NORTH TO ALASKA - PART 3

At Vanderhoff while in the process of lubing my chain I discovered that my rear tire was in bad shape. I had replaced my front one for the trip and knew I was taking somewhat of a gamble by not replacing the rear as well. I lost that gamble. Canada is sparsely populated and the only town of any size anywhere near was Prince George two hours away. Sam kept calling it St. George and for me it was Prince Phillip. I guess between the two of us we had the basses covered. The motorcycle shops don’t open till 9:00 and we were there before 8:00. Sam had lost his phone charger and cord and needed to replace his broken sunglasses so we hit Walmart while we were waiting. We got Sam’s needed items and picked up some snack food as well. Even though it was still before 9:00, we rode over to the nearest shop to be there when it opened. I eventually got in a few minutes early but they said they had no tire in my size. I called the other two shops in town as well as a couple in Quesnet, another possibility south of Prince George. No luck.

Kenda Big Block tire

So I went back into the first shop again, the biggest in the area, to see if they could come up with something. The parts man told me to wait and he would go back and look some more. He finally found a tractor looking tire that would fit. As Sam said, “It’s round, it fits and it will get you home.”

Our original plan was to travel east over to Jasper and Lake Louise and then loop over to Revelstoke and back down to the states but the predicted rain and fog did not make that a good option. Instead we continued on Hwy 16 along the Fraser River, but before getting to Jasper we turned south on Hwy 5 along the mighty North Thompson River. Not long after turning south the rain began. And then it really starting raining and to make matters worse there was all kinds of truck traffic. Before leaving Prince George I had located a lodge in the little town of Blue River, so that was our immediate destination. Sam’s gear is more roadworthy than mine so he stayed relatively dry, but I suffered greatly. The rain covers on my saddle bags came apart in the wind and everything in them was soaked. Additionally the dampness and cold caused my right hand to be almost useless. The rain was running down the inside of my helmet so that I could hardly see. I had to make at least one unplanned stop just to try to clear my helmet visor so I could see.

Glacier Lodge - Blue River

Eventually, after 306 mostly wet miles, we reached the Glacier Lodge at Blue River where I had made a reservation while we were in Prince George. It was extremely nice as were the people there, like most all the Canadians we encountered. The clerk (who I later found out was the owner) immediately saw my plight and not only informed me about the hot tub but offered to dry all my clothes. As far as I could tell there was only one restaurant in this little town, and it was down the road a bit. However, we placed to-go orders at the small “Food Shack” adjacent to the Lodge and waited while they prepared it. Sam got a chicken wrap and I decided I would try a popular Canadian item called a Poutine which was ground beef, curds of cheese and French fries with beef gravy poured over the whole works. It wasn’t too bad but I didn’t eat too many of the soggy fries. It was a popular dish with the locals though.

Due to the weather forecast we decided to lay over the next day in Blue River. The rain continued in the night and some the next day. We went on a walk by a beautiful little lake in town used for swimming and canoeing. Taking a little wooded trail along the end of the lake yielded numerous mosquito bites. We spent much of the day walking around the beautiful little town. I took one of the Lodge employees up on her kind offer to wash my dirty clothes. She washed, dried, and folded them. I chose Sam’s dinner choice of the previous day for dinner. It was great and I had enough left over for lunch the next day. To be continued. M/W