2012
Rolling Over the 100K
Part
3 of 10
Southern
BC
Nancy
Greene
Close
to Heaven
Southern
BC
From
Christina Lake to Castlegar in the very heart of Southern BC the
highways were a motorcyclists dream. It was my highway. I was all
alone. There were no trucks or camper-wagons to slow me down. It was
warm and dry with newly paved surfaces. The curves were challenging,
exhilarating and just a little bit scary. I felt like I was the
luckiest guy in the world. My Harley was performing so responsively
that I began to hammer her really hard. In my fifty years of riding I
have found that riding your bike hard, as long as the road quality is
good, and there's no other traffic around or nearby intersections,
makes them run even better. On this occasion, however, there was an
unfortunate incident that turned out to be minor in nature but it
could have been more serious. I heard a mysterious tinkle coming from
my back-end so I instantly disengaged the clutch and slowed right
down. I rubber-necked to see what was wrong but I couldn't find
anything. The tinkling had stopped. The bike was fine so I continued
on. The next time I took a rest-stop I got off the bike and I
carefully inspected the back of the bike around the rear-wheel. One
saddlebag strap was missing. I checked the remaining strap on the
other side and it was fine. I continued heading east.
Nancy
Greene
Surprise!
Surprise!....I was roaring along Highway 3 when all of a sudden I
came across a name I recognized instantly. I never expected to see a
BC Provincial Park named after that very famous Olympic athlete,
Nancy Greene. For those of you who may not be familiar with the name, Nancy Greene had an absolutely spectacular career in Alpine Skiing.
Her achievements were out of this world. She's an Olympic Gold and
Silver Medallist. She was named as the Olympic Ambassador for the
2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, and if that's not enough, Nancy
Greene was honoured as Canada's “Female Athlete of the 20th
Century”. She is now sitting as a Senator in Mr. Harper's
Government. I stopped at the entrance to the Park and I took a look
around. It was very early in the morning and the wrong time of day to
think about staying over but the next time I'm out this way I'll make
a point of camping here for a couple of days. Although I didn't
realize it at the time, I found out more recently that she was
actually born in Ottawa before she moved to BC as a child. I salute
Nancy Greene for her impressive career in Canadian Skiing and for her
outstanding achievements.
Close
to Heaven
The
rest of the day was motorcycle-touring at its very best. It was warm
and sunny. The highway was dry and full of white-knuckle hairpin
bends. It was as if the Harley and I had blended into a single unit.
Her handling and manoeuvrability was excellent and rivalled the 750cc
Triumph Bonneville I used to own. I called her “The Great
Performer” My Bonnie was the all-time champion of great handling,
but today, the Harley was a very close second. Once again, I had the
empty highway all to myself. To the right of the highway there was a
single train track where now and then a diesel freight-train could be
seen at intervals through the patches of heavy under-brush. Each
time I saw a gap in the trees I calculated that the train and I were
going the same speed so I stood high on my mid-pedals and waved
frantically at the engineer. As soon as he saw me he gave me a wave
back and a blast of his whistle. I couldn't have been happier.
Motorcycles, Trains and Ocean-going Ships, not little boats, have
always fascinated me . I have to admit that I've always lamented the
demise of the old steam trains which I spent many hours as a kid
admiring by sitting at the side of the tracks and collecting their
numbers. Having a powerful motorcycle between my legs; a speeding
locomotive to my right; a clear dry road ahead and the sun high in
the sky was about as close to heaven as I could possibly get in this
life. Furthermore, I was spell-bound by the striking similarities
between the countryside here in southern BC and that of Alaska in
the summertime. There were fast-flowing shallow rivers weaving their
way around rock-formations; wide-pebbled shores ideal for parking a
camper-trailer for an overnight stay and an abundance of deer. It was
breathtakingly beautiful. What more could I possibly ask for? ...This is
why I do it – you know.
I like the image of you riding along side an old train. It really delivers your love of old style transport.
ReplyDelete