PNW 2011 Trip – Day 2 Part 2

After wandering the Logan Pass visitor centre, we headed back to the bikes and set off down the western side of the pass. Here’s where words failed to describe the view both down the valley and back up behind us as we descended down. The road down was under construction most of the way – the pavement was pretty well stripped off, down to dirt and the construction crews had been watering the roadway to keep the dust down. This made some of the corners a little dicey on the bikes.

Going down the west side of Logan Pass, road under construction

Once we were past the construction, the pavement was nice and smooth, the road brilliant, and the views breathtaking. I’m not sure that any of the pictures either of us took can really show what the views were like.

West side of Going-to-the-Sun Highway, from the bike

There were parts of the road where the road was almost as spectacular as the scenery in terms of the roughness. Lots of twists, a few tunnels and surprisingly, not as much traffic as I thought there’d be.

Twisty roads going west on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway

Tunnel Entrance west on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway

Our neighbour at Johnsons Campground has suggested that we stop at a cafe in West Glacier called Eddie’s. It was just after noon or 1pm or so – somewhere along the highway we’d switched from Mountain time to Pacific time so we were a little confused with the exact hour. So we rode around until we found Eddie’s, then we rode around some more looking for a place to park. As usual, there’s safety in numbers and we eventually just parked the bikes beside a couple of others.

Parking the bikes at Eddie's

While the food was OK, the service was really bad – so unless there’s not much going on at Eddie’s if you’re there, I can’t really recommend it. There were some more interesting people we met though.

First, in the picture above there’s a bike in the top right corner of the picture – it’s from Indiana. Turns out the guy riding that bike, from Indianapolis, was on a big adventure after retiring and was riding west to the coast to see his daughter in San Diego. He was pretty much making up the route on the fly and we got talking about roads and routes in Washington, and I suggested a couple of different roads based on the Destination Highways Washington book I have covering the best rides in the state. He left, and we did shortly after.

Second, while we were getting geared up to head out, we got talking to a guy riding an nearly new Harley parked on the left side of Louise. He’s from Reno, Nevada and owns a motorcycle parts store there. He had tons of stories and it was kinda hard disengaging to get going!

The rest of the day was to simply involve riding south to the small city of Missoula, past the large Flathead Lake in western Montana. We opted to go down the east side of the lake, which is a bit shorter. As we rode just south of the small town of Bigfork at the north end of the the lake, the thermometer on my bike was reading 39 C, so we stopped at a gas station somewhere in Woods Bay.

While we were stopped there sitting in the shade drinking water, we experienced the first of what was to be a regular occurrence on this trip.

Water and Shade at Papa's Market

Someone would come up and ask Louise some variation of “Is that your VStrom?” In this first noticed case “Kevin” drove up in open sided Jeep, and started asking about the VStrom because he has one at home. He stopped at the store for a coke, but wound up chatting with us for almost half an hour! When we told him our planned route to Missoula, he said – no, no you have to take this other more fun road, the one we’re on is booorrring. He volunteered to have us follow him back to his place to get a map so we could see what road it was.

I managed figure out the road with my laptop, then plugged in the GPS’s and downloaded the new route. It added about 20 miles to the route but promised to be much more fun. We could easily make up the time on the Interstate into Missoula. With our drinks finished, we saddled up and headed back up the road about 8 miles the way we came to the intersection with Highway 83, aka Swan Highway, aka Daryl Soltesz Memorial Highway. I don’t know who Daryl is or was, I just looked on Google, but I suspect a Montana State Trooper killed in the line of duty. What ever the road is called, Kevin was right, this was a great road, very scenic, little traffic, and great pavement.

Pavement on Highway 83, Montana

We stopped at Seeley Lake for gas and I think the temperature was over 40 C at this point – darn hot!

Getting gas in Seeley Lake, MT

Then we did about 15 minutes on the Interstate and arrived at Missoula, then started looking for a motel. After a few minutes of driving past some dumps, we settled on a the Holiday Inn, which turned out to be an almost new building on the edge of downtown Missoula! Very nice place at a great place.

