Up Over: 8/8/16 Weather Report

"If you don't like the weather, stick around for ten minutes!"

Travelers without shelter, we have become educated weathermen. Carefully watching the sky, we can often predict what is to come, so we can change course if possible, hole up for a bit or ride into the rain. Studying the Doppler before we get on the road also helps - sometimes. With the hundreds of miles we travel every day, it is quite possible to ride into or out of a weather situation. Today we thought the latter would be the case.

Leaving One Hundred Mile House, we were prepared for a rainy start, but remained confident that we could outrun that tiny blip on the radar screen. Positive attitudes and good tunes kept us dancing down route 97. After all, we were heading toward one of the best motorcycle roads in BC and the sun even broke through some clouds as we turned onto Route 99, the Sea to the Sky Highway.

Rain began in earnest, hunching us down in our seats. Keeping my camera carefully tucked in my rain jacket sleeve, I figured there'd be no photo ops for the day. Then we started to rise up along one of the most stunning canyons imaginable. With the road clinging to the edge, as I clung to Jules, the view down into the Fraser Canyon was spectacular, even in the rain. So I pulled out my camera. Forget the raindrops - I had to record this.

For miles we ran the edge of canyon, then dipped down to the river. At Lillooet we sat in construction while water dripped from our visors. Odd how the rain had seemed secondary when soaring over the Fraser and now it was everything. But again, as we finally rattled over the gravel and jumped back on the road, the scenery not blocked by clouds overwhelmed us. The Northern Cascades grew in our sights, poking snow faced slopes through the weather. Inclemency be damned - we were having a great ride!

By the time we reached Whistler, we were running ahead of the rain. This trendy ski resort, host to the 2010 Olympics and just purchased by Vail for 1.4 billion dollars, was overrun with tourists and trustafarians. Scrufty tattooed kids driving Mercedes SUVs mingled freely with the older summer visitors, shopping for mementos of their vacation. We do not mingle well and after several close encounters in the parking lot, we headed out. As we stopped for lunch at the edge of town, the weather caught up with us, so we quickly departed, trying again to outrun it.

And we finally did. Having descended from the sky, we reached the sea section of the highway. The Strait of Georgia lay before us in all its splendor, decorated by distant mountains. Visibility improved and Jules and Rascal were unleashed. Accelerating toward Vancouver, we veered off at Horshoe Bay, where we made the 5:00 ferry to Vacouver Island with only seconds to spare.

A calm crossing was a welcome respite from our travels of the day. We rehashed the ride and wondered if we should make this trip again some other day. As thrilling as our run was today, we can only imagine what it would be like in fair weather. Nanaimo is our home for the night. Tomorrow we hop a ferry to Salt Spring Island to meet up with some old and very dear friends.

The "stick around" mantra for weather in BC didn't quite ring true today. Ten minutes waxed into hours but the changes that did occur were in the landscape, bringing brightness to our day. Wet or dry, the ride from the sky to the sea is breathtaking and we inhaled it all and reveled in the rain. In clouds or sun, riding cold or warm, we always end the day together and become restored, recapping our exploits on the road.