Day 17 – Banf National Park in Canada
This is where things get interesting (amazing)…
We got ready to set out from Calgary in the late morning, said goodbye to our hosts (Of course got signatures) and headed out.
The signing:
“Eh!”
After a stop for gas ($1.08 a liter!) and Ethan’s vest coming out of his hard bags, we turned to the West towards Banff, and the Canadian Glacier National Park.
We rode into Banff, in a freak storm. We had gorgeous blue skies for miles, then an abolute deluge of freezing rain for 15 minutes, followed by an equally long stretch of blue skies. The crazy thing was that we rode through three of those odd sections. It was wild!
When it looked like we were through the worst of it, we pulled off by an overlook to warm up, and give me the opportunity to shoot some photos of the astoundingly blue river at the bottom of the valley.
“Bannf Storms”
And a look at that OH SO Blue water…
After our riverside pitstop, we continued on our way North, deeper into Canada’s Glacier National Park.
Our next respite was at one of Ethan’s parents favorite spots, the great tourist attraction “Lake Louise”. As we pulled into the parking lot, I spotted several other bikes, fully loaded down with their riders headed toward the massive lodge, when we parked, they stopped by and we struck up a conversation.
They were COMING from Alaska, and felt like they were already “almost home” to California. As we strolled down the path to the lake, we talked about the road conditions, weather and our upcoming bouts with gravel. The more we talked the more Ethan and I glanced at eachother with big grins and thoughts of grandeur “We’re finally here!!!”
About a hundred yards later, we passed by a cabin and then we were struck by the beauty of Lake Louise. It stretched out before us, presided over by a giant glacier topped mountain. The water was intensly blue, and looked somehow creamy and thick “the way water is supposed to look” in my ever so humbe opinion.
We had one of our new friends snap a photo of us before we went any further.
I scrambled down a small embankement of stones, to the waters edge to try to capture a “different” angle of the lake and it’s presiding mountain.
One of the riders, owns a camera refurbishing company, he was shooting with a Nikon D100, and I caught this shot of him trying to get “That perfect angle”
After taking a plethora of pictures, we made our way to the lodge in search of a bathroom. The lodge is huge, it’s lovely, and it’s FULL of people. After walking for a short while, we discovered our savior (restroom) and we 5 motorcyclists each partook of it’s great goodness.
Artistically – The Lodge:
We told our new friends that we were going to take the 7 mile ride down to Lake Morraine, which we’d heard was actually BETTER than Lake Louise. Of course, before we left them we asked two, to sign our Givi bags.
Signing Ethan’s:
Intent Upon Signing:
Although traffic was bad, we made the ride from Lake Louise to Lake Moraine in minimal time. The views from the narrow road were incredible and though we were still being drizzled on, it was WELL worth it.
We parked our bikes and Ethan took off for a nearby hiking trail… The sign said “2km” so I followed him. The trail led us up a large hill, at the summit of which, we were told to expect a “breathtaking view” of the lake.
We followed stone steps for much of the path:
In no time though, we reached the summit… And what a view it has!
It was unbelievable… The water’s color, the glaciers on the mountains around us, the fir trees… Absolutely gorgeous.
I even got on the other side of the lens for a change.
Ethan told me that I had to take a photo for him, to continue on a tradition that he’d started in the same spot a few years before… I obliged, of course
As we hiked back down the trail, I spotted a guy talking to a chipmunk beside the path… Of all things, he was carrying a “long deck” skate board. He said that there was a large group of skateboarders that like to carve up the local roads.
“Carving the Mountains”
At the lodge, Ethan briefly questioned his physical identity:
After a quick bite to eat (delicious sausage rolls!) and a cup of coffee, we headed out again, with plans to make it as far as we possibly could before the end of the day.
We rode in a valley between two massive mountain ranges, atop each was either a glacier, or the remains of where one once was… Riverbeds ran from the hills, some dry, some rushing with glacial melt… All directed towards massive blue lakes in the middle of the valley, beside the road.
After a couple of hours on the road, we pulled off beside one exceptionally large lake so that I could take a few pictures. The clouds were incredible!
“Rocky Mountain Reflections”
And in the other direction:
Looking down at my feet, I happened to see this tiny bird:
Last but not least, Ethan DID find his true identity… An extra for a Monty Python Movie:
Shortly after leaving the lake, we stopped in for fuel at a lodge… We were greeted by $5.30 per gallon prices (for REGULAR!) and two riders in pajama pants and racing boots… They were staying at the lodge, and one of them was riding the same type of bike that Ethan and I were. He later tracked us down, on the FZ1 Owners website to say hello 
As we neared the North end of the massive park, I spotted a large pullout with a sign pointing to the next mountain over.
