5000 Mile Canadian Motorcycle Road Trip on a Honda CB500X

My life has always been designed around the values of freedom and exploration. Over the years, I've toured Europe in a classic British sports car, stared in awe at the Aurora Borealis in Sweden, and explored the vast expanse of the Tanzanian Serengeti. When COVID hit, I was in Japan working to launch a travel business. Then the borders closed and the world went into lockdown. After I returned to Canada, international travel was still a long ways off. So I bought a motorcycle and set out to explore the open roads of my own country. From Victoria, I traveled by ferry to Vancouver, rode up the Sea to Sky Highway, making my way east to the Rocky Mountains, before returning back through Prince George, Prince Rupert, and then back down Vancouver Island. BC Ferries operates a number of sailings between the mainland and Vancouver Island. Reservations are highly recommended for vehicles during the busy summer months, but the great thing about being on a motorcycle is that we always get to go to the front of the line. The 60-kilometer passing takes about an hour and a half and offers picturesque views of the many local islands inside the Strait of Georgia. Okay, here we go. That's downtown Vancouver. You can tell by all the condos. Look at these condos here. I used to live in one of them actually. That one right there, the 501. I used to live in that one. That was before all this was developed. Heading out of Vancouver across the Lionsgate Bridge, I connect up with the Sea to Sky Highway. Officially known as BC Highway number 99, this famous route from Vancouver to Whistler is filled with incredible sights at every turn. Wow, look at that view. I'm gonna stop for lunch in one of my favorite areas, Creekside, Whistler. Strange to be in Whistler and not mountain biking. Whistler Bike Park is home to over 130 trails and attracts riders from all around the world. If you're a mountain biker, I highly recommend adding Whistler to your bucket list, but as tempting as it is for me to go for a ride today, I'm just stopping for a quick lunch break. Many people who ride the Sea to Sky Highway stop at Whistler, but if you're on two wheels, there's actually a far better road a little bit further north. The Duffy Lake Road connects Pemberton to Lillooet and is an 80 kilometer ride filled with amazing scenery, changing geography, and miles of fun twisty roads. The Duffy is a local favorite and a lot of fun, but watch out for gravel patches and the occasional police patrol rolling through. Well that's interesting. It just started to rain. There's the sun. Come on buddy, you can do it. Come out. It's raining hard. Now I have to find out where my hotel is. Apparently it's straight. Look at this town. Oh my god, it's like totally empty. My first stop for the night is in Merritt, BC. This place looks pretty empty now, but in the summer months, it's host to a number of music festivals. After a long day on the road, my plans are to relax in my hotel and crash out for the night. Here we go. Back on the highway. Off to Nacusp. Nacusp, BC with a stopover in Kelowna. I'm very excited to see my old childhood home in Kelowna. It's been 34 years since I last lived there and it's one of the fastest growing cities in BC. I imagine there's been a lot of changes. Yeah, that's my old elementary school there. I used to deliver newspapers around this area. That was the first job I had. Oh, there it is. There it is. I see it. Oh, this whole sidewalk section is all new here. Never used to have that. Oh, you can't turn right here. That's frustrating. There's like a bike lane. What the hell? Anyways, that's my old house. That's where I used to live. This used to be like just dirt. You could just pull over right here. I remember I used to have to rake the leaves from this stupid tree. Good lord, that tree looks big. Yeah, that was my old house there. I'm gonna go walk around and see if I can take a little bit of a peek. I wonder if someone lives there now. Let's go take a look. That room at the top there used to be my room. Kitchen was right there. Dining room was right there. Bathroom was right there. That goes into the basement. I used to put my bike down there. The Dee Hart House. This is a heritage home. Vernon. That's my next stop. From Kelowna, I made my way up to Vernon and east to Nacospe. I was surprised at how much traffic there was, but when it finally cleared up, I got to enjoy the nice winding roads of Highway 6. Like all inland ferries in BC, the Needles Ferry is free and takes you across Arrow Lake in the West Kootenay region. This road has been fantastic. Look at that view. What lake is that? Oh, that must be the lake that I just crossed. Arrow Lake, I think they called it. The village of Nacospe lies at the north end of Arrow Lake. It is known for its nearby hot springs and picturesque mountain lakeside setting. I arrived in Nacospe just in time to gas up and go find my hotel. Head to the grocery store, grab some food, and then go find my hotel. From Nacospe, I made my way to the small town of New Denver to ride the infamous Highway 31A. This stretch of highway between New Denver and Kaslo is known as the Valley of Ghosts on the account of many old towns that it was once home to. But for motorcyclists, it's 46 kilometers of endlessly fun twisty roads. Whoa, it's twisty. I gotta be careful. 