Last Ride Of The Season
Oct. 25/26 - '08
The fall colour change out here is a bit different from the ‘back east’ colour change. It is kind of a west coast style thing. We don’t have the stands of hardwood trees that turn into glowing reds and oranges. We do have softwoods that turn yellow and gold. Our reds and purples and oranges come from the smaller shrubs such as blueberry and huckleberry and vines. The blueberry fields out the Fraser Valley are eye catching as they wear their fall deep reds and purples. Blueberry patches can be spotted high in the mountain meadows, standing out from the surrounding greens and yellows. The mosses on the rocks seem to turn a silver, just to mark the occasion. The predominant large softwood in the valley bottoms is the local maple. Its dinner plate sized leaves turn yellow. Up into the mountains, the grown-in trails and logging roads are marked by the yellow/gold of the alders. These trees start out like weeds, growing anywhere that the ground has been disturbed or where the native conifers have been removed. The slashes of alder yellow can be seen from miles away, zigzagging their way up and down the slopes. There is the always-present background of deep green from the firs and spruces and hemlocks to help the display of gold seem even brighter.
My Harley riding neighbour and I took a toot on our bikes up to D’arcy. While it was definitely heated vest cold out, the air was delicious, the sun was brilliant and the local colours highlighted the mountains all around us. We had intended to ride as far as Pemberton but once there decided to keep going for a while. Our only choice of route at that point was up onto the Duffy, or go straight through at Mt Curry and on in to D’arcy, a small, mostly native, village that sits at the west end of Anderson Lake.
Riding through the Pemberton Valley at this time of year is great. The surrounding steep mountains that hem in the valley also frame the farm fields with their hay bales and horses. A couple of rivers wind their way through the valley, one is crystal clear, and the other is glacier green. The wooden fences that enclose the fields are often overgrown by shrubs that have turned colour, yellows, gold and reds. At Mt Curry highway 99 turns to the right and follows the valley a few more miles before climbing up onto the Duffy. We kept going straight on, onto a narrow winding and hilly paved road that leads you another 50 clicks or so to D’arcy, where it ends. Period! At that point you need a boat or dirt bike to go any further. The road took us along the Birkenhead River, and through several narrow valleys that are highlighted by the greens and bright yellows, made even brighter by the sun shining from the clear blue sky. The snow-covered mountaintops highlight everything with their gleaming white.
Once we got to D’arcy there was really not much else to do but turn around and ride back out. One of the great things about riding or driving through the mountains is that the scenery is often very different when going in the opposite direction along a given section of road. There are mountains and valleys and rivers visible in one direction that you don’t see when looking the other way. So the ride back to Pemberton was just as great as the ride out. Once back in Pemberton we stopped for a bite of lunch, and then headed back down to Whistler and then on to Squamish. The same scenery thing happens as you come down from Whistler. When traveling north you don’t actually see the Tantalus Range and the Coast Mountains very well even though you are traveling through them, or the Black Tusk or Cloudburst. Heading south you see them as a wall as they stand tall and mighty, between you and the ocean. Gotta love it!
The sun was just as bright and the temperature warmed appreciably as we dropped back into the Squamish Valley. Another great ride, and perhaps one of the last of the riding season, made even better by the fall colours. I think the term is ‘bitter sweet’.
We also had a chance to ride south, out the Sound. Here the backdrop is the ocean and the distant mountains of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. Here the setting sun casts its own fall colours on the water before the darker grays of winter take over. The season is passing and so it is time to put the bike away. We might be able to squeeze a couple of rides down into town for a coffee yet but the rains will be starting soon and the days are getting colder.
We put 21,000 kilometers on the bike during this ’08 riding season, double that of the ’07 season. We rode through searing heat, chilling cold and everything in between. We rode through deserts and prairies, mountains and farmland, halfway across this country and well down into the States. Sue wasn’t on the back for all of those miles but she was on for a good number of them. And she only fell asleep a half-a-dozen times or so, that I know of. We are already planning some cool runs for next year.
Putting the bike away means an oil change, a good once over and then a bath followed by a drying from my motorcycle blow dryer. Then a polish and final inspection. After that’s its up on the bike stand and rolled up tight against the back wall of the garage. Hook up the battery minder and then pull the bike cover over, tuck it in so to speak. Done. Sniffle and sob…..