Canada – Coast to Coast by John Baillie – Part 4

The Rockies – Drumheller to Mile 0 and beyond 

 

 

 

Drumheller to High River – 389km, 34°, 10th July 

It was an early morning climb out of the Drumheller Valley and onto the Alberta wheat fields, the sun’s rays slanting across the prairies, the colours fresh green and bright blue. After 30km on AB-9 with the Badlands behind me I started a 68km straight! After 36km AB-9 changes its name to AB-72 at Beiseker and after another 32km without even a kink in the road it’s a 90° turn to the south on AB-2, which I would rejoin the following day but much further south, to Airdrie.  

 

At a big junction in the north of Airdrie, I passed a car on its roof about 200m off the highway. I couldn’t work out how it could have got there, on the inside of a curve, without any apparent injuries and I’m still at a loss. I think it was the only accident I saw on the whole trip. 

 

Zigzagging my way round Calgary on AB-567, I stopped for petrol just north of Cochrane at the intersection with AB-22 where I met a couple of guys with 500cc trail bikes and long-range tanks heading off for some offroad fun. I was always on my own but never alone. Keeping off TCH as much as I could on AB-1A, the Bow Valley Trail, I eventually came within sight of the majesty of the Rockies and after only 13km on TCH, I turned south again onto AB-40 for the Highwood Pass. Two hundred km done by 10:30 in the morning and the fun was just about to start for the day! 

 

The Highwood Pass is Canada’s highest paved road. It is closed from December to 15th June, so I had arrived under a month after it had re-opened. The ride south is 100% scenic Rocky Mountain riding, mountains and forests with gushing rivers. There were a few other cars and bikes on the road but after Kananaskis Village the road became deserted. Climbing out of the valley, the trees became thinner and smaller and the road more rewarding with sweeping bends and magnificent views. The pass is at 2206m, 7239 feet above sea level and the road is just bend, after bend, after bend. The descent was even better with sweeping curve after curve. It was so good I had to ride back up a bit to take a photo to remind myself just how good it had been. 

 

Turning back east, the AB-40 passes through some beautiful cattle country along the Highwood River valley before finally arriving back on the prairies at Longwood and lunch at a lovely wee family run bistro at the roadside on the Cowboy Trail. Then it was north on AB-22 that I had travelled south on earlier in the day before heading west on AB-543 to spend the night at High River. 

 

High River was just a stop on the trail. I had thought about stopping at Nanton so that I could visit the Canadian Bomber command Museum but there was nowhere to stay. The heat was brutal again when I stopped. The staff at the Ramada were helpful as ever. I was able to park the bike right by the main entrance, under the CCTV and in front of the dining room window.  

 

The High River brewery was a very hot walk from the hotel but well worth it. It hadn’t been the longest ride, but it had been the most fun since Cape Breton. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

High River to Creston – 500km, 42°, 11th July 

On my previous tour of the Rockies, I had planned to cross by the Crowsnest Pass and visit the Canadian Bomber Command Museum in Nanton, but the weather had forced me to take a different route. I made a late getaway from High River after a leisurely breakfast so that I would arrive in Nanton for opening time at the museum only to find that I had done my planning from a different time zone and was an hour early. I took a look at the museum and decided that I would push on. 

 

Heading south again on AB-2, the wind picked up and I was dicing with trucks on the highway again. Somewhere just south of Nanton, the temperature rose by 10° in the space of a mile! I was by now riding into a really strong head wind and was glad to turn off onto AB-785 just short of Fort Macleod. Somewhere near The Rock That Ran, I saw that the headwind had used a lot more petrol than I thought. I should have checked before I turned off the highway. 

 

A short time later I arrived at the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. I had heard about this place at school. Before the arrival of the horse, the Indians would drive herds of buffalo over the low bluffs by a series of cunning decoys to provide meat for themselves. It is a good visit, but I stuck to the visitor centre due to the heat. It was over 30 by 10 in the morning, and I was wearing riding gear! 

 

The plan had been to continue west on AB-785 but a quick look at my remaining range, the distance to the next petrol station and the strength of the wind forced a retreat to Fort Macleod to refuel. My satnav really let me down again, promising petrol stations that looked like they had been closed a long time so that by the time I rolled into Brocket, I wasn’t far off running on fumes. 

