A Ride to Whitehorse - 2025

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I made it!


For the past 10 days I've been riding across Canada, and finally made it to my turning point. Fuk this country is HUGE, with beautiful scenery, and nice people (once you leave Toronto/GTA)

I picked Whitehorse because a friend of mine lives up here and talks about it all the time. So I was curious if I could fit it into my schedule. My initial plan was just to go to BC and visit some other friends there, but Whitehorse would have added 4 more days to the tour, my schedule opened up and I was able to added it in.

It's a cool little town, I as soon as I arrived I had several people come up for a chat and welcome me.

The sign as you enter town (that's me!!!)


Historic boat as you enter the first part of town


Plane at the transport museum


More to come, stay tuned!

 

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I gotta say planning this trip gave me a fair bit of anxiety. I wasn't sure if I could do it, wanted to (had some other ideas), but I felt this was my chance to see parts of Canada I had not been to, and wasn't sure if I would have another time to do it.

I basically laid out the trip about a week before I had to go. A little last minute.

Day 1 - to Kapuskasing


Stop in North Bay as a kick off to the ride


Stop in Porcupine, since one of our prominent members has mentioned it.


Highlight of the day! - Moonbeam



I forgot to get a photo with the bike in the shot.

 

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Day 2 - Dryden


I've never ridden the full length of HWY 11 past Moonbeam to Thunderbay... I wasn't missing much. I forgot how to make turns. Seriously it's pretty straight. Some interesting stuff along the way.

Spotted this train on my way out of Kapuskasing


Hearst to see this scupture

I'd been here years ago (took that Algoma train ride, not worth it) was curious if I remembered anything, I didn't

Longlac for a gas stop, spotted this boat.


The snowman of Beardmore!


Had to stop at the Terry Fox monument just outside of Thunderbay


Upsala - I actually stopped here to check my map and spotted this off to the side.

 

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Day 3 - Weyburn


So yeah my routes may not seem exciting, and some of the cities are just arbitrary to work within a certain distance. Getting to the west coast was more of the goal in a set time frame, since our country is BIG!

Another sculpture off to the side, at a pitstop in Vermillion bay


Centre of Canada, I'm half way there!


So the prairies have these massive long trains, I've never seen before, it's crazy!


Signs at Centre of Canada, with more of the train in the backgroud


This is the start of my GPS problems. I left my cable on the bike overnight and it was wet in the morning. I'm not using the most proper GPS setup, just a Garmin Nuvi, anyhow after this point my GPS would lose power, or glitch out and restart, and other weirdness. The good thing here I stopped at a CO-OP gas station to see if I could pick up a replacement cable. These stations are great, lots of staff, actually the guy was trying to help me out and at first I thought it was annoying, but he was actually trying to be helpful, it took me back a bit, as we don't have this kind of service in Ont. I ended up not finding the cable but I went to several of this CO OP stations afterwards because of how good they were.


Winnipeg! Just cruised around the city, and just ended up here, I wasn't looking for anything particular, but this seemed a nice photo op!


Gas stop in Treherne and check my map, get some food, found this building and church made of bottles


Windmill in Holland


Camel in Glenboro - Yes I like all the cheesy roadside attractions!


The last part of this route, probably like 30 k. I felt I was in the home stretch, and it should be a easy ride. Nope. The winds picked up like madness, serious wind I've never experienced. I was doing everything possible to not have the bike be blown over, leaning, tucking, shifting my body down. It was nuts.

 

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Day 4 - Fernie


Hit some bad rain going into Moose jaw, but once I got there it stopped. Was near the visitor centre, and got to see my first moose!



In the same spot



The flatness and the Pariries itself is something I've never experienced before. Actually the scenery from Moose Jaw to Medicine Hat was quite beautiful. With rolling hills, filled with bright yellows and clear skies. Also the storms and clouds are something to behold, you can see them forming up, like something out of a movie. And this is the only photo I have....

I couldn't find a decent spot to pull over, traffic, timing etc. this was from the gas stop. I might have something on my gopro.

Made it to Medicine Hat, found a replacement cable for the GPS at London Drugs, The Teepee!


