That morning was beautiful. Sunny... warmm. I headed right to the beach, took a nice looooong walk, and checked out this cool band Neil from Regina had put on my Ipod (Blitzen Trapper... super good). After the fog lifted a little I changed into my bathing suit and waded out into the ocean. It was gorgeous. And COLD. I didn't get past knee deep. It was just way too cold, and combined with a chilly ocean breeze I was in no mood to freeze. It was still really nice though and I spent lots of time walking around and laying on the beach. Everyone there was so friendly and approachable... and many even just approached me. It seems to be the common thing in B.C... to be awesome and inviting :) haha. After spending time on the beach I became ancy again.. the need to ride was boiling inside ;) So I packed up and did the whole trip back. Took the ferry over again and this time, started heading east :) back home. I passed through Hope, and all the southern B.C towns along highway number 1. I ended up in Chilliwack, and had the WORST camping experience ever. So bad I ended up giving away all my camping gear the next day (well, tent sleeping bag and air mattress). I won't go into details, but it involves a highway on one side, a train track on the other, a mildewy tent and an air mattress that wont stay inflated for more then half an hour. It was miserable. The next day I headed for the Alberta/ B.C border. I was phisically sad to see the mountains, B.C, everything go. I ended up staying in Alberta, right on the edge of the mountain range, for the night.
Now I am in Regina again, sitting at a coffee shop I don't belong in. It is posh, hip, and expensive. I am dirty, am wearing a faded leather jacket, and now sporting a nose ring on my left side. On Neils laptop. Next update will be my ride home :) and a little more about my nosering experience. Until then ;)
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Isn't it funny how long it takes to get to the PC? I usually don't get into town until after dark, after all the libraries and schools are closed, and after I have a chance to use one. Anyhow... continuing my story :)
After leaving Calgary, and trying to dry off a bit, I ended up heading towards Lake Louise. I wanted to see the lake, and my friend Charlie has a friend there who works at the hotel on the lake. It was c-c-cooooold. When I got there, I read up a little bit and discovered the lake water is only 4 degrees Celsius :-| It was a beautiful summer day, and I could see my breath in the air. I was still soaked from Calgary, and had a few hours to kill before my 'place' got off work, so my only option was to walk. And I walked. And walked. I walked the distance of the lake to see what was there. Lots of bear warning signs... no bears :) The air was so thin and pure. Once I got to the opposite side of the lake, the massive hotel looked pocket sized, and I discovered that there were two paths that went up the glacier :) One apparently ended up at this cool little tea house. I started up the first path, which was only 3.5 km, but I had to throw in the towel after about half of that distance. I think what happened was my lungs had not become adjusted to the thin, cold, purrrre air yet. After starting to walk up I became very lightheaded, accompanied with breathlessness... and a slight feeling of euphoria ;) I turned around and it felt like all I could do to do the walk back. The lake was beeeeeatufil though. Pure blue. I always wondered what made the water blue. It turns out it is blue because of the minerals in the glacier water and (I am assuming) from the mountain :) Cooooll!! There were also little fishies in the water... and some big fishes.
That night I slept like a roooock. The dorm I stayed at was behind the hotel. They have their own little village there for people that work at the hotel, complete with laundry, their own local bar, convenience stores... etc. It was really quite something. The rooms were nice too, but I had to lug a shit load of shit up 4 flights of stairs after hauling it up a hill. Everyone there was cool though and after a beer I passed out pretty quick :)
I woke up bright and early that morning. 6:00 I believe. The mountain was filled with fog, with the sun shining through the cracks. It was very chilly. It was captivating. This day, I was heading to whistler, to stay with my buddy Dan. Whistler is a good 650 km away from Lake Louise. Whatever, I thought, I've done 700 km days before, I'll be there before dark, or even at dinner. I let dan know I was on my way and headed off. On my way to whistler, I went through Kamloops, which was gorgeous. My GPS told me that there was an alternate route going through the mountains in Kamloops which connected with the number 1 again... and I was near it, so I decided to follow my GPS and take it. It was a blessing and a curse. The scenery was beautiful, and it took me through three cattle ranches in the mountains and through some beautiful scenery. Unfortunatly, it was ALL windy, and ALL elevated, and ALL dirt road. And then it rained. So I was only doing, on average. 40 km/h. And it was about 70km of road. It took forrrever, and I lost lots of time getting to the highway. Once I hit the highway though, it was cleeeear sailing :)
On my adventures I passed through a random, yet HUGE honda powersports dealer in a small town called Salmon Arm. There, I bought some oil, which my bike desparatly needed... anddd I bought a brand new helmet :) I honestly could not resist. I have never found a helmet that just... fits me. My current helmet was a piece of crap. It leaked wind, had been dropped multiple times, the seal on the visor was dead, it rattled, and it had this terrible pressure point on my forehead... one so bad that it started to get bruised and all zitty and gross after my 7 hour days of riding, not to mention SORE. This particular helmet was 499.00... a large chunk of my trip money... however, it was a rebranded Arai which was actually worth about 799.00. The guy cut me a deal, and I was able to walk away with the helmet for 430.00. I feel much safer now in the event of any accident involving my head. The fit is perfect too, and it even looks better. Less bulky too :) I was very pleased. It isn't every day you find a helmet that fits an XXXL sized head haha.
