Day Five

Falling Trees & Soil Sampling;

Another early morning, another easy camp break with dry tent pack-up. I used the last of my camp coffee but planned to restock in Kimberley, just over Grey Creek Pass. It had rained the previous night but the overall humidity was low and temperature warm overnight that everything down at our elevation was dry.

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It was only a hundred kilometers over to Kimberley including the planned detour up Hall Mountain Microwave Tower road so we did not bother to search out fuel, instead just jumping onto the pass road right out of camp. Up we went and the temperature dropped as we climbed, the road damp with good traction, the sun starting to give us good light even on the shade side of the climb. We stopped at the summit after twisting through the west side switchbacks. The east side of the summit is steeper and rockier and care had to be taken to not get deflected during the descent. the trail narrow and covered in rock-fall in places. Thick bush each side had me honking my horn at regular intervals to give any wildlife warning of our approach since both machines are quiet when not being revved up, mostly working as engine brakes. Corners are totally blind with the thick brush lining the trail, combined with the morning sun shining in your face traveling east. Is it dangerous, yes, but not terribly so if you are driving aware and with care.

Eventually we came upon the Hall Mountain microwave tower trail, 17 kms to the top and the last third steep endless switchbacks with a stunning view from the top (so I've heard), not to mention all the mirowave radiation you could ever want.

As I turned off the main road there was a small brown rabbit sitting on the trail that didn't even flich as I dismounted for a break. I joked that it was a "bait bunny" for the grizzly waiting in the bushes beside it. I didn't test my theory by walking over. The trail was narrow, seldom travelled judging by the looks although I suspect quads and bikes travel it once in a while. You could probably get a full size 4X4 pick up truck as far as we got, maybe even to the top but its resale value would be much lower afterward. A couple of rotting wooden bridges later we stopped at the apex of a steep loose swithback and I called it, having serious misgivings about taking a fully loaded, and heavy bike up what promised to only get more difficult for another 6 kilometers. We had done about 2/3rds of the trail. I video taped the return run so that you can see I am not exagerating its condition.

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I was taking this picture when the tree crashed down behind me.

Just before we turned around, we were both taking a breather, when this loud cracking, tearing and crunching happened just 30 feet behind where I was standing, Shit! I was sure it was a bear crashing through the bush towards us, so I turned, raised my arms and yelled/ roared loudly. The grizzly fell to the ground and pissed itself laughing while we escaped! Well, OK, not really, but we can definately tell Bruce Cockburn, that WE hear a tree if it falls in the forest! I'm going to call him tonight so he doesn't keep wondering.

The trip out to the main road was done in a much more relaxed way having seen what to expect for surface conditions on the way up. The Main road was a cake walk by comparison and we were soon at the bridge over the river west of Kimberley where an unscheduled KTM Club meeting took place. I was taking pictures on the bridge when a 1290 Super Adventure and a white Baja addition 990 rolled up with two older guys at the controls. We chatted briefly before an approaching truck had us bug off the bridge quickly in opposite directions.

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KTM Club parking only.

We re-supplied both fuel and groceries in the Ski Town of Kimberley but I was unable to get coffee in any practical and compact form so I instead bought some Dark Swiss chocolate as a caffeine substitute. It was a tough thing to have to do but I fought through it. A blast down highway 93/95 brought us to what would turn out to be a quad-trail network through typical sandy (and I mean powdery sand) landscape for the area. With a bit of trepidation I forged ahead, looking for a spot that was just right to do some soil sampling, there it is!

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The bike's front end went right, plowed, slipped left, looked at a tree, then as I added power to surf through, went dramatically right and slapped me to the ground on the left side. The left saddle bag was ripped off and the top case (since I was standing and weighted back to lighten the front in the sand) gave my tail bone a good punt. I hit the kill switch and shut off the key as I pulled my left leg out from under the bike, which was facing back the way I came in a huge cloud of dust. Ian arrived in time to help me pick up the bike and move it to a level spot near the tree so that I could re-attach the saddlebag that came away with only a slightly damaged main latch. Me, I tweaked my right shoulder, and lower back, and have a tender tail bone but otherwise no worse for wear. Looking further up the trail it seemed this sandy crap was on the menu for a while. Now that stuff is no doubt fun and entertaining on an unladen light weight dirt bike. While touring and loaded with camping gear, not-so-much and it tastes lousy to boot! We did a quick retreat to the highway and cruised along up to Canal Flats to fuel.

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Above Lussier Hot Springs.