Holiday Inn at Missoula, MT

After I’d checked in, I asked the clerk for a dinner recommendation and he suggested a brew pub a few blocks away called, I think, the Kettlehouse – memory’s a little faded now. The meal was good, the service a little sketchy, but the walk down and back to the hotel was nice. We then proceeded to crash for the night.

ian

PNW 2011 Trip – Day 2 Part 1

Looking west up to Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway

Wow, OMG, Holy &^%@ – These words were repeated over and over again today as we rode the Going-To-The-Sun Highway over the Logan Pass and through the Glacier National Park. The views were stunning and the riding was oh so great. The only downside to the whole day was the massive amount of people milling around the Logan Pass Summit.

Logan Pass parking lot

The day started with getting up after a pretty good night’s sleep in the new tent. This wasn’t the first night in the new tent though, we used it for 2 nights a few weeks ago when we went on the VStrom Run to the Hills ride in the Kananaskis. There was a really brief thunderstorm that the edge just caught us, for a single flash, crash and brief splash early in the morning. Louise’s earplugs worked well, but we still got up fairly early.

After packing everything up, we headed down to the Johnson’s Cafe for breakfast. The breakfast menu is a little different in that they serve the food “family style” – essentially everything that you order comes out on one plate, then you spoon off what you want onto your own plate. The food was excellent and as is the case for most American food establishments, the quantity of food was huge. It’s hard to leave hungry! We stopped at the office to try to connect with Robert over FaceTime, but the internet at the campsite wasn’t good enough or it blocked video out. Anyway, this dog:

Hairless Husky - 15 years old and suffering from cancer

was 15 years old and was wearing a shirt because he’d lost his hair from cancer. The shirt was pretty nasty though, but the dog’s owner promised to get him a new one soon!

The Going-to-the-Sun Highway begins pretty much at the Glacier Park gates where we paid our $12 each park entrance fee and stopped just inside the gates at the information centre to apply some sunscreen and take a few pictures.

Does my butt look baggy here?

Only the shadow knows ...

Starting out on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway

We pulled back out on the road and headed west towards the Pass. The road started innocently enough, but as we got higher and higher, the road got more and more interesting. Once we got to the pass we thought we’d been on the best the road had to offer, but no … the best was yet to come. But more on that later.

Going-to-the-Sun Highway looking east

We stopped at the pass where we parked the bikes with a number of others (safety in numbers) and went for a little walkabout. There’s still some snow at the pass – it only opened in late May.

Louise and snow at Logan Pass

Walkabout at Logan Pass

Inside the info centre and store I found a hoodie sweater (because I needed another layer – I was chilly last night) with the Going-to-the-Sun on it, bought it and I think I’ve worn it every day since.

There were a number of bikes parked in the lot, but all were up front at the end of the car-parking rows.

Motorcycle Parking Only

PNW 2011 Trip – Day 1

After nearly a year of planning and thinking, we finally left on what will be our second longest motorcycle trip ever – this one will be 2 weeks and 2 days. It’s also Louise’s first trip on her new VStrom. We spent nearly all Friday night packing and getting everything ready, and on Saturday morning, we got the bikes packed up and by 10am, we were on the road! Well almost, we had to stop for gas first and then it took almost 45 minutes to actually get out of the city, but, OK, by 145am we were on Highway 2 south of Calgary.

The plan was to head south to Nanton, then take Highway 533 to the Cowboy Trail – Highway 22 south. We’d stop at Pincher Creek for some food and gas, then continue down past Waterton National Park, through the Chief Mountain border crossing into the US and stop for the night at Johnson’s Campground in St. Mary, Montana, right on the eastern gate to the Glacier National Park.

Along the way, I learned how to take photos with my Sony pocket cam, from the bike. We had a great meal at Johnson’s Cafe and met some nice folks on a motorcycle from Salt Lake City, Utah, who camped right next to us.

Tomorrow, we tackle the Going to the Sun Highway over Logan Pass right through the Glacier National Park.

So here’s some pictures!

Highwood Pass Loop – In Reverse

I know this is way late, but the new job has chewed up a lot of my free time! Anyway, read on!

Today is Canada Day! Happy Birthday Canada! To celebrate, we went for a motorcycle ride.

