Let's Ride Again

Riding the Duffey Lake Road was the popular consensus of the folks on the 2009 ride on the Island. Just in case you forgot what we did or what you missed, there were 6 of us who rode to Gold River one day and then up Mount Washington the next. Our home base was the United Mennonite Church in Black Creek. Check it out on my last year's blog entries.

Last summer, on a ride back from up north, I scouted out the Duffey Lake route. I had two concerns. One was that there was major bridge construction between Lillooet and Pemberton. Two was that to do the circle route back to the Lower Mainland would be a very long day.

Here are some of my thoughts from last summer. Title: MCBC Motorcycle Ride 2010 notes taken during and after scouting out the Duffey Lake Road.
1. The ride from the junction of highways 97 & 99 to Whistler took me 3:15. This included 2 stops, one to take off my chaps & kidney belt because it was too hot, the other for gas.
2. There were some amazing stretches of perfect road with nice twisties - most of the way from highway 97 to Lillooet and then again, starting about 1/2 way between Lillooet and Pemberton, most of the way to Pemberton. There were some pretty bad stretches of road, including some big construction projects - this was on the first ½ of the way from Lillooet to Pemberton, and the last stretch before Pemberton. There were a number of single lane bridges, and in many places the speed limit was down to 60. The possibility of getting behind a slow-moving vehicle for a period of time is real, and there were no places where a group could pass. I think it would be a lot of fun, it sure was for me by myself. I don't know what the cut off between Lillooet and Lytton is like, although someone told me it is a very nice stretch of road. The road from Pemberton to Whistler was a nice highway, although the maximum speed limit was 80.
3. The ride from Whistler to Vancouver (I checked time at Taylor Way and Marine Dr. in West Vancouver) took 1 1/2 hours. The new Sea to Sky Highway is amazing - you just pray for the guys on the crotch rockets riding on the edge of their lives at three times the speed limit. The breath-taking views go unseen for these guys.
4. The ride from this spot in West Vancouver, home to Ladner took 3/4 hour.

So I tried to figure out in what condition all the construction is at this time. I ended up emailing the Pemberton Chamber of Commerce to ask. Here is the response on April 4th, 2010, "Hello Garry. Last year saw the completion of two bridges on the Duffey Lake Road, - the large one at the slide area before entering the canyon before Lillooet and another smaller one just prior to  the large bridge.  There also was about 20 kms of the road re-paved from Pemberton to the Lake ( Duffey Lake). This year there are plans to do some more paving as well. The road is in the best condition it has ever been and of course is a very popular motorcycle route. Hope this bit of info helps you. Regards, Shirley Henry, Pemberton Chamber of Commerce.
I think I have concern number one resolved.

The number two concern is still unresolved. I checked a blog on this ride, and here is a comment on the time of the whole route, "He started The Duffey Loop at 11:00am in Langley, riding up the Fraser Canyon to Cache Creek, then into the Marble Canyon, to Lillooet, Pemberton, Whistler, Squamish and Vancouver, returning to Langley at 10:15pm for a total of 703 kilometres."

I don't know if this guy was on a cruiser or a rocket, but it took him 11 hours and 15 minutes. That's a long day. I'm sure there must be a place to stay in Lillooet for night. I guess if we gave options, some could make it a one day trip and others a two day. If some of you may be coming from Black Creek, it would possibly be a two night event.

If anybody new is reading this who is not on my MCBC Motorcycle Riders email list, and would like to do the ride, leave a comment.

I am thinking we would go the weekend of August 14-15. Give me your thoughts.

If you are interested in more photos of my ride, go to http://www.jonjanzen.com/2010/05/pops-and-his-ride.html. If you are interest in the photographer (free ad for my son), go to the same address and leave a comment that you would like him to take photos of your ride, with your contact information.

SAVED BY AN ANGEL

Last night I took in a moving talk by LEON LEYSON,the youngest survivor on “Schindler's List” entitled SAVED BY AN ANGEL. He shared his heart-wrenching story of life in the factory of Oscar Schindler. He was 13 at the time that he was taken into Schinldler's factory as his ticket of freedom from the death camp; he is now 80 years old.

At the centre of his talk was his continual reference to the "humanity" of Oscar Schindler. He spoke of the step-by-step dehumanisation of the Jewish people in his city of Krakow, Poland - from relegation to the back of public buses to Jewish ghettos in their own city, to concentration camps and death camps. Of all the German people (mostly Nazi soldiers) he met after the war began, Schindler was the only one who had life in his eyes - as opposed to the hollow emptiness he saw in all the others.

He spoke of his life's journey to freedom as being a series of fortunate events. In the question period, a woman of faith asked him if all this good luck that he spoke about was not the hand of God. He said that with all the pain and death around him and his family, and for all the other six million Jews that were exterminated, it was too presumptuous to suggest that God had this much favour on him over all these others. I too find it hard to presume that the series of fortunate events that has allowed us to live here in Canada is evidence of God's favour on us, while many believers around the world live in such tragic situations. Diane and I talked about this last night when I returned home, and we agreed that this is something we would like to ask God about in heaven.

There is so much that I could say about the talk. I will just conclude with Mr. Leyson's unhesitating answer to a young boy's question,"What has the world learned from the holocaust?" His answer, "Nothing."