 

The ride south along AB-2 and west along AB-3 is through beautiful rolling cattle country. For some reason, the cattle seemed to be mostly corralled around the ranches and the smell is pretty powerful. 

 

Climbing back up into the Rockies, the traffic started to bunch up behind the trucks, so I was glad to pull over at Frank Slide at a layby where the road cuts through a moonscape of enormous boulders. It turns out that this landscape was caused when 44 million cubic meters of Turtle Mountain slid off during the night of 29th April 1903. That’s equivalent to a block of limestone 1km by 1km and 44m thick falling on your town in the middle of the night. Needless to say, things went badly for some of the inhabitants that night. 

 

The busy traffic meant I rode the Crowsnest in sections, stopping for a break whenever I caught up with the queue. I passed the summit of the pass without too much in the way of a fanfare, but the landscape knew we had crossed over into British Columbia.  

 

British Columbia 

 

Everything changed colour from dry Alberta to wet BC. The speed limits also changed (down to 100kph). In BC, the police can seize your vehicle at 41kmh over the speed limit and apparently the big yellow numberplate affords no protection! 

 

That aside, the ride along BC-3 to Fernie and a late lunch was both beautiful and relaxing. This continued after lunch onto BC-93 and BC-95 and into Cranbrook where I had been on the previous tour. That day in 2022 was pouring with rain and 7°C and the apocalyptic rain in Alberta had pushed me north to Radium Hot Springs. This time, it was 35° hotter so that when I stopped for fuel, I drank two litres of ice-cold water straight down. 

 

Smoke from fires in the USA had threatened between Fernie and Cranbrook but after Cranbrook, the clear skies made for more beautiful views, riding along mountain flanked valleys through dark green conifers, along ash grey glacial rivers. I was retracing my tyre tracks from the last trip (that day had also been sunny on this stretch) and reliving the views at Moy Lake and Two Pump Paul’s (gas station). 

 

Turning right at Curzon, I was back on BC-3 and heading to Creston for the night. The ritual of booking a room was to find something with a no bad reviews on Trip Advisor (ignoring the people who will never be satisfied) and then checking for a decent place to eat and drink and then for points of interest. The Creston Valley Motel came up as a good candidate and when I checked Google Maps for places to eat and drink, the map showed the Baillie-Grohman vineyard just 2.7km off the route. I had to go. I visited and the wine was very nice. I bought a bottle to take to the Baillies in North Vancouver. Sadly, it might be the last bottle for a while, in January 2024 the region experienced below -20°C just as the vines were starting to bud. While the Creston vines survived, they will bear no fruit in 2024. It was worse in the Okanagan where most of the vines were killed. 

 

After a very pleasant wine tasting I had cooled down and headed the last 3 km to the motel. I turned out to be another bikers’ favourite. It was so hot that the owners had laid on water misters, fans and a welcome beer at check-in. The little things make that difference. I was glad I had booked ahead; a few other bikers were turned away. The Wild North Brewery was a thankfully short 250m walk and food was 200m further. The Creston Hotel was where I met a strangely unhappy Canadian, the only one on the whole trip, his stories of successes, riches and adventure should have made him the opposite. 

 

Back at the motel, I had a late evening brain teaser. Next day I needed to be at the ferry at Kootenay Bay on time but what time? The ferry timetable runs on Pacific time but this part off BC runs on Mountain Standard Time all of the year i.e. no daylight savings so some of the year it’s the same time as Alberta and the rest it’s the same as Vancouver and nobody seemed to know which time Creston was on, in July! 

 

 

Creston to Revelstoke – 323km, 43° and 2 ferries, 12th July 

In my room, I worked out that I had changed time zone somewhere between Cranbrook and Creston the previous day and needed to be on the road at 06:30 to get the 09:00 ferry. This quirk of time zone had caught me out between Cranbrook and Radium two years earlier when the time zone changed heading north. 

