CFR - The view from the top report

This is going to be fairly short compared to some of my other ride reports since I was a little too busy trying to keep things moving along and a little incident that slowed me down somewhat.

There were a number of final details that needed attending to and by the time I got the chance to go to Buffalo to pick up the shirts it was the day before CFR. I jumped into the Highlander and was off across Toronto. Of course that was mass chaos as we battled the gridlock but in the end I went to my sister-in-law's place of business in Buffalo and got the shirts. Peggy suffers through me using her office as a mail dump and there has been enough motorcycle parts that have gone through Meals on Wheels in Buffalo to build about three motorcycles. Peggy's co-workers think it's pretty funny.

Thankfully I have a NEXUS card so getting across the border in both directions went smoothly. The only hiccup was when I declared the shirts coming back the Customs guy thought I was running a business and selling the shirts for profit and I got a bit of a grilling. Once I went inside to pay the taxes the Customs fellow at the counter was very cool about the whole thing and understood exactly what it was all about. Five minutes later I was on my way.

On my way back I stopped in at my bother's place near The Falls (Niagara Falls for the non-locals)

to pick up some items I had earlier picked up from Yamaha Canada and did not want in the truck when I crossed the border. There is a street near ny brother's place and everytime I see the street sign for some reason I think of Bust....



It was getting very close to the start of rush hour back in Toronto and I still had things to do. I needed to pick up one more item as a little welcoming gift for the folks as they arrived at CFR so I made a little stop in Grimsby at....



and it just so happened a tour of the distillery was about to start. So much foe getting through Toronto before the start of Rush Hour. After the tour then was a little sampling plus a little shot would help settle the nerves before battling through Toronto. I picked up a couple of bottles of the Forty Creek Copper Pot blended Canadian Whiskey. This Rye was very smooth and I will leave it to the others that were had a sample as they arrived at CFR to offer their opinion. The folks at Forty Creek also threw in some bumper stickers for the prize table. I will mention that FredW said that it was the smoothest Rye he had ever tasted and Jack & Jane even though being bourbon drinkers were impressed.

By the time I got to Shakin's place in Pickering on the east side of Toronto the 401 was its usual mess and I had to stop anyways at Ian's to pick up the last of the prize items and build up my strength for the final leg back to Bowmanville. After a 12 hour day I was finally back home and there was packing to do but I was nackered and just went to bed.

At 4:30AM I woke up thinking of all the things I needed to take and started packing the trailer & truck. Laptop and printer, check. Camera gear, check. Cooler, check. Riding gear, check. What was I forgetting?? Maybe a motorcycle or two, that would be good. Into the trailer goes the FJR in beside the WR which lives in the trailer when not out on the trails. We loaded up a few other items and then headed over to Timmy's for breakfast before heading out. I had mentioned the Gynn, the manager about the rally and asked about a few prize items. She said no problem as long as I could supply her with a letter which I typed up in the morning.

With the trailer loaded up and a Timmy's coffee in the cup holder I pointed the rig north and headed up the final stop at my local dealer to pick up some oil filters for a couple of the folks and they were going to supply me with a pop-up tent for the weekend. Unfortunately there had been a mix-up and the tent was not avialable but the filters were in stock so it was time to head for Huntsville.

My dealer is just south of Port Perry so from there it made the most sense to take Hwy 12 North. If I was on the bike I would not have gone that way but the goal this time was just to get to Huntsville. By the time I made Orillia my coffee mug was dry so it was a quick stop at the Timmy's just before heading north on Hwy 11. I made Hidden Valley Resort just before 13:00 which was about 2 hours and change driving time from my place.

I had just fininshed doing final setup for registration when the first riders started to arrive. When Ian showed up he started explaining in minute detail all the things he had to do and had done getting there. I told him to shut up and go do what he left to do and then get back so that I could unload my bike and go for a ride since I had not been more that 20 miles on my FJR up to that point all season.

Tom and Pam arrived and knowing that Ian had probably found somebody else to tell all the things he had to do and all the things he had done that day, I gave Tom & Pam a quick briefing and then suited up and went for a short ride down County Rd 23 to Portage and down to Hwy 117 before coming back. It was a great little ride and was was a great little stress reliever.

I came back and helped out with registration and then went out to the parking lot to offer a little sampling of Forty Creek Rye as a welcome to CFR. The parking lot festivities included FJRGuy (Jeff) offering rides to the kiddies in Jeff's new trailer...