50 kilometers to Kaslo. That's my destination for today. Whoa, look at this road. Holy shit. Holy ****. Wow, this corner is even banked. That's pretty cool. I am cabin number five. That's my hotel for the night. Kaslo is a popular stop for motorcyclists in the summer, so hotel reservations are highly recommended. My stay for the night was at the Kaslo Motel, which offers these cozy cabins for rent. So my plan today is there's a mountain around here called Mount Buchanan. Buchanan Lookout, something like that. And let's see if I can actually make it to the top. It's a dirt road, so we'll find out if how far I can get. Mount Buchanan is located about 11 kilometers outside of Kaslo and is a popular hiking and mountain biking area. So this is it. Buchanan Lookout. Now it's gravel. I take it it's left. Left, I guess. I don't know. What does the sign say? I wonder if it's left or right. Shit, I don't know. Shit. There's nothing here. Damn it. Let me try the steeper one. I think I'm gonna go the other way. Let's try this one. Just creep through and then give it the beans. No, no, no. Don't give it the beans. You'll slide out. Oh, I can feel the bike sliding. I gotta come back to that. Son of a bitch. Are we near the top at all? I have no idea. So I went like this way. I probably should have gone that way. So I'm like way off. I'm going to have to call it a day and head home. Wouldn't that be funny if it was that way right at the very beginning? I took the wrong road. That'd be funny. You are here. Oh, to the right. Oh my god. I can't believe I did that thing. It went totally the wrong way. Damn it. Okay, now I gotta do it. Now that I know which way to go. So once you've figured out the correct route, it's about 12 kilometers to get up to the top of the mountain. The view from the top of Mount Buchanan overlooking Kootenay Lake was definitely worth the trip and made for a fantastic picnic spot. This historic fire lookout has been fully restored and offers an interesting bit of history and is actually one of the very few in BC that is still standing. So I'm really looking forward to the next part of my trip because one of the reasons why I wanted to do this trip was I wanted to see the scenery in Alberta. So today I am heading into Alberta and then tomorrow I will actually be in the area where the Rocky Mountains are. That's the good news. The bad news is the weather is supposed to turn tomorrow and it's supposed to get cloudy and rainy. As someone who lives on Vancouver Island and has to take that rather expensive ferry to Vancouver a lot, I really enjoy these free inland ferries. Southern BC is home to some amazing roads for motorcyclists like this Highway 3A that runs alongside Kootenay Lake. Whoa buddy! How's it going? How's it going buddy? It's a pretty impressive hornage you got there. This area is also known for its many fruit farms during the summer and this time of year happened to be cherry season. Okay snack rest break done. I actually have a lot more kilometers to do than I realized. I am further away than I thought. So let's put some miles down. This is like Canada's deadliest rock slide. Look at that! I was wondering what happened there. At 4 10 in the morning on April 29th 1903, 110 million tons of rock swept down the side of Turtle Mountain and buried the town of Frank. Witnesses say the slide lasted almost two minutes and based on how far the rocks extended across the Crow's Nest River Valley, scientists estimate that the rocks were moving at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour. Of the 600 people living in Frank, over 90 were killed making it Canada's deadliest rock slide. Let's go find out what my hotel room looks like. Let's go find out. The next day I was up well before sunrise to meet a photographer friend of mine who offered to show me the amazing scenery of the Banff National Park. You can see the sun starting to come up over there. Hopefully I can get some good photos. It better be worth it after all this. The crowning jewel of the Canadian National Park system, Banff National Park offers stunning views of waterfalls, emerald green lakes, majestic mountains, and local wildlife. That was