Rubber Onesies
Day 9: Telkwa, BC (near Smithers, slightly adjacent to Jeeves)
Distance traveled: 385.1 km
Cumulative distance: 3622 km
Maximum speed: 130 km/h
Moving average: 89 km/h
It was raining pretty hard when we got off the boat last night but this morning it appeared to have subsided, so as we were loading up the bike I was thinking that we would dodge a bullet. The clouds were low hanging over the city and in the surrounding hills and it had clearly rained most of the night but as we contemplated the day, I was optimistic. Breakfast was being served "dining room", which was the help-yourself-to-whatever's-there kind that is common now in roadside motels. There is usually an abundance of carbs and sugars but not generally other things, except for apples that were placed in a basket at the beginning of summer but nobody ever eats. The popular thing now is to have do-it-yourself Belgian waffle makers however, our place has do-it yourself pancakes. Amazingly, the only thing to do is press a button; there is no dumping of batter into some kind of hot iron and then all over the sides of the cooker then on the kitchen counter. Someone had obviously dumped batter into the machine's reservoir - maybe also at the beginning of summer - in which case the batter should be good an fermented by the time we get to it. The instructions are simple: "Place your plate under the conveyor, press button "A" and wait for delicious fluffy pancakes to drop onto your plate." The led screen displays an ongoing progress report: "preparing 1 of 2"... preparing 2 of 2". I am imagining pancakes the diameter of the conveyor - about six inches - to come dropping onto my plate an inch thick. What I get are two pancakes each about the size of a twoonie, thin as paper and cold. What's up with that? Are these not fresh made by the machine? They are browned on both sides so it is not like they are cold fusioned. Maybe "cold" isn't entirely fair but I am stunned that they can come straight from the machine and not be hot. Maybe they are pre-made and have just been hiding in there all summer, waiting for SOMEONE to come along and press button "A". Some sucker like me. I had an apple with them.
Since it is not a big riding day, we are content to take our time to get going. We could easily have been on the road early but why bother? Not when there are pancakes at hand. But he weather gods were only teasing and before we were finished cinching everything down, the rain cam down. In buckets. Someone was trying to close the top case and the latch jammed, and I had to monkey with it to get it to work all while having the sheets of rain pour on me. I rushed back into the hotel to grab my helmet for some protection just to work on the latch. There was no bullet-dodging after-all and we ended up putting on our rain suits before we headed out. We have one piece coverall-style rain suits, which are ventilated slickers that go over top of our riding gear. When we first bought them, I had taken them to a tailor to have an incision made and Velcro attached so that we could slip the wiring for our heated vests through the opening. You can expect that when it is raining, it is cold and the heated vests will come in handy. I also had the good fortune to have acquired some three-fingered gloves when I went with our friend Bob to worship at the House of Aerostitch . These are rain-proof gloves that are worn over top of riding gloves. They are designed so that the thumb fits where it belongs but each "finger" holds two gloved fingers. This allows the user to have a good grip on the handle bars and also the associated levers (clutch left, brake right). Today was the first time I had worn them in the two years since I had bought them (a testament to my good fortune for riding weather) and they totally earned their keep this morning.
The rain came fast and hard all the way to Terrace, where we finally filled up with gas after travelling 938 km. The highway from Prince Rupert snakes alongside the Skeena River for donkeys years and this being a long weekend, has a boatload of anglers and campers alongside the river. Not sure if they were catching anything but it appeared to be a very popular activity, especially considering how much rain was falling. I couldn't help but think to myself, "those poor saps our there sitting in the rain trying to catch fish they probably have to throw back anyways" until I thought about it from their perspective, looking at us our riding in the rain.
One positive benefit of the rain, notwithstanding the forest fires in the area, of which we have seen none, is that there is a confluence of waterfalls. Some rock faces have water gushing down the sides so that it is not obvious where the waterfalls night normally be versus where they all are this morning. It makes for spectacular scenery.
We have lunch in Terrace. I figure it's a good opportunity to consider our accommodations for the evening, since the prospects for camping don't look too good. I am scanning the selections for Smithers on TripAdvisor and identify a place that looks good but they are full. I had noticed the odd motel sign along the way that said "NO Vacancy", which didn't entirely surprise me since it is a long weekend. The only surprising part was that all these flea-bag roadside motels were full on such a miserable weekend. Luckily, they suggested a HairBnB place in Telkwa and because they are new and not too well known yet, have two of four rooms available. This is amazing because this is Telkwa's BIG weekend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toJ6ZvjvK-g This event apparently attracts 6,000 people. Not sure why. It's a "BBQ and Demolition Derby" In BC? Alberta I could see. Or Georgia.
