In August the GWRRA North West Coast District sponsored a three day ride out to the Kootenays. Here is my story.
The weather was cool and cloudy in the lower mainland on the 21st of August. Six of us gathered at Hole Shot Motorsports for the beginning of a three day adventure across southern BC.
After a short ride out to Hope, we picked up another couple – Sheldon and Carol Marche from the Chilliwack Gold Wing Chapter. We quickly fueled up and headed out over the Hope-Princeton Hwy 3. This would be our route for the next day and a half…
We rode almost non-stop to Osoyoos, where we had a lunch break before heading over the twisty switchbacks of Anarchist Pass. One of our members, Mike Hoonjan invited a photographer friend of his, Vivek Sharma, to participate in the ride as a videographer. Here is one of his photos that actually made the cover of the November issue of Wing World Magazine.
We all arrived safely in Grand Forks for our first night stay. We stayed at the Grand Forks Inn, formerly the Ramada. The rooms are clean and well kept. They are biker friendly and were happy to see us. Because of COVID, their pool was closed and there weren’t a lot of options for dining. Giselle and I opted for the Chinese restaurant located next to the motel. After dinner, we all sat outside our rooms with some cool drinks and discussed the day’s ride and plans for the next day…
Day two of our adventure saw us heading out over Paulson Pass towards Castlegar. The riding group from the Victoria chapter caught up with us the night before and we decided it would be a great opportunity for a photo op at the turnoff to Trail close to the summit. Vivek had a drone and also took a few awesome shots…
After the photo stop, we decided to take a different route than planned and turned off towards Rossland and Trail, over Strawberry Pass. Terrific scenery, lots of twisties, and smooth roads. Our next stop was Creston after climbing up and over Kootenay Pass.
After a lunch and fuel stop in Creston, we headed up the highway towards Crawford Bay. This stretch of highway is one of the best motorcycle roads in all of BC. It travels along the east side of Kootenay Lake and ends at Kootenay Bay where there is a free ferry across the lake to Balfour.
From Balfour, we headed north to Kaslo and then up over the pass to New Denver. This road is probably one of the best motorcycle routes in all of BC. From New Denver, we headed over to Nakusp for our final night stay. We were so busy riding these twisty roads that there weren’t many stops for photos. Giselle did her best, hanging on and did manage to take a few along the way.
In Nakusp, we stayed at The Lodge at Arrow Lakes, a nice motel that is a heli ski resort in the winter. They have a very nice dining room and the food was great.
The next morning after everybody had breakfast, we headed down Arrow Lake towards Fauquier and the Needles Ferry. From there, the road heads up one of the most twisty sections of highway in BC – Selkirk Pass to Cherryville. We had a bit of fun on the ferry before heading up the pass….
Here is a video I made riding up the Monashee Pass that day.
After that exhilarating ride, we ended up in Vernon for fuel and then down the Westside Road to Kelowna and over to Merritt. We stopped for ice cream and had a final farewell with our riding partners that wanted to go their own way. Several of the Chapter A members hung on and rode with us down the Coquihalla Highway and into the Fraser Valley. We stopped for one last fuel up near Mission and headed on our way home. It was a most memorable three days of riding with great friends!