1, 2006 I'm departing on, what is currently planned to be, a 3800km solo motorcycle trip. I plan to follow a meandering path from Vancouver, BC, up to Edmonton, down Southern Alberta and then back home through the Northern US and many of BC's great motorcycle roads in its southern interior.

I figure this should be an interesting adventure - 1 1/2 weeks of traveling where ever the roads take me, mixed in with a few visits with relatives and even crossing paths with my wife for a few days while she travels by air/car visiting her mother in Alberta.

Daddo Saddles Up

Welcome to Daddo's Bike Blog!

At 56 I had not been on a motorcycle for about 30 years. Even back in my 20's my bike exposure was limited to a few years on trail bikes and a couple of short trips on a friend's large Yamaha street bike. I had had considerable experience with several other forms of vehicular transport however, ranging from many years building and driving dune buggys and sand rails (tubular VW powered off-road vehicle like those raced in the Baja 1000) and high performance snowmobiles.

For many years I had yearned for a motorcycle and the freedom its represented. To me, I saw riding a cruiser as a departure from the stress and strain of the daily grind like so many other guys replacing a stereotype Corvette with a motorcycle in their mid-life. Unfortunately, my health held this dream at bay. Three disintegrated discs in my lower back plus a bum joint in my pelvis/lumbar resulted in constant pain that often required bed rest for relief and made riding a bike look like the impossible dream. Then, finally early last fall, my insistence for a referral to a back specialist resulted in a diagnosis of arthritis. 24 hours and a few little white pills later (Arthotec) and the pain was gone.

My daughter has been riding for about 8 years and I constantly hear of her rides and silently envied her. Then, early this year (2006), I thought; “My back isn’t hurting and I can afford to buy a bike, so why not – if I don’t do it now it will likely be a dream lost forever!” I’m very fortunate in that I have a loving wife of 36 years who’s only concerns were (1) for my safety and (2) that if I was going to drop a large chunk of change, that I would use it and not simply park it in the garage.

I set myself a budget of about $8,000 for a used cruiser, but ended up with a brand new 2005 Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 Classic – a “big-ass cruiser” as my daughter calls it.

Well, have I been riding safely and using the bike? As I write this today, about 6 months after buying the bike, I’ve got over 11,000 accident free kilometers on it and I’m working out the details for a 3,800km solo ride through southern BC and Alberta the first week of September.