After waking up to an unusual thunder and lightning storm passing through I could see some light coming through the dark ominous clouds. Prediction for the weather was to be sunny and hot for Maple Ridge, as well as HOT on the road. Well, the sun came out in Maple Ridge for us to leave at 0615 and man did we get ourselves into some HEAT after crossing over the Northern Cascades. The above picture is the obligatory beginning of a trip mileage shot of my odometer.
Someone on the ADV forum mentioned we should have cooling vests for this trip.
I thought to myself….nope, we can tough it out even in our gear. Well, I was not correct and that is often hard for me, Leslie to admit. Having said this, I managed to wear my KLIM Latitude all day with Cheryl feeling the need to take off her jacket for about 2 hours during the day. More about this in a bit.
Last year we had to contend with cold and wet conditions. This trip nothing but HOT predicted. All in the name of an adventure!
Cheryl always has little mascots on our trip. This guy is glued on but he’s about to get the turbulence boot after one more day of riding. His legs are breaking off! 😉
Quick review of the BMW seat. We have Renazco seats not OEM. Even with the Alaskan Sheep Butt pad on both bikes, these are not touring seats at all. Last year when we rode the Triumph 800XC bikes with the Triumph gel seats it is night and day. Yesterday we did over 700 KM and we both had to talk about the pressure points and how much our asses kill us. Remedied by periodically standing it just hurts. One reason we really liked the Triumphs to be honest road and seat comfort. OK, enough complaining…oh, I guess there might be just a tad bit more in this category. The Heat.
One thing Leslie hates is having to fuel up because we did not do it the day before. However, it was me, Leslie that needed gas this time before we left. Oops….oh well, just a quick stop. I am tracking our fuel via my Road Trip app. Want to see how do with $$ and gas as well as mileage.
Border crossing at the Sumas crossing piece of cake since we have Nexus passes. They have added a Nexus line at this border and all ready came in handy. We left in 16 C and the weather was perfect for the first part of the day.
Quick breakfast pit stop and of course just have to take pictures of our loaded Beemers. Just have too, it’s in my nature. 😉
Road pavement all the way to Coeur d’Alene, ID. Long day and we needed to get to Cheryl’s sisters house by dinner.
Rt. 20 through the Northern Cascades towards Winthrop, WA is a very nice scenic road with some twisties. Again the temperature through the pass was tolerable. When we got to Winthrop it went from 17 C, 62 F straight up to 33.5 C, 91 F.
Just a pretty ride until we got through Winthrop and hit the desert and boring highway that was about 104 F…or 40 C.
Looks like glacier fed rivers….look at that colour!
Lush greenery all the way until the Okanagan.
Nice place for a rest
Still lot’s of snow on the mountains for this time of year and along the side of the road at the summit
Despite our asses killing us we still love the way ADV bikes look and feel
SNOW! Yet hot out
We got stuck behind a group of Harley riders who would not really allow us to pass….hmmmm….they ride so slowly! 😉
As we roll in to Winthrop…look at my temp gauge
The causal HD riders lead the way, they turned left we turned right lol
We stopped only for a little while to pee, get a drink, check our phones and get gas….then off through the desert.
No more lush green just bush. This is where we hit over 100 F. We are wearing KLIM Latitude Gore Tex gear. Even though I kept my gear on the way, Cheryl took her jacket off for about 2 hours. The gear did the best it could under these circumstance. I think forearm vents would be nice. This is when we were wishing we had cooling vests. To be honest some guy recommended a $40 vest before we left and I decided nope. Since then we had a change in heart considering we will be riding in HOT temps until we can get to the west coast.
At this dam the temperature at this spot went from 36 C, 97 F to 28 C, 82 F in matter of minutes. 28 felt like windchill. We are Vancouver grrls and seriously anything over 30 is HOT to us but all along I think we managed to stay hydrated and even our pee was perfect yellow. We drank a TON though.
This is what we saw all the way into Idaho……yawn…all part of the adventure, weather and some boredom.
We got to Cheryl’s sisters house around 1800, got off the bikes, were handed a beer….took showers and went out to dinner here.
GREAT Mediterranean food with TONS and I mean TONS of garlic…as the sign says and they were not kidding…The White House in Post Falls, Idaho!
Afterwards, we went down to the Coeur d’Alene boardwalk to take a nice stroll after dinner. Temperature cooled down quite a bit after sun down and the walk was a nice way to try to get off some of the calories we just shoved into our mouths at dinner, like deep-fried Feta, hummas and chicken.
Only had my iPhone with me …
Came back to the house, had more beer, talked and off to bed by 2300. That was a long but good day.
In the morning we ran to Wal-Mart to get some road snacks, plus Cheryl and myself just LOVE seeing beer in normal stores and we LOVE the price down here compared to Canada.
I hate to admit it but I need help on the bike at times…gonna send this to the company..maybe they will send me a case…it saves my life because I do not sleep well under the best conditions and this boost keeps me alert. I know I should not have to drink this stuff if I am eating well and sleeping…but I do neither so I still want to ride and live. On my list, learn to eat better and sleep!
Last shot for now…has ANYONE ever seen marshmallows this HUGE? Only in America!
😉
So, one more thing….we ordered some inexpensive cooling vests from MOTOGEAR OUTLET and had them shipped to KLIM USA in Rigby. We will pick them up on Thursday and try them out. Nothing to lose, free shipping and only $60 for the two vests. Thanks to BUTLER MAPS for suggesting this company to us. We will see how they work because are heading into high 90’s F weather for the next week.
So, thanks to our gracious hosts, we have a roof over head with A/C for another night and then back on the road Wednesday, July 11th. Remember watch us on our SPOTWALLA page for live updates as to where we are….that’s it for now!
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Advgrrl Motorcycle Adventures & More 
A nice read, as ever. I heared some good feed-back on the Hyperkewl cooling vest. Just a thought. Say hello for me at KLiM, I love their gear! The Traverse suit I own might be slightly better in HOT conditions.
The TrAverse lacks venting as well. But to be fair this is HOT and unless we did have a cooling vest I’m not anything would help. Even mesh. Mesh may have better venting but you would dehydrate faster. We are always learning and appreciate adventures are always full of treats. The weather being one!
Great pics and words. Travel well.
Thanks will do
Can you tell me how you like your Klim riding gear? How does it fit and perform? Does it keep you dry?
Thanks,
Greg
Greg we will do a post on how the suit does on this trip of ours. We are away at the KLIM Adventure rally right now as I type. If you can wait for our second review which will be done when we get back next week sometime…I will have a lot more to say. In a nut shell though KLIM does rock but there are always buts…..more later