Ow, Canada!
Ow, Canada!
On the beauty of British Columbia and the importance of good hip pads
BEAU ALLEN PACHECO
WHEN FRED ANDREWS BLASTED BY ME IN THE middle of a British Columbia pine forest, I didn’t mind at all. At 58 years of age and a rare dirtbiker, I was white-knuckling through the Canadian wilderness as fast as I could. Besides, he’s young and in shape and rides for a living as a member of Team FMF Suzuki Off Road. Neither did it bother me when teammate Rodney Smith passed me like a tornado in an easy chair. After all, he’s won every off-road championship there is, and he makes it look sooo easy.
I must say, though, it did rankle a bit that he’s a mature 42-year-old, and when he went by, his lovely wife Lori was sitting primly behind him, serenely enjoying the passing scenery!
“Okay, then,” I thought, “Rodney’s riding two-up; surely, if I follow his lines I can ride that fast...”
Er, no. Evidently I was going so slow that when I got to the formerly smooth place where Mr. & Mrs. Smith had been, natural soil erosion had created a bottomless rut. I tried to turn but the rut said no. Then I crashed. Hard. I cannot describe my bruises, the pictures of which modesty prohibits our publishing, but my body was trashed commensurate with my stupidity. It’s sobering to discover that there are people who are faster two-up on a motorcycle than I am riding solo.
I had never been in the vast beauty of the Canadian Rockies so I was eager to accept Dave Martindale’s offer to participate in a three-day ride through the wilds of British
Columbia. Martindale is owner of Backroads Adventures BC and for the past 12 years has taken hundreds of dirt riders on the adventure of their lives. He had put together this off-road ramble with the Suzuki champions and invited me along.
This would be a sizable expedition-besides me and CWphotographer Jeff Allen, there would be a camera crew shooting footage for Speed Channel’s “Two Wheel Tuesday,” and three paying customers.
I’m not much for camping, especially after cross-rutting a Suzuki DR-Z400S, and this mountain adventure was all the better for staying in nice motels with great showers, soft beds and bounteous dinners. The first night’s banquet gave me a chance to talk with Martindale about his company.
Tours range from day rides to 12-day treks and can be as easy or challenging as the customers wish (now he tells me). It’s astonishing that Dave can remember all the paths and roads on which he takes clients, but he’s lived in these mountains all his life.
“I’ve been riding this area for 30 years,” he says, “and I have a pretty good mind-map of all the roads and trails. Usually after the first or second day we know what everybody is looking for. We have a diverse clientele: 80 percent of our riders are non-Canadian
and 50 percent are from places other than North America. We get lots of Australians and we’ve had many Swedish and Japanese clients.”
If taking your vacation unmolested by tourists sounds like heaven, this Canadian adventure is paradise. Highways gorged with all manner of rolling and towed aluminum impedimenta were kept to a minimum, and we saw no new-agey hikers in black socks and Birkenstocks in the backcountry where Martindale took us. Indeed, many of the paths we rode were known only to Dave and to his staff.
A highlight on the third day was “The Bowl.” Nobody seems to know the origin of this geologist’s dream sitecould be a meteor hit, could be an old volcano-but the huge hole in the ground is surrounded by old mining shafts replete with abandoned ore carts, bulldozers and crushers. This part of Canada was once a center for hard-rock mining, and the rusting ruins of it are all over the mountains. Martindale takes his charges to them much as SCUBA
enthusiasts dive on shipwrecks. Lots of history, lots of unmovable artifacts, lots of mystery. That evening, the last of the tour, we sat at another feast and bench-raced late into the night. I hated to see the tour end. Riding with Fred and Rodney was like a master class in off-roading, and Dave’s well-chosen route had taken us to parts of the Canadian Rockies that few people will ever see. Next summer, I shall do this again. By then the bruises should be just about healed.
For more information or to book a tour, contact Backroads Adventures BC, 2219 Michel Rd., Cranbrook, B.C., Canada VIC 6W5; 800/565-7730; www.backroadsadventures.ca.
