Motorcycle Miles: PT 6 Vancouver Island or Bust

["As per usual, a snippet from a ’60’s song will be stuck inside my head, repeating itself as the miles disappear. And I’ll be singing as part of a skilled background chorus, my rhythm in sync with the Virago’s pistons." PT 5 Vancouver Island or Bust]

In July, 2012 I’ll leave Wawa with a full tank of gas in my motorcycle at about 9 a.m. The weather will be lovely (says the author, optimistically), as it was the first time I drove that piece of highway north of Sault Ste. Marie in August, 2007.


["A biker, having just past Wawa and its giant goose, heads toward me."]

I’ll head west 93 kilometers, so says my map, and reach White River about an hour later. While I sip coffee outside one of the town’s few restaurants, I’ll review a few photos I took back in Wawa. Maybe I’ll have one of a moose, if I spot one like I did in ’07 somewhere along the just completed stretch of lonely highway.


["The cold, wild water of Hattie Cove, west of Wawa and White River"]

After my last swig of coffee, I’ll detour north (103 km.) on highway 631 to Hornepayne. At 11:30 I should be standing beside an old CN rail station in that town (“now unused and in disrepair” says Wikipedia re the station), stretching my legs, sipping from a thermos, and wondering if my dad saw much of the town when he and at least five other merchant mariners (members of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve) stopped there in January or February, 1944 on their way to Vancouver Island. I’ll look around, form some impressions, and wonder if he formed some that were similar.

Right around noon, my stomach will probably tell me to form an impression about how good a hamburger might taste at a local diner.

Off I’ll go to lunch. I’ll talk to a few locals. Maybe I’ll show them an old photo of five of my dad’s friends (‘oppos’ the sailors would say) outside their station. Maybe an old-timer will recall the year quite a few sailors passed through on their way west, while he lugged lumber in a nearby yard.


["From the side of the road, near Terrace Bay."]

After one last stretch of the legs I’ll ride back to the Trans-Canada highway 17, then point myself west and aim for Terrace Bay, about 460 km. total from Wawa, including the detour to Hornepayne. The bay is a pretty little spot, thanks to the fact it’s situated on the north shore of magnificent Lake Superior and has an unrestricted view of some of the prettiest wild, cold water in the world.

If, from my home base in London, I’ve biked to Massey, Wawa and then Terrace Bay, I’ll have covered about 1,350 km. in three days. I’ll be on my 5th tank of gas, down between $500 - 600 and sleeping like a rock, with thoughts of sugar plums - and the 3,500 km. still to go - dancing in my head.

[Photos by G.Harrison, 2007]

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