Touring in Canada - questions
6th Gear
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 14
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From: Alberta Canada
Few more Options
The ride up to Preberton and on to Lilloonet is a wonderful ride. At Lilloonet stay on Hwy99 and then head north on Hwy 97.This is a major route from the north and very busy Hwy with lots of heavy trucks hauling lumber to the coastal ports. There a wonderful lil pub to stop at and have lunch at 70 Mile House, "The Dusty Rose". Just south of 100 Mile House turn east on Hwy24 though the lakes district an awesome ride over to Little Fort and Hwy 5 which will take you north to Hwy 16 at Tete Jaune then east into Jasper. Live in this area for a number of years. If you decide to go into 100 Mile House for something to eat try TJ in the front of the bus depot.Wonderful food and great people. Hwy 97is a very busy and crazy hwy and we always avoided it if possible,highest accident rate in the province. Hwy 5 north follows the Thompson River, nice scenery and lot less traffic. Clearwater Inn at the bottom of the hill as to come into town always had good food. Not much worth stopping for in the food department north of there until u reach Valemount.
enjoy and ride safe
Wanderfoot
enjoy and ride safe
Wanderfoot
Thread Starter
|
Tourer
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 467
Likes: 0
From: Lancs, England
Well, so far so good. It looks like this trip is going to go ahead, so barring disasters we'll be flying out to Vancouver on or around the 1st July. Daughter child is working up in Ottowa then so we'll not get to see her 'til we return to Vancouver around the 11th. When we arrive there from the UK we'll have a day or two to get over the flight and head off on the bikes around the 3rd which will give us 8 days gentle riding.
The Trev Deeley Harley place haven't returned my e.mails regarding bike hire, but I've been in touch with BC Rentals and the guy there has replied offering us a good deal on a couple of bikes. He's extended the mileage before the surcharge applies and is giving us a 10% discount on the total. Not sure what bikes we'll have but I'll probably be happy with a Honda or Suzuki Cruiser - not sure what Ben will get! The only Harley D that BC rentals seem to have is the Road King and I really don't fancy lugging that round, if I had a passenger maybe but not for solo riding.
The route isn't finalised yet but we have a rough one drawn up - based on the suggestions of you guys - which will involve the run fomr Jasper down to Banff. It'll be around 200 mile days average which will allow us plenty of time for sightseeing and a very lazy "plodding pace" over the 8 days riding. When I'm touring I like to get to the hotels / B&Bs by mid afternoon so we can go explore the towns etc we'll be visiting (for that read go find a good bar and somewhee to eat!).
When the route is finalised I'll run it by you guys for comments and suggestions if that's ok?
Weather here in the UK is horrible at the moment - howling a gale outside........roll on next summer
Derv
The Trev Deeley Harley place haven't returned my e.mails regarding bike hire, but I've been in touch with BC Rentals and the guy there has replied offering us a good deal on a couple of bikes. He's extended the mileage before the surcharge applies and is giving us a 10% discount on the total. Not sure what bikes we'll have but I'll probably be happy with a Honda or Suzuki Cruiser - not sure what Ben will get! The only Harley D that BC rentals seem to have is the Road King and I really don't fancy lugging that round, if I had a passenger maybe but not for solo riding.
The route isn't finalised yet but we have a rough one drawn up - based on the suggestions of you guys - which will involve the run fomr Jasper down to Banff. It'll be around 200 mile days average which will allow us plenty of time for sightseeing and a very lazy "plodding pace" over the 8 days riding. When I'm touring I like to get to the hotels / B&Bs by mid afternoon so we can go explore the towns etc we'll be visiting (for that read go find a good bar and somewhee to eat!).
When the route is finalised I'll run it by you guys for comments and suggestions if that's ok?
Weather here in the UK is horrible at the moment - howling a gale outside........roll on next summer
Derv
Last edited by Derv; Oct 25, 2009 at 08:35 PM.
Thread Starter
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Tourer
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 467
Likes: 0
From: Lancs, England
Wanderfoot, that's great thanks. I've just had a look on the map and the run on Hwy 24 looks "good to go". We drove the Lillooet to Whistler road in 2008 when we were last in Canada (our first visit to see the daughter). My wife and me a hired a car and went exploring for a couple of weeks, Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island etc. The run to Lillooet was done a few days before we were due to leave for home so we couldn't really go any further than that. I did promise myself that I'd go back and take a run further out, only this time it'll be with my son on bikes.
And yes the run from Lillooet back down to Whistler was fantastic - one of the highlights of our trip to Canada. If the roads further north / east are even half as good as that we'll be happy!
http://www.ridgewayguitars.co.uk/y_o...008_page_5.htm
Cheers
Derv
And yes the run from Lillooet back down to Whistler was fantastic - one of the highlights of our trip to Canada. If the roads further north / east are even half as good as that we'll be happy!
http://www.ridgewayguitars.co.uk/y_o...008_page_5.htm
Cheers
Derv
Thread Starter
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Tourer
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 467
Likes: 0
From: Lancs, England
Bumping this back to the top.
Our flights are now booked, we leave the UK on Friday 2nd July at 10.30 am and arrive Vancouver on 2nd at 12.30 pm - a two hour flight seems good!
I love the way that works from the UK to Vancouver - lose it all on the way back though!
Bike hire is being organised for Sunday 4th pick-up, and Monday 12th July return. Just mailed the guy at BC Rentals to confirm. We plan to book in at the Granville Island Hotel for the 2 nights from the 2nd to the 4th (unless anyone can recommend another decent hotel nearby to Granville).I'm just in the process of finding hotels for the run so if anyone has recommendations for any I'd appreciate suggestions - not bothered about posh but clean would be good!