On a lark, we do a side trip to "Historic Old Hazelton" because we have seen a sign on the road with an arrow. It's only 5 km but on the way, we take a one lane suspension bridge over a very dramatic gorge in the Skeena River. That alone was worth the price of admission. "Old Hazelton is in fact, pretty old as it was a centre for shipping in the late 1800s. Goods were transported from the coast up the Skeena River and then dispersed from Hazelton out to farms and mines in the area. There is an old sternwheeler on the side of the river that has been converted to a museum.
We arrive at the AirBnB in Telkwa and our hostess Christine is there watering the flowers. She gives us a little tour around the place and lets us choose our room because she is concerned that we won't get sleep because of the noise from the "event". We assure her we will be fine and take the room with a huge bathtub, because on the way here Nan said "wouldn't it be great if they had a huge bathtub?" We've scooped ourselves a nice bottle of BC red wine (and a split of Champagne for tomorrow night) so we have plans for that wine. The building is old, having been the former Creamery of Telkwa from early in the last century and then subsequently a fishing lodge but it is tastefully rebuilt and re-decorated. The owner's partner is also a coffee roaster and his roasting shed is just off the AirBnB building. Christine gives me a brief tour of the roasting house and it is intriguing to me, ever since I learned that it is possible to buy home coffee roasters. They are still figuring out the AirBnB thing a little bit but everything looks good. I am thinking the alternative was camping with the party go-ers. Which wouldn't have been so bad but it is pretty cold. We saw fresh snow on the mountains just outside of Smithers.
The AirBnB building has four suites and there are two other couples here, all friendly people. Nan and I had picked up some groceries in Smithers because we couldn't bear another another bar meal and we ate in the common room with the bottom half of our bottle of wine. It's a pleasant evening.
Distance traveled: 385.1 km
Cumulative distance: 3622 km
Maximum speed: 130 km/h
Moving average: 89 km/h
It was raining pretty hard when we got off the boat last night but this morning it appeared to have subsided, so as we were loading up the bike I was thinking that we would dodge a bullet. The clouds were low hanging over the city and in the surrounding hills and it had clearly rained most of the night but as we contemplated the day, I was optimistic. Breakfast was being served "dining room", which was the help-yourself-to-whatever's-there kind that is common now in roadside motels. There is usually an abundance of carbs and sugars but not generally other things, except for apples that were placed in a basket at the beginning of summer but nobody ever eats. The popular thing now is to have do-it-yourself Belgian waffle makers however, our place has do-it yourself pancakes. Amazingly, the only thing to do is press a button; there is no dumping of batter into some kind of hot iron and then all over the sides of the cooker then on the kitchen counter. Someone had obviously dumped batter into the machine's reservoir - maybe also at the beginning of summer - in which case the batter should be good an fermented by the time we get to it. The instructions are simple: "Place your plate under the conveyor, press button "A" and wait for delicious fluffy pancakes to drop onto your plate." The led screen displays an ongoing progress report: "preparing 1 of 2"... preparing 2 of 2". I am imagining pancakes the diameter of the conveyor - about six inches - to come dropping onto my plate an inch thick. What I get are two pancakes each about the size of a twoonie, thin as paper and cold. What's up with that? Are these not fresh made by the machine? They are browned on both sides so it is not like they are cold fusioned. Maybe "cold" isn't entirely fair but I am stunned that they can come straight from the machine and not be hot. Maybe they are pre-made and have just been hiding in there all summer, waiting for SOMEONE to come along and press button "A". Some sucker like me. I had an apple with them.
