This is the weekend of the Valley BMW Riders campout in Kaslo, in the heart of the great West Kootenays riding country.
Some of the finest riding roads in the province are located in these scenic valleys.
However, in spite of the great roads and the good company, this weekend will be remembered for its weather! The forecast was for showers, rain, and wet, and then more rain! We went anyway.
Left Salmon Arm Saturday morning, before 10am, dry and sunny and looking good! Out Enderby way, headed for Mara Lake and slipped into Trinity Valley, great road, with about 25 miles of good gravel, hardly a car on the road. Saw a couple of deer, and a cinnamon bear. Rejoined the highway at Lumby, and headed over the famous Highway 6 and the Monashee Pass.
We were a few miles past Cherryville and climbing up to the pass when 2 sport-bikes came out of nowhere, and flew past us. I turned up the wick and hung onto their ass for the next 40 miles 'til we came to the Needles ferry. This was great fun, and we had dry roads, and long sweeping corners, saw a couple more deer too. They soon had to stop for gas, and we continued to Nakusp.
Nakusp has some very nice parks and flower gardens, so we did a walking tour, and stopped for lunch at a sidewalk cafe. I had a great burrito and coffee. While we were eating, a 1952 Vincent Rapid, with a "dust-bin " fairing, parked at the curb. Turns out there is a Vincent get-together at the nearby hot-springs. They haven't made these wonderful British bikes since about 1956.
We continued down the Highway to New Denver, had a look around and started up Highway 31A, one of the twistiest roads in the area. Nice new asphalt, and smooth corners, some slow to 15! It started to rain, and we saw 4 Vincents going the other way, what a wonderful sound!
It rained into Kalso, and we found the city park with about 10 bikes and tents awaiting for us.
We put our tent up under a tree, and settled in for a visit. It was still raining when we walked into town for supper. It was a Mexican place, and I can vouch for the spicy shrimp pita. Goes good with dark beer.
Back to the camp for a roaring big fire to drive back the rain, and then more beers and lies. It had been a long day, and people were drifting into their tents, and the die-hards called it quits about 11pm.
Rained all night. About 6am, I couldn't sleep anymore, and I heard people up, so I quietly got dressed and managed to get out of the tent without waking up SWMBO. A quick walk into town for huevos rancheros, and mucho coffee. ( I'm seeing a food pattern here!) Soon joined by the others, and Deb came in and said she slept the whole night without hearing the rain! What a gal!
The clouds were low and the rain was constant, so we packed up in the wet. We asked Arlie to join us for the ride home. She agreed, and we hit the road. Up over the Sandon pass, and into Nakusp for another garden tour. When we set off for the ferry, the weather was looking grim. Half-way there, a wet and bedraggled baby coyote pup tried to commit suicide under my wheels, and when my superb riding skills saved his sorry-ass, he dove under Arley's bike with similar results! He's one lucky coyote!
From the ferry, the weather looked good in the mountains, little did we know! Set off on dry roads, and were soon up at the top. From there we could see a black sky that looked like the gates-of-hell had been opened! But it was drifting to port, and we were sliding to starboard, and it looked like we would miss it. But we tacked, and were quickly in a monsoon, and then wind, some lightening, and then ferocious hail!
{tab=page #3}The hail was building up on the road, and was like riding on wet marbles, I didn't know what to do, and was too scared to stop, so we just slowed down and kept going, a few miles of this and we could see daylight beyond. We popped out into bright blue skies and fluffy white clouds! Into Lumby for big bowls of potato jalapeño soup. It was marvelous.
Arlie sure is fun to ride with. Through hill and dale, wind and rain, she's always in my mirror, and about 200 feet behind my left elbow. She rides smooth, never hesitates to pass, and just ripped through that hail storm. What a trooper!
After soup, we had dry roads all they way home. What a bore!
Washed the bike, dried out the gear, where we gonna go next week?
Ride safe,
Don and Deb