View Larger Map
The first day went on with aggravating amounts of rain, and the second day started the same. It was cloudy and drizzly waking up and walking around the town. After breakfast it was time for getting the bikes set up again, and rain gear.
Went from Lake Louise to Banff, filled up, and started out towards Radium Hot Springs. Shortly after leaving the town limits, something terrible happened. Justin lowsided the Duke 690! You can see him separated from the bike in the below picture:
After the previous day's crappy weather and poor rest, and now the lowside, I was feeling very nervous about the prospect of another nearly 3,000km that this trip would require. It was only the start of the second day, and already there was wrecked gear and a dinged up bike. The headsets had also shown they were completely not working.
We both agreed we should go on. The day only got better, thankfully. The riding from there on out got warmer and sunny.
And further into BC, it got so much greener.
In Fort Steele, we stopped to have a bit of a break and contemplate where we'd end up that night. I didn't want to get caught at 10 in a strange town that may be having a room shortage and nowhere to eat. But the nearest major city was Cranbrook, which was maybe 20 minutes away. It seemed much too early that day to stop, and with barely any distance covered.
A friendly Edmontonian biker started chatting us up, offering suggestions for biker-friendly lodging on our way. Unfortunately the only place he had to suggest on our route was in Cranbrook! If you are motorcycling and do want to stay in Cranbrook, the Lazy Bear Lodge is apparently very bike-friendly. It was still nice to talk with him.
Immediately after, another biker came to chat us up. What was going to be a 15-minute break to have a snack ended up being nearly an hour after all the people left us to get back.
We pushed on for quite a ways. The ride through was amazing in scenery, and was getting a bit more technically challenging. A few short stops to refuel the bikes and ourselves, and we made it to Castlegar for the night.
A supper of beer, sushi, and samosas was a nice finish.
Total riding: ~595km
Total gear loss: Rain pants, rain jacket, laptop (damaged by lowsiding), headsets
Gear damage: Tailbag, riding jacket
No comments:
Post a Comment