As you can see it was a fairly typical FJR gathering.

more to come....

The parking lot social finally died out around midnight and I needed some sleep before getting out for the first decent ride all season. The breakfast buffet was actually pretty good and it was now time to break out the riding gear and head out.

Most folks had settled on the Ride & Find that Tom had set up but I just wanted to ride and will go back later and find stuff. Unfortunately the Muskoka Road Department had decided just a week earlier that Hwy 518 needed some maintenance and had proceeded to tear up sections of the road in most of the nicer corners and leave gravel in place for the time being. We had an alternate route available but it was not as sweepy and the another normally fun road we had in the route still had sand and gravel left over from the recent flooding in the area. Given all that I decided to give the roads to the east a try. I know most of these roads very well since I had laid out this loop which we had named the Maynooth loop. Some of these roads I have done with both the FJR and my WR since these roads are all in the middle of the Canadian National Corduroy Enduro area. Had FredW been with us I would have used the WR instead. We then would have had a number of opportunities to deviate off the pavement and Fred could have tested the limits of the FJR's dual sport capabilities on trails such as the experts only Green Mountain trail....



The video does not show just how steep this trail is.

I was talking to others the previous night in the parking lot and a few had expressed an interest in doing the Maynooth loop so I found Top Speed_1 & Wine Guy in the morning. Top Speed_1 was also dragging along Steamer on on Kawi Ninga like some boat anchor but I still offered to give them the 10 cent tour.

We pulled out of the parking lot and then turned onto County Rd 23 just past the Deerhurst Resort, home of the G8 Conference a few years ago. From there we skirted along the edge of the lake down to Portage Rd and made it down to Hwy 117. At Dorset we had to stop for fuel because Steamer was riding a POS Kawi Ninja that couldn't make it from one stop light to another without running out of gas.

The original route had us go all the way down Hwy 35 to Carnarvon but Ray had told me there was a fun little cottage road part way down that goes on the other side of Kushog Lake...



This road was like being on a roller coaster with lots of turns and little rollers and was tons of fun. There was a little sand and some loose pavement but nothing you couldn't take into account if you were paying attention. Our Kawi rider was riding in the second position and after a while I couldn't see him in my mirrors. I ride a Gen 2 so I don't see much in my mirrors at the best of times. I stopped and looked behind. No Ninja. I shut the motor off and listened. All I could hear was the birds singing but while fearing the worst and getting ready to turn around the Ninja finally made an appearance blocking the progress of the other two FJR's. When we got down to Hwy 118 Steamer was whining about the sand and this and that. I was going to change his name to Buttercup but one of the female pillons already had that handle.

We then went along Hwy 118 over to Haliburton were we stopped in at a little coffee shop & cafe I know since it had been more than two hours since my last coffee. At this point I once again decided to deviate from the original route and rather than head down towards Fenelon Falls I took the boys east over to the top end of County Road 3 and turned south. There was quite a display of hooliganism for the next 90 minutes as Steamer tried to chase me down to the bottom of Hwy 507. At the bottom of County Rd 3 at Gooderham the smile on Steamer was from one side of the helmet to the other as he told us how fast his Ninja was. There were a few times in the straighter sections where I would see the Ninja coming up behind me since I was being responsible and trying not to go at a velocity that would get my FJR immediately impounded if witnessed by the local LEO. There were a few occasions where the Kawi needed to be taught a lesson however and it was soon a little dot in the mirrors.

When we got to the bottom of 507 I told the boys I hope they were paying attention and had memorized all the corners because now we were turning around and going right back up. After another fun spirited ride we turned right on Hwy 118 and worked our way over to Wilberforce and stopped at the corner cafe for lunch. Steamer and Top Speed_1(KJ) really liked the fries and I told them they need to go to Quebec and try the poutine. We had to stop in Harcourt because that POS Kawi was running out of gas AGAIN and then made the turn onto another favorite section of mine, Elephant Lake Rd and the Peterson....



Top Speed_1 had recently had surgery on a tender area of the groin area and was having some discomfort on some of the rougher roads. At the rest stops we took he was shoving ice bags down his pants to cold down the boys and it was kind of embarrassing to be hanging around with him. I knew the next section might be a little rougher than most of the roads up to that point but unfortunately it was bad rough at the bottom end with big potholes and rough patch jobs. By the time we got to Whitney the boys were on fire and KJ needed a break to let the boys cool down.

