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When you live in a mountainous region, as we do, it’s easy to come to think that you know mountains. With some notable exceptions, a mountain is a mountain is a mountain, right? Which meant that we were in for a big surprise a few months ago when we went to British Columbia. Turns out, their mountains are not at all like ours. Theirs are really, really steep! We flew out to Vancouver, BC, and picked up a rental Suzuki Boulevard C50SE. We were planning on doing some cruising and this bagger with broad windshield was a good match for our riding desires. After negotiating the dense Vancouver traffic we got out of town headed north and caught the Sea to Sky Highway. We never did really hear how the road got its name but we suspect it’s because the hillsides we rode along reached all the way from the sea on our left up to the sky on our right. That is to say, the road was cut into a notch on a steep hillside. As the road rose and fell, the waters of Howe Sound were just right over there anywhere from 100 feet to 1,000 feet or more below us. Meanwhile, on our right, it was clear that these were not just hills we were on, they were mountains. The slopes just kept going on and on until they reached peaks that topped out in the 5,000-foot range. This was truly sea to sky and we were right in the middle of it. Needless to say, the views were spectacular, and there’s no better way to see views like that than from a motorcycle. The highway did eventually leave the waterside, once we reached the town of Squamish, at the head of the Sound, where the Squamish River flows into it. We then followed the river upstream, always moving along the valley floor or cruising above it on the side of the hills. And once again, what hills! These things just go up and up and up. And they’re steep. The reason we stuck to the valleys is that there are no roads going up these hillsides. Sure, there are the occasional gravel roads, probably logging roads, that go up for a ways before they peter out. But if you’re sticking to the pavement it’s all about following the river valleys. So on we rode, past Whistler, where the Olympics were held a few years ago, and on to Pemberton, where the Sea to Sky Highway officially ends. Apparently, this is where the road once ended, but now it’s just the end point for the highway improvements that were carried out in preparation for the Olympics. From here on the road was just two-lane. Fine with us; we’re motorcyclists and we love the two-lane. Past Pemberton, the road-builders had apparently had to make a decision. From Whistler we had already made about a 120-degree clockwise arc, and if the road continued to follow the valley it would continue that arc until it was about 270 degrees around the circle. But there was no reason to go that way. No towns, nothing. So they did something uncommon: They went up. Boy did they go up! The road we started to climb warned of 13 percent grades and tight turns. If we’d been in a semi we’d have been cursing, but on a motorcycle we just hollered, “Yahoo!” This road, Duffey Lake Road, carried us up and over a ridge a couple feet above where we started and we found ourselves at the head of a 50-mile valley that descended into a much broader valley at the old mining town of Lillooet. And there we were, back to following the valley floor or riding along in a notch on the valley wall, when things got narrow. Because those weren’t just hillsides, they were mountainsides. Steep mountains. They just don’t build them like that back home. For a New York Motorcycle, visit Island Powersports at www.IslandPowersports.com or call 516-795-4400. We have rock bottom pricing, outstanding customer service, and knowledgeable staff to satisfy your thirst for fun. Schedule an appointment today to get out and ride!
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