Tuesday, 3 July 2007

Today is the day that Ryan & Silver’s Excellent Adventure 2007 kicked into gear.

The day started out with a bad omen: a large wolf spider was crawling on a pile of clothes I had on the floor. Ever see that scene in Dr. No when Connery beats the hell out of a tarantula with a shoe? That little bastard on my gotch met his maker from the mean end of a New Balance size 14!

I started the day with a walk around Creston. I ended up at the Columbia Brewery where they make Kokanee beer. Didn’t go in there…8am is early even for me!…on Tuesdays.

The plan for the day was to get to Osoyoos. I started by heading north to Kootenay Bay to catch the ferry across the lake to Balfour. This stretch of highway has been rated as the number 1 Destination Highway in BC for motorcycle enthusiasts, and after riding it I would have to concur. It was absolutely amazing. It had twists, turns, dips, a full view of the Kootenay Lake on my left and a mountainside on my right. The last time I was on this road was on the Easy Rider Tour 2006 when I missed the ferry and got caught in the pitch black on a cold and rainy night. Not fun. Dangerous, in fact.

I almost turned around to ride this road again just for the fun of it when I got to the ferry and found out that I missed it by 10 minutes. Oh well.

After the ferry ride I continued west down the Crowsnest Highway toward Osoyoos. The Crowsnest is also a fun ride, and I recommend this route for anyone trying to get to the Okanagan or even the coast. I had lunch in Castlegar after which time the highway starts a very long descent from the Kootenays into the Kettle Valley and eventually the Okanagan. Very fun ride. Took me about six hours to get to Osoyoos.

And the weather was outstanding.

Every day of this trip so far has been great weather-wise. Today was about 32 degrees and sunny the entire time. I get asked a lot about how hot it is on the bike with leather clothes on top of already hot jeans. Well, the wind helps keep me cool but when it’s that hot even I get pretty warm and I think I got burned today. If you see the pictures keep in mind that I am, in fact, putting on a lot of sunscreen each morning. I wonder if it wears off after a few hours?

All and all, today was perfect. The ride was fun. The weather was great. The length was not too long or short. This is a holiday.