Sadly, the lighting on the falls itself was terrible, but I did catch a shot of a truly immense mountain just South of us… You can see where a glacier once sat upon the top of it, and at it’s base there are empty river beds where the glacial melt ran towards huge blue lakes.
Note the trees on the far end… That mountain was HUGE!
Only a few miles down the road, our steady 80mph speed was suddenly interrupted by what I spotted to the right. I signaled for Ethan to stop, turned around and whipped out my camera.
And just the falls:
Just plain lovely.
We entered the next town, shortly after things got fully dark. Ethan and I set about going hotel to hotel, finding them either sold out, or $140++ a night. We finally found one, but I have to admit, that it scared us!
We were told that we could stay for $10 cheaper a night if we stayed over the bar “cause it gets a bit loud over on that side of the building” instead of sleeping above the liquor store… After a quick run to pick up some DELICIOUS pizza, and a conversation with a college student who was on an exodus to Alaska, we rode back to the hotel… Oh, and Ethan tried to kill me! (Long story )
After some good beer, good pizza, and hilariously poor television, we hit the sack, in preperation of a long days ride on the ‘morrow.
18 commentsDay 16 – Taste of Calgary
The evening before was dinner with “Family”…
The Knight’s (Our hosts) had their two children, one daughter in law, and one tenant all up for a delicious meal, and the younger crowd had discussed doing something the following day… Something called “The Taste of Calgary” an event which is held annually, for the local restaurants, eateries and breweries to show off their latest and greatest foods, beers and liquors.
Both Ethan and I were chomping at the bit to get going, since we’d heard that our plans for the “after party” included a visit to an Irish Pub.
We said goodbye to the folks and set off for the city:
Driving into Calgary, I had the rare chance to be a passenger (I ALWAYS drive lol) so I kept myself busy taking pictures out of the open window:
Once we found our way to parking, we set off to walk to few blocks to the event… OF course, I couldn’t contain myself for long and quickly found a quaint old bike to shoot:
And the finished product, needs some photoshopping, but it looks almost the way I wanted it to.
As we strolled into the fair, I snapped a photo from above my head… Here’s just a small taste of the numbers and kind of people there, cool stuff!
We made our way over to the ticket counter, picked up 40 tickets for 30 (Canadian) dollars and then set about eating and drinking our way through the fair… And did we ever! We started things off right with some greek tastyness and wandered around booth to booth trying new foods, before we made our way into the seperate beer gardens.
Ethan and I gave each other a hearty “Oiy!” and set to work sampling the best of Canadian microbrews. It was hard work too, let me tell ya’… These Canadians are experts in their craft, and it shows!
My favorite of the day was the extraordinary “Hop Head IPA” By Tree Brewing Company… Amazing!
As I was walking through the beer gardens, I spotted this group of guys, I announced myself to them and asked to take their picture, as obviously they had the coolest table at the event.
And one of our hosts son Mr. Knight looking odd.
After a bit of time, Ethan and I had built ourselves a fine tower of glasses:
As the sun set, the light on the buildings grew steadily more beautiful.
From the festival, we took a quick commute to a massively over priced Irish Pub, where we enjoyed some tasty soup and of course Irish brews. Hilarity ensued as often does, and we eventually made our way home to try our hand at some sadly unimpressive Cuban cigars.
At the Pub:
After our cigars, it was time for bed… And a wonderful, night’s sleep.
Ethan’s side -
I slept in again then got a bunch of work done. That evening we went out on the town with the Knights kids to The Taste of Calgary It was a fun time, their were dozens of small shops each with a different kind of food and we walked around tasting and trying different foods from different cultures. But the best part was a section dedicated to Canadian beer. Probably 20+ different breweries were set up and I tried over half of their beers, (note these were in small glasses not large ones) my favorite being the hard cider called jackrabbit.
To top the evening off the group of us went to a local Irish pub and had a jolly time swapping tall tales, discussing theology, middle eastern politics and drinking good old Harp lager, my favorite beer of all time.
We came back to the house and smoked some Cuban cigars outside had more stimulating discussion then headed to bed.
