Downtime in Vancouver

VANCOUVER – I’m sitting enjoying a leisurely second (or is it third?) cup of coffee in the lush and verdant backyard of my friends Charlie and Cathryn wondering how it can be early summer here and I left Edmonton only a few days ago where it was 8C and had snowed the day before. Everywhere in this West Van neighbourhood the shrubs and gardens are fragrant and colourful! Flowers that have already begun to drop their petals here haven’t even budded out back home!

Leaving Lillooet as the sun was coming up, I headed down B.C. Hwy. 99 aka the Duffy Lake Road, 100 kilometers of what is now my No. 1 favourite twisty road I’ve ever driven -- in Canada or anywhere else! The Going to the Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park is a ride in the, well, park compared to the steep climbs, gear-dropping descents, and more and tighter S-bends and hairpins than I’ve ever experienced!

Too dangerous to stop and take pix, I'm afraid. But i had to take a shot of this sign: Winding Highway Use Caution When Passing. Passing? Are you mad?

Once again, I was climbing in an alpine forest where the snow lies in the shady groves of pine and spruce. The sweet smell of the forest and the sweet whine of the Beemer were barely registering as I concentrated on keeping it between the lines. If there had been lines!

I brought all my 40-odd years of motorcycling experience to bear. Even a slight glance at the spectacular scenery rushing by could put me a half-an-instant late into some turns with centrifugal force forcing me ever closer to the barely-there shoulder of the road.

I had to remember I was not the late, great Northern Ireland road racer Joey Dunlop roaring through the cozy roads of the North Antrim countryside on his hand-made Hondas with his Armoy Armada in tow!

In fact, I was sadly reminded of Trevor, a friend and former colleague, who high-sided his first bike in similar territory some years back. A lovely guy gone too soon.

Slow down, I told myself more than once, braking hard, shedding gears and willing the half-tonne Bike-a-Lounger to edge back from the precipitous road edge and the valley hundreds, sometimes thousands, of meters below!!

Nearly $600 worth of sticky new Metzler tires has proven to be a very good investment.

Even as I descended into Pemberton, a friendly farming village in the shadow of Mount Currie, I was shivering, partly from the exhilaration of such a special piece of road and partly from temps that dropped from 17C at 8 a.m. in Lillooet and dropped to 9C at the high point of The Duffy. That had me wondering if I’d made a mistake taking the liners out of my new Scott Motorsports riding suit.

I was still shivering when l I got off, had a coffee and carrot cake at The Pony and went for a wee walk to get the circulation going and the shakes to stop.

The biggest deal in town at the moment is a community barn-raising event. Imagine a log-timbered, open-sided barn being crafted by a very cool mix of old and young, Canadian and American male and female artisans using a combination of power and traditional hand tools.

Dave, a member of the Timber Framers Guild and volunteer builder, explained that the barn would be more than 45 meters long and about 15 meters wide, comprising 60,000 board-feet of local timber and would become the home for such community events as a farmers’ market, dances or public meetings.

I next headed up? down? over? to Whistler, the site of many of the 2010 Winter Olympic events, the air redolent of pine, pot and money.  Lots and lots of money, new and old.

It brought to mind Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s inaugural address as San Francisco’s first poet-laureate wherein he bemoaned the fact his beloved city had become the urban equivalent of a gentrified suburb gated by money! But that’s just how my mind works, I guess. I’m sure it doesn’t keep Whistlerites? Whislerians? Whistlers? awake at night.

As the highway temp shot up to 31C around Squamish, I was glad I’d yanked the thermal liners out of my suit after all. Once in the city, I had a full sweat going – the worst of it when my eyes starting stinging from a combination of salt and sunbock! Ouch!

The aptly named Sea to Sky Highway down to Vancouver is a well-paved four-lane that hugs the shore of Howe Sound and Georgia Strait. I only stopped long enough to get my photo taken by a nice fellow from Wimberley, Texas. Then i paid it forward by taking a picture of the owner of the new truck in the background!

I’m getting closer to my “real starting point” in the village of Tofino on the western shore of Vancouver Island, now just a ferry ride and some made-for-motorbike runs through virgin, old growth rainforest away.

I’m going to rest up here with Charlie and Cath, catch up on their lives and those of their three boys, who have grown into fine young men since Mindy and I were last here. Got to see some former Canadian Press pals and Mark, my first boss with the Alberta government and a long-time BMW tourer.

Also have to get one of the Beemer’s footpegs fixed. And no, I didn’t drag it through a curve on The Duffy!

Please remember the Ride for Sight, especially any bikers reading this. Ride for Sight because you can. Please visit my Ride for Sight secure online donation page and pledge a few bucks for this important fundraising ride to support research into the causes and prevention of blindness. Thanks