Patti and Wayne's Grand Adventure: WaBDR and BC, Part 2 British Columbia Mainland

Day 5--Palmer Lake, WA to Hedley, British Columbia

We started our day with a side trip to Oroville to replace the seat bolts that I lost somewhere. They also hold my rack on, the one with 50 pounds of camping gear attached to it. It could have been so bad, instead Wayne got the parts and fixed me up! We also took advantage of the location to do laundry. Then a quick back track to the official end of the WaBDR.

The border crossing at Night Hawk. They let Lyon into Canada, much to his surprise!

From Night Hawk we took BC 3 to just south of Keremeos where we took off on a dirt road headed to Oliver.

Lunch at the visitor's kiosk, in the shade

Then it was up the pavement to Skaha Lake

From there we went by Penticton on our way to the Apex Mountain Road.

Then it was down the other side on the very fun Hedley Nickle Plate Rd. What a hoot!

Hedley Nickle Plate Rd

Once we got down to the pavement we wen north through Hedley to the Stemwinder Provincial Park for the night. Unfortunately Wayne's bike decided to not start when we were trying to find a camp site, and he had to be jump started. This is also the only night we had rain. Nice to find out that the tent and rain fly could hold up to a rain storm.

Day 5 total was 122 miles

Day 6--Hedley to Gillis Lake Camp Ground

We got up to wet tents, but dry sleeping bags. Don't know where this turkey spent the night, but we were all dry. Wayne's bike is still not starting, he's thinking that it is the stator but without a meter it is hard to tell.

I gave Wayne the choice of heading to Princeton by 20 miles of highway or 40 miles of dirt. I'm glad he chose the dirt. It was a great critter section: 6 bunnies, 3 does, a hawk and a heron.

We stopped at the Information Center where I tried to order parts to be sent to Pemberton. Fortunately I was unsuccessful as we never do make it to Pemberton. Wayne's bike is now starting with the electric start, but we know we will have to do something soon.

Cross walk in Princeton

From Princeton we rode to Coalmont for lunch

This is a very old building, with an interesting owner. When we walked up he introduced himself and claimed that he was the menu. He then proceeded to tell us what he was cooking that day. The food was really good! From here we headed to Tulameen and the KVR trail.

This is where I REALLY wished I had a working camera! As the rider in the lead, I got to see the most wild life, including a black bear that was across the field from here. Everyone else just got to hear about it!

This is what is left of a railroad round house on the old Kettle Valley Railway. From here we crossed BC 5 and headed west on Murrary Lake Road.

This is Gillis Lake. I think it was my favorite campsite of the whole trip.

Very stout picnic tables

Beautiful view

Gillis Lake

Bob in camp. We had the whole campground to our selves. During the evening a bear came out on the far side of the lake, but he never bothered us. We slept great until about 3 am, when the empty logging trucks started zooming by our camp, rattling load enough to wake some of us up.

Day 6-89 miles

Day 7--Gillis Lake CG to Burnaby, BC

In the morning we got up to the sound of loaded logging trucks going by. They kicked up enough dust to make it look like fog in camp as we were making breakfast. It was with much care that we headed out towards the on coming logging trucks. However our luck was holding, and we never came upon any logging trucks. We did have about 10 power company trucks come at us during the next section of road. This road takes us to Boston Bar on BC 1. From here we head toward Nahatlatch Park where we take a left on Kookipi Creek Road.

We really hadn't seen much snow before this

It's a little misty this morning

Shovel Creek Road has many cool waterfalls

Think of how high the water must have been to deposit logs that high up on the bank

Shovel Creek

Burrrrrr

For a dry summer, there sure is a lot of water in these creeks

We stopped for lunch on the east coast of Harrison Lake

That is smoke from a huge fire on the west side of the lake. For the first time this trip, fire will cause us to reroute. Instead of going north along the west shore of Harrison Lake to Lillooet Lake we have to go west on BC 7 to an RV park in Burnaby. We plan to catch the ferry to Nanimo in the morning.

Day 7--192 miles

Day 8--Burnaby to Nanimo, Vancouver Island

In the morning we get lost in Vancouver looking for a Subway Sandwich shop. We wanted to buy food for lunch while on the ferry to Vancouver Island. It took us a while, but we ended up at a Safeway buying deli sandwiches. Then we headed to BC 1 so that we could catch a bridge across Burrard Inlet on our way to the ferry.

Just as we were getting ready to get on the freeway, Wayne's stator finally gave up completely. While we were on the sidewalk calling all the motorcycle shops we could find on Google, a guy drove up and offered to help. He had the number for a Suzuki shop and said they were great people to work with. Sure enough we called and Arron came out in his personal truck and hauled Wayne and his bike to their shop.

We all followed on our bikes

And hung out in the park behind the shop as they checked out Wayne's bike. It was the stator, and believe it or not, they actually had one in stock! That would never happen at a big shop in the states. This shop has been in business since 1965 and has parts for everything!!

Once Modern Motorcycling got Wayne back on the road, we headed to the ferry dock, us and a bunch of Harley's coming back from Sturgis!