The Guys' Bike Trip 1995

Trevor Flexhaug recently posted this picture on his facebook page and it brought back a lot of memories for me. Although we could not have realized it at the time, this was a crossroads in our lives. The camera's shutter managed to capture the precise moment that separated our childhood in Claresholm from the rest of our lives as adults, and whatever that would entail. For this post, I am including a series of excerpts from a journal I kept.

I hope this post will help the guys in the picture remember the great time we had together, and possibly to help everyone else remember that time in their lives when they were most carefree. When they didn't know what the future, or even the next day, held in store for them.

"June 30th, 1995
I woke up at 6:15 and packed my bike for a trip to B.C. then went in to Trevor's house to study for the Math 30 Final Exam. We ended up playing Super Bomberman on the Nintendo. We finally went in and wrote the test which was actually pretty easy. After making a few last minute purchases, we gassed up our motorcycles and Scott Hamon, Dave Mulholland, Trevor Flexhaug, and I headed out to Wasa Provincial Park in B.C.


The ride was wicked. We had all our gear strapped to our bikes with bungee cords and there was barely enough room to sit. We rode in a tight group and made pretty good time until we hit a stretch of the highway that had been badly damaged by flooding. Because one of the lanes was washed out, they were only allowing traffic through one way each half hour. We got to go up to the front of the line because we were on motorcycles and while we waited, we played hackysack on the side of the road.

When we got to the campground we set up Trevor's tent and then went for a swim in the lake. I called home then we came back to camp and made kraft dinner. At "quiet time" we stalked around the campground, shining Trevor's laser pointer on peoples' tents. At least two wardens were driving around looking for us so we came back and made ichiban and hot chocolate. Instead of sleeping in the tent, we parked our motorcycles in a square and slept on the ground, our sleeping bags under the stars and inside the fence of bikes.



June 31st, 1995
Today we left our gear at the camp and drove our bikes into Fairmont where for four dollars we spent the day at the outdoor hot springs. We tanned and dove off of the diving boards. When we finally decided to head back to camp we got caught in the rain and our clothes got soaked. We ate our dinner in the rain and went to bed.



July 1st, 1995
This morning was nice and warm so we went to Camper's Beach, just past the main gates. We tanned and swam and played hackeysac until it was time for Dave and Scott to leave. The four of us drove into Cranbrook where I had a gas station attendant take a picture of us all on our bikes. After Dave and Scott drove off, Trevor and I found a laundromat where we washed our dirty clothes. While they were washing we went for a drive and saw that the Arman Theater was playing Batman Forever at 7:00pm. There wasn't enough time before the movie to put our clothes in the dryer so the lady that worked there gave us some garbage bags to keep them in so we could bring them back after the movie. The movie was kind of dumb. When we got back to the laundromat it was closed but the lady let us in. While our clothes were drying we helped the husband and wife clean up and talked to them about the Church and about our missions that we were planning on going on. I think we left them with a good impression.

After that we drove around Cranbrook trying to find where the fireworks were going to be. Some girls in a park gave us directions and when we got there, there was a lot of people and some local bands playing. After the fireworks ended, we drove back to the campsite in the dark and went to bed.



July 2, 1995
This morning we woke up at 6:30am and had a bath in the lake then shampooed our hair in the bathroom sink. We packed our church clothes on our motorcycles and drove into Cranbrook. We had breakfast at McDonald's and changed in the bathroom. We went to sacrament meeting in both wards and I bore my testimony in one of them. After church we came back to camp and watched a presentation at the amphitheater on cattle ranching in the Kooteneys. We had some hot chocolate, then went around to each of the campsites and said 'good night' to everyone in the campground. We were just getting into our sleeping bags just as it started to rain.




July 3rd, 1995
This morning the tent was soaking wet inside. Everyone else in the campground had big campers and trailers, we were one of the only ones with a tent and we were definitely the only ones camping with motorcycles. One of the other campers came and gave us a big tarp to use. He was the father of the two girls a few campsites down from us. He said that he was from Calgary and he had rode a motorcycle too. Almost as soon as we got the tarp up, he came back with one of his daughters and gave us some extra rope. Finally, the two daughters came by and gave us a fire log. We decided that we needed to do something for them so we found something we could use as a vase - a vodka bottle from one of the campers near us - and made a bouquet of wildflowers. We also ran to the general store where we bought some cookies that we put on a paper plate we got from another campsite. We went to the families campsite and gave them the cookies and the flowers. They got a good laugh.

July 4th, 1995
This morning we had oatmeal for breakfast then packed up the camp. After we gave the tarp and rope back to the family we borrowed it from, we went down to the lake for a swim. There was a girl there that I asked to have my picture taken with. That way we could make up a story about meeting some girls and Dave and Scott would regret leaving so soon. We then changed into our riding clothes and started for home. The clouds were building into another storm and we started to get rained on but we kept going and eventually got out from under it. We stopped in Sparwood to get a picture of our bikes next to the 200 tonne dump truck. We got back into Claresholm at around 7pm and the young women were having their "camp" inside the gym at the church. I took a picture of that so we could see how much better our camp was than theirs, then Trevor and I shook hands and left for our homes.

It was hard to admit but the bike trip was over. "


After this trip, we started to go our separate ways. I went to Calgary to enroll in University and find a place to live. Some of us lived together for a while in Calgary until Scott was the first to leave on his mission. One by one we went, but after our missions, we again met at Wasa to go camping. At first it was just us guys. Then it was us and our wives. Then it was families with young children.

That spur of the moment bike trip to celebrate the end of high school, has today become a yearly tradition. No matter where we have settled, it has managed to keep everyone close for the past 12 years.

Maybe it's time that the guys went on another motorcycle trip...





- C