Bella Coolio: Day 6. Agent 99

Distance traveled: 319 km including ferry

Cumulative distance:1,913 km

Top speed: 116 kph

Moving average: 69 kph

What we counted. Motorcycles in groups of two or more: 17 groups, 52 motorcycles

The GPS said the travel time to the ferry was 35 minutes so I suggested to Nan we go to Coombs, see some goats on a roof and get a latte before riding to the ferry. Ferry departure was scheduled for 11:05 am which would be just fine, despite the fact that we slept in till 7:30. However, our morning efficiency is improving and we were ready to roll by 9:00 am and off to Coombs we went. Maybe I should have done this first but I start working through my mind that we need to be there at the terminal about 10:15, I need to get gas so in fact, we don’t really have a lot of time to fool around, especially as Coombs is in the opposite direction of the ferry so every minute going in the wrong direction is actually TWO minutes more to get to the ferry.

We see the Goats On A Roof but turn around to go back to the buildings prior which has an espresso

bar. Can’t find my way into the parking lot because there really isn’t one close to the building but they do have a lot of large, odd sculptures in front of the place: pigs holding a table, a baby camel(?) suckling its mother, coy, puppies, it’s all kind of weird. We park about 200 metres away and walk up and I am thinking more about the time. Inside, there are no other patrons. There is a staff member sitting at a table of jewelry stuff but she doesn’t move. There is nobody behind the counter save a guy who looks like he is servicing equipment and

he asks me what I would like so I tell him, not really expecting anything, two lattes. He says he doesn’t know how to do lattes so he meanders to the back and an ~~older~~ (my age) young lady comes out and catches the attention of the gal sitting in front of the jewelry to come over. This took a good five minutes for this 20 something year old to come over because she obviously has something very large stuck somewhere very small. I ask for two small lattes not too hot because we are going to pound them and get going. I am not sure if she heard me or not but, to be fair, I didn’t say I was in a
hurry and so she wasn’t. She inspected with great care – I think she used her jeweler’s loop - the two handles she used to draw the espresso shots, placed the coffee grain by grain into the handle and then was interrupted by the phone ringing. It didn’t matter that there were two other people, so slowly walked over and answered the phone after so many rings I was surprised there was actually a caller still on the line. It was clear she knew the caller and after a minute on the phone, addressed the other female and gave her a description of what the caller needed to discuss. My barista passes the phone over and the matter is handled in about 30 seconds but my she still cannot even get back the five metres to the espresso machine. Now she is inspecting the milk inside the cup and looking over the thermometer because I have reminded her not too hot and made sure she heard me because it would be the icing on the cake that they would be so hot we would not be able to drink them in a hurry. The older gal then BERATES the barista in front of me for walking away from a customer. While this might be fair, it was embarrassing. The whole process took about 15 minutes to get two small lattes, time I had thought we would be sitting outside having a relaxing few minutes before we head off to the ferry. I pound mine and half of Nan’s. We get to the terminal at 10:20 and I forget to tell the agent Nan is a senior and so we spend an extra thousand dollars on the ferry crossing.

Ferry crossings and lunch are a good time to charge up our myriad of electrical gadgets. I say to Nan as we board that we need to find a charging station or electrical outlet. We have nearly two hours for the crossing and we should be able to charge just about everything if I work this right. There are outlets but not too many, though they all seem to have two USB ports so, simultaneously, I charge our two communicators, my phone, the computer, the camera and the electronic camera fob for the GoPro. There was also some scenery outside, apparently. Nothing like getting away from it all.

When we get off the ferry, it is 1:00 p.m. and we are looking forward to the ride down Hwy 99, a prime example of a fun motorcycle road. First, we have to climb the Sea to Sky highway, the road built for the 2010 winter Olympics that transported vehicles from Vancouver to Whistler. This is a windy, narrow road, despite the money spent and it is bumper to bumper traffic. It is a gloriously hot, sunny day so I can understand people trying to escape the city and every little pond,

slough or lake alongside the highway is bustling with sun worshippers and swimmers. Every parking lot is chock full to overflowing as is the highway. However, a lot of the vehicles escape the drive at Whistler but there still remains a lot of congestion. It isn’t until Pemberton, where we take a break, that the traffic really starts to diminish.

We need a bite and a reprieve from the heat so we stop at Town Square restaurant. Pemberton is a

whopping 42.2 degrees. I’m wearing gym shorts under my mesh motorcycle gear and it feels like I’m wearing jeans. This would be close to a record for warm weather riding for us. I actually saw the thermometer read hotter but it was during slow moving traffic so that reading may not be accurate. The waitress in the bar brings us glasses and a jug of ice water and leaves the jug on the table. We drank just about the whole thing along with two large lemonades. The food was also outstanding.

East of Pemberton is where the riding gets really interesting. Pemberton actually goes on for quite awhile so it takes some time to actually exit the “urban” area, which really consists of small farms and acreages. Twice we see signs warning us about mustangs (wild horses, not cars) on the road. The road is twisty and hilly. It is a lot of fun but you always have to be careful what might be on the road around the next corner, a vehicle crossing the centre line or an animal in the ditch so we take it

easy. The added benefit is that I get to look around occasionally and won’t have to wait to see the pictures at the end of the day to see what we saw.

Less than an hour out of Pemberton, we come to a series of campgrounds I have identified previously as potential sleeping spots for the night. The first is a beautiful little camp sitte on the edge of the Cayoosh River, which at the campsite, is quite wide and would make for a great swimming spot. However, there are no other campers to act as bear fodder, so we elect to push on. Plus, unbeknownst to

Nan, there is a sign that says “mother grizzy and cub in the area. Do not approach”. Well, that’s helpful advice. The sign was dated June 27^th so I wasn’t overly worried but I knew it would give Nan anxiety. The campgrounds come in rapid succession around here so I am not worried about finding a suitable one.

We check out a couple more. They are right along the highway so easy to access and they are all

along one river or another so that is good because we are going to go swimming or whatever. One campground actually has quite a few campers which is a surprise to us because we haven’t seen any campers in the three campgrounds we checked prior. Strength comes in numbers, apparently. Bear fodder. Several campers here are motorcycling as
there are five touring/adventure bikes and somebody with a couple of dirt bikes that he is towing behind his RV. There are two gals adjacent us, one, Dawn, riding a new Harley Davidson Pan

That's Jill on the left, Dawn on the right.

Harley Davidson Pan American

Honda CB 500

\America. She is tall but finding it a lot to handle off road. It looks massive but in fact, is just 560 pounds “wet”. The other gal Jill is riding a Honda CB 500 tricked out for adventure riding. They met during the pandemic on a gravel-riding course in which they were the only two participants and have become riding buddies since then. Both from Victoria, they subsequently discovered that they knew the same of the same people, lived quite close (20 minutes walk, with a pub in between), went to the same physio clinic and owned the same camping gear. Kharma.

Nan and I had our swim in the river. It’s cold, I can tell you. We both got right down and in the water, which wasn’t all that easy as the river is not that deep and moving pretty fast. At the same time, some dark clouds form overhead and we hear several cracks of thunder but we are spared any rain and all our gear stays dry.

Here are some selected shots from the day.