Since it is not a big riding day, we are content to take our time to get going. We could easily have been on the road early but why bother? Not when there are pancakes at hand. But he weather gods were only teasing and before we were finished cinching everything down, the rain cam down. In buckets. Someone was trying to close the top case and the latch jammed, and I had to monkey with it to get it to work all while having the sheets of rain pour on me. I rushed back into the hotel to grab my helmet for some protection just to work on the latch. There was no bullet-dodging after-all and we ended up putting on our rain suits before we headed out. We have one piece coverall-style rain suits, which are ventilated slickers that go over top of our riding gear. When we first bought them, I had taken them to a tailor to have an incision made and Velcro attached so that we could slip the wiring for our heated vests through the opening. You can expect that when it is raining, it is cold and the heated vests will come in handy. I also had the good fortune to have acquired some three-fingered gloves when I went with our friend Bob to worship at the House of Aerostitch . These are rain-proof gloves that are worn over top of riding gloves. They are designed so that the thumb fits where it belongs but each "finger" holds two gloved fingers. This allows the user to have a good grip on the handle bars and also the associated levers (clutch left, brake right). Today was the first time I had worn them in the two years since I had bought them (a testament to my good fortune for riding weather) and they totally earned their keep this morning.
The rain came fast and hard all the way to Terrace, where we finally filled up with gas after travelling 938 km. The highway from Prince Rupert snakes alongside the Skeena River for donkeys years and this being a long weekend, has a boatload of anglers and campers alongside the river. Not sure if they were catching anything but it appeared to be a very popular activity, especially considering how much rain was falling. I couldn't help but think to myself, "those poor saps our there sitting in the rain trying to catch fish they probably have to throw back anyways" until I thought about it from their perspective, looking at us our riding in the rain.
We have lunch in Terrace. I figure it's a good opportunity to consider our accommodations for the evening, since the prospects for camping don't look too good. I am scanning the selections for Smithers on TripAdvisor and identify a place that looks good but they are full. I had noticed the odd motel sign along the way that said "NO Vacancy", which didn't entirely surprise me since it is a long weekend. The only surprising part was that all these flea-bag roadside motels were full on such a miserable weekend. Luckily, they suggested a HairBnB place in Telkwa and because they are new and not too well known yet, have two of four rooms available. This is amazing because this is Telkwa's BIG weekend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toJ6ZvjvK-g This event apparently attracts 6,000 people. Not sure why. It's a "BBQ and Demolition Derby" In BC? Alberta I could see. Or Georgia.
On a lark, we do a side trip to "Historic Old Hazelton" because we have seen a sign on the road with an arrow. It's only 5 km but on the way, we take a one lane suspension bridge over a very dramatic gorge in the Skeena River. That alone was worth the price of admission. "Old Hazelton is in fact, pretty old as it was a centre for shipping in the late 1800s. Goods were transported from the coast up the Skeena River and then dispersed from Hazelton out to farms and mines in the area. There is an old sternwheeler on the side of the river that has been converted to a museum.
We arrive at the AirBnB in Telkwa and our hostess Christine is there watering the flowers. She gives us a little tour around the place and lets us choose our room because she is concerned that we won't get sleep because of the noise from the "event". We assure her we will be fine and take the room with a huge bathtub, because on the way here Nan said "wouldn't it be great if they had a huge bathtub?" We've scooped ourselves a nice bottle of BC red wine (and a split of Champagne for tomorrow night) so we have plans for that wine. The building is old, having been the former Creamery of Telkwa from early in the last century and then subsequently a fishing lodge but it is tastefully rebuilt and re-decorated. The owner's partner is also a coffee roaster and his roasting shed is just off the AirBnB building. Christine gives me a brief tour of the roasting house and it is intriguing to me, ever since I learned that it is possible to buy home coffee roasters. They are still figuring out the AirBnB thing a little bit but everything looks good. I am thinking the alternative was camping with the party go-ers. Which wouldn't have been so bad but it is pretty cold. We saw fresh snow on the mountains just outside of Smithers.
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| Local, hand-made quilts. |
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| The Telkwa River, which runs by the AirBnB. |
The AirBnB building has four suites and there are two other couples here, all friendly people. Nan and I had picked up some groceries in Smithers because we couldn't bear another another bar meal and we ate in the common room with the bottom half of our bottle of wine. It's a pleasant evening.
Telkwa is where my father was born and where I basically learned how to fish . I have over the years caught my share of Coho where the Telkwa river enters the Bulkley . Caught my first Steelhead just below the picnic table is sitting at. My grandfather's general store was right across the river from the rail bridge - just behind where Nan is sitting.. Great to see the photo's. Safe travels.
ReplyDeleteThat's very cool, Dave. It was a total fluke that we ended up here. We had actually called another place in Smithers that suggested where we stayed and it was a short walk away from your picnic bench.
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