I stopped in Sorrento, and had some ice cream. This was at about 3:00. Talked with the owner of the shop for a little bit, Putt's Parlor it was called, this cute little ice cream place with mini putt out the side of it :) The lady there was really nice and talked with me for about an hour about B.C and how wonderful it is. And the seasons. At this point, I think I was about 450 km out of Whistler. So about a 5 hour drive. So I was looking to get there for 9.
Not :P The last leg of my journey was long, went through tonnes of mountains, windy roads, a native reserve area, large STEEP mountain passes. At about 10:00, it got cold, started raining in the mountains, fog as thick as fog and the roads were mostly under construction, for the olymipics in 2010. It was skeeeetchy, and mostly because I was out in the middle of nowhere in this stuff and I hadn't seen any cars in 30 minutes. Finally though, I caught up to a truck creeping down the mountain slope at about 20 km/h... thats how fast they have to go down those steep grades. Did I mention that because of the construction, the guard rails at the side of the mountain were removed? Oh yes. I took it slow and steady. Got to Whistler, freezing cold, wet and shivery, at about 11:45.
Chilled in Whistler a few days with Dan, took lots of pictures and went to Vancouver after the first day :) Got my tire changed there, as it was baaaaald as all hell. A guy at the vespa dealer I found the tire at let me take off my own exhaust and covers, and only charged me 27.00 for installation :) Thanks man. The other really cool highlight of Whistler, besides chilling with Dan ;), was when his stepbrother and friend took both of us to this cable that went over a wide river, and we all all took turns harnessing over the river :) that was a tonnnnn of fun. Dan eventually soaked his bum after we added more harness and got lower and lower to the river. Silly dan :P
After leaving Whistler, I headed back down to the Vancouver area. I knew I needed to go to the island, to walk in the ocean... the real ocean... on the other side of the island. The ferry ride turned out to be cheaper than I expected! 36 bucks for a person and a scooter :) It was a Friday, and it looked like it was going to be a pretty cooking weekend on the island. The ferry ride was gorgeous.. I spent the entire time with the wind in my hair on the deck. It lasted a little over an hour. Put on my Ipod... chilled on the deck... yeah :) After getting off on the island, I landed in Nanaimo, which was apparently a good place to be, as the only road to the other end of the island was connected to it ( Victoria, the other landing point, was about 30 mins due south). I asked around and discovered the place I needed to get to was this... Tofino place. I hear it was beach, surf, sand... and a cool little town :) The road there was like the one to whistler. Windy, rough... mountainous. It was fun though because it was day :) I arrived right when it became dark, and lucked out when I got pretty much the last room in a local Hostel. My one room mate, Tross, was pretty cool and offered me beer and stuff :) I was too tired though, and ended up checking in and passing ouuuut. Hard. It was a hard long ride across the island. I was awoken at about... oh.... 6:00 in the morning? When my other room mate came in. Well, there was two. One of them was a motorcyclist from down south up touring :) I didn't know this at the time though, because I thought he was just a crazy old man at this point. Don't worry, I had justification... he sang in his sleep. Strange, strange songs. With words and language I have never heard. And he had pipes. How someone sings that loud in their sleep without waking themselves up, I have no idea. Seeing as I am a morning person, though, I found it entertaining. Now, the other room mate was up to something a little different. We called him 'Q'... which stood for something a little more complicated. Anyways, he had been at this party and ended up hooking up with this chick from Montreal. So let me set the scene here... Hostel room, 3 bunk beds, 3 other guys in the room... and Q decides that this is a great place to bring a girl to bang. The beds are squeaky as hell, by the way. He knows all of us are awake, and we all have a CLEAR vantage point of whats going on. He even looks at us all. The chick is just like, looking around like she doesn't like whats going on. I ended up feeling super awkward for her and left the room to do my whole morning routine thing. Q looked at me on my way out, and I mentioned offhand, 'uhh... its ok man, i'm still on Ontario time anyway..'. If he was still able to perform after clearing two guys out of the room from embarrassment, then props to him.
