BC ferries

[pdedse]

A month ago I did a trip from Portland to Eureka to help my friend Jeff paint a house...and to ride of course. We did a month long trip back in 2012 from TX to Central America and then Oregon on our KLR650s, and we've talked about Alaska for some time now...this summer was supposed to be the year, but family committments made that idea too far, but British Columbia seemed do-able.

Jeff had done a solo trip there 4 years ago and wanted to show me around. He's moved on to a BMW1250GS and I had the option to take the same '07 KLR650 that I took before or the CB1100. I chose the KLR so that we could ride offroad together. But I was concerned that he would get bored as I tried to keep up on the road. He was starting Rosyln, WA and the plan was for me to catch up on the KLR...got 30 miles down the road and the 650 started lurching badly...for a minute I thought out of gas? and turned on the reserve...but same thing. To be sure, added a gallon...still lurch / surge every 1-2 seconds. Was able to ride it home, called Jeff, we agreed to start a day later...but on my CB1100! My soft saddle bags fit on the CB, but I did have to ditch my largest seat piece...time to dump tools...CBs never break down...right?

Friday, July 29 we met at the Mukilteo dock to take the ferry to Whidbey Island. I love ferry crossings! Usually they let the mc riders ride up to the front and you are first on / first off.



Road north on the island and crossed Deception Pass on hiway 20


...beautiful to watch the flow of water under the bridge.


We were packing camping gear, but were unsure of options on the Canadian side, so we settled for an airbnb in Surrey, just east of Vancouver.


Not even sure which border crossing--I think it was the one just west of Sumas--but zero people in line...First time in Canada!
For Day 2 Saturday, the plan was to ride through Vancouver and head towards Whistler. I'm a little fuzzy on the details as he was navigating, but I think I can figure out where we went after the fact. He loves planning out the trips and he's good at it and using the technology on the fly, so my job was to sit back, keep his bike in sight, and hang on. Very freeing.



The ride north on 99 out of Vancouver towards Whistler, particularly the part along the coast is pure joy in the morning even tho' the holiday weekend traffic was already out. This is the section where I was glad my KLR refused to go on this trip as we rode 75-85mph and the CB1100 can respectably match his GS1250...until he doesn't want me to. Lots of motorcycles doing the same, and practically zero opps to take a photo before Squamish...but some of the most scenic views of the trip.



Later, riders would tell us that too bad we didn't ride beyond Whistler as it's top notch, but we wanted to visit several areas using the ferries, so we backtracked on 99 to catch the next one.

From Horseshoe Bay on the way to Langdale...I think.