Well, things are sure nice now here in beautiful BC...Summer has come early
Following a 3 hour polishing (love that Mothers Carbonara wax...keeps that 18 year old paint in a deep, bright shine), tinkering, and general going over of the old girl the evening prior as I start to prep for Billings Inzane, I decided to give the new to me 440 shocks ... purchased (and finally installed) from Dennis - aka Trout Dude , new rubber, and new U-joint a good shakedown ride.
The grand Mount Cheam...always a focal point of our neighborhood, Kent/Agassiz - the "gateway to the best of BC".
Once the hoards of urban dwellers from the BC Lower Mainland region get out our way, there's two main routes that will take you North ... #5 Coquihala Hwy, or East...#3 Crow's Nest Hwy. On this ride I chose East, for a 350 km round trip to and through Manning Park, one of BC's best and largest Provincial Parks...an outdoor enthusiast's paradise!
On the way to Manning, the site of the infamous Hope Slide, where a whole side of the mountain gave way in 1965 and devastated part of Sunshine Valley along #3.
"The Hope Slide was the largest landslide ever recorded in Canada. It occurred in the morning hours of January 9, 1965 in the Nicolum Valley in the Cascade Mountains near Hope, British Columbia, and killed four people, two of which are still entombed under the mass of rock to this day. The volume of rock involved in the landslide has been estimated at 47 million cubic metres." The new stretch of highway is built over the original.
As a 9 year old travelling with my brother and sister in the back of our family 1959 VW Bug from the Kootenay region to visit family in Vancouver for Christmas, I remember driving over a temporary road over this stretch just a few weeks after the slide.
The #3 is a great ride, with winding roads, deep river gorges, and mountain views. Also as the ice and snow leaves, some new frost heaves which gave the new shocks a good test. They're pretty stiff riding solo even set at a lower setting, but man does the bike ever handle so much better in the twisties...which is exactly what I was looking for... I 'm liking them fine
Lightning Lake, in Manning Park. Ice has probably been off for no more than a month so a little cool for swimming, but this is one our favorite day trips for a swim/bbq/fishing day.
On the way home, after riding another 45 minutes or so past Manning Park towards the town of Princeton. One of the many
nicknames my bride of 35+ years has for me is "Around the Bender", in that I just have to go around one more curve of the highway or bend in the river when fishing...no matter what other obligations await me at home. In this case it was dinner with family, so I literally had to force myself to start the return part of the ride, as it was such a glorious day to be away from civilization out in the wind. In my haste to not incur any unnecessary "where the h*** were you's" from the Mrs, I burned through a radar trap at 20-30 km over, but luckily I never got "the wave"
As with most days...just a great day for a good ride. Can't wait for departure date to Valhalla in ID on the 22nd of June, and then on to Inzane in Billings
