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Western Canada HOG Rally |
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| Maple Ridge, B.C. - August 16, 2000 - By Mike Townsend |
(Above is a composite picture of about 80% of the people attending, the two women holding the shirt with a logo are from Saskatoon.) |
 I got home from our Western Canada HOG Rally last night. I am just beat today as it often takes about a day or so to recover from these things. It was held in Maple Ridge in the Lower Mainland. The weather was good, the people had fun and the bikes were loud. We had a good turn out from all across North America; Florida, New York State, the Western States and all over Canada. Even had a couple of guys who booked a 'Fly and Ride' from New Zealand. Some of our Chapter members. That's me on the far right. |
 Most chapters camped together here are some of our folks from Kamloops. The atmosphere at events like this is hard to describe as everyone shares a common experience even though most of us come from a wide range of work and experience backgrounds. |
 It is remarkable the scope of the appeal that attracts people from all over to come together and enjoy a rally like this one. The setting for the event was excellent with lots of great camping spots and loads of room for get togthers. |
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 We had a dance on Friday night and Saturday night with a live band. The food was terrific and always plenty of it. Access to liquid refreshment was never a problem. It was great to see such a lively bunch from Saskatoon. They have had a Chapter for some time but I hadn't heard about them. They took many of the prizes in the bike games and they seemed to have a real good time. |
 Most of this stuff from the pictures happened Friday. On Saturday some of us went on a ride to the Fred Deely museum in Richmond. There were about four different rides you could go on around the lower mainland but about eighty of us decided on this one. Now if you have ever seen eighty Harleys traveling together on the highway, it is quite impressive. But to see this same number negotiate traffic in down town Vancouver and area, it is quite something else. We had five of our riders who would do intersection control and it went as smooth as glass. When we would stop somewhere people would often ask what the 'Angels' were up to. One gets tired of explaining the difference between 'HOGs' and 'Angels'. |
 The museum had an vast array of Harleys of every vintage and also included some other bikes including the first bike I ever rode, a 1966 80cc Honda which also had bike peddles so one could assist those 80cc's on occasion. But alas, I didn't bring the camera for I have found that to truly participate one must do so and not chronicle the event. |
| Six of us traveled together back to Kamloops yesterday. Other than the huge head wind through the Fraser Canyon on the way down Friday morning, the weather was perfect for the whole weekend. (below: Just a few of the bikes in the day parking lot.) |
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