The end of an epic trip

More pictures on the way. Video in a week or so.

We got up early Sunday, July 5^th and left Hyder, AK. After a cursory stop at the border, we entered the Yukon and started chewing up miles. The thought was to head to Prince George, BC and stop for the night, with the alternative to continue on to Jasper, Alberta. We made good time during the day, with great weather and beautiful scenery. Knowing that mileage was a priority, we didn’t stop for pictures often, and tried to keep our gas stops short (actually, I am the one who dawdles during gas stops, with Dan being his usually patient self with me).

Towards the end of the afternoon, after crossing into BC, we crested a plateau and headed down into a wide valley. The weather had been spectacular today, but some weird looking clouds were off to our right, looking threatening and appearing to move to intersect us within an hour or two. As we continued on, the lightning storm crossing the mountains put on a show that was very impressive. As the storm crossed over in front of us we encountered rain, but as it was warm and not too heavy, it really was nice.

About this time in the late afternoon, we started to see more wildlife with 6 or 7 close bear sightings along with caribou, moose and bison off in the distance. At one point when the rain was heaviest, we came across a mother bear and her cub trying to cross the Cassier Highway. As all the RV’s and cars slowed and stopped to take pictures, a red pickup truck passed everyone in the oncoming lane and Dan and I just shook our heads. It wasn’t as if traffic had stopped, but I guess slowing down was too much for the driver. After we passed the bears, they made it across the highway and became invisible in the foliage almost the instant they entered the forest, something that continues to amaze me. I watched a moose walk into the trees a few days ago and I just wondered how something that large can disappear in 2 or 3 seconds.

We passed Prince George and made it to Jasper and found a hotel. The town of Jasper is located inside a provincial (national) park, an idea that surprised me, as I hadn’t seen that in the United States. The town was similar to my idea of what an Austrian ski town would be like in the 60’s or 70’s, just with modern facilities and RV’s. As we found a hotel, we counted 9 different languages being spoken by the people walking along, and many of them stopped and looked at our bikes, often exclaiming about the Illinois license plates. After finding that my phone worked again and making a few phone calls, we had a decent dinner at the Italian restaurant in our hotel and crashed for the night. We had ridden almost 650 miles.

Monday we got up and knowing that we only had 260 miles to go to get to Calgary, we lounged around and got moving about noon. As we crossed over the mountain range heading south, we hit a storm that drenched to road in front of us and caused massive amounts of road spray from the many campers and RV’s. As we reached the summit, I saw on my gps that we had ascended higher than 6,800 feet and the temperature dropped to 37 degrees. Dan led the way on his ever stable BMW, but my much smaller sport bike didn’t do much to shelter me from the wind. We stopped in Lake Louise for fuel (I remembered to use Gasoline this time and not diesel) and decided that since Dan had to get to the dealership in Calgary for service, he would go on ahead and we would meet at Brenda’s house in Calgary. I drank a few cups of hot chocolate and warmed up, then headed out. Coming down the south side of the mountain range, the sun came out, the road dried out and the final 100 miles was great. Dan was able to have minor service stuff taken care of at Blackfoot Motorsports in Calgary, and we met up again at Brenda’s, where Sassy the dog was supervising me unloading all the stuff I had loaded onto my bike.

Tuesday morning, Dan headed south and crossed the border into Montana and made it through Glacier National Park. He said later that the scenery was spectacular, and the roads were good, without too many RV’s slowing things down. He shot some video of the area, and thought that even though we had traveled 7,000 miles together so far, the scenery here was phenomenal. He made it to Bozeman, MT and stopped to say hello to a friend, before getting on the road again and eating more miles. He said that the people in Montana, just like everywhere we had been the previous two weeks were friendly, and the route he had taken, including MT 200 (a road in Montana I had ridden a few years earlier) was open and speed limits were more of a suggestion. Wednesday he got up and made it to interstate 94, and rode to Minneapolis, where his aunt, uncle and cousins made him a fantastic dinner. Thursday he headed back to Chicago, and arrived home in the late afternoon, not getting caught in rush hour traffic.

Backing up a few days, on Tuesday when Dan headed to Montana, my friend Brenda took me to the Calgary Stampede, which is a 10 day long, rodeo themed event held every year in Calgary. Having been to school in Wyoming many years ago, it was nostalgic to see rodeo competition in person. Not knowing a heck of a lot about anything rodeo related, I was amazed to hear the announcers talk about this 1,800 pound bull that just tossed a rider, or that horse that just broke a calf roping record. Having relayed a story of my own extremely-short-lived barrel racing career a few years ago when we met, Brenda couldn’t resist giving me some good natured ribbing when the woman riders made it look so easy. Trust me, it isn’t easy.

Wednesday morning, I headed out and made it across the border into North Dakota, after many hours of mind numbing highway. After 950 miles, I stopped in Jamestown, ND and grabbed a hotel. When my alarm rang at 6:30 the next morning, I just rolled over and hit snooze, and finally got out of bed after 8. On the road again across ND and into Minnesota, when Dan called and said he was 100 miles Northwest of Madison, WI, about 300 miles in front of me. More miles and more hours, and I arrived home about 10pm, “strung out from the road” as Bob Seger once said.

In all, I traveled 8,700+ miles, and Dan crossed over 9,000 with his alternate route home from Calgary, during the 20 days since we left. The only advice I can offer someone contemplating a trip like this: Plan well, with some room to improvise, as we did often, and choose your companion wisely. I got lucky when deciding to ride with Dan, as he was always patient and helpful along the way, as I hope I was. Lastly, keep an open mind about people. Almost everyone we met was friendly and nice, even if they had chosen to lead a different life than most of us from larger cities.

We hope to have at least some of the video that Dan shot online within a week or two, as most of it is pretty entertaining, and the scenery is spectacular. Without having much practice editing video, that might turn out to be fairly challenging, so please be patient.

Thank you all for your comments and emails throughout our travels. We hope you enjoyed the ride.

TC Rides

DanielR