Washington / B.C. summer trip

[image: She can fly.jpg]

Just getting around to posting links to this incredible trip a group of seven friends on six bikes took across northern Washington state and southern British Columbia the last weekend of July, 2011. It was 1,150 miles of hard riding over three days, most of it in challenging but gorgeous terrain. It's an amazing route, the only part of the 1,110 plus miles that wasn't great were the short sprints up and down I-5 at the beginning and end.

It was a diverse group of bikes and riders, my VFR, a BWM GS, Kawasaki ZRX, Yamaha FZ1, a Versys and a Councours. There were four of us in our fifties and sixties and three in their thirties. The days were long, we stopped only for gas and we got into camp late both nights.

The North Cascades Highway in Washington and the roads in southeastern B.C. have to be among the best rides anywhere, particularly the B.C. parts where the roads are beautifully maintained and you are so far from any population centers that even on a holiday weekend the traffic was light.

Put on your headphones for the video by the Versys rider, Ian. The soundtrack will surprise you.
http://vimeo.com/27626608

The route
http://g.co/maps/gzzqs

Pictures
http://canadaridejul....com/pictures/8

What was your process of figuring out campsites? That is my only concern about my trip to Vancouver this year. Any tips?

Really glad you enjoyed riding in my part of the world.... probably as much as I enjoyed riding to Diablo Lake in Washington State ... So many fantastic stretches of road in the Cascades and the Cdn Rockies and Purcells.

If you think the blacktop is sweet in BC, wait till you get into the FS roads that lead you to places that most people can only dream of .... oh. just be ready to hike 3 or  4 miles of (mostly) vertical trails, and dodge the Grizzez after you park ur scooter.

As for camping in BC .. check out the BC Provincial Parks website ... www.gocampingbc.com  or www.bcparks.ca ...a lot of the parks require pre-booking of a site. Hope ur trip works out A1.

ds

I can't help much with advice about planning camp sites, one of the other people in the group did all the research. I'm meeting her later this week and will ask if she has any tips. We were riding on Canada Day weekend so camping spots were really hard to come by.

We camped the first night in this place, http://uppercolumbiarv.com/, up in the very northeastern-most corner of Washington, and it was a great find. The motorcycle spots are across the road and up in the wooods from the RV spots. The guy who runs the place is really friendly and helpful and all the facilities are clean and well-maintained. It's about six miles out of the town of Northport on the Columbia River. There's only one bar/restaurant in town but the food was great and the service friendly. We felt kind of naked walking into the place without sidearms, though.

Second night was in Greenwood, B.C., on the Crowsnest Highway. The only place we could find that had any vacancies was here, http://www.tripadvis...h_Columbia.html, but I can't recommend it as a camping spot. The tent locations were in a narrow strip of lawn between the back of the motel and a street. It worked but it wasn't all that pleasant. Greenwood was a very cool town, though, good bars in the evening and great pastries for breakfast on the way out of town.

Thank you for the video, have only driven in that part of BC. Can honestly say though that all I could think was
"WOW sure wish I was on my bike" great roads not too many people (cars) fantastic scenery.