I refer to this as Tour B.C. Resurrection because the tour B.C. concept started with my first one back in '98. It ran for a couple of years but then we moved on to other projects. Since then, other B.C. Coggers have picked up the ball for a year or two but Tour B.C. has been "in absentia" for a decade now.
It's back!!!
Short version - On May 26th, eight riders rode out from Chase at 8:30 A.M. and rode 583 km. returning to Chase home base approximately 10 hours later - smiling. A mighty fire was ignited, meat was eaten, stories were told and assorted beverages were consumed. I can confidently say that a good time was had by all. The End.
Longer version - On May 26th, Cheryl and I hosted seven riders from B.C. , Alberta and Washington. Charlie Gary, Wayne Wilson, Dan Paulsen and David Linden travelled from Washington while Kirk Araki rode in from Hope, B.C. and John Derick came over the mountain from Canmore, Alberta. Local rider Gene Kinzell joined us in the morning from just down the road in Vernon.
We rolled on schedule Sunday morning at 8:30. After pre ride prep, we rolled just 15 minutes west down Hwy. 1 to Pritchard. This is where the fun begins - an entertaining short warm up romp over Duck Range Road. Dave Linden, new to the group and not really knowing what to expect, said that when we left Chase he wondered if we were heading to a funeral....." and then we hit this!! Holy crap, I guess we weren't going to a funeral". He was grinning like a Cheshire cat. Gene Kinzell anointed Duck Range Road as officially orgasmic. His highest accolade. I just call it a hoot and a half and a great way to wake everyone up and start the day right.
At varying degrees, things just didn't let up for the next 10 hours flowing naturally between "spirited" and "relax, catch your breath". On the Zen side of things we even did a stretch through rural farmland which although seemingly strange for big sport touring bikes, just fit the group to a "T".
Our back road ramble afforded us the luxury of completely bypassing Kamloops. In laying out the route, I endeavoured to avoid city traffic wherever possible. In large part it was successful at that.
Off our back road ramble (if you're looking on a map, it's Campbell Creek Rd. but it might not even show), we reconnect with highway 5A, which meanders in long sweepers through the Nicola Valley, along Stump Lake and Nicola Lake and intersecting with hwy 5 (the Coquihalla) at Merritt. It has long been a favorite ride of mine - just a lazy comfortable sweep through predominantly rolling ranch country. It's a good pace to relax your stomach for a lunch stop at the Historic Quilchena Hotel on Nicola Lake.
After lunch we continued on west down Hwy. 5A, bypassed Merritt with a couple of minutes on the Coquihalla, then south on 5A heading up the Okanagan connector and the turn off to Aspen Grove and Princeton. This was the only portion that I considered just boring superslab and it was only for 20 minutes or so. ........... and it transported us to another of the gems of the ride. If you've never done 5A from Aspen Grove to Princeton, then trust me, this road was made for a Connie. You need to do it!!! When you get to the end, you may want to turn around and do it again<g>.
Next stop was the Petrocan station in Princeton. I believe I saw a couple of "high fives". I know I saw a lot of smiles. This is the south west corner of the route. We're halfway. From here we head east to Keremeos, then Penticton in search of more twisty treasure. We don't wait long.
because shortly after the turn off at Keremeos, we arrive at Green Mountain Rd. . Some may know it as the Apex Alpine Resort Road. Whatever you call it, it's time to strap on your A game and ramp up the fun factor to "Yee-Hah".
After plenty enough curves for any mere mortal, Green Mountain Rd. spits us back into civilization at hwy 97 in Penticton. This is the south east corner of the route. From here we will follow the Okanagan Valley main corridor north towards Kelowna. .... but not before an ice cream stop at a Dairy Queen.
Although definitely a departure from the more rustic tracks we've enjoyed so far, I've always thought the ride up the valley, along the lakes was a beautiful ride.. if we could just get rid of the towns <g>. On this perfect day, the occasional congestion is okay. The weather has held for us all day and all seems right with the world.
All too soon we're dealing with W. Kelowna traffic but not for long because just before the bridge that takes us to Kelowna City proper, we hang a right , then left onto the notorious Westside Road. It starts out easy but in not too long you realize it's time to start paying closer attention and pulling your A game out again if you're not already there. This is a challenging track and can be very unforgiving to inattentiveness. This is a road to get really real on; not the road to push the edge too hard. When you do it right, it'll just make you feel good all over.
An hour or so later and we're back on hwy 97, having bypassed the cities of both Kelowna and Vernon. I think everyone is pretty much baked by this time - but in a good way. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately because we have Westside behind us now, we catch the first drops of rain at this point. We're close to home now though.
Heading north up 97 to Falkland, the precipitation increases. We're now just like horses headin' for the barn - the warm, dry barn. This is unfortunate because the last little track running from Falkland to Chase (called, not surprisingly, the Chase Falkland Road) which runs past beautiful Pillar lake at the top but also has 6 kilometers of gravel is a dish best served dry. On a dry day, it is a hoot a mile. Today , not so much. ... but we persevere because it's the shortest way home. We're only 40 minutes out now.
Suffice to say we all arrive back safe and sound despite the dancing cow (that's a story for another time) and proceed to warm up , dry out and power down.
I believe it's been a great day. There were a lot of showers run that night and the dryer ran pretty much steady. With departure plans being made for the morning, our once boisterous, now exhausted party crew fight the sandman as best they can but by eleven, everyone is in dreamland. First motors fire at first light, farewells are said and by 9 o:clock pretty much everyone is gone. Charlie leaves last heading to Gene Kinzell in Vernon to get a salvage tire with enough rubber to get him home safe. For some reason his tread seems to have evaporated over the last couple of days.