Day 15 “Teething”
Apparently riding through freezing cold rain saps the energy from you, so I didn’t get up till noonish Eric had been having trouble with a tooth and it was really bad. So he went to the dentist for emergency tooth work and I went shopping with Dick Knight to get some stuff for the rest of our trip, namely a portable air compressor, waterproof socks and a compass.
We returned to the Knights abode and ate a wonderful dinner with the rest of the family who visited and then we watched the movie White North, a comedy starring Robin Williams set in the white north. It was a good preparatory movie for the rest of the trip.
Eric’s side -
Ahhh what a lovely day…
Slept in, worked and wrote blog entries, went shopping, went to the Dentist…
Had my tooth pulled (Which was SUCH a relief after the pain of the previous 48 hours), ate an amazingly delicious salmon dinner, wrote blog entries, watched some hilarity on TV and went to sleep.
Praise God for days like these.
Day 14 – Bozeman to Calgary
We awoke early, loaded our bags back on the bikes and I led us through a few wrong turns on the way to the dealership. When we pulled up, we knew that this was going to be a good place.
A smiling employee greeted us with a handshake and welcomed us to “Team-Bozeman Motorsports” I browsed through the tire selection and found the exact set that I was hoping they might have. After turning the tires over to the mechanic, Ethan and I set about looking around the expansive showroom.
That’s where we discovered this high priced beauty:
After hopping on the dealerships wireless internet and putting up a post here, Ethan and I discovered something interesting… A board with details about the “World’s Fastest Yamaha Warrior” which is ridden by the dealership’s owner.
We tracked down the owner, and asked to see it… A few minutes later, we did more than just see it!
It currently runs 174.5mph, and with the new parts (See below) he’s hoping to make it up to 200mph 
After getting the tires mounted and balanced (and hearing the insane noise that it makes when running… Shakes the building!) Of course we had to get the rider/ owners signature, so we did!
And the coolest signature yet:
Pretty cool eh?
We also snagged another cool signature… His son’s!
See?
We didn’t leave Bozeman until around noon, but we figured that it was time well spent, and I wasn’t riding on threads anymore! We shot North towards Canada and made fantastic time up the Interstate until we neared the border and started hitting massive patches of rain.
We stopped twice just before the border, first to put on our rain gear and then to pull out our passports and prepare for the crossing. At the second stop, I grabbed the camera and started shooting. The scenery was wild; blue skies behind, dark skies ahead, and nothing but distance in between.
Truly “Big Sky Country”
Looking North into the storm:
A look to the East:
The path we’ve followed thus far:
And of course, a look to the stark West as well:
At the last minute, we decided that we should get some fuel at the border to save at least a few dollars before we started buying in Liters. It was a good decision too, since we were practically out of fuel.
The problem was, that the entire town had their power knocked out by the storm we’d just ridden through… So, we waited.
After about an hour, hanging out in the liquor store/ gas station, we decided that we’d had enough and that we were going to attempt to make it across the border and then the 8 miles to the next gas station.
We crossed the border without any major issues (It pays to carry your passport!), and made our way through the rain to the first gas station. I smiled when I saw the “$1.15″ sign, before remembering that they were talking about Liters, instead of gallons… $50+ later and both bikes were filled, so that we could be on our way.
As we rolled North towards Calgary, I was struck by the stark differences in the land, the signs, the people, heck even the bloody metric system. NO WHERE did you spot any trash by the road, NO one refused to return our waves and smiles, some how it just felt “lovely”.
Less then 150 kilometers into Alberta the rain stopped. Ethan and I pulled off the main road to do our ceremonial urinization on new territories and take a few pictures (Not of the ceremony, don’t worry )
The sky looked amazing and we were even blessed with a beautiful rainbow:
A better shot, sans bikes:
This was NOT the road we were riding on to Calgary, but it was our first adventure on gravel, so I had to document it!
As we rode, we began to see yet ANOTHER storm system growing rapidly as we approached. It was awe inspiring to look at, as lightning crackled from one end to the other, but I have to admit that I was worried as we rode towards our “impending doom” and the promise of a warm shower and drink.
We stopped to put on our rain gear (again), and I snapped this shot:
Just as we entered the outskirts of Calgary, the storm hit… And did it EVER?!?!
The rain was incredible, I couldn’t see more than 50′-100′ ahead of my bike at any given time, the water was puddling between 2″ and 6″ deep across the entire roadway, and the glare from the streetlights made it nearly impossible to see out of my helmet at all.
