I’m usually the kind of motorcyclist that enjoys “The Long Ride”. That has different a meaning for many people but for me, it simply means I like to get out there and ride, and ride, and ride. A few years back I did a 5 day tour of multiple states…. I rode about 5000 kilometers in six days, that was a great ride. With moving back to BC from Ontario and starting (restarting) a new job, and the pandemic affecting the world today, the opportunities to take my F650GS for “The Long Ride” are few and far between. What’s a guy to do?
Adventure can exist wherever we choose to find it and having a long work week or having travel restrictions can certainly throw some shade on the idea of finding some. I decided long ago that I wanted to explore my home province of British Columbia and thought with my choice of bike, that would be easy. Enter the pandemic… (Thanks Covid).
I started looking for places around Vancouver to visit, to sort of… reacquaint myself with the city I actually grew up in. I visited the North Shore mountains, Stanley Park, Gastown … all the normal touristy spots, before just going for rides. What I started doing was what I used to love to do…. “Hmmm where does THIS road go?” and go check it out. The things I find down these roads can be amazing but, they can also be dead ends, and that can be part of the fun.
More recently I’ve started trying to discover hidden gems within riding distance of home. Sometimes I hear a rumour at work about an abandoned building or sometimes a read about a section of road that has been bypassed and forgotten. These are things I love to look for and it seemed silly to call it an adventure but, it’s all I could come up with until today.
I’ve been binge listening to the Adventure Rider Radio Raw podcast and on one of the episodes they coined the phrase “Micro Adventure”, and it fit perfectly. In the end, how you define it is up to you but to me it’s simply an adventure that you don’t have to overthink. You can head out for an hour, a day or a week and have a great adventure fairly close to home and not send folks into a tizzy because they see your out of province (or state) license plate. It’s about having a little fun in this time of stress and worry.
A perfect example of this was a recent ride I took to Alexandra Bridge Provincial Park. I’d been there before and taken the time to hike down and see the old crossing over the Fraser River but, I’d heard that there was an abandoned section of Highway 1 nearby. This was something I had to try to find for myself. After a quick bite to eat in Hope, BC, it’s just a 30 min cruise in the Fraser Canyon to the park.
Just north of the park is Alexandra Tunnel, one of the seven tunnels you pass through while riding Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon. There is a small pullout just prior to the tunnel leading off to the left. I took a chance and was astounded by what I found.
Completed in 1964, the Alexandra Tunnel bypassed this section of Highway 1 allowing nature to slowly reclaim it. I chose to park the bike and explore more on foot. There are still parts of the original retaining wall clinging to the cliff wall and if you stand very still, you can hear just the water rushing by below, the sounds of most of the cars is almost completely gone.
Just a few hours of the day and I was able to find something exciting to see and go for a great ride. This is MY definition of a Micro Adventure. What’s yours?
SeeNickRide 