(225/336) A “not-so-quick” refreshment

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August 12, 2012 – A lazy morning, an afternoon watching the Olympic closing ceremonies, and we decided we’d have a quick run up to Squamish to warm the bikes up, have a refreshing drink, and then back home to wash off the weekends bugs and road grime and give the chains a good lube.

Didn’t quite work out that way.

We headed up at around 4:20pm. The traffic wasn’t too heavy, most everyone would be coming the opposite direction on a Sunday evening. As we rode through Lion’s Bay a police truck, flicked its lights on for a moment, pulled out of a side road and headed in our direction. Another rider came past us and Kirk warned him about the police around the corner ahead of us, he slowed down and slid in front of us and behind the police. Motorcycles tend to get targeted on the Sea to Sky, no need to dance out of step with them when you can see them.

A few thoughts about police from yesterday’s ride passed my mind as we rode along at a sedate speed behind the RCMP vehicle.

First entertaining encounter: When we had come through Mission I had thought I should probably change from my mirrored & tinted one into a clear one as the sun had gone down. I thought to myself “best not encounter a police car before I get that done” as it is illegal to ride after dark with one. As I though that, I looked to my left to note a police vehicle immediately off my shoulder. “Umm, please don’t look at me, please don’t look at me” and a quick right into a gas station to swap it out.

Second entertaining encounter: When we stopped to take my 20,000km shot, we did so off a street immediately before a blazing wall of police cars in full lights. Four of them were at the side of the road and something was going on. I took my photo, then headed back onto Lougheed and past them. As we went by I looked to the right to see what was going on and saw a car on a flatbed truck. Someone did something bad. I nonchalantly shifted up, intending on second gear, missed and went into neutral, let out the clutch and pulled the throttle. Of course I went no faster and made a lot of noise in the process, right in front of four police cars. Not surprisingly, one peeled out and tailed us for a while. If I’d been pulled over it would have been a simple, “No officer, I’m just a tired idiot, not a stupid show off.” Eventually he tired of our lack of doing anything that could justify pulling us over and turned back. Presumably he ran our plates and saw no previous infractions, and both holding full “Class 6” licences.

And today’s thought as we rode along: “Why are drivers so oblivious to what’s in front of them?” I love watching people come out of the single lane, hit the passing lane, and gun it to pass everyone. Two cars, one hot on the bumper of the other, came flying up and just when they were about to pass, the first car noticed the large and very obvious “Police” on the tailgate, and braked hard. The second car, still oblivious, rode the bumper of the front car until eventually he too seemed to notice that maybe he should slow down rather than blaze past the RCMP. Bummer, spoiled our entertainment!

It usually takes us about 30-40 minutes to put the stands down. Coming into Britannia at the top of the ‘carousel’ (long corkscrew down into the community) I could smell something nasty. Not really burning brakes, not really electrical, somewhere in between. Immediately wonder if it was my bike (Kirk was doing the same ahead of me). The puzzle was solved as we came around the final corner and saw the Police truck we had been behind stopped, light on, on our side of the road, and two fire trucks and another police car on the other side of the divided highway. The smell was the wreckage of a burned out minivan or SUV – impossible to tell what it had once been. But it must have been one heck of a fire to look the way it did.

As soon as we saw that, both of us started to swear inside our helmets. Particularly as we passed 5.5km of stopped traffic, some of it two lanes deep. There are two paved ways to Vancouver from Squamish. One is the Sea to Sky highway. The other is a 600km loop up through Pemberton, Lillooet, Lytton, Hope, Chilliwack, and back.

So we had out refreshment at Starbucks. Savoured it as long as we could. Chatted with a few riders coming up from that direction, and an hour later were disheartened to hear the backup was still the same. So we opted to head for the Howe SOund Brewing Company for a bite to eat. Sadly, although I love their beer, I have yet to be impressed with anything I’ve ordered off the menu. And tonight’s pizza was no different.

We finally headed home two hours later and made it through a clear highway, with just enough time to manage to get the bikes cleaned, but ran out of light to get them lubed. Halfway is better than none at all. Half the drivers on the road seemed oblivious to the presence of a line between lanes, and at one point I had part of an SUV in the lane with me. The other half of the drivers were completely inconsistent, including the one in front of me heading back up the carousel, who, on rounding the corner into the sun, abruptly slammed on his brakes and did a stellar 50 km/hr up the 80 km/hr hill. Sigh.

And so, after nine days off, and about 2500 km on my bike, my vacation is over and it’s back to work tomorrow.

That was a great vacation! Unfortunately I didn’t have more energy in me today for a better photo. Oh well, some days it just goes that way.