August 14 - Home!!

Today is our last day.  We are excited to be in our own bed again, and not be eating every meal in a restaurant, yet it is sad that our trip is coming to an end.  It has been so much fun.

We spent the morning being Whistler tourists.  We headed up the chairlift on Blackcomb and then did the Peak to Peak gondola.

Getting on the chair

Going up over trees with no snow on them!

After 2 chairlifts, we boarded the peak 2 peak gondola

The facts of the Peak 2 Peak

 We enjoyed the view from the top of the mountain,

Green Lake and the Village down below

Can you see the red gondola cars way down there!

as well as the view from the Gondola.

And then some fun in the snow and walking around what feels like the top of the world.

We rode the chairlift back down to the village, and had excellent views of the village and lakes below.  

The pool where ski jumpers were practicing..hard to swim with skis on!

It was then time to make our last trek home.  We had great weather again and enjoyed the familiar landscapes.  We are blessed to live in a very beautiful part of Canada.

On the way to Squamish

The Chief

Shannon Falls in Squamish

Britannia Beach gave us the first view of the Pacific Ocean.

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The Sea to Sky Highway is a favorite road for biking.  We take every opportunity in the summer months to measure kitchen jobs in Whistler via motorcycle, and often do the Duffy Lake Road home.

Beautiful Sea to Sky Highway

Porteau Cove

Ocean stop at Porteau Cove

Continuing on to Horseshoe Bay and West Vancouver..arbutus tree in the foreground

BC Ferry

We arrived in Abbotsford about 6:00pm.

Almost there!

Yay!!

 We had an amazing journey, and were blessed with good weather and safety on the roads.  We had about 3 hours of rain while we were riding, in the 34 days we were on the road.  We travelled 9140km.  We saw 9 provinces and went through 4 time zones.  We saw parts of Canada we had never been to before, and enjoyed every area for it's uniqueness and beauty.  We will have to return to many areas to spend more time exploring, and get to the places we haven't seen yet.  It will take a lifetime!

August 13 Vernon to Whistler

We left our nice resort this morning and took the highway through Falkland and on to Kamloops.  We followed along Kamloops Lake to Cache Creek.  More beautiful riding roads.

Kamloops Lake

At Cache Creek we made at stop at the Hat Creek Ranch.  Kevan had been by here a few years ago, but wasn't able to tour as he was there too early in the day, so we stopped to look around.

We had a guided tour of the Roadhouse that was built in the 1860's to cater to miners during the gold rush as well as a resting place for stagecoaches.  We went into the saloon, where men could relax at the end of the day.  They could purchase a one ounce glass of whiskey for  $0.25 that was made by the Hudson Bay Company.  That was alot of money, and few men could afford it.  In those days, bullets also cost $0.25, so you could trade a bullet for a whiskey, and to this day that one ounce glass is referred to a shot glass, because you could buy it for a bullet.

Our coach coming to get us.  We sat up top like these gentlemen did.

Kevan & I going for our coach ride.  We actually got to trot for abit!

After the gold rush the ranch turned into a fulltime cattle ranch and in it's heyday, was 2600 acres in size, changed many owners over its lifetime, and was operated as an active ranch until the 1960's when it was almost abandoned.  BC Hydro purchased it on anticipation of starting a coal fired generating plant.  After the purchase, it was discovered that the coal grade was so poor it would not be viable to operate.  It was then taken over by the Heritage Society and is now run as a historical site and educational tool for schools.

There is also a Native Interpretation Site here, and we toured that as well.  We learned how the Shuswap First Nations People cooked their food, fished, tanned hides and built shelters.  It was very informative.

After a quick snack, we were off on Highway 99 to Lillooet.  We have done this ride a few times before, but always in the opposite direction.  It was like a new ride!  From Lillooet, we continued on to Pemberton, on the Duffy Lake Road and then Whistler. This ride is so scenic!

On the way to Lillooet

Duffy Lake

The road we travelled

Hazy skies...smoke from forest fires

Green Lake

Snow on the mountains behind Whistler

We got to Whistler late afternoon.  After a quick shower, we headed into the village for dinner.  Whistler is a beautiful place!  It was fun to be a tourist.

The creek we crossed to go into the village

Tomorrow will be our last day on the road!  It has been a great adventure!!

August 12 in Vernon

This morning we had a nice breakfast on Mrs. Wille's deck.  The guys washed the bikes and got them all shiny again.  We had picked up some dust and a few more bugs along the way.  Boating on the Okanagan in summers past, we had seen a large hotel at the top of Predator Ridge, and always said we should drive up and see that.  So today we did!

Our friend Peter with a big smile passing us at 100km an hour :-)
(Guess I should have taken a video instead!)