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A short backtrack south had us heading west toward Lussier Hot Springs and Whiteswan Provincial Park our planned camp for the night. The weather was great, cool and sunny, but the forecast was ominous. We checked out Moose Campground at Alces Lake after looking down on the natural hotsprings from the road above. The hotsprings are primitive and amount to nothing more than a few circles of rocks beside the fast flowing, cold shallow river. They were packed with people enjoying the natural heated water. For a change both Moose campground and Pacrat Point campground (my favorite) had plenty of good spots available and Ian seemed to approve. Athough it was another short day(expecting to still be on what was the quad trails), we agreed to stop.

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Not long after we arrived, all but three other camp spots cleared out, and in retrospect they probably heard the forecast. That night it poured on and off and the thunder and lightning put on a great show (in the valley the lake and campground where in). At least it waited until after we had dinner and prepped for what would undoubtedly be a wet morning pack-up. I even managed to get a few wildlife pictures with the big lense before having to seek refuge from the cold and wind inside my tent for the evening. Without a tripod all were worthless once looked at on a big screen, ahh well.

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Fish eye view of the lake (as he's being pulled out on a hook).

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Underwater Duck shot from the dock as it fished.
 
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Day Six

Here comes the rain again;

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During the fireworks show put on by mother nature last night hoping not to make the Vancouver Sun with a byline reading; Elder Mr Beales was sleeping at the time.... Well OK only Ian will get that one, but I digress. I will try to keep my sniveling about the rain to a bare minimum since BC needs it desperately, but one more day, just one more day. Ok I'm done.

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I packed up the damp tent fly and footing seperately in the provided stuff sack. The pegs, poles and tent itself went in the dry bag, since they were. My organization the previous night paid off and I had time for a hot breakfast of Apple and Cinnamon Oatmeal and Swiss Chocolate (on the side, although the thought crossed my mind). The only moisture was just the trees dripping their leftovers. The Lake was misty and before we rolled I took a quick picture of my bike while Ian slowly rolled on to warm up his bike. He managed to see a Black Bear running "Bird Dog" for a change. I caught up after a short time and he waved me past. It was cool and we both had fleece under our suits as well as heated grips running, oh the comforts.

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The road was pot-holed and wet being an active logging road, several trucks having rolled past the campground during our stay, including one as we had breakfast. Further along Bull Creek road we came upon a section that was very new between the cliff face and river, no doubt the original obliterated during the 2013 floods. After crossing a very new concrete sectioned bridge we ran across a much narrower freshly graded trail. I had a moment as the front dug into one of the deep ruts that the grader had filled with loose material scraped off the high sections. I tip-toed across this section staying on the middle or outside sections avoiding the usual tire tracks. Rain had been spotty over this road but waited until we were on a nice solid section before it came again forcing me to stop and dig out the proper rain gear to pull over top of my weathered and worn riding suit that has seen better days. Pulling it over top of my hydration pack I looked like I had gained some weight, but this wasn't a stinkin' fashion show now was it?! It rained hard enough that with my chin curtain soaked I was having serious fogging issues and had to resort to feeling the rain on my face. Wearing glasses, that never works for long and I had to pull over to rectify the issue. Ian suggested I lose the chin curtain which would have done the trick providing I could have dried off my glasses and visor to start over. This was not going to happen so I wiped the glasses with my soggy leather gloves as well as the visor inside (as best as I could with the helmet still on) and we carried on.

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I almost missed seeing a thin tree fallen all the way across the road, skidding to a halt inches before getting clothes-lined. That would have left a mark! I tried to bend it away from us but it wanted to spring back rather strongly, so I lifted it up and over Ian as he rode under. He then returned the favour and we managed to break off enough that at least the next bike could get around. We questioned doing Hartley Pass in the rain since it has sections on the last half that are clay and would be misserable when wet. As fate would have it half an hour more of drenching and the rain suddenly quit, the road dry not much farther along. Hartley pass it was and it was as pretty as always with a long section of narrow winding road with switch backs requiring real caution heading down to Fernie.

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We stopped at Ghost Rider Motorsports to inquire about Coal Creek road and if it was doable on big bikes. No problem as it was a logging road, so after a stop for fuel and snacks away we went. The far end was blocked at a Monument to the Death of Common Sense. What pray tell is that you ask? Well let me tell you; According to the sign from Teck (A Strip-Mining company and maybe the logging as well) during the spring a creek overflowed the road on the opposite side of a perfectly good bridge (over the main part of the creek). It had been determined that there were fish in said stream. Driving through the short section of ROAD that the stream had previously overflowed onto could traumatize the fish and their delicate psyche so even though the overflow had dried up(fromthe look a while ago) the bridge still had a gate and barricades with signage telling the rediculous story. There was no other way to connect to the paved road we could see on the other side. I did a terrible thing and rode around the Monument, no doubt many fish will now have to seek counseling, and I'm so ashamed.

