Hey All,
I'm two days into my motorcycle trip, and have stopped in Sandpoint, Idaho for the night. So far it's been glorious, if cool, though it looks like the weather is about to change. A cold front will be moving through the region tomorrow, and thus forecast calls for scattered thunderstorms tomorrow (and a 50% probability of precipitation) followed by 80%, 90%, and 40% POPs for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. It's the same picture across a pretty large portion of the northwest, and so my plan is to see how tomorrow dawns before deciding whether to stay put or move on. In either case, high mountain passes are off the agendum for the next few days.
I've been dreaming of a motorcycle trip for several years, but my restrictive research and teaching schedule had ruled it out. (Additionally, it would've been rather difficult to carry a large yellow retriever without resorting to a sidecar. It's not motorcycling if you can't lean, so...) The combination of Donjek's passing last fall (miss you, Bubbs!) and my year of sabbatical leave have allowed the pieces to fall together. Last week I viewed two beautiful motorcycles -- a Ducati ST3s and a Triumph Sprint ST -- and chose the latter. Not sure what motivated the choice; I think it just fit me better.
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| First shakedown ride, destination George Lake, Alberta. |
After completing enough tasks (no mean feat after close to four months in Alaska, Northwestern BC, and Yukon), I struck out yesterday morning -- a couple of hours behind schedule, as I had to finish up installing the heated hand grips. They've already paid for themselves. My goal with this trip is to avoid, as much as possible, my typical driving habit of logging long days covering many miles (e.g., Edmonton to Whitehorse in two days; Edmonton to Petaluma in three days); instead, my plan is to decide each morning where to go, taking as many winding secondary (or tertiary?) roads as possible. That rule was minorly broken at the very start as I departed to the west on the Yellowhead Highway. Passing the exit for Highway 43 -- which leads north to Dawson Creek and the Alaska Highway -- I had the urge to exit north and revisit the places and people I so enjoy, but instead I traveled a bit further to turn south onto Highway 22. This road meanders (as much as any road in this flat part of the world meanders, anyway) towards Rocky Mountain House and my route to the Rockies, Highway 11. This road joins Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway, roughly half-way between Jasper (at its northern end) and Lake Louise (at its southern end), passing through some pretty spectacular scenery along the way. As I passed Nordegg and reached Abraham Lake, the winds became blustery, making a mockery of any attempt at a smooth line through the curves. Ah well.
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| My Triumph at Abraham Lake, Alberta, loaded for bear. |
After reaching the Icefields Parkway (though the French name for it, "
Promenade des Glaciers", is way better), I turned south, stopping only to, well, take another picture of my bike, this time below Crowfoot Glacier. (I admit it: I'm enamored. But I promise to limit the number of pictures of my bike.)
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| At Crowfoot Glacier, Banff National Park. |
Reaching Highway 1, I turned west, crossed over the Kicking Horse Pass and down the gloriously curvy descent into Golden. I checked into our old standby from our years of research on West Washmawapta Glacier, Mary's Motel, then headed to the River House for a pulled-pork quesadilla and a Lagunitas IPA -- not a bad way to end the first day of this trip.
It's past midnight here now, so I'll write my travelogue of Day 2 tomorrow. One note before signing off: Ma emailed me a few days ago, expressing concern that the title I've chosen for my blog (which I'll explain another time) has, erm, another meaning. Well, that's not what I'm referring to.
(This post was written on Day Two of the trip.)
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