A search for a missing motorcyclist has ended tragically.
The body and bike of Dennis Gordon Gudmundson, 61, was found Saturday night down an embankment on Highway 5, about 55 kilometres south of Valemount, North District RCMP Cst. Lesley Smith said.
The Keremeos resident was on his way back home from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta when he was reported overdue on July 8, prompting RCMP to issue an alert and launch a foot search along Highway Five after a bank machine transaction indicated he had last gassed up in McBride.
Smith said a family that happened to meet up on Saturday night at the spot where Gudmundson went off the road spotted his bike lying upside down in the foliage and only after a highways maintenance worker had gone through with brush clearing machinery the day before.
If not for those chance occurrences, it's likely Gudmundson would still be missing, Smith indicated, as the ground-level search carried out last week before the maintenance work had been done, failed to turn up anything.
Prince George Harley Owners Group director Glenn Lewis said Highway 5 is a popular stretch among motorcyclists looking for a scenic ride and riders had been given the heads up through social media to keep an eye out for Gudmundson.
He urged motorcyclists to always ride in groups.
"That way, if you do get into trouble, there's somebody there," he said.
There are satellite-based tracking and signalling devices available for purchase but Lewis said they're no substitute.
The trip from Fort Sakatchewan, just north of Edmonton, to Keremeos in the South Okanagan is 1,070 kilometres and initial signs are rider fatigue or a medical condition caused Gudmundson to go off the road.
"There was no debris on the road and no skid marks," Smith noted.
Fatigued motorcyclists and drivers are not only a danger to themselves but to others, she added.
