Kamloops

[swaino]

I am putting together a trip across the USA and South Western Canada. I like the look of the roads between Calgery and Kamloops including the Kootenay lakes district. Any tips out there for places to pass thru and have a look at.

Thanks in advance.

[Walkabout]

There is, or was, a sign along the way "You are now entering Rogers Pass" - when I was going that way, the "P" had been crossed out with paint.

Apart from that, you can go just about anywhere and see mountains, one after another: reputedly, some are still without names.
+ The road between Jasper and Banff - the Icefield Parkway I think it is called.

Those are my memories of the area from 10 years ago.

ps There are Tourist Information Centres on the outskirts of every town of any size: loads of free info and you can book accommodation from them, using free telephones, or get the staff to do it for you (10 years ago anyway).

[BedfordMJ]

Icefield parkway is really nice and the glacier is just awesome with 4 wheel drive bus rides on it. Whistler is nice. If you go to Vancouver go here -
Grouse Mountain - Home
Book in advance and have a meal it really is the best food and the best view ever!
Oh and in BC loads of free places to park in the municipal parks - beware of bears and take notice of signs and know how to behave and leave no food out at all. Beware avalanche notices and don't stay anywhere where there is a chance of one.

[Dodger]

I've not read it myself but this might be handy :
Destination Highways - Roads you journey to, to travel on...

Or just check out where the touring companies plan their trips and use their routes .

[Riq]

What time of year are you making your plans for.

Depending on the time of year there are different things happening and different places that you might want to visit.

Rick

[swaino]

Will be passing thru the area in August. We are going to take 1 month to ride from Chicago to San Fransisco. Is there any snow about that time of year?

[raythebutcher]

hey swaino,

i live 2 hours from kamloops ( in kelowna) and i ride that area all the time. there is so mch good stuff to ride around there that it will be hard to fit it all in.. the kooteney and arrow lakes district is probably about some of the twistiest,best paved and scenic riding in b.c.

there will be no snow anywhere and the riding will be gorgeous. the kootenay lake area has non-stop detours with lakes and hot-springs everywhere.

some areas to hit on your way across will be, banff, radium, creston,nelson, nakusp, vernon, kelowna then kamloops. i cant say enough about the riding in my area, both on and off-road and if u are a dual-sport there is some great places and short cuts.

a book u may want to pick up is "Destination highways B.C." which is available at Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more . it is a motorcyclists guide to roads and accomadation in B.C.

feel free to contact me at ray_748@hotmail.com if u have any more questions and maybe if i am not out on a trip i might be able to put u up for a few nights and show u some roads and winery's. its a great area to ride with good roads, great people and good accomadation and tons to see and do. good luck.

[Dr650 dreadnought]

Hello Swaino, good replies so far. If your into turns, low traffic and scenery and towns that time forgot don't miss the Kootenay area. I live in Kamloops and though it has some good areas I always enjoy getting down around Nelson /Revelstoke. If you notice Canada has only one interprovincial highway across the nation. Highway #1 Transcanada. If you can; stay off this road. Every transport and RV will frustrate your ride to the nth degree in the summer. Not to dissuade from Kamloops but the Nakusp/ Needles / Vernon / Kelowna/ Princeton to Vancouver would the less travelled route. Although for a large Bmw it would be fun to do the toll $5 freeway from Kamloops to Vancouver. Pm me for any other questions.

[swaino]

Thanks for the tips so far, the places mentioned are tying in with research done so far.
The route looks like; enter Canada after the glacier national park in Montana
Pincher, Sparwood, Creston, Balfour, Nakusp, Revelsoke
Kelowna, Kamloops, Lillooet, Whistler then to Vancouver

The guided tour web sites for the area adverise these places and they look fantastic.

Then it's a coastal run to San Fransisco. There will be four of us on Harleys. Although i ride a BMW 1150 Adv here in Aus my 3 companions are Harley riders and not into the dual sport style, not that it matters.

Thanks for the offers and i would love to catch up for a ride when passing thru.

[raythebutcher]

your plan looks great swaino. thats m favourite area to ride in and from kamloops to whistler is amazing riding. i do suggest doing the "circle route" on your way to vancouver.

on your way down highway 99 from whistler you will go through horseshoe bay. from here it is an excellent 1-2 day trip to catch the ferry up the coast to gibson's then another ferry to sechelt eventually arriving at powell river. from powell river you take the ferry across to vancouver island then down the inside coast from comox to nanaimo then ferry back over to horseshoe bay. its a excellent trip with all the riding being on the seaside. almost a cant miss and its fairly cheap considering the ferry rides which are great to and u will see alot of the small islands and lots of wildlife. another good way to get to washington is to ferry from vancouver to victoria on the island and then catch the U.S. ferry to port angeles WA. this skips all the bull shit around vancouver and seattle and gets u right on the coast line in WA. good luck.

[Walkabout]

All this chatter brings back more memories!

You don't say what time of year you want to be in that area: I was in Hope, which is a small(ish) town on the Fraser River to the East of Vancouver, on 1st July - the significance is that this is "Canada Day", so you get to see how the Canuks celebrate that. You can then be over the border and in the States on the 4th July for their fireworks.

All of the main roads are good surfaces, from memory there are quite a few dirt surfaces once you are off the main routes and you probably still need to look out for the roadside speed police (all of this was 10 years ago, and things do change!).

ps. Oh no, "that" film is on UK TV tonight: which one? Rambo; First Blood. So what? - well, that's Hope's claim to fame; the street scenes were shot there. (Other than that, Hope has a museum of chainsaws I recall).

[Dr650 dreadnought]

As Raythebutcher pointed out, West of Kamloops has some super riding. Kamloops even has a good H#rley dealership. I forgot all the good stuff West of us. Kamloops, Cache Crk, down a curvy road to Lillioet, then onto the famous Duffy Lk. Rd to Whistler. Great stuff. Maybe I'm a cheerleader for my province but it is hilly and there are not to many straight roads.

[raythebutcher]

dreadnought, what u are trying to say is that we live in the disneyland of on and off-road riding. to bad they are on harleys or they could take the logging road from harrison lake to pemberton and go to the hot-springs and see the indian reserves that are 50 miles from no-where, then do a loop back through hope-lytton-lillooet then the duffy. rode the duffy 8 times last year( i was living in whistler) and cant wait to get on it again. i hope these guys know what kind of treat they are in for. i guess we are cheer leaders.hahaha.

[STG06]

Thought I'd offer a couple of thoughts to build on the 2 Rays excellent info....make sure you get over Logan Pass in Glacier although it will be very busy in August. Cross over the border through Chief Mountain - great views - then either head north on Hwy 22 then 40 through Kananaskis and on to Banff and the Icefields Parkway....OR....north of Waterton head to Hwy 3 and turn west through the Crowsnest. This route will take you to Creston, which for about 85 km north to the Crawford Bay ferry has the best ridin road in the west (follows Kootenay Lake)...crossing over the free ferry, head north to Kaslo - great motorcycle campground just north of Balfour - Toad Rock - was the site of the Western Canada HU mtg for the past couple of years - west and south of Kaslo will take you back onto Hwy 3 and across southern BC - or you can keep west through Nakusp, and into the Okanagan. At Vernon you can sample the wine country then head north to Kamloops Cache Creek, Lillooet Pemberton and then into Whister and Vancouver. From Vernon you can also head south through the OK valley and back onto #3 across the Hope Princeton route - also very nice.....lots of people really enjoy US #20 across the Northern Cascades although it can be wet. South into Washington, take in Whitby Island and then ferry across to Port Townsend....very nice....then out to the coast for some oysters...good luck in choosing from so many options....