My GPS diverted me off the main highway (stupidily) for some reason, and I ended up in Coaldale


I decided to skip where ever my GPS was taking me and proceed back to the HWY, and stopping in Lethbridge for gas.
This place is crazy, and annoying. Everyone has supped up pickups with loud exhausts, it was constatnt nose everywhere, and every red light was a race. It just wanted to get the hell outta there.

Off to BC with a quick stop in Frank to take a break, just decided to take a photo of the surrounds.

 

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Day 5 - Abbotsford


Some more interesting roads!

This part specifically was quite the challenge


This was part of the road outside of Fernie, just trying to take it all in, it was a beautiful morning, only about 17, but roads were empty.


Stop in Crankbook to take in the view



Moving alone to take in more of the view someplace around Moyie


Pulled off to get some food and gas in Salmo, it was a interesting little town, very frontier like. I'll have to check my go pro.
From the park


As I got closer to Osoyoos, the mountains changed and looked more brown, and some unusal plants. Plus the temps, mid 30's
This photo doesn't do it any justice


Spotted lake just past Osoyoos


Hope BC, they filmed the Rambo movie here, neat little town. I met a rider from Arizona at the sculpture, who had a fully loaded African Twin. Good guy, was on a 5 week ride and had ridden to Tuk, Artic Ocean. Was on the return heading south, and wanted to see the statue. I mean where else can you see something like this!

 

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Day 6 - Vancouver Island, Victoria


This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. I've never been to Vancouver Island before, which is why I basically skipped Vancouver city, as I have been there. I hit it on a perfect day, nice and sunny and with a cool breeze from the water. I didn't want to leave it was so good.

The ferry crossing was pretty straightforward. Bikes get a priority, and it wasn't necessary to reserve. Just roll up and you are sent to board first


Bike didn't need anything special to secure it while parked. Just a wedge to help the opposite side just in case.


Passing another boat


Met a few nice people on the boat, other passengers up for a chat, and all the riders I parked with.

Onto the mainland, first stop Victoria Chinatown gate.


Paralment building, and surrounds. The whole area was very busy with tourists and buses loads of people.




Off to the southern part of Victoria, Beacon hill park area. This was a beautiful spot and spent a little while here enjoying the fine weather.




After here I took HWY 14 along the coast, this was the best part of the ride on the island for me. With the view of the ocean next to the road. Then it was an interior road HWY 18, it was ok, the road surfice wasn't great and not much of a view. Lots of crazy drivers on there blasting through.

I stopped into Chemainus to check out the mural's on the advice of a passenger I met on the boat. Can't post any more photos!

 

[sburns]

Day 7 - Williams Lake


This was a weird day. I planned to cross back to the mainland. I woke up early to catch the ferry, but soon found out it didn't run every hour like I thought. So I ended up being at the port about 2 hours early.... then I found out the crossing was almost 2 hours itself. Seemed like a waste of time, but honsetly it was a nice break from riding, and I had a good meal on the boat, which the food was surprisingly good. Plus caught up on some work emails.

Finally made it onto the boat.


The ride up 99 was one of the routes I was looking forward to, everyone says it's one of the most scenic. It's very nice. Around Whistler it become very congested and slow, after this point it was much better.

Stopped here to pull off some rain gear and take in the view. Green Lake


Next up was Lillooet, things started to feel very remote at this point, not many people or anything around

 

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Day 8 - Prince George



This was a short ride day, as I was going to be visiting friends and wanted to spend time with them. And I had some maintenance to do as I reached my mileage for my next oil change. Luckily they had a Suzuki dealership in town to pick up oil and filter.

Mr PG!


So they moved this since last time I was here, you can't really access it the same way you could before (like the front of it) it's basically fenced off at the side of a HWY. I'm sure this makes sense to somebody.

Picked up the oil and supplies from the dealership, proceeded to do the oil change in the Canadian Tire parking lot, just need to buy the oil pan. Left it all at CT's oil disposal rack afterwards. (I brought some tools with me to wrench it)



After this I went and met with my friend. Her husband and kid were coming back from a fishing trip. The same day the person stole a plane on Vancouver island. So their flight got delayed and we were not sure if they would make it back. But luckily it all worked out, the flight was only delayed a hour or so and arrived later in the afternoon, and we went for diner afterwards.
We were to busy catching up we completely forgot to take photos!

 

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[ToSlow]

Are you supposed to be posting pictures ?