About 15 years ago, I remember coming across the Destination Highways series of books. There was one for Northern California, which I purchased, as well as editions for Washington and British Columbia. At the time, I thought of BC as a far-off place I’d never actually get to ride.
As time and life‘s wicked sense of humor passed, I wound up falling in love with someone in British Columbia. Not only someone, but someone who rode a motorcycle. With some extended time off, I wanted to carve out a small place in Canada for myself. I wanted to experience this wonderful country, meet its people, and discover the epics and nuances that make this country our fantastic neighbor to the north.
I’d been pushing pretty hard at work and hadn’t yet put in the time to figure out where to go, where to stay, or how to build a route connecting all the places I wanted to see. I’ve gotten so comfortable in Northern California that I can just point my motorcycle and go.
British Columbia is a new place with very different norms, so the lack of planning and the immediacy of departure definitely snuck up on me. R reminded me of the Destination Highways series. Fortunately, I was able to secure a secondhand copy and bring it with me to Canada, where I would begin planning.
As I began researching the trip, it became clear that British Columbia is HUGE. I know California is a big place, but BC is more than twice its size. With only a week on the road, I had to be thoughtful about how many miles kilometers I wanted to ride and how many hours that would mean in the saddle. I wasn’t going to the Island, Prince George, Smithers, and Terrace as well as Banff National Park all in one weeklong vacation. The sheer size of Canada was unapologetically laughing at me.
Four hours felt like a short day; six hours of saddle time made for a long one. My journey would be filled with mountain passes and unknown roads, with high 30s (think 100s) in the forecast. I prayed that the rain gods would be kind to me. I found the folks at Rain City Bike Crew to be wonderful and welcoming. Two of their members shared their plans with me, which gave me a good baseline. I used the Destination Highways book to dial in the specifics. Thank you! Thank you Rain City!
The Destination Highways book really is fantastic for knowing which roads are worth riding at a very granular level. I knew I wanted to ride DH1, the best road in the province according to the authors. It took me a little while to get used to how the author assembles maps and names roads. The authors take a road-centric viewpoint, rather than a region-centric one, unlike other Northern California books. This nuance made assembling a tour more difficult as I had to do the work to connect all of the roads together. In the end, I decided to take high-level guidance from Rain City Bike Crew and use the Destination Highways book each night to further refine my ride based on how I was feeling.
As I was packing the bike, I took a look at my tires and started doubting myself. I thought I had done all the handiwork to determine that my tires were good—but somehow, up here, I second-guessed myself. I hadn’t actually ridden the bike here, so how could the tires be any different? I nudged R to come down with me to the garage for a second opinion. R thought they looked fine.
I think my anxiety needed somewhere to go, so I started thinking about all the places in the province where I could get a tire: Vancouver was all that came up. Then I started doing Monte Carlo-like simulations, guessing the current mileage on the tire and how many 32nds needed to be on the tire for safe operation. At 5/32 I should’ve swapped the tire. Researching motorcycle forums indicated the proper measurement was 2/32. A little seventh-grade pre-algebra using ratio proportions clearly indicated what R already knew: I’d be fine. Plus, he found out there was a BMW dealer in Kelowna, halfway across the province. Should the worst-case scenario play out and my tire dread materialize, I have three options across my route. “You’re going to be fine…” I kept muttering in the back of my head. But what about my brake pads?, lol, the saga continued.
Much like New Zealand, I just needed to get on the road and let the anxiety fade to black. I took a few extra days in Vancouver to let some rough, wet weather pass through. With the sun out, now it’s time to ride!
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