July 19, 2013 – How bad can a week be where this was part of your job? Not too bad I’d say. On Monday evening I took the ferry over to Vancouver Island and then rode my motorcycle up Island to be able to get to the Puntledge River Hatchery for a morning trip out on Comox Lake to do some water sampling.
Note to self: Either take and earlier ferry or stay the night in Parksville instead of Courtenay. I don’t mind riding in the dark, it’s not like I haven’t done my share of night riding, or night rain riding, or whatever.
But the BUGS! WOW!
That, and the fact that I am hyper-aware that there are thousands of really stupid deer on the Island and they love to leap out in front of whatever vehicle happens to be passing. And they are REALLY hard to see at night. I am not fond of that part either.
But back to the bugs.
It was a beautiful night and I was riding North so I was heading into the sunset. And it was spectacular. It was like the entire horizon was ablaze, and at the high points I could see up the Straight of Georgia and the water was equally spectacular, reflecting that flaming orange colour. Looking in the mirrors presented nothing more than complete blackness behind me.
If anyone ever asks you why bats come out at night, just take them on a highway trip in the summer on a clear evening. I was absolutely peppered with bugs on a scale I haven’t experienced before. My headlights cut a path through the darkness at the road level and the big ones lit up and came at me like small guided missiles.
By the time I got to my hotel my visor looked as if someone had used a coarse pepper grinder over it’s entire surface. And the bike! When I went up to the front desk a young man asked me ow my ride was. When I replied that it was a bit buggy, he looked at me and said “Really?”
Not a terribly observant young man, he obviously failed to note the extensive array of bug parts littered across the white leather shoulders of my jacket. When I got to my room the helmet visor went straight into a sink of water, and I couldn’t help but go down to the underground parking with a jug of hot water, a facecloth, and a towel. The state of the bike was embarrassing it was so bad. I just had to clean it up a bit and preferably before the next days ride which I knew was going to be hot and would solidly bake those bug bits onto the plastic.
Tuesday was phenomenal and three of us went up to the lake with the boat and spent a couple of hours running up the length of the lake, taking our samples, and doing some water quality measurements across a 50m depth profile.
I actually get paid to do this. Life is pretty awesome! Don’t know how long it will last, but I’ll take it as long as I can.
The lake isn’t this pleasant in October, although last year I think we only had one miserable day. We had calm water for most of the time out, it blew up a bit for a half hour or so, and then calmed back down again. So we were able to do all of our processing out on the boat and enjoy the day on the water rather than have to take everything back to shore to finish up.
After that it was a great ride back down Island and a failed attempt to find a friend I’d not seen in some time. Next time.
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