Bikes parked at Barrier Lake Information Centre

We were supposed to go with a group. A few days ago, Louise got an invite to go with the Chinook Outriders, (a chapter of the Women in the Wind which is a North American-wide organization of woman riders), on a trip to Field, BC for today. She waffled, until Wednesday night, then we arranged to get the 1000K service done on the VStrom on Thursday.

So today, we were to meet up with the group at a gas station just off the TransCanada Highway on the west side at 930am. We got there right at 930, but there were absolutely no other bikes in site. Figuring the rest of the riders were maybe a few minutes late. we waited until 945, when Louise checked her email. Turns out that it was supposed to be 9am not 930! We were 30 minutes late! It’s not often that Louise makes that kind of mistake, so no worries.

We decided that we’d do the Highwood Pass Loop on Highway 40, in reverse. We’ve done it a couple of times from Longview south of Calgary and north onto Highway 1A and then east through Cochrane and into Calgary on Crowchild Trail. That meant lunch in either Longview or Black Diamond/Turner Valley.

I told the GPS to head to Longview and it promptly went crazy as we headed west as it told us to go east. From the gas station in Valley Ridge, we went east a bit to take Stoney to Crowchild then go west to the Kananaskis. Bitchin’ Betty (whatever the name of the Garmin voice I’m using right now), kept telling me to turn back, turn left, do a u-turn – nearly anything to get me going east and I presume to Deerfoot to go south. I ignored it and went the way I wanted to.

Every thing was going great until we turned of the 1A and onto the 1X so we could head over to the Kananaskis turnoff on the TransCanada. I was in the lead, took the left and I watched Louise come around in my mirror. I started freaking out because as I watched in horror, she went way wide in the turn and slid off the road and into the ditch!

I whipped the bike around on the road and roared back up to the corner, got off the bike and ran over to Louise. She was up on her feet and said she was OK. After looking her over and giving her some hugs, we picked up the bike and started getting organized to get the bike up out of the ditch and back onto the road.

Lots of cars passed by without a single glance, other than one car whose driver stopped and called out if everything was OK. I was sure that Louise was OK, so I gave them the thumbs up and they drove off. But that was the only one, until just as we were about to let out the clutch and run the bike up, a truck driver pulling a tanker of some sort, stopped, hopped out and asked if we wanted a hand. My first inclination was to say, “Naw we got it covered,” but instead I decided that the help would be great, so I said yes. He rushed over, got behind the bike, then I let out the clutch and just like that, had the VStrom back on pavement.

We looked the VStrom over carefully for damage, but the crash bars and frame sliders did a great job of protecting the plastic bits of the bike. The only bit that we had to address was the clutch lever, which had been rotated on the bars from the impact. I got my tools and in no time got it fixed.

This was the first time that Louise had had an off, and I am so proud of the way she handled it. I know she felt like crap, but she wasn’t hurt, the bike wasn’t hurt – so it was ok. A wakeup lesson for sure, but we were all ok. Instead of begging off and going home, she simply said we should get going to Longview for lunch. I’m not sure that most people, in a similar situation, would shrug it off and get back on with most of a days riding ahead, but she did and I’m really proud of Louise.

The VStrom post-repair on Highways 1x and 1A

So we rolled on, into some pretty gusty winds, back onto the TransCanada, the east to the Kananaskis Turnoff onto Highway 40. Once out of the Morley flats and heading up into the mountains, the scenery gets really pretty, with mountains both on the left and right. Running past the south end of Barrier Lake, we saw at least a couple of dozen kayakers and canoeists on the water – proboably part of a class or something since they were all wearing similar lifejackets and helmets and in similar looking boats. Soon we came to the Barrier Lake Information Centre and we stopped for a quick bio break.

After finishing our bio break, we continued on to the Highwood Pass, which is the highest paved mountain pass in Canada at over 7300ft!

When we rolled into the parking lot, we found that we’d caught up to the Women in the Wind riders! They were all cruisers and most were dressed in their pirate garb, and although we were invited to join up with them, we decided to head off on our own to Longview, Turner Valley or Black Diamond for lunch. Once we reached Longview, we decided to continue on, eventually settling on a little place in Turner Valley called the Chuckwagon Cafe or something like that. Whatever it was called, the food was great.

