MOTO TRIP 2008

I never got around to blogging about our summer vacation. In the last week of August and the first week of September we rode our motorcycles to Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. We stopped at several points along the way there and back, and had a great time.

Some highlights:

We spent the first weekend in Penticton, B.C. because Iron Man Canada happened that weekend and we knew a few people competing. (My first experience watching Iron Man Canada in 2006 was quite memorable, and I wanted Lorinda to observe this race firsthand). We camped near Lake Skaha with our friends Robin, Chris and Chris. Chris and Chris were Iron Man virgins like Lorinda. (Chris L. took several really excellent photos, of which a sampling can be found here).

The race started, of course, in Lake Okanagan; 2300 swimmers preparing for a very, very long day:

After the first wave of swimmers got on their bikes, we headed out in Robin's minivan to watch the cyclists cruise around the hills of the Okanagan Valley wine country. Then we sped back to town in time to catch the first pro cross the finish line at the conclusion of the marathon portion of the triathlon at about 3:30 PM. Brian Rhodes of New Zealand won his first Iron Man:

We stuck around until the bitter end at midnight, watching the final long-suffering souls cross the finish line. The crowd enthusiastically willed each participant across the line. As always, it was an inspirational night filled with tears, loud music, blood, Subaru employees in sumo wrestling suits, free candy, and even an unseasonable monsoon. You had to be there.

I was not so inspired, however, the next morning when we had to break camp in the rain and ride north through the valley. Fortunately we were only going as far as Vernon.

A couple days later we finally made it to Banff, after enduring a brutal stretch of heavy rainfall over Rogers Pass on our way to Revelstoke. We had intended to camp along the headwaters of the Columbia, but I sprung for a Super8 motel room out of a desire to stay dry, or rather -- GET dry.

We wandered into the town of Banff and in spite of the light rainfall and unseasonably low temperatures decided to go canoeing on the Bow River:

The razor-sharp Canadian Rockies loomed gloomy over us on our journey down the river:

After a couple days, the sun finally came out and we got to see a bit more of the surrounding peaks, like this view from the parking lot of the condo we stayed at in Canmore:

We did finally venture to Lake Louise in spite of the sub-40 F degree weather. It's always good to check in on the glacier receding up the flanks of Mt. Victoria:

Banff National Park is full of wildlife and we sampled some. While riding on the back of my bike, Lorinda managed to snap this shot of a big-horned mountain sheep on the side of the road.

We left Banff and rode south through the Kootenay region, stopping briefly in Radium Hot Springs for lunch. ("Radium" hot springs? Sounds scary. We did not examine the decaying isotopes).

Soon we arrived in Cranbrook, B.C. where Lorinda's parents live. We spent a lovely couple of days lounging with them. We even coaxed Lorinda's mom into going for a ride on the back of my bike, with Lorinda at the handlebars.

From Cranbrook, we rode perhaps the most beautiful stretch of motorcycling we've ever done: west along Canada Highway #3 via a dramatic roller-coaster of a ride, then south on #6 and we crossed the border into Washington State at a tiny little border crossing near "Nelway". The Pend Oreille National Forest was exciting, and I had never been in this part of my home state so I was wide-eyed the whole time. We worked our way south to the one-building town of Tiger and turned west again on Highway 20. I finally got to see Kettle Falls. The "Falls" haven't really fallen in about 80 years since the Grand Coulee Dam slowed the downhill trajectory of the Columbia and turned the falls into a virtual lake.

We pulled off the road for a brief rest and to take a peek at some leftover forest fire scarring.

We spent the night with my parents in the hamlet of Okanogan, then flew home on the incomparable North Cascades Highway which included an obligatory bathroom break at the Diablo Dam overlook.

We are currently researching a route for Moto Trip 2009! Any suggestions? We're contemplating: Zion and Bryce National Parks in southern Utah, and/or northern Colorado... Perhaps a trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. Maybe an aggressive trip all the way to Tucson, Arizona... Stay tuned.