Harrison Lake Ride

[Lightcycle]

For the Victoria Day long weekend, we've ventured out to Harrison Lake, about 2 hours east of Vancouver.

We're staying at the Sasquatch Inn just south of the lake in a small town called Harrison Mills. It's a popular biker hangout because it's right on the Lougheed Highway (Hwy 7), a scenic, twisty alternative to the TransCanada Highway 1 which runs all the way to the big city. There's mainly cruisers here, with a smattering of sportbikes and adventure bikes.

We wake up the next morning to light drizzle just outside our hotel room window. Our friend Kevin is meeting us this morning for a gravel road ride up the lake, and I ask Neda, "I wonder if he's gonna bail on us?"

Kevin shows up. Wet and not very happy. Neda, on the other hand, is stoked...

Ride On! Rain or shine, baby!

I totally wouldn't have held it against him if he had bailed. It was truly miserable out there. But like the good friend that he is, he was still game for this wet morning departure.

We head out in the rain on Morris Valley Road. It runs well in-land of the Harrison River, which feeds off the lake. The first 10 kms is paved and not very interesting, except for the fact that the outer layers of our gear are slowly getting soaked.

We cross Weaver Creek and the tarmac disappears and our tires kick up gravel beneath our motorcycles.

Kevin mutters over the intercom, "Off-Road mode on... Traction Control... Slip Control..." In my rear view mirror, I see him punching buttons on his left handlebar like a data entry technician.

I look down at my own dash. A spartan, 1" high, orange back-lit LCD strip only gives me my current speed and odometer reading. Even though we're all riding KTMs (Neda's on the special white-livery version), we're riding very, very different bikes.

I ask Kev to punch up a query on the supercomputer on his motorcycle to tell us what the temperature is: 12C. Ugh...

I'm leading the way, with Neda behind me, and Kevin bringing up the rear. The fog is thick and visibility is poor. The only thing we see is the gravel road in front of us, and the trees off to either side. No mountains or lakes. Even though this area is rife with scenery, we may not get to see any of it today...

A steady stream of lifted trucks pulling campers, jeeps and SUVs pass by us as they head away, out of Harrison Lake. Even though the holiday weekend isn't over, they've given up on the weekend due to the rain and heading home early. We're all starting to doubt our decision to head up in the rain.

 

[Lightcycle]

For the first little bit, we pull over often, to fiddle around with our set-up. I've recently installed Baja Designs LED lights which I've discovered to my dismay are a little too bright and they blind on-coming traffic, so I've had to disconnect them. But now that the fog is so thick, I need to fiddle around behind the headlight cluster to re-connect my headlight so I'm visible once again.

And then we stop again because Kevin's visor is misting up badly, so he changed them out for to goggles. "Too foggy for missiles, I'm switching to guns!"

It's taking us a long time to get our rhythm going. And the whole time, the rain keeps coming down.

Kevin gives the signal, we're good to go once again!

We pass a bunch of smaller lakes and campsites, the oncoming traffic doesn't let up. We're passing quite a lot of off-road capable vehicles, so we use trail etiquette and signal with our fingers to let them know how many more bikes are behind us: I give the Peace sign with my left hand. Neda points up to the water falling from the sky and Kevin shakes his fist to let everyone know how ****** off he is that it's raining on our parade.

Despite all the water-works, the surface is graded and in good condition. When the road curves, I goose the throttle to test the grip, fish-tailing the rear wheel behind me. Neda follows closely. Although Kevin's bike has more horses than both of our bikes combined, it's also heavier than both of our bikes combined as well, so he tiptoes through the corners, trying to manage all that inertia around the corners. He's doing very well on that big pig.

 

[Lightcycle]

After a couple of hours on the road, the rain is still falling, but the fog is slowly clearing. We get some good glimpses of Harrison Lake when the road veers closer to the water.

"Look, Gene! Sunlight!"
"Where?!?!?"
"Just kidding..."

Harrison Lake is the largest lake in SW BC. It's fed entirely by glaciers and is about 60 kms long and 9 kms at its widest point. It's a very popular place for camping, kayaking, paddling, canoeing, hiking. We've been warned to watch out for ATV and SxS traffic, especially during the long weekend, when most of the people enjoying this road are well into their May 2-4, and tend to drive a bit too fast around blind corners and also not stay on their side of the road.

We see none of that. All the partiers have departied and departed from the area due to the inclement weather, which kind of worked out for us. And kinda not...