 

Apart from two intrepid American cyclists setting off at the same time, all was quiet in Creston at 6am. Gassed up and caffeinated, I headed for the ferry and there on my left was the Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator, the first I had seen on the previous trip.  

 

On that trip, I had ridden BC-3A north to south in the wet. This time, heading north, it was a glorious day and early in the morning, the roads were quiet (making the endless 80kph limit a bit frustrating). It did mean that I could have a good look around at the stunning views along Kootenay Lake in the morning light and take the endless sweepers at a leisurely pace. I made it to the ferry with plenty time and had a good breakfast and a chat with a paramedic who approved of my air vest. 

 

Across the lake on the free ferry (all the inland BC ferries are free) and onto BC-31 still heading north. BC-31 was busier and with few places to overtake but before long, I was in Kaslo. Heading west onto BC-31A, I was on the road which was the reason to repeat a section of my 2022 trip, the road from Kaslo to New Denver. It had been wet last time, so I was really glad to ride it in the dry. 

 

There are no photos from this section. I was having too much fun so you will have to believe me when I tell you just how beautiful it was. The green of the trees, the blue of the skies, the gushing emerald river criss-crossing the road, beaver dammed lakes and mountain views and all this just the setting for a stunning riding road. At some point, I spotted another bike ahead and catching and passing them just added to the fun. 

 

At New Denver, I bumped into three guys, two on Ducatis and one on a Kawasaki. They told me about some adventure bike rally in Nakusp. Down at the lake, taking photos, I saw lots of BMWs and decided they would be from the adventure bike rally. It was only mid-morning but already well up in the 30s. The colours of Canada were awesome. I couldn’t have been happier. I couldn’t have been much hotter, right enough! On BC-6, on the way over to Nakusp, there were convoys of BMWs riding in the opposite direction. 

 

At Nakusp, where I stopped for lunch, the heat and humidity were intense. I decided that a BMW convention was something I could miss and pressed on north, this time on BC-23, departing the repeat section from 2022. The road between Nakusp and the ferry at Galena isn’t a challenging motorcycle ride but it is a beautiful one. The views from the ferry slip way are out of this world. By the time I boarded the ferry at Galena, it was over 40° and I had drunk all my water supplies, so I was very pleased when the ferry crew let me replenish my supplies from their water fountain. 

Then something curious happened. When I came back on deck, I could see someone lurking around the bike. I think all bikers are wary of strangers near their bikes when they don’t look like bikers. Until, that is, on a lake in remote-ish BC, they open up in a lilting Hebridean accent enquiring “you’ll be from Scotland, then?”. And, of course, he would be Norman Macleod from the isle of Harris, because, where else would he be from on a ferry in remote-ish BC! He was with his cousin for the funeral of his uncle, the wake having taken place in Harris. It was lovely to meet Norman. Not only because he was the only other Scot I met in seven weeks in Canada but because when describing my trip to him we found out that we both had read the works of the Nova Scotian author Alistair Macleod. So, there we were in the middle of a lake in Canada discussing Scottish Canadian literature! 

 

By the time I was off the ferry, it was 2 in the afternoon. Unlike every other ferry in Canada, which seems to operate a bikes off first policy, I disembarked about two thirds back from a convoy of SUVs, campers and other slow stuff so with only 50 or so km to Revelstoke, I pulled over under a tree to let the traffic clear. There, I found a couple in their 1970s GMC camper, broken down and missing the ferry. After half an hour trying to help, we agreed on two things; we weren’t going to fix the camper and the road to Revelstoke would be clear enough for me to get a clear run to Revelstoke. It was, and what a blast through the forests I had!  

 

Although the roads that day had mainly been lined by forest, now and again there were beautiful glimpses of snow-capped mountains and deep blue lakes. It was a fantastic day’s riding. I loved it and although it wasn’t easy to stop to get a decent photo, the photo library in my mind’s eye is full from this day. 

 

I arrived in Revelstoke around 3pm and blagged my way into an early check-in. It had been a week or so of temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s and the smell from my boots told me we had a problem that wasn’t going to be solved by fresh socks! A tin of Dr Scholl’s Sneaker Treater later and that problem was solved. 