We finished the ride with a cruise across Algonquin Park and stopped at the West Gate for a photo op...



Here is Wine Guy's, Top Speed_1's & my FJR's. Steamer's Ninja was too slow to make it into the photo.

more to come....

After the photo op we took a short cut straight back on Hwy 60 since I was finding dragging along that boat anchor Ninja was tiring me out. The boys headed into town and I headed back on the access road for Hidden Valley. Here is a little video of the access road from last fall when I was scouting out venues...



We were the last group back having done roughly 600 km and after dinner we headed back out to the packing lot for the social. I thought that the drinking going on in the parking lot might be an issue and management asked if we could move the party down to the beach which was cool with everyone so we continued the party in the new location. Since the ice had melted off the lake at least a week ago I thought we should start the CFR Chapter of the Polar Bear Club so I took a sort of running dive off the dock into the lake. Unfortunately in the run up to the edge of the dock I felt something pull in my right heal and when I went to get out of the lake on the dock ladder it was pretty obvious that something bad had happened.

It was a fairly uncomfortable night and I had to use my POS umbrella as a walking stick to get around. I had signed up for the first demo ride and I have priorities so after the demo ride I drove my truck over to the hospital and had the leg checked out and they confirmed I had a partial tear of the Achilles Tendon. After giving me some crutches, an air cast to immobilize the foot, and some drugs they sent me on my way to check with my own doctor when I got home (which I will be seeing a few hours from now) and get an ultrasound done to see how bad the tear is and go from there.

Thanks to everyone that stepped up to take up the load and the party continued on. Once everyone got back from another get ride on Saturday it was time to herd the cats for the group photo. Tom had mentioned that he would like to see it done a little differently with just one FJR of the different colours over the 10 years that FJR's have been in North America. We had a good sampling to choose from and I left it to Tom to do the herding since my immobility at the time left it difficult to participate in the round-up.

In the end we got it done and moved all the cats down to the beach for the shot. MEM wanted to add Steamers Kawasaki and there was also a ST Honda to consider. I made the call that only FJR's were to be in the photo since Yamaha Canada had really stepped up to the plate in support this year and I wanted to send them a photo they could post in their office in Toronto. That plus the Kawi was in my opinion an eyesore and upsetting to my photographic sensibilities.

A little Photoshop magic to add the campfire and this was the final product....



If you go to the FJR Owners Facebook page folks have been tagging their names to help you see who attended.

The staff at Hidden Valley Resort did an excellent job preparing the barbecue buffet for our group and we finished off the official part of CFR with a raffle and action that will allow us to present a cheque to the local food bank for over $700.

Thanks once again for all those that attended and to the organizing team for a great CFR. It would not have happened without you. My job is now to get this tendon healed up and get ready for NERDS. See you in Vermont.

over and out.

Sorry to hear about the tendon tear...I just pulled one, and it felt like someone stabbed me in the heel with ice pick.

Kudos to you for all the organizing, one question though...

...how did the POS Kaw get past the security?? Was someone drunk or sumpin???

Oh...btw, in spite of your great photographic skills, I doubt that that poster hangs up at Yamaha Canada. The bikes look great!...but

...might need a few "body doubles" to use it as an advertisement.



j/k everyone...

wheatonFJR said:

Sorry to hear about the tendon tear...I just pulled one, and it felt like someone stabbed me in the heel with ice pick.
Kudos to you for all the organizing, one question though...

...how did the POS Kaw get past the security?? Was someone drunk or sumpin???

Oh...btw, in spite of your great photographic skills, I doubt that that poster hangs up at Yamaha Canada. The bikes look great!...but

...might need a few "body doubles" to use it as an advertisement.

j/k everyone...

Click to expand...

So now we need body doubles to make the "not so wall of shame". Dangit!?. U got my release/consent. Go ahead, photoshop and make me look presentable (it might take some major skill-set on that photo or paintshop proggy!. Oh well, at least we had one GQ model in our group.... hey, don't believe me? just ask him! S T E A M E R

Next year we will get wardrobe and makeup on the set.

Top_Speed1 said:

...Next year we will get wardrobe and makeup on the set.

Click to expand...

Good luck with that helping....

I think Bill had the best view...from the top.

Top_Speed1 said:

... Go ahead, photoshop and make me look presentable (it might take some major skill-set on that photo or paintshop proggy!...

Click to expand...

You need to hope and pray that Bust does not see this.