I did this trip..

Ferry to Vancouver Island, ride north.. catch ferry to Prince Rupert... head east.. then north to Hyder, then back south and east to Jasper then back to WA... GREAT TRIP

 

ike hire is being organised for Sunday 4th pick-up, and Monday 12th July return. Just mailed the guy at BC Rentals to confirm. We plan to book in at the Granville Island Hotel for the 2 nights from the 2nd to the 4th (unless anyone can recommend another decent hotel nearby to Granville).I'm just in the process of finding hotels for the run so if anyone has recommendations for any I'd appreciate suggestions - not bothered about posh but clean would be good!

Route at the moment looks like this:

Day 1 - Vancouver to Lillooet……………………199 miles Whistler highway is good to go. So is the Duffey lake road. Champagne pavement, especially if they havent had to do a lot of plowing over the winter.. You might want to stay in Whistler or Pemberton....Lilloet is kind of...iffey. Try the Zip lines in Whistler. The ride from Pemberton to Lillooet, can be a little nerve wracking if you've never been that way before...Pemberton has some nice B&B's....

Try to find a copy of the book, Destination Highways British Columbia, by Brian Bosworth. It will give you some ideas of other roads, places to stay, etc. in BC.

Lots of turns, and narrow, and lots of tourists driving Motorhomes going DOWN the hill, burning their brakes...I think its an 11% grade....

Day 2 - Lillooet to Clearwater…………………….183 miles Which way are you going for this?
If you go to 70 mile house, then turn right on Green Lake road, there are lots of resorts to stay at on the lake. Beautiful lake. Flying U on Green Lake is pretty famous, but not luxurious... same for Watch Lake Lodge.

Day 3 - Clearwater to Jasper…………..…………198 miles

Day 4 - Jasper to Lake Louise….…………………195miles

Day 5 - Lake Louise to Creston…………………..232 miles

Day 6 - Creston to Nakusp……..………………….172 miles The Faquier /Needles ferry is fun. Flash your lights, and they come and get you... Or they used to, back in the 80's!

Day 7 - Nakusp to Penticton…..…………………..196 miles Stay in Naramata, NOT Penticton. Its about 10 minutes up the road from Penticton, (North) on the East side (quiet) of the lake. Check out the Kettle Valley Railway.... some old wooden trestle bridges are still standing.
Really missing the old Okanagan if you dont go to Naramata. Stay at the Naramata lodge, or Robinson Bed and Beach. Lots of wineries in the area, that are top notch. highly recommended.
.
Day 8 - Penticton to Vancouver.........……………243 miles Ahhh, the Hope Princeton...good ride. Make sure you hit the fruit stands in Keremeos.

Check out the Sylvia Hotel in Vancouver.... Very cool, and right near the beach...

PM me your email, and I can send you some pics from this summer of the areas Ij've written about.

BD

 

good advice! this region and specifically the run down from 93 mile house along the green lake rd is awesome,BUT watch for wildlife and the occasional cow! i've seen everything from wild fox,to cows,deer,moose,and bear on that stretch.truth be told,be careful in ALL the regions you'll visit.you can expect wild bighorn sheep,elk,deer and bear all over the province.
sounds like a great ride.p.m. me if you need any help/advice in the greater vancouver area.
cheers,
leftcoast carl.

 

Brilliant, thanks. Now that Xmas is out of the way, I can start seriously planning this trip, the flights are booked now and we've just had confirmation from the bike hire place in Vancouver that the credit card payment for our deposits has gone through.

I've now realised that our original planned route was the wrong way round. Were now intending to start out from Vancouver and head up to the Kelowna / Penticton area first. The idea being that we'll probably not get away from the bike hire place until late morning after sorting all the paperwork out etc, so we can then just hit route 1 and get all that boring freeway done in one go, and get used to riding strange bikes in the process. If the weather's good and we get away earlier than anticipated, then we'll head up to Hope and take the Princeton road, if not we'll stay on the main roads and head right up to Merrit and then on to Kelowna.

The thing I'm trying to decide now is the route from Nakusp to Lake Louise - not sure whether to go north via Revelstoke and Golden with a night stopover at Invermere, or south via Creston and stopover for a night a Kimberly. Any suggestions on that one would be apprectiated.