Revelstoke is a beautiful spot in the Rockies. It’s on TCH and the railroad and is a Mecca for outdoor sports. I spent the night there in 2022, riding from Golden to Cache Creek, and after a wander around town and a beer at Rumpus Beer Company I headed over to Kawakubo Japanese restaurant where I had had a great meal in 2022. It’s a strangely comforting to not have to find somewhere new to eat after doing it for 30-odd evenings on the trot! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revelstoke to Lillooet- 387km, 41°, 13th July 

I made a late start, at 08:30, so that I would arrive somewhere at lunchtime! 

It was a bit of a shock to be back on TCH. Riding west from Revelstoke was only marginally better in the dry than 2 years earlier. The road is like a UK A road, one lane in each direction with all too few sections of dual carriageway and lots of roadworks and it’s the main arterial route across the Rockies, so it’s full of trucks. At least my visor didn’t explode, like it did last time. (I had a spare with me this time.) 

 

That said, the road still passes through majestic scenery and there are some fantastic views across Shuswap Lake. Around Salmon Arm, the landscape starts to change as the valley opens out. Then, between Shuswap and Kamloops, road passes along a river terrace with a deeply eroded slopes above and below, not unlike around Drumheller. By the time TCH reaches Kamloops it is beginning to look quite dry with few trees. 

 

Back, just west of Salmon Arm, I had stopped once more at Dreamcycle Motorcycle Museum in Sorrento. It’s a great visit with a truly enthusiastic owner and a constantly changing collection of bikes and a great café. If I lived in Canada, the visit would have cost me one of the classic bikes for sale out front but not the 1394cc turbocharged Z1, it wasn’t for sale! There’s a no left turn onto TCH from the museum so I was able to take in some backroads through beautiful rural countryside before rejoining TCH a few miles down the road. 

 

Last time around I had been in Kamloops, there had been hailstones nearly the size of golf balls and heavy, heavy rain. This time it was beautiful. Just like last time, the road west from Kamloops to Cache Creek (BC-1) was perfect. I had started in the lush green interior and by Cache Creek it was semi-arid. The absence of trees made for spectacular views of Kamloops Lake and the Thompson River. 

 

The satnav was still showing long closed petrol stations. I suppose BC-1 to Cache Creek had been TCH, the road is perfect with fast bends and no traffic. What fun! By the time I reached Savona on BC-1, the heat was terrible. I stopped to top out the petrol, unsure when I could next fill up. It was too hot to be outside, so I stood inside the beautifully cool shop while drinking what was my 6th litre of water of the day when it struck me that none had yet reappeared!  

 

Cache Creek is a one-horse town, as I found in 2022 but it has the only horse for 80km so that made it the place to stop for lunch and fuel at PetroCanada. Last time round, I headed south from Cache Creek, this time it was north on BC-97 but only for 10km until BC-99 which would take me to Vancouver next day. BC-99 starts off through the spectacular Marble Canyon road.

It starts off with fast sweepers and tight bends and just gets better through the canyon, moving from thick conifers which thin out as the road climbs through the canyon. On the other side of the pass, the road falls down into the arid Fraser River Canyon with the green again giving way to brown. It was on this descent when I was coming round a bend at full enjoyment that I saw a patrol car. Thankfully he was looking down the hill at a beautiful long straight at the bottom of which the speed limit changed from 100 to 80kmh, heading towards the patrol car. Very sneaky. I had by learned the Canadian sign language to warn others, but none approached. Off the straight and out of sight of the patrol car and I was back into full enjoyment mode. Soon, I recognised the scenery. I had driven this was on a previous family holiday. I had made decent time, and the views were so spectacular and there were places to stop so I was able to take some photos. The Fraser River Canyon really is spectacular and worth the stops. 

 

By the time I reached my motel in Lillooet, I had drunk about 8 litres and felt great, despite the heat. I had had no idea just how much I needed to drink in the heat. I arrived mentally fresh at Mile 0 Motel and when I took my helmet off, I knew where some of the 8 litres had gone, my hair was soaked! 