certainly a lot of fun. It was really great to be able to get up close to some of the nature that I've been seeing from the road. But I gotta say I still feel like the mountains in Switzerland are way more majestic looking than the mountains here. I mean look at that. If you take a look at that mountain there, yeah it looks nice, but if you double the height of that or triple the height of that it would look more impressive, right? So I kind of, in my mind, I imagine the Rocky Mountains were like the mountains in Switzerland where it just goes to the sky, you know. It's not as imposing as I thought they would be. But getting up close, getting to photograph them was a lot of fun and I can definitely see why there's a lot of like little areas for people to go check out and explore and it's why a lot of people like to come to this area. So that was kind of fun. Anyways, I got another about two or three hour ride ahead of me to my next destination. I'm going to meet up with a buddy of mine and we're going to do some off-road riding. So enough with this pavement stuff. Let's see how the donkey does in the adventure category. It is marketed as adventure bike after all. And let's see how I do in the off-road. From Canmore, my journey takes me to the small town of Invermere which, despite the area's natural beauty, has remained somewhat off the beaten path for many international travelers. Today I'm planning on testing the off-road capabilities of myself and my motorcycle by heading up into the local mountains. The mountain scene here was amazing and my off-road riding was actually doing pretty good until... Yeah I'm okay. I almost had it though, didn't I? I'm just glad I didn't roll down there. That would have been funny. I ended up back down at the bridge. Invermere is definitely a place I like to come back to. The amazing scenery and relaxed local vibe make this a special place indeed. From Invermere, I ride the famous Icefields Parkway to Jasper. This road is rated as one of the top drives in the world by Condé Nast Traveler, but unfortunately for me, most of the amazing views were hidden behind a thick haze of forest fire smoke. In the lovely town of Jasper. In Jasper, I met up with a fellow CB500X rider who offered to show me one of her other rides. I absolutely love horses and it was great to be able to spend some time with this magnificent trio. Wow, he has like really soft hair. I never knew that about horses. That's amazing. Prince George, there we go. That's my next destination is Prince George. Leaving Jasper marks the halfway point of my trip and now begins the long ride home. Over the next two days, I will ride 1,000 kilometers from Jasper to Prince Rupert with a quick stopover in Prince George. I think that is the city of Prince George and actually it's only two o'clock. I can't even check into my Airbnb until three o'clock, so I mean I actually got here a little bit earlier than I anticipated. So I'm going to head into town. I'm going to get some gas and then figure out what I can do next. Once again, I'm packing my motorcycle for the road. I've had some really great weather on my trip so far, so let's hope my luck holds out for the ride home. Luckily for me, the rain didn't last too long and I was able to enjoy some sunny patches as I rode along Highway 16, only to be met with rain again as I pulled into Prince Rupert. Okay, oh look at that, down to low fuel. I just made it. So far, I've ridden just over 3,500 kilometers and I'm looking forward to a few days of rest and relaxation before I take my last ferry back to Vancouver Island. The Northern Adventure sails from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy. The sailing offers stunning views of the ocean and islands along the inside passage. If you're lucky, you might see a pod of whales go by. In the summer months, the sailing from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy is usually done during the day so you can enjoy the magnificent scenery. For my particular journey, it was overnight, so I booked a cabin for myself. From Port Hardy, it's 500 kilometers south to Victoria, but I recommend getting off the main highway so you can enjoy the scenic route of Highway 19A. Known to the locals as the Old Island Highway, this scenic oceanside route between Campbell River and Victoria offers miles of picturesque coastline, charming small towns, and outdoor adventure along the way. As I rode back into Victoria, I was surprised at how much fun my trip had been. It made me realize that if you're looking for an adventure, you never have to really travel very far to find it. The two weeks I spent riding through Western Canada has motivated me to start planning an even bigger trip next year. I hope it inspires you to seek out your own adventures as well.