Sore Wrists and Tired Glutes

For those who occasionally check this blog, my apologies if this post is a strenuous shock. I suppose I do not spend the time I should at the keyboard, but there seem to be lots of tasks in the yard and around the house fine tuning the recent addition, not to mention luncheon dates, 4Wheeler rides and other motorcycle trips to contend with.

A week ago JWayne and his four step-sons invited me to ride motorcycles with them to Vancouver Island and back. I had recently sold my two older machines (a story for another blog perhaps) and had a new Road King so I was not completely familiar with the bike and had never endeavored such a long ride. Ann and I rode to Jackson WY last summer but that was only 300 miles in a day whereas this trip would be over 2500 miles (2555 to be precise) total. In six days that averages out to a bit over 425 miles a day and some days would be longer and some shorter because of the ferry rides. I had just recovered, mostly, from a back problem and had just injured my ankle (I hate getting older) so I had that as an excuse also.

Well, you know me, too damned much Hansen and Taylor to say no, so off we head at o'dark-thirty on Monday morning. I hate to drive I-15 in an auto during rush hour, so from Provo to Brigham was 70-80 mph, dodging in and out of traffic and being tossed about by the wind turbulence that is created by all those machine, especially the big trucks, tearing through the air at those speeds was really not too pleasant. Tremonten was the first stop for fuel and I was glad. The stress and tension of the freeway was showing in my wrists and arms as I held on for dear life. From there to Mt. Home was beautiful pastoral scenery but then the flats outside of Boise were very windy. In Boise we caught Highway 55 north towards McCall. From then on the ride was a perfect motorcycle trip. We rode along the Salmon and the Payette rivers winding up lovely canyons right up into the mountains around McCall. It is a beautiful little town. We felt we had enough daylight to make a few more miles so after supper we headed for LeGrange. We arrived as it was turning dusk, thirteen hours of riding at this point. I had cramps in muscles I didn't even know I had. The town sits on a high prairie surrounded by rolling wheat fields as far as you can see. As we traveled we had noticed several large smoke plumes from the various forest fires plaguing Idaho just now and they came to plague us as well. Every hotel and motel in this and the surrounding towns was booked full of fire fighters being rotated in and out of action. Our closest hope was another two hours away in Lewiston, so we headed out in the dark for the Washington boarder. There was nothing there either but we finally found rooms across the river in Clarkston. We had come 735 miles in 15 hours of riding and this was only the first day!

I must say things got better the next day as we headed up 95 to Couer d'Alene. We then headed west along the international boundary on 20 to the boarder crossing at Osoyoos. Again a delightful, sweeping road through the mountains. Osoyoos, I love to say that, lies in the very beautiful and fruitful Okanagan valley. Which is really sort of a continuation of the farming country around the Tri-Cities in Washington. The farms were magnificent. Neat, well cared for and lush. A large number of them now owned by Iranians. The town is set on the lovely and long Lake Okanagan in the Canadian wine country. Perfect for grapes along with the other fruits.


From Osoyoos we rode west on Highway 3 towards Vancouver, again along a lush valley filled with these beautiful farms. The thing that struck me most about these little farm towns in Canada is that they build their new homes up on the foothills above the farm ground thus preserving the farms. Here in "God's land of the free" the nice flat farm ground is the first that gets covered with subdivisions thus ever reducing the ground available for growing food. It pains me that we are so short sighted. We talk about the Middle East holding us hostage over energy, but what will we do in ten years when Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Australia blockade our food? Crossing the Rockies and dropping down into Vancouver was breathtaking. After lunch we rode through the city to the west side and caught the ferry for Nanaimo. There was quite a crowd waiting for the ferry but they loaded motorcycles first so we went straight to the head of the line. Riding on the ferry was a breath of joy as it afforded a couple of hours out of the saddle. The crossing was smooth and restful. We offloaded in Nanaimo and proceeded down the island to Victoria for a nice night's rest.

We arose at 04:00 to catch the 06:00 ferry to Port Angeles. The weather threatened storm as we rode down the ramp onto the Olympic Peninsula, but we fueled up and headed off down the Coast Highway 101. It was once again a spectacular ride with dense forest on our left and the Pacific Ocean on our right as we wound down the road. After about an hour we got into the rain and that continued for about 100 miles. The rain suits were remarkably effective. Once we got on the south end of the storm the new washed country and brilliant blue skies with rags of clouds scudding across it made one's chest hurt with the intense beauty. To pull up across the river from Astoria Oregon with the sun glistening on it was a more beautiful sight than the Taj Mahal. I definitely want to return to Astoria to look around. It was full of art galleries, antique shops and interesting restaurants. On this trip we only stopped for fuel, food and sleep. We now headed east on Highway 30 towards Portland, staying in Vancouver WA across the Columbia from Portland.


On Friday we rode off down the highway on the north side of the Columbia River Gorge. Wow, in Utah we have no idea what a river is! It looks like one of the Great Lakes. This highway was a lovely winding ride along the river. When we reached the end of the fun, winding highway, we crossed over the river to catch I-84. As we fueled there, JWayne and I told the boys to cut us loose and head on home. A couple of them had family obligations on Saturday and since they are younger, more fit and better riders we sent them off. They did arrive back in Utah Valley early Saturday morning around 30 minutes after midnight. Jwayne and I took our time and stopped back in Boise that night and rode on home on Saturday.

Two weeks later I can look back with fondness on the trip. It is an accomplishment for me in my motorcycling life thus far.