Sunday July 18 we rode to Otter Lake (Tulameen), NorthWest of Princeton. We had 8 riders for our adventure (I had more of an adventure than most that day, but more on that later).We rode to Hope for gas and regrouped at Tim Horton’s as usual. It may make sense on future rides to not meet here in the future as the parking lot, restaurant and restrooms can get very crowded, perhaps further down the road somewhere. When there are a number of riders needing gas it makes sense to not all go to the same gas station but to split up so long as we all know where to meet up after refueling making for a more efficient stop. We arrived in Princeton at about 11:30 and went directly to the Copper Pit restaurant for a BBQ lunch. Even though there were few other patrons when we arrived the service was noticeably slow despite the fact that the owner / manager came over to introduce himself and thank us for our patronage. The food was very good and the BBQ Beef Brisket sandwich looked the best overall even if it’s not what I had ordered.Arriving at Otter Lake we were presented with a smoke free vista and higher water levels than last year when we visited and plenty of families were enjoying the beach. In fact we never encountered any smoke to speak of throughout the day. We also stopped in Coalmont for photos by the hotel as well as trying to find a historical site that remains hidden until our next return.After stopping in to the DQ in Hope to ready ourselves for the ride into the city with an ice cream treat and proceeding to our various destinations most of us thought that taking Hwy 7 back into town would prove advantageous due to the traffic. This decision proved to be working as we happily proceeded along until we neared the Sylvester Rd. intersection where we were stopped in traffic for as far as we could see. Nobody was moving and as we sat there we were analyzing our options of waiting it out or proceeding ahead to Sylvester Rd. and turning right to take a more scenic route into Mission.That is when I realized that not everybody was at a stand still in the traffic. It is also when I learned that loud pipes may as some riders want us to believe ‘Save Lives’ but that loud pipes can still sneak up on you from behind. I didn’t know about the 2 HD riders skinnying along the shoulder until I was on the ground when one of them rear ended me stopping him in his tracks and causing me to lose balance and drop my bike on myself to the ground. Happily he also dropped his shiny HD, HA! He hurriedly rushed up to me admitting fault and helping me to pick up my bike, then getting his bike up as well, unfortunately before I thought to take any photos of the situation. ICBC is still determining responsibility for who is at fault. My bike is a little scuffed up and there is some damage to my right saddlebag. I also learned that when someone rear ends a Gold Wing causing it to fall one must also turn the motorcycle off and on again before trying to restart it (little blessings).Happy riding,
Richard pictures on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1475193289383250