 

Mile 0 Motel is yet another family run, biker friendly motel, cheap, clean with good aircon and on the main drag. There were quite a few bikers stopped there, and it was from one of them that I found out that the event in Nakusp, the day before, was a Horizons Unlimited gathering from one of the bikers at the motel. I had used the Horizons Unlimited website to help plan the ride and felt sorry I had missed them in Nakusp. He was on a run from there to Vancouver but had run out of steam in the heat and decided to stop for the night. His square aluminium panniers were covered in the flags of all the countries he had ridden in. All of them less than 2 inches by one and neatly arranged as if they were on the nose of a WWII bomber, ironically as he was riding a BMW! 

 

Lillooet sits at the junction of Cayoosh Creek and the mighty Fraser River. The setting is unbelievably beautiful with valley sides so steep you have to look up to see the tops of the mountains. Sore neck scenery!  After settling in and cleaning up, I wandered along to the Lillooet Brewing company, taking in the sights. At the pub, the talk was all about the various fires breaking out and being extinguished around the area. Lillooet isn’t far from Lytton which was completely destroyed a couple of years before. It’s a fire prone area. As views go, there can’t be a pub anywhere in the world with a better one. Unlike most other brew pubs I had been to, this one did food. Frozen pizza cooked in a rotary toaster or charcuterie platter. No choice!  

 

Lillooet to Whistler – 141km, 39°, 14th July 

With the finish line in sight and not having to use any of the weather contingency I had allowed for in the mountains, I decided to split the run to Victoria into two days at Whistler. 

 

My decision to stay in motels was vindicated in the morning when I met two bikers who had been savaged by mosquitos while striking camp that morning. After a leisurely Tim Horton’s breakfast, I set off for the Duffey Lake Road. All the bikers I met had recommended it, all the way back to Wawa. 

 

Following BC-99 further west and with less than 100 miles to cover, I made lots of stops for photos as I rode through the most dramatic scenery. Steep sided mountains, lush green forests and cascading rivers were the backdrop to a fantastic twisting road. All the way up to Duffey Lake, the road and scenery were stunning. It was another ride of a lifetime. Nearing Duffey Lake, I started to run into more traffic, but the mountain sheep and deer eventually thinned out! 

 

At Duffey Lake, I pulled over to let the traffic get ahead of me and to my slight disappointment, the car in front of me also pulled in. As I got off the bike, the driver came over to me with the greeting “I hoped you would pull over behind me”. He was a biker, a retired guy who supplemented his pension by delivering cars and returning with trade-ins from all over BC for Vancouver dealers. We passed each other several times through the day as I stopped for photos, each time he slowed down as he passed me to make sure everything was ok. Nice guy! 

 

Duffey Lake is beautiful, but the road takes a lot of punishment from avalanches and for most of the way to Pemberton, only the middle third of the road is any good. After a petrol stop there, where I had a forecourt snack, I headed up to Whistler on the Sea-to-Sky Highway. It’s a scenic road and in good repair but busier than I had been used to. 

 

In Whistler, satnav took me to the address provided for the hotel but there was no sign of the hotel. I checked on my phone and it showed the hotel on the other side of Whistler village centre. Whistler has a pedestrian centre so I couldn’t ride up to the address. After asking directions and riding from one side to the other three or four times in the heat and humidity, I found somewhere to park the bike (not easy in Whistler) and walked to the hotel through the hordes of gap year workers watching the football final. I eventually found my way to the hotel which used the reception services of a different hotel (baffling). I was soaked in sweat and exhausted from the half hour of trying to get checked in. Whistler is a lovely mountain resort, but I felt out of place for the first (and only) time on the trip. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whistler to Victoria – 231km, 32° and 1 ferry, 15th July 

I was glad to set off next morning. The ride down the Sea-to-Sky in the early morning was fun and the scenery more stunning. The beautiful, rugged mountain views on the run down to Squamish are enhanced by the sublime emerald waters of the fjords which cut their way in from the Pacific. There are even places to pull in and enjoy the view. 

 

The ferry terminal at Horseshoe Bay is right on the edge of metropolitan Vancouver and the traffic was pretty heavy from Squamish but it was straight to the front of the queue for boarding for the bikes. I had timed the ride down well enough to have time for a coffee before boarding. It’s a busy terminal with several destinations but the operation is smooth, organising the queues for the 1:40 crossing. 

