Western Canada HOG Rally

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.

Our Chapter
site with my
bike and tent
in the center.


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.)

The 'Riding Cossacks' from Washington State. They put
on a terrific show on these wonderful old vintage bikes.
(For a full page of their show click here.)