Day Five - Cache Creek, BC to Mackenzie, BC

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

We crashed for the night, not literally, in Cache Creek, BC Monday night in the midst of another rain storm. Locals tell us that Cache Creek is now the hot desert movie local for all of the new desert storm and Iraq war movies, who knew?

We departed Cache Creek in a light rain at about 0930 headed for Prince George along the Caribou Highway. In the first five minutes John realized that his cruise control was not working, serious bummer. The rain let up shortly and we rode under partly cloudy skies for the first half of the day. Temperatures remained about at 60 degrees. The motorcycle gremlins departed John’s bike after about 100 miles and his cruise control was restored. They must have gotten where they were going.

Later in the afternoon, the thunderstorms kicked up and we found ourselves riding in the rain again. Some of us gave up our rain suits and donned our Tourmaster and Harley-Davidson warm insulated and waterproof textile riding jackets and pants. No sooner had we done that when we pulled into Quesnel, BC, and the temperature rose dramatically to nearly 80 degrees. The sweat factor increased dramatically. Leaving town we encountered another thunderstorm and the temperature dropped just as dramatically. We found there is no perfect attire for every occasion. Too warm or too cold is the standard, or you are constantly changing clothes.

After riding for nearly two days in the rain, John began to look for a hack saw to cut the top three inches off his standard height windshield. Between the rain droplets on the windshield and his full-face helmet face mask, seeing the road was almost impossible in a downpour. Enter the hero, Hal Hall, owner, Prince George Harley Davidson. When we found that the dealer did not have a lower windshield in stock, Hal offered to cut John’s windshield down himself, even though the store was closing and everyone was packing up for the night. Thanks Hal, you’re the best. And, aside from a 12 pack of Coronas, Hal refused to accept payment for the job.

Departing Prince George we elected to put in another hundred miles in the late afternoon and settled on an old logging town, Mackenzie, BC for the evening. The drive was one of the most scenic we had seen. We followed the Crooked River, nearly a mile wide in places, for nearly 75 miles with nary a boat or fisherman to be seen. Mackenzie is a depressed logging town having lost 2,500 jobs in the past two years. The logging industry is really suffering in Canada. To add insult to injury, Pine Beatles are decimating millions upon millions of Pine trees throughout Canada. Interestingly, we saw our first wild critter this afternoon on the road to Mackenzie, a Black Bear along side the road.

We rode 396 miles today.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Dawson Creek, BC, the starting point for the fabled 1,500 Alaskan Highway.

Note: Here’s a couple of the Horck cross-country motorcycle riding truisms:

Whatever you are looking for on your motorcycle will be always be found in the bottom of a bag, below a bag on top of it, under a rain cover.

Whatever you find in a pocket of a riding jacket, pants, or saddle bag will never be found in the same place twice, because you never put it back in the same place.

Anything left on the seat of a motorcycle with the engine running will be always found on the ground under the motorcycle