Exploring Glen Valley (instead of Amerivespa)

I spent some of this weekend regretting missing the Amerivespa in Seattle.

I’ve never gone to Amerivespa before but since I’ve been riding and blogging, I feel that I have a potential connection to the scooting world and thought that being in Seattle this weekend would have been incredible. There are lots of people that I would like to meet in person - Dave from SCTRCST, Little Billy, Orin from Scootin’ Old Skool, and many more.

I also was toying with the idea of figuring out a route from Vancouver by Seattle on a 50 cc scooter. I had even gone to Google Maps and checked out a route avoiding highways.

But. alas, we had good friends arrive from Scotland and, as well, I had previously volunteered for a bike patrol shift on Sunday.

So, instead of feeling grumpy about things, I decided to go for a ride.



I went across the Albion ferry once again and rode to an area between Langley and Abbotsford called Glen Valley.

Usually, I take fairly busy routes with traffic, people, etc. Today’s ride, however, was very peaceful. There were few cars on the road and no people, just trees, fields, and sunshine.



While riding, I saw a sign for the Fort Wine Company. I took a slight detour and headed towards this winery which is situated in an area of farms. As I approached the parking lot, I was pleasantly surprised to see a fair in progress complete with tents, people in costume, samples of food and... wine.



There were a few wine tasting booths, each with several types of wine to sample. I was careful to have only a couple as I didn’t want the wine to affect my driving.

The Fort’s wines are all fruit based wines (blueberry, cranberry, etc,) and I tried one or two but really don’t like fruit wines (other than grapes, of course!).

The next wine, made my a company called Township 7, was quite good - the rosé was crisp and clear and the merlot was actually very nice.

After leaving the winery (which was a bit of a chore as their parking lot was thick with gravel), I continued on to Glen Valley Regional Park. This is actually a couple of parks on the shore of the Fraser River. There were picnic tables and benches and I found it to be a nice place to sit down in the shade and have a brief rest.



I spent another hour or so exploring the area. I really enjoyed the peaceful roads and picturesque scenery as the wind breezed over me.

Later, I was back on the Albion ferry, headed for home. On this ferry, motorcycles get to go to the front of the line, avoiding the long car line ups. I was chatting to a guy with a big Harley about a seal we saw in the river. I haven’t quite figured out how motorcyclists and scooterists generally feel about each other but I’ve found that my experiences with motorcyclists - whether they are weekend riders or Hell’s Angels - to be a pretty friendly group of people.



After returning home, I felt refreshed and looking forward to my next exploration. But I was still a little bit sad about that Amerivespa thing....