This is the tale of two distinctly different motorcycle rides. Both a lot of fun, both uniquely different!
As you probably know, my hometown of Lytton burned. Yeah, the entire community burned in about 20 minutes. They say 90% of it burned but, the reality is, the village is decimated.
That has really bothered me. It has taken a lot of emotional space inside my being and I am having a lot of difficulty reconciling with the fact that so many of my friends have lost their homes and places of business. It bothers me.
I have found some peace, when I am out on my motorcycle. I like to get out of the city and ride to where there are trees which give some peace and quiet.
Last week a friend and I rode our motorcycles to Grand Forks. On that trip it was excruciatingly hot. Like too hot even for a dude who grew up in Lytton!
While riding I started to feel woozy. I thought, “ah, whatever, I’ll be fine!”
And then I realized, THIS IS HOW BAD THINGS HAPPEN!
So I pulled over at the Manning Park Resort where I lay down for a quick rest until my head started to feel better. Then I took my shirt off (definitely no pictures!) and went to the water pump where I soaked my shirt with icy cold water. I also soaked my riding jeans – without taking them off – NOBODY needs to see that as they’re driving through a park!
The quick rest and the icy cold Manning park water were completely refreshing and we managed to continue riding with clear heads and no boo-boos on the road.
Then yesterday I got the word that residents of the valley where my family home is located were allowed to return to the valley.
So I called up my riding buddy and asked if he was ready for another wild Robinsmith Expedition. Of course he said yes.
We rode to Boston Bar where we crossed the river and then road up along the Fraser River on the west side of the canyon – on the side of the river across from the Hwy 1. It was a challenging road but passable on our adventure tourer bikes.
We got to my place outside of Lytton – no pics to share – it is too gut-wrenching. We emptied all the rotting food out of the fridge and did some more fire prevention work in case the fire re-ignites in our area and then headed back home to the city.
Nobody is allowed to enter Lytton or travel on Hwy 1 – thank you security people stopping everyone at every entry point to Lytton – so on the way back we decided to travel back up Hwy 12 to Lillooet and then over the Duffey Lake Hwy to Pemberton. From Pemberton down to Whistler and then down the Sea to Sky Hwy back to the Vancouver area.
What we forgot is that the Duffey Lake – Hwy 99 goes pretty high up in elevation and in the evening, it gets bone chillingly cold chilly. And we also did not expect it to RAIN!!
But it did. Cold and wet. We were actually shaking we got so cold.
As we came down into Pemberton I knew we needed to stop somewhere to warm up – from the inside. As we rode through town we saw The Town Square – the coolest looking restaurant. Just glowing all warm and coziness.
We parked our bikes, headed inside and ordered big mugs of coffee to hold in our hands and warm up. Heaven!
The server asked what was going on – everyone else was in shorts and sitting and laughing out on the patio. Here we come in looking for a fireplace!
We described our ride through the mountain pass and she went to the back of the restaurant and got us each a blanket to wrap up in. We sat there all wrapped up looking like Obi Wan Kenobe wannabes. Yep, we definitely looked odd.
I still knew that I needed to warm up from the inside – so what food is there that is more comforting than poutine? NOTHING. Poutine for me.
I had the regular poutine which was a mountain of fresh cut fries with piles of cheese curd all swimming in a rich, and delicious gravy.
The perfect food for warming the body and the spirit.
Apparently they have out-of-this-world delicious fried chicken – I saw a plate of it go by and it did look delicious. I can guarantee I will be back to try more of the food items off their menu.
Two rides. Two very unique experiences. Another Wild Robinsmith Adventure!