For the run back to Vancouver the bikes have to be returned before mid-day so I'm taking Big Daddy's advice and passing through Lillooet - I have stayed there before and he's right, it is a bit "iffy". We've just had confirmation from what sounds like a very nice B&B near the centre that they can accommodate us, so I'll get that booked up. That will only leave us a short 90 mile run back to Vancouver to drop the bikes off on the last day without worrying if we'll make it in time.

Thanks for everyone's input so far, it is all appreciated and it's a lot better to be able take advice from people who have done it all before.

One final question. can anyone tell me what the cell phone coverage is like in the areas we'll be travelling. It's something to consider that we're not used to here in Europe - we haven't got your wilderness here so phone coverage is good pretty much everywhere, so if there are any breakdowns etc help is easy to summon.

Cheers guys
Derv

 

Check out the link below for rental info......

http://rockymtnmoto.com/rentals_and_...FVFM5Qoddh8Lng

• $225.00 per day - $1350.00 weekly rental - $1235.00 additional week$3000 security deposit required
  BMW R1200 RT
  BMW R1200 GS
  BMW K1200 S
  
  
• $200.00 per day - $1200.00 weekly rate - $1100.00 additional week$2500 security deposit required
  Triumph Tiger 1050 with ABS
  Triumph Sprint ST 1050 with ABS
  BMW F650 GS
  Suzuki GSX 650F

 

My suggestion would be to go north to Revelstoke, Golden. A very nice run thru the mountains. But, as both routes are awesome, your best suggestion is to check out the weather reports for the day of travel and modify your trip accordingly. Thats pretty much what the locals do. Either road, if your riding in the sun, your a winner!!

 

Yeah I'm tempted to do the northern run out of Nakusp, but I need to decide so's I can book the hotels in advance. I always like to book the hotels before we go on bike tours these days, simply because if we get bad weather I like to know there's a warm dry place to stay at the end of each day. I've had too many experiences of getting hotels "on spec" in the UK and Europe and spent hours sloshing around wet half dead backwater towns in the dark looking for somewhere to lay my head. Mid July should be pretty clear in those parts though weatherwise if the ambient weather trends for the area are to be believed.

Tony, That place looks like it's something to do with Trev Deeley, I tried to contact them several times with regard to hiring a couple of bikes but he never responded to nay of my e.mails. I ended up going to Cycle BC Rentals - they've been great so far. Did us a 10% discount for an early booking and upped the daily mileage allowance

Derv

 

hey derv,
in regards to your "cell phone" question,i'd say that you're in decent cell range approximately 70% of your travels.don't stress though...you're in very tourist friendly country and there will be a decent amount of traffic volume that you'll be ok.relax and enjoy the trip,but try to travel during the day and be parked before dusk as the wildlife tends to come out then.
leftcoast carl.

 

Thanks Carl - that's quite reassuring. At the back of my mind was when the wife and I drove up to Lillooet in 2008 by car, it was our first time in Vancouver and although to you guys Lillooet is a short hop, the distances of uncluttered roads compared to here in the UK was quite staggering. We drove out to Hope and followed the Fraser Canyon to Lillooet, after leaving Hope I think we saw the grand total of about 2 cars between there and Lillooet! Returning via the Sea to Sky it was pretty much the same until we neared Pemberton.

That short trip got me hooked on the roads over there. It was when we got to this place in the photos below - don't know the name of the lake - and there were 2 bikers there, that I vowed to come back to Canada with my son and hire a couple of bikes.

My daughter - she who lives in Vancouver - seems to think that one of her friends may have a satellite phone he'll lend us

Derv

 

"That short trip got me hooked on the roads over there. It was when we got to this place in the photos below - don't know the name of the lake - and there were 2 bikers there, that I vowed to come back to Canada with my son and hire a couple of bikes."

I think that is either Seton Lake, or Cayoosh... It's melted ice. Not the warmest, but certainly "refreshing"

That road is much, much improved over the last time it was reivewed here....

http://www.destinationhiway.com/dh/C...0Feature/3.htm

By the way, that might be a good book for you, especially since you are on Sport Touring bikes...

It's called Destination Highways, and there is a BC edition.