Headed north in the morning

BOB’S going to join me on the ride north in the morning, will have to see how his broken hand is feeling. He can always turn back if it starts hurting. Doctor says the fractures aren’t healed yet and to stay off the motorcycle, but we’ve gone ripping around on gravel for two days now and Bob says he’s got good control and not a lot of discomfort.

We rode a BC Forest Service trail to the summit of McBride Peak yesterday, about 6,000 feet up. The elevation here, around Valemount, is more like 2,500.

McBride’s a nice town. I camped down there some years ago on a ride through this part of Canada.

There’s a lot of nice 50 & 60mph gravel in British Columbia. Not the trail to the top of McBride Peak, obviously. That was all 1st & 2nd gear, and gassing it, and throwing rocks.

I had a low-speed get-off on the way up. Operator error, as they all are. I missed a shift on a switchback and bogged it and over we went. I jammed a couple of knuckles, not too badly, and landed flat on my back. Which is good. You don’t want to land on your corners.

I had just filled the big aftermarket fuel tank in town, so the weight of nearly 7 gallons of fuel sloshing around up high on the backbone didn’t help.

A routine mishap, the kind that gives your bike character. It put a pretty good bend in the square stock I had used to mount my highway pegs.

These are passenger pegs. I cut them off the factory mounts and welded them onto the square stock. Good for stretching your legs.

Given the bend, now I can stretch my left a bit farther.

Clayton and Shane, local Harley guys, rode up to McBride with us. They hung out in the pub while we rode up to the peak. We joined them there later, got lunch and headed back south to Valemount.

Valemount’s a lovely little mountain town, a real community. They had a parade the other day. There go the whitewater rafters.

Bob and Janey were in town for some of the day’s events. Softball games, logger games… Beer tent…

The town’s original fire engine, same year as my pickup, 1949.

The logical 50/50 raffle in a logging town: Guess how much the 30-wheeler weighs and split the purse.

Here’s a guy setting up a bell at the top of a 50-foot pole all were invited to climb, on a timed basis. It was fun watching competitors make the ascent with a set of climbing spurs and a lanyard; young bucks who work in the woods, mainly, but quite a few young women climbed to the top as well. The top swayed in the wind, it didn’t seem to discourage anyone.

It was raining during the competition. My camera’s not waterproof so it stayed in my pocket.

A local TV guy got some footage of Bob and Janey and their dog Cleo.

Here’s Cleo and her pal, Rufus, who doesn’t exactly live here but might as well. He belongs to neighbors who travel quite a bit, often for a month at a time. They’re off riding their mountain bikes somewhere. Rufus moves in with Bob and Janey whenever his owners are away.

I took the dogs for a walk down back to the McLennan River this afternoon. Throw the stick and if Rufus gets it Cleo tries to steal it from him.

Rufus is an old guy, on the other side of things now, but he’s enjoying life. I felt bad about walking him way down the hill because his breathing sounded pretty ragged on the way back up.

Headed home now…

Bob and I took the dogs for a walk the other day, on his property and a stretch of Crown land next door. We saw a half gallon of bear scat on the ground, and, a short distance away, the other half gallon. That evening we were headed out to ride the gravel road to the marina and saw the bear from the end of Bob’s driveway. A healthy looking guy. He was a good city block away but looked plenty big standing there in the road.

I like this look on El Tigre. It says I’m not about to be snack food for a bear, a wolf or a cougar, even if I am an outdoor cat. I’m told Tig’s a cagey guy, a real survivor.

I heard him on the prowl last night… I think he was just giving me a complimentary meow as he passed my tent.

Tony DePaul, June 10, 2019, Tete Jaune Cache, British Columbia, Canada