I have no idea how that happened.
For pictures of the event see previous posts on this forum from Dan Paulsen and Charlie.
It's back!!!
Short version - On May 26th, eight riders rode out from Chase at 8:30 A.M. and rode 583 km. returning to Chase home base approximately 10 hours later - smiling. A mighty fire was ignited, meat was eaten, stories were told and assorted beverages were consumed. I can confidently say that a good time was had by all. The End.
Longer version - On May 26th, Cheryl and I hosted seven riders from B.C. , Alberta and Washington. Charlie Gary, Wayne Wilson, Dan Paulsen and David Linden travelled from Washington while Kirk Araki rode in from Hope, B.C. and John Derick came over the mountain from Canmore, Alberta. Local rider Gene Kinzell joined us in the morning from just down the road in Vernon.
We rolled on schedule Sunday morning at 8:30. After pre ride prep, we rolled just 15 minutes west down Hwy. 1 to Pritchard. This is where the fun begins - an entertaining short warm up romp over Duck Range Road. Dave Linden, new to the group and not really knowing what to expect, said that when we left Chase he wondered if we were heading to a funeral....." and then we hit this!! Holy crap, I guess we weren't going to a funeral". He was grinning like a Cheshire cat. Gene Kinzell anointed Duck Range Road as officially orgasmic. His highest accolade. I just call it a hoot and a half and a great way to wake everyone up and start the day right.
At varying degrees, things just didn't let up for the next 10 hours flowing naturally between "spirited" and "relax, catch your breath". On the Zen side of things we even did a stretch through rural farmland which although seemingly strange for big sport touring bikes, just fit the group to a "T".
Our back road ramble afforded us the luxury of completely bypassing Kamloops. In laying out the route, I endeavoured to avoid city traffic wherever possible. In large part it was successful at that.
Off our back road ramble (if you're looking on a map, it's Campbell Creek Rd. but it might not even show), we reconnect with highway 5A, which meanders in long sweepers through the Nicola Valley, along Stump Lake and Nicola Lake and intersecting with hwy 5 (the Coquihalla) at Merritt. It has long been a favorite ride of mine - just a lazy comfortable sweep through predominantly rolling ranch country. It's a good pace to relax your stomach for a lunch stop at the Historic Quilchena Hotel on Nicola Lake.
After lunch we continued on west down Hwy. 5A, bypassed Merritt with a couple of minutes on the Coquihalla, then south on 5A heading up the Okanagan connector and the turn off to Aspen Grove and Princeton. This was the only portion that I considered just boring superslab and it was only for 20 minutes or so. ........... and it transported us to another of the gems of the ride. If you've never done 5A from Aspen Grove to Princeton, then trust me, this road was made for a Connie. You need to do it!!! When you get to the end, you may want to turn around and do it again<g>.
Next stop was the Petrocan station in Princeton. I believe I saw a couple of "high fives". I know I saw a lot of smiles. This is the south west corner of the route. We're halfway. From here we head east to Keremeos, then Penticton in search of more twisty treasure. We don't wait long.
because shortly after the turn off at Keremeos, we arrive at Green Mountain Rd. . Some may know it as the Apex Alpine Resort Road. Whatever you call it, it's time to strap on your A game and ramp up the fun factor to "Yee-Hah".
After plenty enough curves for any mere mortal, Green Mountain Rd. spits us back into civilization at hwy 97 in Penticton. This is the south east corner of the route. From here we will follow the Okanagan Valley main corridor north towards Kelowna. .... but not before an ice cream stop at a Dairy Queen.
Although definitely a departure from the more rustic tracks we've enjoyed so far, I've always thought the ride up the valley, along the lakes was a beautiful ride.. if we could just get rid of the towns <g>. On this perfect day, the occasional congestion is okay. The weather has held for us all day and all seems right with the world.
All too soon we're dealing with W. Kelowna traffic but not for long because just before the bridge that takes us to Kelowna City proper, we hang a right , then left onto the notorious Westside Road. It starts out easy but in not too long you realize it's time to start paying closer attention and pulling your A game out again if you're not already there. This is a challenging track and can be very unforgiving to inattentiveness. This is a road to get really real on; not the road to push the edge too hard. When you do it right, it'll just make you feel good all over.
An hour or so later and we're back on hwy 97, having bypassed the cities of both Kelowna and Vernon. I think everyone is pretty much baked by this time - but in a good way. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately because we have Westside behind us now, we catch the first drops of rain at this point. We're close to home now though.
Heading north up 97 to Falkland, the precipitation increases. We're now just like horses headin' for the barn - the warm, dry barn. This is unfortunate because the last little track running from Falkland to Chase (called, not surprisingly, the Chase Falkland Road) which runs past beautiful Pillar lake at the top but also has 6 kilometers of gravel is a dish best served dry. On a dry day, it is a hoot a mile. Today , not so much. ... but we persevere because it's the shortest way home. We're only 40 minutes out now.
Suffice to say we all arrive back safe and sound despite the dancing cow (that's a story for another time) and proceed to warm up , dry out and power down.
I believe it's been a great day. There were a lot of showers run that night and the dryer ran pretty much steady. With departure plans being made for the morning, our once boisterous, now exhausted party crew fight the sandman as best they can but by eleven, everyone is in dreamland. First motors fire at first light, farewells are said and by 9 o:clock pretty much everyone is gone. Charlie leaves last heading to Gene Kinzell in Vernon to get a salvage tire with enough rubber to get him home safe. For some reason his tread seems to have evaporated over the last couple of days.
I have no idea how that happened.
For pictures of the event see previous posts on this forum from Dan Paulsen and Charlie.
