Motorcycle Trip On The Pacific Coast Highway In May

[HBarlow]

I'm in Halifax, NS tonight. My Trans-Canada adventure is complete. I saw a lot of beautiful scenery and met lots of nice people. Tomorrow I turn west and begin the journey back home. I think the homeward bound part of my journey will be about 2,800 miles.

 

[mfurrh55]

Where is the pictures?

 

[GAmes]

What?????? No New Foundland? According to my map HWY 1 crosses it also. No cheating:-laf

 

[BIGNASTY]

I have been following this myself. if you should have a chance Harvey take a cell phone photo or two even my FLIP phone takes pretty good pictures.

 

[HBarlow]

I've taken a couple of phone photos but when I'm driving/riding I'm focused on the road ahead and my destination not stopping to take pictures.

 

[Missouri Mule]

I'm with you there Harvey, when I'm driving somewhere (trips, usually to KC) I don't like stopping except for fueling, pitstops and eating.

 

[HBarlow]

What?????? No New Foundland? According to my map HWY 1 crosses it also. No cheating:-laf

Nope, no Labrador. My goal was Chilliwack (near Vancouver) to Halifax. Trans-Canada Highway 1 leads to Prince Edward Island not Labrador. I considered going to PEI but the weather was bad in Halifax with rain and fog so I probably wouldn't have been able to enjoy The Cabot Trail which is reportedly a beautiful ride. I've been to Labrador and Newfoundland compliments of my US Navy tour guide but not on a motorcycle.

 

[HBarlow]

I arrived back at home yesterday so will close out this thread with a final report cut and pasted from the Goldwing website I frequent.

Motorcycle Ride

I just returned home from a very enjoyable motorcycle ride today. I left home on June 10 and returned today, July 9, after a full thirty days. I rode from home west through NM, AZ, then north through NV, CA, OR, and WA where I entered Canada at Chilliwack, BC. I rode all the way across the southern tier of Canadian Provinces - BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, QC, and NB to Halifax, NS then southwest through ME, MA, CT, NY, PA, OH, IN, IL, MO, KS, OK, and home - a total of 9,198 miles.

-
I was one of those who were eastbound on Trans-Canada Hwy 1 just east of Banff NP and the town of Banff on the morning of June 17th in heavy rain when the RCMP blocked the highway due to flooding, mudslides, and highway damage. The roadblock was just yards beyond the exit ramp into Canmore, AB so, having no choice, I slipped around a long line of OTR trucks lined along the shoulder and into Canmore. The heavy rains combined with snowmelt from record snows in the Canadian Rockies combined to produce flooding over the highway that damaged the eastbound lanes east of Canmore and caused mud slides blocking the westbound lanes west of Canmore. It was national news for days.

I was lucky to find a room in a nice resort hotel where I was forced to spend three nights until the RCMP reopened the highway eastbound. Many homes in Canmore were washed away, the entire town of High River, AB was partially underwater, and a major portion of the large city of Calgary, downstream, was flooded. The Alberta provincial government ordered mandatory evacuation of home in part of Canmore, all of High River, and a large portion of Calgary. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of families lost their homes due to flooding which was generally uninsured. Very sad for those folks.

The rest of my trip was relatively uneventful after that beginning and I had generally good weather with some rain. The scenery was stunningly beautiful from the Canadian Rockies of Banff NP to the plains of AB, SK, and MB with lush tall grass and fields of grain, wonderful streams, rivers, and lakes, the shoreline of Lake Superior in Ontario, the big cities of the east, and the coast of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The people I met were friendly and welcoming to me and Canadian drivers were, in general, more courteous than many American drivers. Even French-speaking residents of Quebec were friendly and helpful to a poor dumb American from Texas who neither spoke or understood a word of French.

A couple of local men in a Tim Hortons struck up a conversation with me when they noticed Texas plates on the Goldwing and explained Canadian speed limits and enforcement. They told me that although speed limits in Canada are generally lower than in the US, Canadian law enforcement generally ignores up to 20 kph over the speed limits. I found that to be true.

Canadian women are to be commended. I noticed that a far greater percentage of Canadian women in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and older have maintained their figures and remained attractive than in my own country. American women are too well fed!

The Goldwing, of course, performed flawlessly but I'm overdue for the 64k and 68k service and the 72k service is now due. I have an appointment at the dealer this week.

It was a trip of a lifetime that I would recommend to anyone.​

 

[Tractorat]

What a great trip that must have been.

Sturgis is coming up in just a few weeks. Why dont you get the bike serviced and head up for that one ?

 

[HBarlow]

I've been to Sturgis during the motorcycle event. It's one of those things you might want to see just one time. My wife and I were there with a travel trailer not a motorcycle years ago. We had been to Teton NP, Yellowstone, etc. and were going to pass through Sturgis during the big motorcycle event week so we stayed a couple of nights in a campground there just to see what "Sturgis" was about. There was an estimated crowd of about 650,000 people that year I read later. Not my kind of event.

I don't really enjoy big gatherings like that and don't like crowds, drunks, dopers, obnoxious and outrageous behavior, etc. Nothing there for me.

 

[Tractorat]

Ha, I know what you mean. I used to drive thru Strugis quite a bit on trips back to Minnesota. I didnt plan it this way, but it seems like we always drove thru about a week before the big party. Just as the first ones were being to arrive.

One year I needed a couple of shirts, so I bought a couple of "Sturgis" shirts. I always get people coming up to me asking me what I "ride". I always lie to them and tell them I use to ride a "hog".

 

[HBarlow]

You're not violating any ethics. Most Hardley riders are posers anyway. Their friends and relatives buy them those T shirts at Hardley dealers in cities they visit on vacation and take them back to the Hardley rider who then wears it and pretends he's a big traveler. On my trips I see lots of Hardleys - many of them are on trailers or in the bed of a pickup.

Lots of posers trailer or tote their "hogs" to Sturgis or a nearby city then unload their Hardley and ride around with their do-rags on their heads, Hardley T shirts, chains for their wallets, you know the uniform they wear. You've seen it too.

 

[Tractorat]

ha ha,
And the reality is Im not really lying. Its been decades, but I did go for a short ride on a friends Harley "hog". And, when I was in vietnam, I caught a ride a couple of times on an amtrac. They used to call them "hogs".

 

[GAmes]

Welcome back to the TX heat Harvey.

 

[HBarlow]

Gary,

The summer heat of MO, KS, OK, and home in TX was a sudden change requiring some adjustment after a couple of weeks in Canada.

 

[GAmes]

I think that if I didn't have any pressing responsibilities in TX I would have stayed up north for awhile.