August 11th 2011

Videos coming later!

We left our little retreat Loon Bay Resort and our cute little cabin that we spent three nights in unwinding.  Before we left our cabin neighbours had to take our picture and off we went at about 0900.  We knew right down the street from the cabin we would head off the pavement right away and take the Bonaparte Road to 70 Mile house.  Great way to start the over 500 KM trek home.  No cars, no people just Cheryl and me and cows!

Not a technically challenging road at all but nice to be in the woods with nature and it was mainly just the two of us and our Tigers.

Quite a few ranches out this way.  Imagine the life of a rancher?  Hard work and isolated. 

Signs all over to watch out for these guys.  We watched them, they watched us and then I had enough waiting and trickled along until they moved out of the way.

So common to be riding on this stuff after this trip I can even one hand it while taking pictures.  Still being safe but our riding and confidence has gotten better and we are not talking about being cocky riders now.  We are just much better off the pavement.

There are many lakes in this Interlake Region of the South Cariboo.  The more we explore our own Province the more we know we are lucky and privileged to live here.  There are thousands of roads like this and more challenging ones too.  We could spend the rest of our riding careers just playing in our own backyard.

Got to 70 Mile House just in time.  I had to pee and of course by now after being up for hours I was starving and even Cheryl was hungry.  I think I average about 5 hours of sleep per night.  Cheryl did better than me but I lost count how many times she had to poke me to stop snoring. Maybe I need to be check for sleep Apnea? 

This is Joan.  The server, the cook, bus person and hostess.  Joan had us sign her guest book and wants us to put a shout out the the Show and Shine folks.  Joan wants to host a Show & Shine at her motel/restaurant in 70 Mile House.  Good food and once Joan warms up to you she is very funny and friendly. Stop by her restaurant and say hi if any of you are in her neck of the woods.

Back to the road with our guts full and now we were heading to the best road ever the Kelly Lake road right near Clinton, BC.  We took this rode home last year after we got back from riding cross country but then headed down Highway 1 to home.  This year we stayed on 99.

Almost to the good stuff….dirt!

Love this section of the road.  You are right next to the lake.

Last year we saw this sign and were like….Oh no!  This year we were like OH YEAH!!!!!!

There is no shoulder.  If you go over on this road you fall down a steep cliff!

Really trying hard to steer and take pics with one hand here!

Once you get to the top about 1400 metres you ride the ridge a bit and then you get a view that is worth a million bucks

The MILLION dollar view is coming up!

Ready for the VIEW?  Man did I take a lot of pictures!

Here you go!  I would like to introduce you all to the Fraser Canyon!

We used the Vibrant setting on the big camera….what a difference!

We hung out here for almost an hour.  Just worth not rushing it!

Heading down the beautiful Kelly Lake Road, full of hair pin turns and great views descending down to the valley.

Back to highway 99 and pavement for the res of the way home.  What a way to ride home though.  We never did the Bonaparte Road but have done the Kelly Lake last year.  To get off the main road is EXACTLY why we ride DS bikes.  It is an awesome feeling to not only beat the traffic but to get views only a few bikes will be able to see.

A bunch of travelers from Calgary, Alberta on their way to Tofino which is on Vancouver Island.  Nice to see a woman part of their “gang”.  Nice folks and we both hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip of our great Province of BC.

Lilliooet, BC.  Small town off Highway 99

After you pass Lillooet there is a little bridge that crosses over a Salmon spawning stream.

Seton Lake feeds the man made spawning grounds.  Incredible view point for travelers to stop and get some Kodak memories.

Other than the traffic the part of Highway 99 from Lillooet to Pemberton, BC was probably the road with the most curves in it that we have seen the entire trip.  Leave it up to BC to have all the fun roads.

Behind Cheryl are the Calgary folks having some fun on their sport bikes and the twisties.

Unfortunately the camera battery went dead without me knowing it and the ride into Vancouver through Whistler and North Vancouver was not captured.  Might just have to go back someday and take the pics we missed and add them.  Sorry about that!

We left June 29th 2011 in this

Returned in sun and 26 degree C.

As we pulled up an got off the bikes our neighbour Adrienne was out with glass of wine in hand to help us out with the end of the trip home picture.  We were both like, well…..we did it!  Let’s have a beer!

Starting mileage was

TOTAL MILEAGE for this 44 day trip was 13673 KM or 8496 Miles.  Doesn’t seem that much to me but I guess if you consider the type of roads we rode maybe it is a lot?  Seemed like more.  We will have to make the next trip longer I suppose.

The Heidenau K60 Scout rear still alive after all that sharp rock roads and really no signs of out of the ordinary wear.  They did far better than I even expected and as I have said before, this will be the only tire we use. 

Front looks good too!

So, 44 days later we are home.  To us this was a truly an adventure will will never forget.  The scenery, the people, the opportunity to ride Triumph Tigers compliments of Triumph Canada, the fun factor, the weather, the live report from the road, the trials and tribulations, the accomplishments all mean the world to Cheryl and myself.  Many have done grander trips than this one but for us this was HUGE. We set out with certain goals and the only one that we did not reach was Inuvik.  We do not regret not going on that day because of our concerns about the weather, but it would have been nice to achieve all the goals for this trip.

We can now say we have seen almost all there is in Alaska and we even got to see the summit of Mount McKinley.  One of the 30%.  We tested the new Triumph tiger 800XC in an endurance way and in a way that we ride.  On and off pavement.  We did not cross river beds or single track the bikes but for the adventure rider in us these bikes are a true ADV bike.  Comfortable and competent. Those are two words that stick in our minds. Over the next day or so I will try to put together our final review of the Tigers and talk a bit about our gear and expenses.

As for the gear, remember we talked a lot of about the rain and cold but never once did we even mention that we even got wet or cold on the bikes.  A little hint as to how we feel about KLIM and our Gerbing. 

Thanks to Triumph Canada, Western Powersports and also ACT-Autism Community Training.    Not too late to donate to our charity ACT.  We rode this entire trip raising awareness for Autism and we met so many touched by the spectrum.  Even $5 would help.  Please consider donating to such a worthy cause.

Thanks to the thousands of viewers and subscribers from around the world.  This was awesome to have so many people follow our ride from around the world!

Finally we want to thank Taylor and Dave for not only running our house for the entire trip but taking such great care of our dogs and cat. We came home and it was clear that they missed us but were not not lacking LOVE.  Thanks guys!  We truly appreciate you helping us out!

Until next time…..Cheers!