Pic Heavy Ride Report - MS to Bella Coola & Back 11,000 Miles Heat, Hail & Bears

[DblTrbl]

what a great experience to spend time with the locals and listen and learn from them. Better then anything you can get from a book...

[Recall]

Great ride report with great commentary and excellent photos. Thanks you and Mary for taking the time and effort to share your experiences. Once I retire in a few years I hope to have the Tri Glide set up the way I want and start traveling with my lovely wife. Thank you again for sharing your travels and adventures.

[grandpawj]

Just caught up with all your posts. Wow, what a trip you both are on. I certainly enjoy reading about all you are doing. As others have reported, "It's like taking the trip with you" I guess you can say, I am now an armchair traveler.

[DK Custom Products]

what a great experience to spend time with the locals and listen and learn from them. Better then anything you can get from a book...

So very true. Learned a lot talking with John Edward.

Great ride report with great commentary and excellent photos. Thanks you and Mary for taking the time and effort to share your experiences. Once I retire in a few years I hope to have the Tri Glide set up the way I want and start traveling with my lovely wife. Thank you again for sharing your travels and adventures.

Glad to hear you are enjoying. Getting it set up how you want, and getting some trips planned out...that is almost as much fun as taking a trip and will help the time fly til you can get out there!

Just caught up with all your posts. Wow, what a trip you both are on. I certainly enjoy reading about all you are doing. As others have reported, "It's like taking the trip with you" I guess you can say, I am now an armchair traveler.

Thank you, glad you are enjoying.

Kevin

[consitter]

That big windshield you've had on there for this ride...is it an LRS? Looks to be about a 15 inch.

Still loving the scenery. Thanks for taking me along.

[DK Custom Products]

Day 25

Even though we only traveled 100 miles from Bella Coola to Nimpo Lake today, it was a very full day. Had 874 pics to go thru. I am going to try to whittle it down to 60 pics.

I have the first 20 done...so here we go.



About half of the distance we traveled today is in the Bella Coola Valley, headed toward The Hill. It is absolutely breathtaking.

How would you like to have this view from your backyard....




...or this view?





Headed thru the Bella Coola Valley....





...is just one post card view after another...




...when traveling, I often think about how nice it would be to live in a place like this...





...but then I remember, or am reminded, it gets WAY TOO COLD in the winter.




But it sure is nice to visit, and ride the amazing roads. In this pic, if you look closely, you can see 6 curves, just in this little section.



This is Big Country!



The road from Bella Coola, all the way to the foot of The Hill, is a good surface, great curves, and amazing sights!




More in next post.

[DK Custom Products]

Day 25 continued-


We are still in the valley and saw a little turn-off...





...if we still had the fishing pole we could have done a bit of fishing without even getting off the bike.






Getting close to the end of the asphalt and the beginning of "The Hill"....






...looking back, toward Bella Coola. This has been an amazing couple of days in a still pretty much hidden part of the world.






Even though Mary chose this place because of the highest concentration of bears in NA, and we have not seen one...





...it has still been a great time, and we're both very happy with her finding out about it.






Here we are. When we came down the hill, we had a lot of respect for it from the videos we had seen.

Going back up it, we also have the stories John Edwards has told us about The Hill. He is a fire fighter in Bella Coola, which means he is also Search & Rescue. More than a few have gone off the side of the hill, and most do not live to tell about it.





This is Atnarko Slough, at the foot of The Hill, also where there have been quite a few reports of sightings of a Sasquatch.






79 km to Nimpo Lake, 62 of which are gravel road.






Gate is open, road is dry, camera battery is fresh, and the bear spray is bungied to the Tour Pak Rack for easy access.




Day 25 to be continued.

Kevin

[DK Custom Products]

Day 25 continued-


It was a fun ride down the hill. We are really looking forward to going back up it, and seeing it from a different perspective.

Here we go!






First big curve...







...then there was a pretty bumpy hill. We had to pull over. This pic is looking back.






The bear spray was not staying in place under the bungie cords on the rack. We had heard so many stories, and been out in the woods all day yesterday with John Edwards.

Most folks in Bella Coola do NOT carry bear spray when out in the woods...if they run across a bear, they just put their hands above their head and "make themselves Big".

So we put the bear spray in the Tour Pak.






Looking down the side of the road near where we stopped...that's a long way down, and we just barely started.






Back on our way!






Yes, the road is as narrow as it looks here.







Mary's view off the side...






...these pics were taken while we were riding, not pulled over. The road gets pretty narrow in places, & yeah, that's a LONG way down!






And in others, like at this switchback, it gets really wide. But you can see up ahead, it narrows done again right before the blind curve.





More in next post.

[DK Custom Products]

Day 25 continued-


There's a pretty good reason for the "Slow" sign. The road is already narrow, but in the middle of the curve, there is NO possible way for two vehicles to pass.







These areas where the road is cracking on the edge give Mary the willies.






This is Mary's view as we're riding...it is not mine!






This is my view. I look where I want to go, so I do not really see off the edge like she does while we're riding.






Mary's view again. I'm really proud of her getting over her fear of edges the last few years.