With lunch done, we headed back out and super-slabbed it back home.

ian

WeSTOC Day 5 – The Ride Home

I had mostly packed the night before, so I had little packing and stuff to do this morning. Wearing my Aerostich riding suit I ventured out in search of breakfast. I found Guy and couple of other guys hanging around waiting until 11am when they were heading down to Colville in the US for a few more days of riding before heading home. The other Calgary bound folks were going to leave at 8am, but I think they were much later than I was.

With the bike all packed up by 845, I hit the road. Light drizzle pretty much followed me out of town and continued all the way south until I hit Highway 3. Then it rained. And it rained for while, then on and off.

My plan was simple, head to Creston to top off the gas tank and grab a breakfast supplement and a coffee, then on to Sparwood, BC to fill up and have some lunch, then just push on to home. And in spite of the rain, that simple plan held together all the way, when I got home just before 6pm.

While the rain was pretty easy to take, by the time I made the Crowsnest Pass area, the wind really picked up and it was blowing like crazy all the way Highway 22 and Highway 2 into Calgary. But I made home safe and sound, after racking up well over 2000 kms on the bike.

Many thanks to Apple SE team, my former tribe for graciously contributing to my gas fund – I used up the entire amount and left nothing on the table.

Now I did have pictures, but before I thought to off-load them, I managed to run the iPhone through the washing machine. So I might have lost them – we’ll see.

Thanks for following along!

Ian

WeSTOC Day 4 – Part 1 Kaslo / New Denver / Passcreek Road

The usual suspects (Guy, Rod, Bob, Ken and myself) gathered for breakfast at the usual time and started working on a plan for the day. Bob and Ken bailed – they just wanted to wander Nelson, but we were joined at the table by, I’ll call him Rod2, and he figured he’d tag along with us, whatever we decided.

So the plan was to check out some squiggles on a map, then redo the Pass Creek Road that we did yesterday, backwards this time, then head up to the ferry at Balfour, ride down towards Creston, have lunch, and head back to Nelson. It was a good plan, but totally defeated by a wrong turn and ruthlessly slow chicken drivers on the highway north of Nelson.

Both Guy and I were looking at some squiggles on the DH map between Nelson and Castlegar, on the east side of the river. They looked intriguing and we were determined to seek out how good the Granite Road was. We were able to easily find the start at the Nelson end of the road and we happily roared down the road (well, as much as our FJRs and STs can roar). It was pretty fun, with lots of twists, and only a little gravel in some curves. But it was over too soon! We came around a nice 180 degree curve and we were right back at the highway.

Wondering why it was so short, we carried on to the same little road we were on yesterday – the Pass Creek Road, except that this time we entered it from the south and road it backwards. While many parts were recognizable, it was almost a different road. It too, was over too quickly, but at least we ran the entire road!

From here, the plan was to go back up north through Nelson to Balfour and catch the 1040am ferry. The GPS said we’d make it to the terminal by 1030am as we rolled across the Nelson Bridge, but then we got stuck behind a whole bunch of slowpoke chicken drivers. Yes, some of the curves on Highway 6 north of Nelson have a 40km speed suggestion versus the regular speed limit of 90km, but that’s no reason for the cage drivers to slam on their brakes and creep around the curve at a walking pace. So it was with mounting frustration that both Guy and I watched the arrival time on the GPS go up minute by minute. We arrived right at the revised on the fly arrival time – 1044am.

The ferry was still there, but the loadmaster (or whatever they call the person at the lineup who decides who gets on and who doesn’t), had already turned away a small group of bikes ahead of us. One more truck got onto the ferry and that was it – no ferry ride for us today.

So we had a quick bio break, then figured out a new plan. We’d go up to Kaslo for pie, over to New Denver, then back south to Nelson. Off we went up Highway 31, a very scenic and relatively entertaining road, which is Destination Highways #60. There’s one spot just south of Kaslo where the highway crosses a creek that runs into the Kootenay Lake, where the bridge is on a hairpin that goes almost 180 degrees – the road here makes a serious U off the line of the road along the lakeside. We got a little spread out along here, Rod was far out in front and arrived at Kaslo with enough time to have a full cigarette before Rod2 and I arrived, Guy was about 5 minutes behind me.

