The last day of an HU meeting is always the best and worst of it. The good bit is wandering around saying goodbye to friends old and new and enjoying the glow of their warmth and understanding. The worst is wandering around saying goodbye to friends old and new with just the dim hope that you will meet again on some distant road. Still, this is not so dismal a hope as it might seem. These are not people who sit around waiting for an invitation to the party. They are out bouncing around the world like pinballs and they turn up in the most unexpected places.

Going to Nakusp had also provided us with a small navigation problem. While well located for a rally, the village was poorly located for our further exploration of British Columbia. No matter which way we went from there we would end up back-tracking over a considerable part of the province before we were through. We decided to see BC anticlockwise so rode east towards the Rockies, Banff and all of that.

Our first misadventure of the week (yes, there were several) started in the village of Radium at the foot of the mountains. As I pulled up there was an expensive sounding noise coming from Elephant's hind quarters. While Jo was finding digs I investigated and found the rear brake was shot. Exactly why this was so is still not completely clear to me but, whatever its cause, Elephant was the worst possible bike to suffer this problem.

On most other bikes we would have simply ridden over the mountains and down to Calgary (using the front brake only) the next day. We could then buy the parts and do the repairs in a carpark. This wouldn't work with Elephant which is fitted with linked brakes. When you apply the front (the important one) the back comes on automatically. I hate this feature and have always considered it to be a dumb idea. I now have some experience to support my innate prejudice!

I studied the manual and tried every fix I could think of but there was no easy way to unlink the back brake. So, a phone call later we had Plan B. The BMW dealer in Calgary had the part for $40 and would put it on the Greyhound bus which would get it to us quick smart. Well, it sounded like a good plan. We waited two days for the part then paid $54 for the delivery. The delay gave us some down time to hike in the hills around Radium, to get up close to deer and  mountain sheep and catch up on some rest.

With an interim fix to the back brake, we tried for the mountains again. We blasted up Route 93 to Banff and did the necessary touristic survey. The next morning we turned north up the Bow Valley Parkway to ride what is considered one of the most scenic roads in BC. Unfortunately, this was the start of the second misadventure. It started to rain and the mist closed in.

The road may well have been scenic, and there may well have been bears and elk galore along the way. When the visibility was down to 100m, however, all of that seemed irrelevant. We  stopped at Lake Louise only long enough to check the map then took Route 1 (Trans Canadian Highway) back to the west and out of the mountains. Two hours later we were rolling along the flat lands with the weather improving discussing the options for the remainder of the week. 

Normally this wouldn't have been a problem but the weekend was just a day away and this  weekend was a very special one. The Labor Day Holiday is big deal in North America. It marks the end of Summer, the return to school for millions of students and the last holiday break until the Canadian or US Thanksgiving (different dates and different reasons for thanks). It is a big  deal like the Easter weekend in Oz with the same horrific road toll as testimony to its  significance. Accommodation would be heavily booked and it would be a very good time to be off the roads.

Our solution to this dilemma was simple and probably not that smart but we did think it up  over a bowl of warming soup in a little bakery while we dripped water on the floor.

“If every one is leaving Vancouver for the weekend,” opined Jo, “then why don't we go and have a look at the place? It should be deserted”. Ding! The light came on. And with not much more discussion or consideration we climbed back on the bike and rode to the west now intent on a clockwise tour of BC and not even thinking it odd that we would ride all the way back across the province for the weekend. Fortunately, we still had a day in reserve before the holiday and we used this to loop through a little used northern route which  eventually took us to Whistler and dropped us into Vancouver from the north.

Our weekend in Vancouver was a cracker! The place may not have been deserted, but the  traffic and congestion was well below usual levels and we shuttled around on the Skytrain at  special rates getting to know the place and planning a new way forward. And this, I guess, brings me to the point of the story. One of the critical things we have learned on the road is that adventures are often ruined through over-planning. We do the minimum we think we can get away with. Apart from the flexibility this gives us, we have found that the best deals are always on the spot and that the best things to see and do are known to the locals and  completely unknown to travel agents a world away. Then, if events don't turn out the way we  expected, we can cut our losses and make a new plan without regret.