Some of the steeper part of the hill...






...but nice and wide, with no bad cliff edges.






This is a fun road. It is a bit rougher today than the day we went down. Not sure if the road changed, or if it is just the different geometry of going uphill that is making it a rougher ride.

It is starting to narrow down again here.






Another switchback.






Some more edge of the road cracking.





Day 25 to be continued soon.

Kevin

[Papa Zook]

Man I do love the pictures! Have you ever thought of adding some short video clips of some of these switchbacks? A GoPro with remote would be the perfect tool.

[DK Custom Products]

Man I do love the pictures! Have you ever thought of adding some short video clips of some of these switchbacks? A GoPro with remote would be the perfect tool.

Not a GoPro, but here is a short video of the ride down the hill. (see my post below)

Tomorrow, or the next day, I'll be posting a longer video of the ride back up the hill.

Kevin

[Christine]

what an awesome ride report! I've loved reading all about your road trip. I've ridden some of the same roads & seen some of the same places. I really like how you presented it & catalogued your ride information with all the pictures. You've given me ideas on how to better save all my info for my next ride. Good job!!

[kybigmac]

You've done a great job with this thread it's almost like being there !

[DK Custom Products]

ooops, forgot to put the video in the post above-






Kevin

- - - Updated - - -

what an awesome ride report! I've loved reading all about your road trip. I've ridden some of the same roads & seen some of the same places. I really like how you presented it & catalogued your ride information with all the pictures. You've given me ideas on how to better save all my info for my next ride. Good job!!

Thank you! Absolutely amazing riding and views up in Canada!

You've done a great job with this thread it's almost like being there !

Thank you, glad to hear you're enjoying.

Kevin

[FuzzyWuzHe]

As always ... your ride reports always give us the feeling we are there ... thanks for taking us along.

[Gorilla]

​Thank you for the video Kevin. Be safe

[BOXX3R]

Your pictures, narrative and videos (to quote Jack Nicholson) make me want to be a better biker. Or at least take some tours of my own. THANK YOU for letting us share in and enjoy your journeys.

[DK Custom Products]

Day 25 Continued-

Ok, these next 20 pics and video are the final installment on the ride from Bella Coola back to Nimpo Lake.



Remember, we had put the bear spray in the tour pak at the bottom of the hill.......


Coming around a corner, there was a BIG Grizzly Bear about 60 yards in front of us!







I stopped. He turned and looked at us, then continued walking away from us. We watched.

I then remembered where the bear spray was. After moving a little to the side of the road, I put the parking brake on (good thing I had adjusted it, because the hill was pretty steep) and got the bear spray out...never turned off the engine. When I put it back in gear (clunk) the bear turned and looked at us, so I waited a bit longer before moving forward.






He just kept walking down the road...






...we did move forward twice to keep him in sight...but we really did not know what we could do, other than wait. He did not seem inclined to leave the road, and no way we we going to try and ride past him. Grizzlies can move extremely fast when they want to.

We remembered what John Edwards had told us-

John just said make yourself big, and if that does not intimidate the bear then yell a bit...that is, only if it is coming toward you, otherwise, just be still...never turn your back, never run, never make any fast movements.

So we waited and watched...






...After a few minutes a truck came by and moved him off the road. We were really excited to see the pics when we got to Nimpo Lake. Mary thought she had taken 20-25 pics of him.

She took 4 pictures.


We were already on what is probably the most dangerous road in North America, and then we were right up on a Grizzly. Her adrenaline just shot through the roof.

Fortunately the video camera was going. Here is the video that has some of the highlights of the ride up "The Hill". The bear encounter starts at about the 4 minute mark-






After the bear excitement, we continued on up the road...






...which is exciting and awe-inspiring, in and of itself.






One last look behind us, thinking about the bear we had just seen.







What an amazing view...again, pic taken while we were moving...not such a wide section of the road. lol






At the highest point of the pass.






Things leveled out a bit. No more cliffs.




More in next post.

[Mrmri]

I really enjoy your posts and photos.

[DK Custom Products]

Day 25 continued-


A breath-taking view-






Here we are at the official End of The Hill.

I asked Mary if she wanted to turn around and do it again...she did not, but if it was not so rough, we both would have done it in a hearbeat.






Another meadow and great cloud pic-






Here is a pic of a fellow traveler. He was headed toward Bella Coola on 2 wheels, pulling a cargo trailer.

He had the biggest grin on his face that I've ever seen!

He was also the only other motorcycle we've seen since we left Nimpo Lake a few days ago.







Looking back as we left Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.







We've been getting a few sprinkles, but you can see from the road that we have missed some pretty heavy rain.







Fun road, great views, and no cliffs!







Some cattle in and about the road...we are getting close to Anahim Lake.






Back on the asphalt! We've ridden TG's many hundreds of miles on dirt and gravel roads, but they really like the asphalt better.







Back at Nimpo Lake, our destination for the day.





The last 60 pictures, are just what I picked out of 874 pics. It was a whopping 100 miles. But it is amazing land.

We arrived at Nimpo Lake at 2:30, so we went out on the lake. I will share some pics from that in the next post in a day or so.

Kevin