With Ethan guiding us towards our hosts home, we slowly wove our way through the streets that were rapidly becoming waterways.
As we crested a hill, I saw that the roadside was lined with WHITE… Shocked, I thought to myself “SNOW, in August?!?!” and though it seems that I was wrong and it was actually small hail, it was still a startling thought.
It was quite late when we finally rolled in to our hosts home, and we were both fairly exhausted… So, after a round of drinks and some great conversation, we headed off to bed.
(All through the day, I’d been experiencing extreme amounts of pain in my upper left molar tooth and wisdom tooth… With great joy, I was told that an appointment would be made for me to see a dentist on the ‘morrow)
P.S. More photos and posts coming soon, we’re about 17 days behind currently, and will have to catch up when we get home… Currently tired, blessed and heading to bed, in a lighthouse hostel… Northern California
Ethan’s side –
A new tire was the first order of business for the day so got to the bike shop just as the service door opened and re-shoeing of the horse commenced. Killing time a motorcycle shop is always fun though it does tempt one towards covetousness while perusing we ran across some newspaper clippings and picture of a motorcycle that looked like the one in The Word’s Fastest Indian (Which if you haven’t seen it you need to.) We chatted with one of the ladies and she said that that was the owner. We met the owner and he showed us his world’s fastest Yamaha warrior his current record is 174 mph and he hopes to break 200 with a new body kit. A very cool guy and a nice motorcycle shop.
With the re-shoeing complete we headed north to Canada. After mountain passes and hills we descended into the plains, and boy are they plain. We saw a thunderstorm in the distance and pulled over to don our rain gear. Standing in one spot I turned all the way around and saw a lot of absolutely nothing.
Our port of entry into the Canada was Sweetgrass and when we arrived they had a surprise for us. We pulled into a gas station on our side of the border to fill up on gas that cost only a few fingers instead of the whole arm and leg. Our tanks were on empty and we dismounted only to discover that the power was out. So their we waited for the next hour for the saving graces of the power company to rescue us from our plight. It was fun to observe the other people as the came into the gas station and, after being told their was no power proceeded to try and buy things with their credit cards. And after being told that the credit cards need electricity to work they pulled our their debit cards! We have truly become a society totally dependent on electricity.
Waiting is my favorite thing to do so after an hour we pulled out in the hopes of gas somewhere north of the border. Customs was a breeze and we entered Canada eh? 15 miles north of the border was a gas station and we paid the price and I didn’t even bother to convert liters to galleons, not because I was lazy but because I didn’t want to know how much I was actually paying per galleon. Another thing that is different in Canada, besides the shorter stature, the communism and the endless supply of eh?s is that gas stations don’t have a covering for the pumps, so if it’s raining you have to stand in the rain to pump your gas. I guess the whole roof thing hasn’t caught on up there yet.
Our destination that night was the Knights (pun intended) in Calgary. Good friend of the family and the Canadian reps for Math-U-See they had invited us to spend the night with them. We rode north and into a nasty storm. It was so bad, we discovered later, that peoples houses had had windows blown out and roofs destroyed. It was dark, it was very wet and raining, it was cold and it was late. But we made it! We pulled up to the house, got out of our wet gear and went in. Inside I discovered that Canada has an excellent redemptive quality to it, beer. Canadian beer is full of flavor, it’s smooth and you get to say eh? a lot After Canadian goodness we partook of Canadian hospitality and went to bed.
Day 13 – Yellowstone
Of Bad Tires, Geysers, and More Bikes than Cars
As I mentioned in the last post, we slept in a bit more than we should have and then had a much needed breakfast (though Ethan’ll point out that he didn’t eat much ). After breakfast, we started loading up the bikes when I noticed something troublesome about my already problem ridden rear tire.
That’s right, THREADS… The day before I was showing plenty of tread with no problematic signs at all (aside from the plug that we put in it, a few days before in Iowa).
I was worried… The nearest place to pick up a rear tire was 260 miles away and all the way through Yellowstone. Given the fact that my rear had gone from great tread to no tread in 600 miles or less I had no clue if it would even make it (or if it would leave me with no rear tire at 80mph+) Kind of a frightening thought!
But, we had no choice but to move forward… Praying!
As we finished packing up, Ethan saw a friend that we’d made from the previous night, one of the lodge employees. He wanted her signature, and he got it :
She had a hilarious personality, and we had a blast talking to her.