Route at the moment looks like this:
Day 1 - Vancouver to Lillooet 199 miles
Day 2 - Lillooet to Clearwater .183 miles
Day 3 - Clearwater to Jasper .. 198 miles
Day 4 - Jasper to Lake Louise . 195miles
Day 5 - Lake Louise to Creston ..232 miles
Day 6 - Creston to Nakusp .. .172 miles
Day 7 - Nakusp to Penticton .. ..196 miles
.
Day 8 - Penticton to Vancouver......... 243 miles
We've kept the daily mileages down to give us chance to do a bit of sightseeing & shooting pics and vids etc for the website (that can take a fair bit of time) plus we don't want it to turn into marathon - we want to see some of Canada and savour it rather than spend al day in the sadde Any thoughts on the route? We're open to suggestions and as I say some decent hotels along the way would be good. One change I was considering was cutting out Nakusp and doing two nights at Lake Louise - looks like a good area for photos / walking. That would mean doing Creston to Penticton in one go.
Fell free to chuck in - I'll not be offended if you tell me my route's crap - I'd rather find out now than after flying halfway around the world to discover it!
Derv
Our flights are now booked, we leave the UK on Friday 2nd July at 10.30 am and arrive Vancouver on 2nd at 12.30 pm - a two hour flight seems good!
I love the way that works from the UK to Vancouver - lose it all on the way back though! Bike hire is being organised for Sunday 4th pick-up, and Monday 12th July return. Just mailed the guy at BC Rentals to confirm. We plan to book in at the Granville Island Hotel for the 2 nights from the 2nd to the 4th (unless anyone can recommend another decent hotel nearby to Granville).I'm just in the process of finding hotels for the run so if anyone has recommendations for any I'd appreciate suggestions - not bothered about posh but clean would be good!
Route at the moment looks like this:
Day 1 - Vancouver to Lillooet 199 miles
Day 2 - Lillooet to Clearwater .183 miles
Day 3 - Clearwater to Jasper .. 198 miles
Day 4 - Jasper to Lake Louise . 195miles
Day 5 - Lake Louise to Creston ..232 miles
Day 6 - Creston to Nakusp .. .172 miles
Day 7 - Nakusp to Penticton .. ..196 miles
.
Day 8 - Penticton to Vancouver......... 243 miles
We've kept the daily mileages down to give us chance to do a bit of sightseeing & shooting pics and vids etc for the website (that can take a fair bit of time) plus we don't want it to turn into marathon - we want to see some of Canada and savour it rather than spend al day in the sadde Any thoughts on the route? We're open to suggestions and as I say some decent hotels along the way would be good. One change I was considering was cutting out Nakusp and doing two nights at Lake Louise - looks like a good area for photos / walking. That would mean doing Creston to Penticton in one go.
Fell free to chuck in - I'll not be offended if you tell me my route's crap - I'd rather find out now than after flying halfway around the world to discover it!
Derv
Road Captain
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 738
Likes: 0
From: Toronto
After Banff, head down through the Crowsnest Pass to Creston, take 3a to Kootenay Bay, take ferry (free) to Balfour, then take the 31 to Kaslo, then the 31a(west) to New Denver, then the 6 to Nakusp, then south on the 6 to Fauquer where you take the Needles Ferry (also free) and continue on the 6 to Vernon and on to Kelowna.
Its a lot easier to follow then this may make it seem, but I promise, this route will NOT disappoint!!
Its a lot easier to follow then this may make it seem, but I promise, this route will NOT disappoint!!
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Cruiser
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 186
Likes: 0
My wife & I have ridden all the roads of your proposed route. They are all fantastic and all the pavement is great! The only change I would suggest for you, as this is a one shot trip, Would be to spend one day at Lk Louise & Morraine lake. Then I would ride the extra 58 kms to Banff and spend a day kicking around there. Pretty touristy but it is set in the middle of some awesome scenery. Good luck & have a safe and successful journey.
Cheers NC, I found then shortly after posting this thread up so I've e.mailed them for prices. Harley hire tends to run expensive though from what I've seen so far, so it may have to be a different bike - we'll see.
T. Brenan, thanks for that. We need to go to Kelowna (Penticton) probably on the way back to Vancouver to meet up with the daughter and some friends. We did the island by hire car in 2008 - It was beautiful, we stayed at Sooke and took a run up to Port Renfrew. It absolutely poured down with rain though - of the very heavy kind - on the run down from Comox, and it stayed pretty miserable 'til tha day we left. Don't think I've ever seen rain so heavy. Sort of put me off wanting to go back there on a blke, it looks a wet kinda place
http://www.ridgewayguitars.co.uk/y_o...008_page_3.htm
Derv
T. Brenan, thanks for that. We need to go to Kelowna (Penticton) probably on the way back to Vancouver to meet up with the daughter and some friends. We did the island by hire car in 2008 - It was beautiful, we stayed at Sooke and took a run up to Port Renfrew. It absolutely poured down with rain though - of the very heavy kind - on the run down from Comox, and it stayed pretty miserable 'til tha day we left. Don't think I've ever seen rain so heavy. Sort of put me off wanting to go back there on a blke, it looks a wet kinda place
http://www.ridgewayguitars.co.uk/y_o...008_page_3.htm
Derv
if you ever do an east coast trip let me know your coming and i'll put some tradtional eastcoast fare on for ya and take you touring around.
Last edited by NSCoyote; Dec 13, 2009 at 12:37 PM.