Cross Canada '06

[Zappa]

OK, I know I did write a message somewhere but I can't find it (Guess it's in the Trip Planning area...) soo I start a new one and this one is more accurate.

Things have changed alot since my first plan, now I'll just make the crossing one way not back. So this is my plan so far.

4/6: Landing in Toronto.
5/6: Leaving Toronto heading for Irishtown, New Brunnswick.
9-11/6: Arriving Irishtown and attened the Ride For Sight (http://www.rideforsight.org).
11/6: Leaving Irishtown and heading to Halifax-ish.
23-25/6: Arriving in Trenton, Ontario for the Ride For Sight event (This time dual-sport event).
25/6: Leaving Trenton and rumbling around Canada.
14/7: Calgary to pick-up girlfriend.
15/7: Ride around rockies and westcoast.
30/7: Drop off bike at Vancouver Airport.
1/8: Leave Canada and head home.

I do have a more detail trip plan and it consist of trying to stay away from majorroads as much as possible...

I'm gonna try and keep this thread updated as I go along and I do have an own website at www.biketourist.com.

Hope to see some of all the people crossing Canada this summer to sit down and share experiance and maybe just a short way.

I did get some ideas from other travlers what to see, but if someone has a not to miss thing I would be glad.

Cheers,
Zappa

[LittleJoe]

Don't miss Drumheller, It's just east of Calgary and is apparently very important in the dinosaur world. North West of Drumheller is the head-smashed-in-buffalo-jump (yes its really called this) a big cliff where Native...Canadians.Americans? anyway its all North America used to drive buffalos over the edge to their death. Also try to check out Vancouver Island if you have time

[Zappa]

OK, I'll see if it fits my route when I get there (and if time let's me do it...).

Anyone know any nice twisty roads on the Westcoast, I've found a website which has nice roads for Vancouver Island and looking for some nice roads on the mainland as well. Any ideas???

Cheers,
Mathias

[kdmts]

Try the Sea-to-Sky highway -- take Hwy 1 all the way west towards the Horseshoe Bay Ferry terminal, but don't go into the ferry lineup; stay to the right and it peels off to the north towards Squamish, Whistler, and Lilloet. It's another way to go north and then back east without having to go through Vancouver. Lovely road, although because of the 2010 Winter Olympics portions of it have a tendency to be under construction at any given time. It follows the edge of Howe Sound all the way up to Squamish, beautiful ride.

On the map it's labelled Hwy 99 -- but there's been enough fatalities that the locals call it the highway of death, be careful and ride safe.

What roads did you find on Vancouver Island?

Karen

[tor1150r]

Karen,
Hwy 99 is on my BC route while crossing Canada. You said the locals call this the Highway of death. Is this due to the road/surface conditions or is it a twisty road that some riders take with less or little caution?

[loxsmith]

This is one of the roads on my list to do, so I will be following this thread with interest
Glen

[Zappa]

This is a site with a description, I have another link at home with some maps on it. Sounds like a great road on the other site...

http://www.motorsmart.com/rides.htm

/Zappa

[loxsmith]

Duffy Lake Road seems to be a favourite for locals too, looks to be at the northern end of Hwy99

[kdmts]

Originally Posted by tor1150r

Karen,
Hwy 99 is on my BC route while crossing Canada. You said the locals call this the Highway of death. Is this due to the road/surface conditions or is it a twisty road that some riders take with less or little caution?

Actually, it's the not the motorcyclists who generally cause the problems; they (unfortunately) generally get caught up in the pileups. With the average cost of housing in Vancouver in the $400k range, there's a lot more people who are commuting from out of town and Squamish, among other outlying cities, has become a fairly popular place to live.

So, I'm sure you can fill in the blanks here...early commute, long day, rush hour on the way home, with the setting sun in the drivers eyes....the main problem with a good part of the road is the fact that there really doesn't seem to be much in the way of a safety margin. There's a cliff on the northbound side of the road, and a sheer dropoff to the ocean on the southbound side. Unfortunately it's been the end of the line for a lot of people.

It's also just one highway, and maybe it's just getting a lot of bad press because the way it's carved out of the side of a mountain, if someone loses control it's inevitable that someone else is going to be taken out. Hwy 1 is huge on accidents as well, and it doesn't have a nickname like 'hwy of death'.

That's the grim view. Don't let it scare you off -- it's a dream to ride as long as you're careful and stay away from the commuting hours ... and speedy little honda civics that figure they're indestructible. I'll happily ride that road on my Ducati.

That's also just my opinion, and I haven't been up there recently, so I can't really comment on the current road conditions...any other Vancouverites have any opinions/experiences with hwy 99?

To Glen: I've heard Duffy Lake Road is great as well, but I haven't ridden it...give us a review if you get up there!

Karen

[loxsmith]

Karen we are starting to see some progress here, fresh rubber, bikes serviced, spent the morning giving the bikes the final clean. We crate them Tuesday and I believe the ship sails Friday or Saturday.
Watch out Duffy Lake Rd here we come!

Glen

[XRM]

The Duffy Lake road was built for bikes, but can be a bit uneven. Dragged the belly of the fairing round a few corners due to the suspension bottoming out ....

[Zappa]

OK, now it's only 2 weeks left and guess what... Yes I did get the tickets for my flight but not all of them. Somewhere along the line she booking agent missed my little trip from Stockholm to Frankfurt and therefor didn't issue any tickets... *Grrr* We'll the hunt is on to make her get them to me at agreed price.

Of course it's saturday when I saw it soo I have to wait until Monday until I know what her reaction's gonna be.

Or else the bike is put together and just need a proper wash which will be done next week and then it's ready for it's haul down to Frankfurt on Wednesday.

All things I can remeber I can need is bought, now the fun starts to pack everything into the boxes and I'm sure I'll have to leave something behind or it'll not fit but that's another story and the same I have to make everytime I make longer trips on the bike.

I've very generous to my girlfriend, she's gonna have the big topbox for herself when she get's over, which leaves for the rest of the boxes and bags...

The trip plan is ready but I'm sure I have to review at least 100000 times during my trip, don't have that tight scheduele and wanna be sure I can take a sidetrip without loosing to much time.

Soo look soon you have a nutty swede on the roads of Canada.

Cheers,
Zappa

[Zappa]

Some updates...

Got all my tickets ready, got the bike checked in and probably allready in Canada as I speak, so what's left...

Just one week at work and a christian and then I'm off on Sunday...

Can't wait to get on the roads, only sad part is to be away from girlfriend for almost 2 months, but on the other side I guess we are gonna have at great time riding around on western Canada when she arrives.

Cheers,
Zappa

[Zappa]

OK, I've landed in Canada and are now in Halifax,NS. Soo far the ride has been smooth and wet. Took the short and maybe not so funny roads from Toronto to Nova Scotia where I read that the expected DualSport ride in Cape Breton was canceled. Now I had two choices either to make my own Cape Breton ride or to get back to Moncton for the offical ride for sight event. I took the Cape Breton route instead since I was to be at the DualSport event for RFS next weekend.

If you stay off the expressway the roads are just made for the Transalp or similar bikes, they are abit rough but curvey.

But I'm off for some updating of my own site soo I hope I do meet some one the road.

/Zappa

[Zappa]

Longtime sinces an update but as of now I'm sitting in a campsite in the rockies and gonna do the Glaciers tomorrow.

Just talked to my G/F and she just wanna be here. Gonna be in Calgary around thursday (13/6) if there's anyone there who's wanna meet up with me.

You can reach me on my cell. 902- 971 0797.

Cheers,
Zappa