Alaska Ride, Day 3

The last time I visited Canada was about 1988, and that was just a quick jump into Vancouver for the day. At that time, Canadian Customs only asked us what our purpose of the visit.

This time, they ask a lot more questions, ask for ID, ask for my license plate number, and even asked Paul if he knew Mike and I. But we got through no problem either way.


Oh, we entered Canada through Abbotsford, BC instead of Vancouver; this route got us on our way faster.

The route took us on the Trans-Canada Highway 1 north along the Fraser River gorge. Really beautiful country and riding. But there were several construction stops that broke up the ride.


We met this one guy riding an old Honda V45 Sabre (pictured above). He lives in Vancouver. During a construction stop, he gave us tips on the best riding, and recommended Highway 8 into Merritt, BC. After the construction stop, he took off like a bolt of lightning. We tried to keep pace with him, but I think he was doing 90mph. Well about 30 minutes later we caught up to him; he was pulled over by the cops.

But we did Highway 8 as he recommended, and sure enough it was more twisty, and more like the kind of riding we like to do.


We stopped at a pub in a little town called "70 Mile House" (see above). It seems there are several cities, towns, and communities named like "50 Mile House", "70 Mile House", "100 Mile House". I'm sure there's some kind of history behind it all.

After we got out of the Fraser River gorge area, it seemed all the cops went away. the speed limit here is 100kph, which translates to about 62mph, and that seemed way too slow considering the wide open country and mostly straight roads with some occasional wide sweepers. But British Columbia seemed to do a good job of putting in a lot of passing lanes.

At a gas stop, we met a local who said he had ridden his motorcycle down to our area of Southern California and beyond. He recommended we set up camp at Lake Mcleese, another 60 miles up the road. So that's what we did.


At Lake Mcleese, we found tons of mosquitoes. But the Deet seemed to do a good job of keeping them away. The further north we go, the lighter it stays out late. The photo above was taken around 9:30pm.

We got rained on a little bit, but mostly it was a good day of riding