Blog 8

Friday, June 9

 A lot of miles traveled, interesting people met, and much to report....when I last checked in I was headed to Missoula to get a directional signal light on the bike repaired.  I was at the door when they opened Wednesday morning at 10am and was out at 11:30....problem fixed and the bill was quite reasonable (much cheaper than if the work had been done around home). The dealership is Mike Tingley's Motorcycle of Missoula and John did the work.  He even posed for a photo with the bike after completing the job...I assured him that appearing in this blog would make him famous.

From Missoula it was off to Glacier National Park.  I approached the park from the west side...drove the "Going to the Sun Hwy" as far as it was open, about 15 miles.  After asking a ranger, where the best place to cross the border was, he said I would have to drive around the park to the east side to cross or go into WA state.  So around the south end of the park to the east side I went arriving in a camp ground around 9pm.  Keep in mind that it doesn't get dark until 10pm so I tend to travel well into the evenings.

Left early the next morning headed for the border.  It took about 30 mins to get through customs then I was in Alberta....traveled north about 50 kms and headed west as it started to rain. I was hoping to out flank the weather by crossing back over the Rockies and it worked for a while. The temp started dropping and it began to rain. I crossed through the Crow’s Nest Pass and it was near freezing but after reaching the next valley it was more tolerable…like low 40s. I traveled north until about 7:30pm in off and on rain when the temp started to drop near freezing again. So in Fairmont Hot Springs I booked a nice little B&B for the night.  It was my first night not in a tent. This morning it was 35F and raining but I was headed off for the Banff National Park and Parkway....well entering into the park at Radium Hot Springs B.C. the weather was miserable, a really cold rain that turned to snow within a few miles. The rain/snow stayed pretty steady for about 70 miles and upon reaching Lake Louise, AL I pulled up at I.H. Hostel there. Here I met Michael O'Donovan, a fellow adventure motorcycle traveler.  He is Irish and has lived in Australia for 25 years. He began this journey by shipping his bike to L.A. and started on Feb. 12th to FL, up to Quebec, and across to ‘here’ in four months. He is also going to Deadhorse, AK and from there is headed south to the tip of South America. He has allowed 18 months for his adventure. He once spent 16 months, 74,000 kms circumnavigating Australia.  We had dinner together and he gave me a lot of tips about this lifestyle.

Well, it's 10:15pm and time to go to bed...it is still light...and a 74 year old backpacker from Columbus, MS is telling interesting stories about his travels all over the world. There are three of us in this room including a young man from Niagara Falls, ON.