I had woken earlier to the sunrise but had dozed back off with fond memories of the ride up the east side of Kootenay Lake from Creston the day before. Now, the sun was high enough in the sky to penetrate through my tent and begin to generate a lot of solar heat. 

As I got up, Rick had already started a fire and was folding sleeping bag, mat and tent away onto his Yamaha V-Star 1100. The big black cruiser sat proudly, with the calm blue waters of the lake as its backdrop. There parked beside it, was my 1100 Katana, a full spectrum apart in riding style and performance. But we had in common the road and friendship.

We left the Lockhart Creek Provincial Park campsite behind as we snaked up the remainder of the east side of Kootenay Lake on Hwy 3A. In about 5 minutes we were passing some of the private campsites on the lake and stopped to take pictures of some sailboats out on Crawford Bay. 

As we sat watching the scene I could hear a bike approaching, its drone obviously that of a big single. Sure enough, a DR750 Suzuki "Dr. Big" came around the corner and opened up, waving its front wheel in the air as the torque of this monster single lofted the front end.

Taking this as a challenge we re-mounted and the chase began, first to the resort town of Crawford Bay, then onto Kootenay Bay where we all sat in the glorious mid morning sun waiting for the free ferry over to Balfour. Soon a group of Gold Wings, having ridden up from Sandpoint early that morning, descended on us, . 

As the ferry docked and off-loaded its tourist cargo, we bikers  spanned the complete spectrum of motorcycling from dual-purpose to sport bike, cruiser and tourer.  We would load on the ferry first, as if recognized and privileged. For these were 'our' roads.  The cars, campers and motorhomes were intruders to be loaded only after us.

We'd leave some of the other bikers at Balfour. Some chose to head southwest on the Hwy 3A route into Nelson and beyond to Castlegar and Trail. Others like ourselves would head north on the second phase of the Kootenay Lake ride on Hwy 31 to Kaslo.  We'd meet again for lunch there, down on the lake opposite the old Steamship which sits restored at waters edge.

As we lounged over lunch, the side streets began to grow with two-wheeled traffic. We saw Harley's, big red Duc's, Beemers by the six pack, and of course those Gold Wings. Before leaving we counted 34 bikes on our side of the street.

For us the ride was only half over and we needed to continue on to New Denver on Hwy 31A. Here is motorcycling heaven: an almost traffic free road with a slight uphill grade, no enforcement and more twisties per mile than anything you will have seen. Unfortunately it's less than 1/2 hour before you arrive at the beautiful village of New Denver.

Now we struggle with the decision of the day: do we retrace our steps back to Kaslo and Balfour or continue our loop to Slocan, Crescent Valley and Nelson and take the return ferry ride over to Kootenay Bay? 

With decisions like this, isn't that what motorcycling is all about?

Brian Smith smithb@cadvision.com