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The road is open to the pubic from the other end and had no signage regarding "Private Land" this was the highway side.

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Coming back out of the quad trail.

After realizing that the next section was an unfamilier dirt quad-trail and with rain on the horizon we returned north along the pavement we had brazenly connected to. By the time we got to Coleman and with windy cool wet weather heading in from the west both of us concluded that a few hours more to home would be the sensible thing to do. With rain drops starting to fall, the trunk road was also the better option as Dutch Creek trail is (or can be) ugly in sections and we had no idea what the stream level at its north end would be like.
We had a quick cool ride north along the gravel of the Trunk stopping to photograph the newly replaced bridge just north of the 532, gone since 2013's flooding.

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New Trunk Road bridge.

Just south of Calgary we stopped had a brief chat and parted company, another dual-sport ride in the books. Too short and done too soon, but there is always next year. Home with just a few kilometers shy of 97,000. Despite the abuse my sturdy steed got me home safely, now it needs a little cleaning and general mechanical lovin'. Until the next adventure, Stay Dusty my friends.

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What a great report; I could learn a lot from your fabulous storytelling :)

I tell it like I see and remember it. I try to make it interesting in the same way I attempt to plan interesting rides. Both with mixed results much like my photography.

In all my endeavors, improvement is what I strive for. I always appreciate feed back as long as it is constructive, so thank you Dustin and Brenda.
 
I will try to follow your lead and give more context to my photos. I often add the photo with only a short sentence or even a couple of words. Maybe more is better in this case. :)

Maybe next year you can do a trip report on a forum meet up on the west coast!

'998cc.org Oregon Coast 2016 Meet Up'
 
I will try to follow your lead and give more context to my photos. I often add the photo with only a short sentence or even a couple of words. Maybe more is better in this case. :)

Maybe next year you can do a trip report on a forum meet up on the west coast!

'998cc.org Oregon Coast 2016 Meet Up'

I'd like that and already have a great route plotted out to the coast and back. We should all plan to camp. I'd even try to stay up later.
 
As i am not halfway done but i had to check George Costansa When he WAS in the pool funny as hell . Especially when Jerry told the chick the baby was in his Georges room !! CLASSIC OK ON WITH THE STORY !!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Zip File

Actual Trip tracks (cleaned up) and waypoints in a zipped gpx file for anyone interested with playing in Basecamp. This is not a strictly paved routeso keep that in mind. The waypoints may be of use for fuel and other stops.

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Attachments

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Videos

Will be uploaded here tomorrow. At least one is interesting (Hall Mountain).

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This video is just to show you how bloody long this bridge is;

[video=youtube_share;KJGyc_Tc_O0]https://youtu.be/KJGyc_Tc_O0[/video]

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This was coming back from the 2/3rds point of Hall Mountain road east of Grey Creek BC.

[video=youtube_share;ty2POAc_5ws]https://youtu.be/ty2POAc_5ws[/video]

I routinely honk the horn to make sure any bears or other animals (mostly bears) are not taken by surprise since the brush, and berry bushes grow thickly along most trails like this. The bike is quiet, especially when going down hill, and the last thing you want is to surprise a bear, they react badly to surprises!

The first wooden bridge I cross is really rotten and had holes in it so I had to pick my line carefully and hope for the best. Thankfully it was short.

The horn sounds so funny because the video has been sped up (by 50%) to reduce the length. I didn't want my audience falling asleep.......
 
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Budget

The Trip ended up as a 6 day / five night event. Total mileage: 1550 kms.

Here is how the cash was spent for those interested in Budgeting (all money converted into Canadian funds).

Gas: $109.18 ($18.20 per day, or $0.07 per km. by 1550 kms total)

Food/ Drink: $162.29 ($27.05 per day)

Camping: $83.24 (my cost average of $16.65 by 5 nights)

Park Fee: $15.60 (Glacier National Park Motorcycle Pass)

Bike Parts: $35.82 (two 21" tubes, one for me as a spare and one to replace the one Ian supplied me for the repair)

Trip Total: $406.13 ($67.69 per day)

This is by far the cheapest that I have ever done a bike trip for and well under the $500.00 budget that I had for it. Every night was tenting / camping which really keeps the costs low. Meals were all simple; usually instant oatmeal and coffee for breakfast, and canned something heated up at the campsite for dinner and sourced at a local market that day (rather than packing a bunch of extra weight and bulk).

It was hot so some of that food budget was cold drinks at stops and mostly Gatorade. The Food budget included 1 good restaurant lunch at Jax's Cafe in Eureka, one not great dinner and breakfast at the KOA in Saint Mary, Montana.

The gas budget was very low since our daily average mileage was so low at 259 kms.
 
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