Day 17 - Happy Birthday Laurie!

The picture above as well as the following three were taken on Highway 99.

My "friends" from Germany. You have to look for the dog sitting up in the front seat.

Lake Canim

Today is Milly and my first born's birthday! Milly pointed out to me that I was on the west coast at Fort Lewis when Laurie was born in Frederick, Maryland. And that separation also was the longest that Milly and I have been apart in 46 years of marriage until now! And while I'm enjoying the ride, I do miss "my girls"!

Current forecast for today is for showers as opposed to yesterday's steady rain so I think I'll get cleaned up, don my (now dry) rain gear and head out to brave the elements.

Well, it's a good thing that I put on the rain gear because it poured from the time I left Squamish until just before I reached Whistler, BC. I rode around Whister Village and decided it wasn't worth paying for parking and wandering around the area. So I snapped a few pictures and headed north looking for some breakfast. I found it a few miles up the road and had a relaxed for almost an hour while I enjoyed the food and the ambiance.

There was a good bit of road work on the Sea to Sky Highway (Route 99). One streach was packed gravel for at least 20 miles. I met a couple traveling on a small BMW at one of the flagman stop points. Enjoyed talking to them and ended up following them through the long gravel section. I enjoyed Route 99 both as a tourist and a biker. Wonderful, wonderful scenery.

Around noon, the treat of rain had ended so I stopped at an overlook and removed my rain gear. I met a nice couple traveling in a VW Bus. They were from Germany. We took turns photographing one another in front of the lake that was the reason for the overlook. They had a very lovable dog so I got to get a doggie fix as well. It was obvious that the dog was highly trained. When I finished rubbing his ears he lifted his paw for a hand shank! Very cute.

Eventually Route 99 ended in Route 97 which I took northward, So far Route 97 has not been too impressive. Most of it looks about like North Carolina likes from I95.

I ended up making a mistake followed by a bigger one. I took a side road off of Route 97 to Lake Canim. I had been advised some time back that this was a great lake with a scenic beach and some great camping. Well, I found none of that! In fact I found that in this part of the world the word "Resort" can refer to a pup tent that has been visited by moths.

After driving almost 30 miles out of my way, I wanted to make something special out of visiting this pretty lake in BC. I saw a sign for a state sponsored recreational area and decided to check it out. (This turned out to be the second, and greater, mistake.) I turned onto a dirt road that reminded me of a logging road. I continued on as I thought that there would be a neat camping opportunity waiting for me.

After about 4 miles, I had a sense that this had not been a good idea. I flagged down a truck that was coming my way and talked to the driver to find out that I was only about half way there and that there picnic tables and that that was about it! Definitely no camping. I said the heck with this and looked for a place to turn around on this narrow dirt road. Unfortunately the spot that I picked out was on more of a grade that I thought and in the process of backing up and pulling forward, my leg was just not long enough to support the bike so over I went!!!!

Unfortunately when it fell over it rolled past the guards provided by Honda and ended up balanced on the mirror and rear speaker housing. The wheels were totally off the ground. There was no way I could lift it back to vertical. I would just have to wait for some good Samaritans to come my way. In the meantime though I had to wait while being attacked by mosquitos. Thankfully my riding clothes and helmet gave the "beasts" only a very small area to attact!

Well my prayers were answered in about half an hour when a pickup truck pulled up and three burly guys got out! Man what a beautiful sight!!!

We had the Wing up right in no time. Unfortunately there are noticable scratches on the mirror and rear speaker housing. Fortunately, I was not hurt nor was the safety of the Wing compromised, [A fellow I met at the Calf Creek BLM Campground earlier in the trip had dropped his bike crossing a stream and had busted his mirror to pieces!] Fortunately my mirror is still works fine.

With my ego deflated I sought out shelter for the night and ended up at William's Lake, BC.

I am gratefully for this day that I was given and certainly enjoyed exploring (most of) this part of British Columbia.

Tomorrow I continue northward.