Peter led the way up and showed us around.  The hotel at the top of the hill is called Sparkling Hill Resort.  The owner is also the owner of Swarovski crystal, so the place is filled with crystal.  Over 3.5 million of them to be exact.  We went in for a coffee, and then, just for fun, asked to see one of the hotel rooms.  They were beautiful.  High up on a hill overlooking Okanagan Lake, with an infinity pool for swimming, and seven unique aromatherapy saunas and steam rooms included in your stay, as well as a hot buffet breakfast the next morning.  Kevan asked what the rates were and it just so happened that they had a walk-up special that day, that was 1/2 price of the regular rate.  It was getting later in the day and our original plan was to ride to Whistler via Cache Creek and the Duffy Lake Road.  This would be a great ride as well, and we didn't want to rush it as it was already early afternoon, so we decided to spoil ourselves and take advantage of this gorgeous resort.  So the afternoon consisted of swimming, sunning on comfy loungers, and using the steam room and sauna.  We were well rested for our ride the next day.


Lake Okanagan

The Harley needed a good rest too

Off to Whistler tomorrow, and our second last day on the road.  We were almost home.

August 11 to Vernon

We left Halcyon and headed south to Nakusp to have breakfast.



A waterfall we passed by between Halcyon and Nakusp

Better view of the falls

The recurring theme when you hang out with Kevan, is old buildings :-)  Peter had been here before and said they had a great deck which we were always on the hunt for.  We had a great breakfast at the oldest operating hotel in BC.

The Leland Hotel in Nakusp established in 1892

The deck we had breakfast on...tough to take, isn't it!

Nakusp was having a Saturday morning Farmer's Market, so we browsed around for abit before heading back on the road.  We headed south through Burton and on to Fauquier where we took the cable ferry across the Arrow Lakes to Needles.  About 10km up the road we turned right and went to Edgewood.  We stopped at a nice park that overlooked the Arrow Lakes

Another beautiful ride on the road from Needles to Vernon (Highway 6)

Pit stop to enjoy the view at Edgewood Park

On the way to Cherryville

We passed through Cherryville and stopped at the Emporium for an ice-cream.  Carrying on we passed through Lumby and Coldstream.  We passed by Kalamalka Lake.  The beach was packed with sunbathers.  It was pretty warm out!  We were staying at Peter's mom's house in Vernon that night, so we headed into Vernon to pick up barbeque supplies and had a nice evening with Mrs. Wille and a home-cooked meal!  Peter supplied some lovely wines to accompany dinner, so a great time was had by all.

August 10 in the Kootneys

We left Creston and headed up the east side of Kootney Lake.  Beautiful!!  Wonderful biking road, very scenic and perfect weather.

We stopped by the "glass house" for a tour.  This home and out buildings are all constructed from embalming fluid bottles!  The original owner was in the funeral home business, and wanted to recycle all the bottles some way, so in 1952 he built his house, and then had added more structures over the following years.  There are over 650,000 bottles used in the construction of the house.

The inside of the home was completed by 1954.  It is small inside, but has a functioning kitchen, bedroom and living area.

There were a number of beautiful gardens surrounding the buildings, and a gorgeous view of the lake!

Our ferry that we travelled over on

We carried on to catch the ferry that would take us across Kootney Lake to take us to the west side of the lake.  We travelled north to Kaslo where we stopped for lunch.

On the ferry

I could post alot of pictures of the ride we had this day.  It was so beautiful, and meant for a motorcycle!

That's Peter in front of us

The view from Ainsworth Hot Springs

The view from the deck at the Kaslo Hotel where we had lunch

We stopped for lunch in Kaslo.  We ate at the newly renovated Kaslo Hotel.  It had a great patio!!  I also had to charge the camera battery because I took so many pictures...first time that happened this trip!

Standing across the street from the hotel

We then headed to New Denver which is on the shore of Slocan Lake.  This particular road is one of the top rated motorcycle roads in North America.  It did not disappoint.  We followed a river for most of the trip, and had lots of curves and smaller hills.  My comment to Kevan was "did the engineer that designed this road ride a Harley?"  It was a great ride.  We made a pit stop in Sandon, which meant a 6km gravel road to get into this area (not my favorite part :) but it had the oldest generating plant operating in Canada, built in 1893, and still selling power to the Hydro grid, after using what it needs to self support.  It was a ghost town almost, but was a nice detour to see it.

The beautiful road we travelled

We stopped at a beach in New Denver to stretch our legs.

Slocan Lake

We followed Slocan Lake and then headed over to Nakusp on the Arrow Lakes.  We considered staying in Nakusp, but then decided to head farther north to Halcyon Hot Springs and stay in a cabin there.  We were able to have a soothing dip in the hot spring pools at this resort, and enjoyed a very nice dinner there as well.  Out in a remote area, without cell phone service :)  It was nice to be surrounded by nature for the evening.

Our cabin and our bikes