Happy 100th Navy

This year is Canada's Navy's 100th Birthday and recently ( June 14th) they had a 8 country celebration in Victoria.

We hadn't been out to Fort Rodd Hill Park, the best vantage point for the celebration, so we went and had a wonderful day getting sunburnt. So did a lot of other people.

The Governor General Michaele Jean was on hand to welcome the 8 country vessels, including the USS Ronald Reagan, an impressive nuclear aircraft carrier with 4600 people on board. Japan, New Zealand, basically the Pacific fleet plus France and Germany were on hand. GB wasn't??

The Skyhawk parachutists did airborne acrobatics, and the venerable snowbirds did their usual bag of tricks as well.





SNOWBIRDS

Now they just all need to know how to deal with moving traffic!

Saturday Ride to the Pacific

Weather has turned much better in the last few days. we head out to a water fall west of Port Alberni for a daytrip and picnic via V strom. Once we got there the weather was so good and only another 46 kms to Ucluelet so we rode on.

On the way back we stopped at the Mars Bomber (water) fire station where the last two water bombers are kept. While there they loaded up the one for a test flight and had the helicopter go up for observations. Here are some pics.

There were 7 bombers built during WWII and an 8th nose.

All but 2 are extinct. They are invaluable to California during the late summer early fall and are credited with lots of house saves there.

2009 Palm Springs

Well we're finally back home from our over 3 week trip down south. First Snowbird trip if you will.


The Ladysmith January weather (as in most places) was the pits so we decided to go for 10-14 days down to Palm Springs to visit some friends and see if we wanted to do this kind of thing.

The trip down was uneventful crossing the border quick after leaving mid-day from the island and getting into Vancouver at 3:00 pm. It takes 3 days to do it with truck and camper. We stayed in Bayview St Park the 1st nite, then drove down thru all of Washington and most of Oregon on the Friday, stopping at Valley of the Rogue St Park there. Nice camping, warm temp's, cheap rates. Stopped in Medford the next morning and found by chance the Motorcycle Superstore, a great online web store for M/C gear. Spent a couple of hours there and sized ourselves up for new color matched helmets and warmer weather armoured riding gear for our trip to Europe. We then left and headed south staying overnight just outside Stockton CA.



The next day we drove all the way thru to Palm Springs (with a quick stop in Merced at our favorite Mexican food store) arriving at dusk. After BBQing chops we enjoyed the warm evening weather. The next day we woke up to this













image outside our berth window.









Later I would work on my laptop and overlook the lake like this.



We booked into there for a week and stayed an extra day as well at that point. The whole RV park was filled with Canadians who were so friendly and wanted to tell us about their best campsites to stay at. Borrego Springs boondocking, the State Park there, Sonny Bono Wildlife refuge, the Avery sculptures, and the Fountain of Youth Spa.




We met up with Doug and Louise and spent some excellent time with them, a day of biking and another where we went to the Farmer's market and the aerial tramway. The tramride was great in itself, and to be taken back into winter at the top of the mountain was very good.



So we went to Borrego Springs and area. It is a small community with a high desert environment and a great Nature centre. Avery's of Avery Office Products fame own a large tract of land there and have commissioned an artist to prepare a number of animals which inhabited the area during dinosaur times. Here are a few pics of them.



What really surprised us was that the Avery's have posted 300 acres of land that anyone can camp there for free for 3 days. The area is beautiful in a desert sort of way. While we didn't stay on their property we did boondock 1/2 way between there and Salton City. That is where we fell in love with the desert. It was so beautiful, peaceful and quiet that we stopped for lunch and stayed till the next day. Weather was excellent!



We then headed out to the Wildlife refuge and then on to the Fountain of Youth spa. When we got there we weren't that interested in it but they gave us a "look" pass. After a quick look we thought OK we'll stay a night and enjoy their naturally hot mineral pools. Well the people there was very friendly, the activities were unbelievable, and the camping great and inexpensive. We ended up staying there 6 nights and took part in 1 longer mountain-bike ride (36 mile) to Niland with others as well as a great hike into the Painted Canyon around the San Andreas fault area.



Here are the Painted Canyon pictures. First is the San Andreas Fault line which is evident in this rock formation.



The next is the set of ladders in Ladder Canyon that have you move between canyon areas. Sandra can be seen standing at the base of a ladder ready to climb up it.




The last is of the walls of the canyon. It is so narrow in spots you have to turn sideways or crawl under some rocks to get thru.




This was a great entry tripwith us now excited to be able to do it every year.

And yes, we have great tans at the moment.

Motorcycling the island

When I was first considering the V Strom as a motorcycle I focused on what we needed when we travel to Europe and Morocco in the Big trip.Since then we have moved to the Island and started taking advantage of some beautiful roads to ride, places to see, and the capability of the bike to get us there.

Our first excursion of the spring was out to Port Renfrew via the back road, mostly hard surfaced but with about 8 kms of gravel. The bike was great on it.

Next, the Destinations Highway guide for BC lists the road to Gold River road from Campbell River as a top ride. We decided to take our camping gear and rdie out there. It was beautiful and we then wanted to ride to Tahsis knowing that we'd have to stay overnight.

Well after 5 Black Bear a beautiful but gravel road we arrived in Tahsis, found a great campground to stay at ( Seaside RV Park) and an excellent Lobster dinner since it was Father's Day. After a pleasant overnight we felt invigorated about back road riding and learned that we could get to Woss, 3/4 way to Telegraph Cove and Port McNeill by way of a closed gravel road. We took the road, using our GPS to confirm its route so that we wouldn't get lost and shaved about 4 hours riding off of returning to Campbell River then heading up there. While the road was nothing special other than it was very rough we enjoyed hitting pavement again and swallowing the open pavement quickly up to Telegraph Cove.

Fortunately tourism was still slow there and we were able to see it without huge crowds. But it is a quaint and pretty setting and really suitable for post card printing.

From there we travelled back to Campbell River and spent a most enjoyable overnight at Miracle Beach Campground and ate out at the wonderful Salmon Pt. pub. Their oyster burgers are really good.

Since then I've ridden out to Carmanah Walbran PR Pk. with a buddy Johnon his 650 V Strom. When we asked the ranger how many bikes make the trip out on some brutal granite rock roads he advised we were the first he'd seen.

Next up, the SW of the USA.