This year’s kick-off to the long-haul riding season was a three-day trip around Kootenay Lake in British Columbia. It has been a miserable spring weather‐wise in Washington State, and there was snow forecast early in the week for our overnight destination at Curlew Lake on Friday, but there was never a doubt this would be another great trip no matter what the skies ended up doing.

We were going to ride across Highway 20 on the outbound leg, which we had done last year on April 24th, but not this year — the highway is still closed because it is buried in snow. One reason to ride through the North Cascades on this trip was that it is the Destination Highways top‐ranked motorcycle route in the state, and because we had their top‐ranked British Columbia route on the agenda, it seemed fitting. (We’ll have to ride Highway 20 later this year. Darn it.)

This video is spliced together from the ride on the first day.¹ As you will see, it was a stunning spring day. We stopped for lunch in Chelan (pictured above), and made it to Republic with enough daylight left to have time to shoot the breeze for a while before dinner and then cover the last few miles to the lake.

The camera was set to a 4∶3 ratio (1280 × 960), which I had not used before. I like the additional area along the vertical axis, but have decided since putting this video together that I prefer a 16∶9 ratio.

I have a new mount on its way from RAM that will serve to hoist the camera out from behind the windscreen. It should be in use the next time I shoot some footage.

I believe it may have been the entire Ferry County contingent of Canada geese that woke me up at the crack of dawn on Saturday. Noisy bastards. They are living in the trees next to the lake. Once camp was struck, it was into Canada via Grand Forks. The video really does not do justice to just how beautiful the surroundings were.

Here, the camera was set to a 16∶9 ratio with a 127° field of view (1920 × 1080). Between this and the 170° field of view at 1280 × 720 is where I expect most of the video I shoot will occur from now on.

We were delayed for about an hour and a half near the Kootenay Pass summit outside of the crossing back into the United States at Nelway because an avalanche had covered the highway. The time was well‐spent, however, as we met a fellow who had some great suggestions for refining our route northward out of Jasper Park next month. The ride over Sherman Pass took us past the site of the Turkey Incident last year, and darned if there was not a flock of the things at the side of the road in virtually the exact spot. Our return to camp at the lake coincided with twilight, leaving just enough time to get set up before turning in.

The trip home on Sunday was a reverse of the outbound trip, right up to the point where it started to rain, which was just as we tipped onto the western slope at the summit of Stevens Pass. We stopped at Index for a refreshing jolt of caffeine and called it a weekend. The total mileage when I rolled into the garage was 967.6.