With the bikes parked, we sauntered into Theresa’s for a coffee and pie (cinnamon roll for me). While we were polishing off our treats, some Harley riders pulled up out front, beside our bikes. The riders got off, removed their beanie helmets, and their leathers, all with the HD logos prominently displayed. All the bikes all had the typical Harley straight pipes treatment and had all the other patrons of the place shaking their heads.

As we left, one of the patrons started talking to me about where we were from and about our bikes, came outside, went right past the Harleys and walked all around the two FJRs and the two ST1300s, asking lots of questions.

Geared up, and mounted up, we rode out of town on Highway 31A, DH 5. Not far out of town, this road become a great road, lots of sweepers, almost all curves from Kaslo to New Denver. The highway runs along the Kaslo River, which is running very very high. At one point where the road runs through a narrow canyon, the river is coming very close to washing out the highway. When we went by, there was a BC Highways guy in a truck watching the river – no doubt trying to determine how long the pavement would last. We had been following another government truck on the road and the driver obviously knew the road well as he stayed well ahead of us and while we weren’t riding hard, we were pretty spirited in the curves.

Riding through the outskirts of New Denver, a number of what looked to be feral dogs, or maybe they were coyotes, crossed the road in front of us, completely oblivious to the bikes going by. Maybe they were ghost dogs and knew we couldn’t hurt them. We didn’t stop in New Denver, instead we figured we’d just run back to Nelson and get some food at the hotel.

Highway 6 is number 25 on the DH hit parade and it’s kind of two roads in one. The northern part has a number of sweepers with some great views from along the lake, both down at lakeside and up high as the road climbs and dips beside Slocan Lake. The southern part of the highway runs through forest and is really curvy as it follows the Slocan River to where it joins the Kootenay River.

It was near the start of the curvy part when the wind and rain started. Guy stopped to close the vents on his jacket and Rod2 mentioned that he wanted to stop in Winlaw to get his rain gear on. While we continued south to Winlaw, the wind really picked up and was tossing tree branches at us. A pretty large piece of a fir tree bounced off of my helmet at one point! So we stopped at a little cafe parking lot, where Guy put his rain gear on and Rod2 ducked into a shelter to put his rain liner on under his jacket. Rod’s jacket was mostly waterproof, so he just had a smoke, and since I was wearing my Aerostich, I didn’t have to do anything. While I was standing there, a hippie came across the highway to tell me that he had just heard the highway south was closed because the wind had caused a tree to come down across the road and onto some power lines. We figured we’d head down anyway, worst case, we’d get some pictures. Rod2 came out of the shelter, headed towards his bike, so Rod1 and Guy headed out. I held back for a bit waiting for Rod2 to get going. When I saw he had his gloves on, I pulled out onto the highway to follow the other two guys. He never caught up to us and it wasn’t until later at the banquet that we found out what happened to him – more on that later.

The hippie guy was right, there was a tree down across the road and hanging on some power lines, and it hadn’t been down long – there was only a half dozen cars ahead of us. We rolled up to the back of the line and since we didn’t know how long it would take, we shut off the bikes and popped our helmets off. Then we watched behind us to see where Rod2 was and ahead to watch the progress with the tree. It didn’t take them long to get the tree down, after only about 10 minutes of waiting a pickup truck was pulling the top of the tree down the road towards us in the other lane. In no time, the line of cars ahead of us was moving, so we quickly geared up and started off ourselves, but still no sign of Rod2.

We had thought of riding the Pass Creek Road again, (yes it’s that much fun), but it was still raining, and we figured it would be no fun wet. At the Pie stop in Kaslo, we figured we had located the highway access to the other part of the road we missed this morning, it’s called Blewette Road. So instead of just heading straight back to Nelson, we ducked off the highway and followed this absolutely brilliant narrow little road up above the Kootenay River and the power dams.

Since the rivers are running high from the rain and the melting snow, the water roaring through the spillways was pretty spectacular. It was almost distracting as we went into curve after curve, with the highlight being a tight hairpin going up hill, had to take it in second gear!

Continued in Day 4 – Part 2

WeSTOC Day 4 – Part 2 Storms, Banquet, Luck of the Draw

Sorry for the delays here with Part 2 and the rest of the blogs – just started a new job, so things are a little hectic.