A quick shot of our cabin (We had the left hand half):
30 miles later we were at the entrance of Yellowstone, parked behind dozens of vehicles that were all waiting in line for a pilot car to lead them through the 10+ miles of gravel and construction.
Once we were rolling, I had a completely new experience… I’d never really RIDDEN a street bike through gravel, and knowing what we had ahead of us on the Alaskan Highway, I knew that it’d be good practice.
I just wish I wasn’t “practicing” on a bad rear tire!
We made it through with no problems though, and stopped shortly afterwards to take another look at my rear tire. Already, the threads had turned to steel bands, but the tire felt pretty good.
Here’s the pond we stopped beside:
Beautiful area!
From what you can see, it seems that I am obsessed with water, this is Yellowstone Lake:
We didn’t take much time doddling along the way, it was already late and we had to make it to Montana!
We stopped briefly for fuel and then rode over to the Geyser basin to catch a shot of Old Faithful. As we pulled up, it was just finishing it’s on schedule show so we knew we were in for a bit of a wait. After eating a delicious greek salad we wandered over to the main lodge building where I captured this shot of the wooden rafters above.
Pretty cool design eh?
After puttering around the basin a bit more (hiking isn’t terribly comfortable when you’re wearing motorcycle leathers and boots) we wandered back over to where I could catch a good angle of Old Faithful.
There were people seated on benches all the way around the semi-circle that surrounds the geyser, I figure that there had to be well over 1,000 of them.
“Waiting”
And though the geyser was a few minutes late, the wait was worth it.
We left Yellowstone immediately after the geyser blew and forged our way through traffic, instantly losing track of the number of Harleys we saw since they easily out numbered the cars… I can’t even imagine what Sturgis was like.
“Leaving”
From there we rapidly rode up to Montana…
The ride North went smoothly we rode through a couple of patches of rain but without wasting much time we had directions to a motorcycle dealership 25 miles away.
Those 25 miles were just insane.
As we crested a hill, I saw a massive storm covering the mountain pass that we were about to pass through. The anticipation of having to ride through heavy rain up and down a mountain on my shoddy rear tire certainly wasn’t any fun, but I made it through without having my rear tire hydroplane too much.
By the time we rolled into Bozeman, MT it was around 8:00PM. We were hungry, wet, and cold. We found a place that specialized in fish tacos, grabbed a bite to eat and then spent over an hour going to a dozen different hotels and motels, from nice to sleazy, trying to find a place to sleep for the night.
ALL the rooms seemed to be OUTRAGEOUSLY overpriced and nearly all of them were full! $135+++ for a room in this tiny little Western town, just seemed nuts!
Another thing we discovered was an oddly disproportionate number of good looking people… Something must be in the water around there, because almost everyone we saw was fairly attractive… Enough so, that Ethan and I both noticed it and felt compelled to share said findings
After catching up on emails we fell off to some much needed sleep.
Ethan’s side –
After the long night of Elvis songs we slept in and left around 10:30. We retraced our way back to the Yellowstone entrance and entered the great park of Teddy’s choosing. The first 30 miles or so were “under construction†meaning, they were actually making the road as we rode on it. Gravel and pilot cars were the order of the day, it wasn’t too bad and it afforded a slow view of the scenery. Once out of the construction we kept viewing the scenery just at a slightly faster pace. I’ve been to Yellowstone twice before, but both times I was in a car, there is just something different about riding through on a motorcycle. You get a sort of communal atmosphere. You can feel the wind, smell the fresh pine and the temperature fluctuates with your elevation and nearness to water. Another community aspect to Yellowstone is the number of motorcycles on the road, with “Sturgis†being a state away every Harley and their grandmothers Harley was cruising through the park. It was one big happy motorcycle family with the few sport-bikes being the younger testosterone filled members of the family We traveled the “tourist†route to Old Faithful where we watched the geyser faithfully erupt yet again. It must be under a lot of pressure to keep on doing that After Old Faithful we headed north to Montana. While riding through Montana the weather started to play. Riding down in the sunlight the road small rain drops started to fall. I could see the malicious cloud they were coming from and coming from that angle and with my velocity and light mesh jacket the drops felt like small airsoft bullets striking my arms and legs. For the next several hours I played a game of tag with the rain clouds, I would outrun the one I was in only to ride right into another, it was fun and the alternation between sunlight and storm was quite interesting. As we neared Bozeman Montana the storm got really bad and the last 30 miles was all grin and bear it. Once in Bozeman we found the motorcycle dealer then a hotel, then we found sleep