Home.....for now (Day 18)

Day 18

Golden > Revelstoke > Salmon Arm > Sprokkets Café > Kamloops > Cache Creek > Lillooet > Pemberton > Squamish

Route: Highway 1 > Highway 97> Highway 99

Road Quality: 8/10

Drive Quality: 9/10

Wildlife Spotted: It was all a blur 

After our evening the night before, we felt like we had done it. We had conquered the highs and lows. We had soaked and dried and soaked and dried and frozen and thawed. We had seen the views, felt the elements, laughed with friends.

We’ve learned on our trips that at some point, you reach the end, mentally. This day was our end. We felt successful and tired and ready to be done.

Though we weren’t setting off early, we decided to push through the 8-10 hours to return home. The one intentional stop we made has become of a tradition of ours: Sprokkets Café & Dreamcycle Motorcycle Museum in the Shuswap. The Café offers an espresso bar, homemade pastries, sandwiches, and soups for breakfast or lunch. The Motorcycle Museum and gift shop it is attached to features dozens of classic and collectible rides. The owner is incredibly knowledgeable about bikes from every era, and he loves to chat with any rider journeying any length. We’ve watched this place grow in popularity over the years, and absolutely recommend it as a quintessential stop. We had lunch here before setting west.

If we were to do this trip again, there are many gorgeous and worthy stops to be made on this route. Revelstoke is yet another adventure town with loads to offer in terms of camping, attractions, and food and beverage. A detour into Kelowna makes for great wine tasting. Penticton has campgrounds that saddle beaches on warm, welcoming waters. Any of these would have been great stops. But today we were stubborn and decided to keep on.

The drive has a bit of everything. You pass again through mountains, enter desert, ride alongside farmlands with stands selling and abundance of fresh fruit, pass through rolling, grassy fields. The highway floods then trickles, traffic is thick and thin. Our day was a blur of everything, and we made only minimal stops to gas up, take a quick bite, and push on.

Though oftentimes travelers may take Highway 1 back South through Vancouver, we opted to avoid the city after our long day and spend a few extra kilometers going the northern route from Kamloops. This drive is beautiful, back through the mountains and valleys of Lillooet, Pemberton, and Whistler. As we rode through them, cresting and falling through the mountains as the sun glowed amber and fell to dusk, we felt the weary happiness of a long road coming to its inevitable end.   

We arrived back to our townhouse glazed and disoriented. Into our garage we collapsed, our bikes covered in dust, clothes starchy and pressed pancake-like into our packs. We sighed, unhooked our bungee cords and ratchet straps one last time. We allowed our things to fall unceremoniously to the floor as we creaked our way out of motorcycle boots, their laces almost snapping with dust. We sat in the garage, sprawled on the cool concrete floor and stared at our things, perhaps already dreaming of our next great adventure.