My last days in Canada July 12-13

This is what the road looked like when I left Prince Rupert Canada, it may look nasty, but it was a beautiful ride!
Water falls off side of mountain outside of Prince Rupert, this pic does not do them justice!
View on Ocean to sky highway!
Another view on Ocean to sky highway.
Once again, see the scenery I have to put up with! Poor me!
Bay outside of Vancouver.

Well as always with this trip, things change quickly! We got an early morning wake up call on the ship as we had to disembark at 4:15, but once we got off the boat we were in Canada, so the time changed to 5:15. It was a cattle call to the car deck to untie our bikes and line up for customs. I have not had any trouble to speak of with customs, the first time when I entered Canada, they had me go into an office and they checked my paper work real close, but I think since I am in their system now, I have had no other problems, however each time you go through you wonder if you will be picked for the full body search!

Generally when I have gone through customs, there are just a few vehicles, but this time as everyone was getting off the Ferry, there was a big line. Most of the cars and trucks were in line first and all of us motorcyclists were in a big group. Things were moving along at a pretty good clip, they had waved a couple of big RV's over to give them the search and I was first in line for the motorcycles. When I got to the guard post there was a young guy, late 20's who had just come on shift and had opened a new post and he waved me over. I could tell by his body language that he was cool. I handed him my packet of information, and he quickly looked at my license and that was it. He then started asking me about my trip, not the usual questions, but more from an genuine point of interest, and about my bike. He told me that he had just bought a new KLR 650 and was going to take a trip later in the year. He asked me if anyone else on the boat had KLR's I told him, no, that there were just a bunch of stuck up BMW, and Harley guys on board. He chuckled and we visited a few minutes about how the BMW guys think they are hot shit!

He then asked me to hand him my paper work again, he grinned and just said, I am just going to make them wait for a bit. I told him, just for fun, he should make me get off my bike and get into my back trunk and push me around a bit, he said yea that will be funny. So I got off my bike, and I went to my back trunk and opened it up, he kind of pushed me back and put his hand on his gun, then looked into my trunk! I turned around to the guys behind me and gave them a "What the Hell" look and shrugged my shoulders. The border guard then told me to get back on my bike, he pointed his finger in my face and acted like he was reprimanding me, and said, well we have scared them to death, Mr. Trickel you have a good time in Canada! I took then took off.

The rest of the day, when my friends caught up with me, they were all asking what the heck had happened. I kept up the game and just said that the guy was an Ass and was giving me a hard time! They all said that they went through fine, with not problems, but were scared to death he was going to give them a big strip search! (Now my motorcycle friends who are reading this know the rest of the story!) Even border guards have a sense of humor. We are all human!

It was rainy and cold when I left the boat at Prince Rupert, but then again, it is classified as a rain forest. I stopped at a convenience store and got a map, one of the locals was looking at my bike and told me once I started to head east, about 100 miles out, things would clear up. He was right! About 2 hours into the day, things cleared up.

Even with the rain, the ride in the morning was fantastic and very memorable. One thing I have learned about my time in this part of the country is that rain will happen and you must be prepared and make the best of it.

As I left Prince Rupert an odd feeling came over me. It is hard to describe, it was a feeling of both sorrow and well being. Riding alone in the rain, I felt complete. It was sad to think that my time in Alaska had come to an end, but I felt good in having experienced Alaska in a way that exceeded even my wildest expectations. The last 3 weeks have seemed like a life time. I will blog about this more at a later date.

Upon leaving Prince Rupert, I knew that I needed to cover over 1000 miles to get to the lower 48. I twisted the throttle hard and asked my bike to give me all she could! I covered over 500 miles on Saturday and camped somewhere south of Prince George. No picnic table tonight, I put up my tent and crashed about 11:00pm. Since I am getting farther south the sun is now setting and it was dark when I got into my sleeping bag. I awoke at 4:00 to answer natures call. I tried to go back to sleep, but to no avail. I packed up and hit the road at 5:00 am, I figured what the heck I'll make it to Washington by evening.

The ride was fantastic, I thought that since I had left early I would see a lot of wild life. I have been hoping to get some better Moose pictures. All morning I did not see a thing, other that a roadkill Porcupine, and I did not drive back to take his photo. I jumped off the main highway and took the "Sea to Sky" highway, which is an old logging road that has been paved. It was "Stellar", high mountain passes, long winding descents, just perfectly suited for a motorcycle. I even drug the foot pegs a time or two. What I ride!!!

The highway took me into the backside of Vancouver Canada. I was making good time, but about 40 miles outside of Vancouver, I hit road construction, that lasted all the way into to town and then some. The temperature today also was in the high 80's sunny, and I got sunburned all over again. Even though my GPS is still not working I was able to make it through Vancouver and hit the border crossing at 5:00pm. The border guard was nice, and welcomed me back home, he could tell by looking that I had driven hard today.

I drove through Billingham WA and got onto interstate "5" even thought it is Sunday the traffic was heavy. I jumped onto a back highway and ended up in the town I am in now, it is called. "Sedro Woolley". I found a nice hotel and "Here I am"!!!

Tomorrow, I may slip into "Seattle" and do some refitting. I need to make some gear changes, ship back some cold weather gear, and get some light weight stuff and more back packing gear.

Keeping in mind the theme of this blog "Where do we go from here?" Well things will be a little more spontaneous from here on out. I plan to head down the west coast, I will be looking at my maps to determine an exact plan of attack, I do know that the "Great Redwood Forest" is in our future, as well as some time in the "Napa" valley, and I also plan to spend to time hiking, and oh yes, searching for the elusive "Big Foot"...

While Alaska is fading in our rear view mirror, we still have a lot of fun things to see, so ride along with me!

Tim