 

The sea between Vancouver Island and the mainland is very sheltered so the bike didn’t have to be secured, just wedged to stop it falling over during docking. As usual, there were other bikers to talk to. 

 

The run from Nanaimo to Victoria wasn’t great, it felt built up most of the way and the countryside felt dull compared to the rest of the trip. After a lunch break in Duncan (and too much diet Coke) it was with a sense of relief that I reached Victoria!  I had booked into a nice hotel, the Grand Pacific, overlooking the harbour but I pressed on to the Mile 0 monument. I had crossed Canada from coast to coast! 

 

Victoria – 0km, 26°, 16th July 

I spent the day being a tourist. I walked and took in the views and let what I had done sink in. 

 

Victoria to North Vancouver – 125km, 36° and 1 ferry, 17th July 

I retraced my tracks to Mile 0 to start the day and for a couple more photos. I took a detour and visited the not at all friendly Ducati shop at Island Motorcycles before heading for the ferry where I met a friendly KTM rider.  

 

The sensible motorcyclist would have avoided riding through Metro Vancouver and ridden back up to Nanaimo for the short run to North Vancouver, but I had been invited to visit Ducati Richmond, so I crossed from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen and headed over the Alex Fraser Bridge. The bridges over the Fraser River feel very high above the water. I had been invited to visit Ducati Richmond by Doreen, the owner, via FB, at the start of the trip. Unfortunately, she wasn’t available the day I passed through but the rest of the folk in the shop made me feel very welcome. Then, all of a sudden, Stuart said it was time to leave, to beat the rush hour. Too late, I got completely snarled in the rush. Lane splitting is against the law in Canada, so I just had to paddle my way along the highway in the heat of the day, the thermometer on the bike reached an ugly 58°C ambient temperature. I was cooking on the bike and the bike needed fuel which I eventually found at 57th and Knight. I had been managing the fuel level so that the tank would be less than a quarter full when I reached the airport, but the rush hour had done for me. 

 

I eventually found familiar roads and knew that once I was on the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge, I was nearly there. In my head, although it was a coast-to-coast ride, the real journey’s end was at my cousin’s place on St Patricks Ave. Frazzled from the heat and the stress, I struggled to work out how to park the bike on the very steep, heavily cambered street but worked it out after a few tries and a near miss! Once again dripping with sweat I had arrived at Robert’s earlier than planned, he was still at work. Not a problem, I headed down to the House of Funk, two blocks away ordered a beer and messaged my arrival. 

I had made it! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

North Vancouver to YVR – 29km, 30°, 22nd July 

It isn’t fun riding through any big city. I had little motivation to ride after four days out of the saddle, but the bike had to be delivered to the freight forwarders in a certain time window. It just had to be done. The process of handing the bike over was as good as it could have been. Just like at every step of the way, the people couldn’t have been more friendly or willing to help. Thank you, Canada. 

 

 

Scotland 

 

EDI to home – 131 miles, 23°, 26th July, 6460 miles later 

Just a wee blast up the A90 from the airport, even a shower couldn’t dampen my spirits. I was so happy to be home but starting to miss getting up every morning to ride west. 

 I recommend www.motorcycleexpress.com for air freighting the bike to and from Canada. Carrie Drazek carried@motorcycleexpress.com was incredibly helpful, totally organised and infinitely patient with me. I also got insurance from them as well. Canadian insurance for a non-Canadian is very difficult.  

 

I also recommend www.tommosmotorcycletransport.co.uk for moving the bike around the UK. He is also on Facebook. Ian was totally flexible when I was being messed around by the UK shipper. He takes care of the bikes like they’re his own. Top man. 

 

I absolutely recommend that you avoid www.jamescargo.com. They are recommended on Horizons Unlimited, but I don’t know why. They had a turnover of staff during my process, and I had to push every step of the way and they are NOT cheap. They went silent when the bike didn’t turn up on time and when I addressed the late arrival of the bike into St John’s after I got back, they hid behind red tape and standard terms. Very unsatisfactory service. 

 

Return to part one.