I can heartily recommend the Granite/Blewette Roads to all of us on motorbikes. It’s a fun road, with lots of curves and elevation changes, and you can’t get going to fast on it, plus there’s very little traffic (at least on a Thursday afternoon).

There were a couple of spots where homeowners driveways had spilled some gravel out across the whole lane of the road, which led to at least one disconcerting moment as the rear tire slid out to the outside of the lean a bit. Yikes! But all was good, no spills and we continued on carving the twistie road until it popped us back onto the main highway to Nelson.

As we entered the highway we noticed a few cars parked along the opposite side of the road. We were each wondering what was going on until we saw an obviously dead deer dragged up to the cement barrier at the road’s shoulder, and a large red splotch in the middle of the lane. So it was clear that one of the cars further up the road had hit the deer and that a few cars had stopped to help. It was a bit sobering, considering Rod and I had a deer get up on the highway between us the day before. It’s one thing to hit a deer in a car, but it’s pretty scary hitting one with a motorcycle. That would for sure wreck your whole day. It was also sad to think of the deer, it really had a bad day.

Once we were back at the hotel, I zipped back out to the gas station to fill up, that way I wouldn’t have to do it in the morning. While I was parking next to Guy, I noticed that he had just washed his bike, for I think, the third time. Earlier he had threatened to not let me park my bike next to his because mine was so dirty. So he guilted me into washing mine.

It wasn’t a really thorough wash, I just got most of the grime off, it sure looked better. Then Rod rode by and stopped to stare in amazement. He called out that he sorta thought my bike was grey and since I’d washed it realized that it was actually black. I guess it was pretty dirty. Trouble was, it rained later, then overnight and for much of the next day on the trip home, so it’s all dirty again.

I might have mentioned in a previous post that I purchased a pair of kevlar summer gloves from Motoport. Today was the first day that I wore them on the bike and they actually worked great. My other gloves were a cheap pair of leather gloves that in less than a full season of use, were already beginning to fall apart. But, the old ones were one of the only pairs that I had where the thumb was long enough to not press on the end of my thumb, so to me, they were worth much more than the $50 I paid for them.

The new ones have a long thumb which is great, they are made of stretch Kevlar which is also great, but they have zero waterproof capability. And it rained a lot today, heavily at times. If not for the hand-guards I have installed on the handlebars, the Motoport gloves would’ve been soaked in seconds and my hands getting cold in the rain. Another fellow that we rode with on Tuesday bought the same gloves in a larger size and have very cold cold hands at the end of today, because he doesn’t have hand-guards on his ST1300.

Anyway, between finishing washing the bike and the start of the banquet, I slipped into the little cafe at the entrance to the hotel and satisfied my craving for a latte. Not quite the same as a Starbucks latte, but good enough! Then I enjoyed another relaxing neck/shoulder massage for 20 minutes. Very nice after 6 or 7 hours of riding.

There was still time to kill before the banquet, so a few of us hung out in Rod’s room for a couple of pre-dinner beers. While we were, there an wicked little thunder cell rolled in from the south and headed north up the lake. This picture is looking north towards the Nelson bridge in the distance.

This view of the rain pelting down onto the lake, is pretty much the same view as what I had from my although this picture was taken from the ground floor, and my room was on the second floor.

The banquet started at about 7pm, and after a little pre-dinner entertainment by our MC, Al DeVries, tables were sent to the buffet. The food was very tasty although the kitchen staff was hard-pressed to keep up with the consumption of food. All in all, the entire hotel staff did a pretty good job of dealing with us all for the week.

With dinner consumed, the time had come for the various draws to been and prizes handed out. Wile it was hardly fair to all the Honda ST owners, I won arguably the best prize of all – a free set of motorcycle tires! YAY me! Winning the tires means that I almost broke even on the hotel room cost!

So many many heartfelt thanks to Tim and Diana Graham, and the rest of the WeSTOC XVI disorganization committee – they did an absolutely fabulous job in putting WeSTOC together.

It was great meeting some new friends in addition to Guy – Rod, Ken, Bob, Al, Rod2 & Lorraine, Walt, Dwayne, Martin, Tony, Jeff and his wife and many others. I’m hoping to hook up with some of these folks later for some around southern Alberta.

Next update will be the ride home.