I round one corner and see an SUV parked on the opposite side of the road. Red and blue lights from inside the vehicle go off and I look down to check my speed. I'm positive I'm not speeding - not in these conditions. A young conservation officer steps out of the vehicle and pulls her hat on, as I remove my goggles.

"Okay sir, just checking to see if you're all plated up". It's a public road and she's out here ticketing the aforementioned ATVs and SxSs.

She also moves a bit closer to smell my breath for alcohol. She nods her head and motions for us to proceed, "Have a nice day!"

Another hour or so and the rain finally lets up a little bit. We pull over to celebrate and to check out the views, now that it's clear enough.

In amongst the celebrations, we also stop to complain and commiserate. Neda's telling us she's got a pool of water in her boots. Kevin tells us his bike is kinda heavy. Also, he's still trying to dial in the traction control for some of the rocky hill climbs, as the engine keeps cutting out whenever his rear wheel loses contact with the ground.

But we're glad to be able to see what's around us, finally!

It is very pretty here!

 

[Lightcycle]

Although the road we're on is officially called Morris Valley Road, all the local dual sport bikers have unofficially named it Harrison West. It's quite a popular road because of the twists and turns, but also because it's quite scenic.

On a clear day, you can see lakes and mountains all around you. Even on a non-so-clear day, the view is still pretty good

The road also has quite a good mix of terrain, mostly graded gravel, but some entertaining bumps and rocky sections. Also, good elevation changes. There are some mildly challenging hill climbs and descents that would be a bit difficult on a low-clearance, 2WD passenger car. Our bikes greedily swallow these up like a thirsty dog lapping up water.

About two thirds of the way into the ride, we hit the logging camp at Trio Creek where we encounter a semi-long stretch of water that's spilled over from the lake onto the road.

I tentatively make my way through. It's only about axle-deep, but the bow wave from my front tire washes over the top of my headlights. Eeep. Thankfully, the road beneath is fairly even.

Neda makes it look easy

 

[Lightcycle]

The road becomes quite tame north of the logging site. It's just a straight gravel road and we pin the throttle and hit speeds which would have made the conservation officer turn on her red and blue lights again. It's only a quick 30 km sprint till we hit Sloquet Hot Springs. This land is Xa’xtsa First Nation territory and the hot springs are normally used for tribal rituals, but they've opened it up to the public. We pay an entrance fee and walk down to the natural pools, about a 300m steep, downhill hike.

The sign reads, "Sensitive Fish and Wildlife", and we make jokes about how the fish and wildlife are easily offended at non-PC jokes.

There's a small hut where we can change out of our wet riding gear and then we find a pool to dunk our cold and shivering bodies into.

We join a bunch of off-roaders who passed us on the way up

There are several pools of varying temperatures. The hottest one is 115F (46C) which is way too hot for everyone. Glacier melt-water flows down into the pools and gradually cools them down, and the pool that everyone gathers in is a very comfortable 30C. Feels so good after being wet and cold for so long on the bikes.

We talk with our new-found friends about how we have the whole Harrison West Road and Slo'Quet springs to ourselves because everyone chickened out due to the rains. Normally on a long weekend like this, this place would be packed!

After an hour or so, we make plans to get out of the hot pool. They're just plans, because we don't actually get out. Neda doesn't want to put on her wet boots again.

"You guys go on without me. I'm staying right here!!!!

 

[Lightcycle]

We eventually do leave. With deep reluctance and regret...

You can continue on Harrison West north all the way to Pemberton, but the gravel road is totally straight, graded and boring because that's the direction all the logging trucks take out of Trio Creek. In fact that's how most non-4x4 tourists get to Slo'Quet since it's the longer, but easiest way from Vancouver.

We're doubling back and doing all the gnarly, but scenic stuff all the way back to the Sasquatch Inn!

At least the rain has stopped!

We stop less often on the way back. The visibility is better and we can see all the stuff we missed on the ride up. There's zero traffic on the road as everyone else has abandoned their long weekend hours ago. We make it to our start point in record time. It's been a long day for Kevin, and he wants to get back to Vancouver before sundown, so we say our goodbyes as we head upstairs to our hotel room and he gets back on the bike for another 2-hour ride back to the city.

Despite the weather, it was a great ride with a good friend - lots of laughter and joking around, and the roads and the scenery turned out to be quite awesome! We're going to have to come back and explore this area some more later on in the season!

 

[Sunday Rider]

Thanks for the ride along. Great write up and pictures. Good thing you didn’t let the wet start dampen your spirits.