The Red Snowshoe

August 2009

The Hay Arrives

Another first – ordering hay for the winter. Henk from Meadowcreek delivered 6 tons of hay. Annie looks rather keen on the idea!

Future Manure.

Winston and Blunt on Hay Mountain. Although it is not encouraged the kids like to climb to the top of hay mountain whenever the opportunity presents itself. On occassion they have been spotted walking across the rafters of the barn - must put a lock on that barn door!

Vera and Bart

Ever since my mom saw a young donkey 'hopping and skipping' she has had a soft spot for them. Luckily for her our neighbours have a 30 year old donkey named Bart who is quite happy to have quality carrot time.

The New Manure Pile

There is definately more involved in composting manure than just piling up equine fecal balls. While we were having some fencing done we had a few extra posts driven so we (I should say Dino) could build a 3 compartment manure composter. By the time the third bin is ready to fill up, the first bin's contents should be ready to go on the garden.

old manure pile

Dino working on new manure pile

Renata takes the

inaugural dump

Motorcycling Nirvana

One of the reasons I especially like where The Red Snowshoe (TRS) is situated is the incredible scenery linked together by probably BC’s best motorcycling roads. I got my first real taste of these marvellous motorcycling roads during a Buell (as of Fall 2009 Buell is no longer in operation) organised road trip from Whistler to Calgary. Although a supposed group ride the more adventurous of us peeled off to discover some incredible twisties that snake down and around the Arrow lakes criss crossing by ferry where necessary. Renata picked me up a copy of Destination Highways British Columbia, www.destinationhighways.com a wonderful guide to aid motorcyclist find some of the best roads in Southern BC for sport bike and touring alike. TRS really is nestled close to so many of the top rides mentioned in this book; DH1 is only a couple of DH routs away from our front door.

Dino and Mike before the

first day's riding

Back in Vancouver I often rode with a group of friends at the weekends and occasionally for longer trips into BC and the US. Our longest motorcycling trip was to LasVegas and back. I love long distance riding but dislike spending time getting to places that allow for true mileage and scenery, negotiating city and suburban roads is just boring, tiring and unsafe. Now really good riding starts at my property line and no matter which direction I choose to go I’m in motorcycling nirvana.

One of those riding buddies back in Vancouver came for a visit and in true Mikey tradition he decided to trailer his bike up from Vancouver in what really amounts to a mobile bike garage. With his most recent acquisition, a black Suzuki B-King, tucked safely in the trailer he made great time and arrived amazingly fresh and ready for a weekend of riding.

We set off reasonably early Saturday and headed north up the Hwy 6 our first stop breakfast at a great little restaurant called ‘Sleep is for sissies’ www.sleepisforsissies.com these guys serve up great food and offer an interesting array of entertainment and events. Continuing north we head up the Slocan Valley through Winlaw and Slocan and winding up along the Cape Horn, a particularly great stretch of road carved into the side of a mountain to a look out point that offers breath taking views of the Valhalla Range and way down below the Southern part of the Slocan Lake. From here you head down into Silverton and onto New Denver. Even though I had done this rout before I could tell Mike was enjoying this road tremendously. Although the roads are fairly technical the B-King is made for this with the twists and turns peppered with short straights to use all that incredible power.

View of Slocan Lake
and Valhalla range

At this point we pretty much had run the DH25 from the Destination Highways book and would now head toward Kaslow along Hwy 31A another DH route DH5. This is a pretty technical piece of road and requires mucho concentration. The vistas are incredible and we had to keep an eye out for wild life. In fact anywhere in the Kootenays you’d better be on your guard for deer and bear, no shortage of these critters crossing the roads. In fact Renata and I had seen a bear right by Fish Lake crossing over the road the year before during one of our area forays.

Mike and I continued along this beautiful road which follows the Kaslo River and stopped at Kaslo for a bite to eat at the The Kaslo Bay Resort, The Fisherman’s Pub & Grill www.kaslobay.com . We considered taking Hwy 31, DH 33, another incredible ride that takes you to Meadow Creek, Meadow Creek is where we picked up hay for the horses, but we decided to ride on down to Nelson instead DH 60. I know I keep referencing the Destination Highways book but it really is a great resource if you’re serious about finding some of the best motorcycling roads in BC. Hwy 31 is quite a busy road and hugs the Kootaney Lake until you reach Nelson. Arriving in Nelson we stopped for some refreshment at the Hume Hotel www.humehotel.com a great place with loads of character, history and good beer. Picking up a couple of bottles of wine we headed back to TRS along Hwy 3A. We basically rode a loop that day taking time to stop and admire the views and take in nourishment when the need arose. There are many great things to do and see along this route which is peppered with historical sites and stunning scenery but we were really here to ride and catch up. Sunday would be a longer ride with less stopping but again, mainly due to how much we liked it, it started by having breakfast at ‘Sleep Is For Sissies’.

End of day one's motorcycling

Doubling back from SIFS we headed down Hwy 6 to the Cresent Valley Junction and headed into Nelson at Nelson we dipped down toward Salmo, Hyw 6, DH83, this stretch of road is fast and twisty with great peg scraping opportunities and some interlinking straights to clear the pipes out. Heading East at Salmo you connect to DH 52, Hyw3, this takes you on the 2nd highest road in Canada so hope ya have FI or know how to quickly adjust all your carbs. As usual the scenery is amazing (when you get a chance to glimpse some, try keeping up to a B-King cooking). Hitting Creston we stopped for some light refreshment, cool our jets and prepared to take on DH1, Hwy 3A. This glorious road is narrow and amazingly curvaceous hugging Duck Lake and the Eastern side of Kootenay Lake. I’d already ridden this route and knew just how technical it is. Also the locals are canny to the fact it’s heavily used by motorcyclists, not all like that fact and you should be aware of this. If you get stuck behind a land yacht, be prepared to pick you moment very carefully when passing. Lots of blind curves to contend with and driveways hidden behind large trees, nasty things can be lurking. But this road is all about rhythm, not speed. A squared off tyre will quickly regain its intended shape and if you relax the Zen will come. Mike and I had a blast down this road and the Balfour Kootenay Bay ferry will get you over to the West side of the lake at the end of it. Oh! No motorcyclist to the front rule on this Ferry, you cue up like all he other cubes on this one, although they try and squeeze bikes on if there’s room. Once across we carried on the 3A back into Nelson and then back to TRS. Great ride that took most of the day, weather perfect and roads pretty clear of traffic, Mike likes to push the pace and I think Nelson back to TRS was the shortest time I’ve ever done this particular stretch. Mike was heading back to Vancouver Monday so the B-King went right back into the trailer when we got back.

Mikes Mobile garage, putting the B-King away.

Rock Hunters

Dino's motorcycle buddy, Mike, plus our friends from Dot and Greg, from Vancouver, were all with us for an afternoon of rock hunting down at our swimming hole. Why is it that all the nice flat rocks I was collecting for tiling the bathroom floor were the same ones that had the best rock skipping qualities... Hey dudes leave my floor alone!

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