After leaving Calgary, and trying to dry off a bit, I ended up heading towards Lake Louise. I wanted to see the lake, and my friend Charlie has a friend there who works at the hotel on the lake. It was c-c-cooooold. When I got there, I read up a little bit and discovered the lake water is only 4 degrees Celsius :-| It was a beautiful summer day, and I could see my breath in the air. I was still soaked from Calgary, and had a few hours to kill before my 'place' got off work, so my only option was to walk. And I walked. And walked. I walked the distance of the lake to see what was there. Lots of bear warning signs... no bears :) The air was so thin and pure. Once I got to the opposite side of the lake, the massive hotel looked pocket sized, and I discovered that there were two paths that went up the glacier :) One apparently ended up at this cool little tea house. I started up the first path, which was only 3.5 km, but I had to throw in the towel after about half of that distance. I think what happened was my lungs had not become adjusted to the thin, cold, purrrre air yet. After starting to walk up I became very lightheaded, accompanied with breathlessness... and a slight feeling of euphoria ;) I turned around and it felt like all I could do to do the walk back. The lake was beeeeeatufil though. Pure blue. I always wondered what made the water blue. It turns out it is blue because of the minerals in the glacier water and (I am assuming) from the mountain :) Cooooll!! There were also little fishies in the water... and some big fishes.
That night I slept like a roooock. The dorm I stayed at was behind the hotel. They have their own little village there for people that work at the hotel, complete with laundry, their own local bar, convenience stores... etc. It was really quite something. The rooms were nice too, but I had to lug a shit load of shit up 4 flights of stairs after hauling it up a hill. Everyone there was cool though and after a beer I passed out pretty quick :)
I woke up bright and early that morning. 6:00 I believe. The mountain was filled with fog, with the sun shining through the cracks. It was very chilly. It was captivating. This day, I was heading to whistler, to stay with my buddy Dan. Whistler is a good 650 km away from Lake Louise. Whatever, I thought, I've done 700 km days before, I'll be there before dark, or even at dinner. I let dan know I was on my way and headed off. On my way to whistler, I went through Kamloops, which was gorgeous. My GPS told me that there was an alternate route going through the mountains in Kamloops which connected with the number 1 again... and I was near it, so I decided to follow my GPS and take it. It was a blessing and a curse. The scenery was beautiful, and it took me through three cattle ranches in the mountains and through some beautiful scenery. Unfortunatly, it was ALL windy, and ALL elevated, and ALL dirt road. And then it rained. So I was only doing, on average. 40 km/h. And it was about 70km of road. It took forrrever, and I lost lots of time getting to the highway. Once I hit the highway though, it was cleeeear sailing :)
On my adventures I passed through a random, yet HUGE honda powersports dealer in a small town called Salmon Arm. There, I bought some oil, which my bike desparatly needed... anddd I bought a brand new helmet :) I honestly could not resist. I have never found a helmet that just... fits me. My current helmet was a piece of crap. It leaked wind, had been dropped multiple times, the seal on the visor was dead, it rattled, and it had this terrible pressure point on my forehead... one so bad that it started to get bruised and all zitty and gross after my 7 hour days of riding, not to mention SORE. This particular helmet was 499.00... a large chunk of my trip money... however, it was a rebranded Arai which was actually worth about 799.00. The guy cut me a deal, and I was able to walk away with the helmet for 430.00. I feel much safer now in the event of any accident involving my head. The fit is perfect too, and it even looks better. Less bulky too :) I was very pleased. It isn't every day you find a helmet that fits an XXXL sized head haha.
I stopped in Sorrento, and had some ice cream. This was at about 3:00. Talked with the owner of the shop for a little bit, Putt's Parlor it was called, this cute little ice cream place with mini putt out the side of it :) The lady there was really nice and talked with me for about an hour about B.C and how wonderful it is. And the seasons. At this point, I think I was about 450 km out of Whistler. So about a 5 hour drive. So I was looking to get there for 9.
Not :P The last leg of my journey was long, went through tonnes of mountains, windy roads, a native reserve area, large STEEP mountain passes. At about 10:00, it got cold, started raining in the mountains, fog as thick as fog and the roads were mostly under construction, for the olymipics in 2010. It was skeeeetchy, and mostly because I was out in the middle of nowhere in this stuff and I hadn't seen any cars in 30 minutes. Finally though, I caught up to a truck creeping down the mountain slope at about 20 km/h... thats how fast they have to go down those steep grades. Did I mention that because of the construction, the guard rails at the side of the mountain were removed? Oh yes. I took it slow and steady. Got to Whistler, freezing cold, wet and shivery, at about 11:45.
Chilled in Whistler a few days with Dan, took lots of pictures and went to Vancouver after the first day :) Got my tire changed there, as it was baaaaald as all hell. A guy at the vespa dealer I found the tire at let me take off my own exhaust and covers, and only charged me 27.00 for installation :) Thanks man. The other really cool highlight of Whistler, besides chilling with Dan ;), was when his stepbrother and friend took both of us to this cable that went over a wide river, and we all all took turns harnessing over the river :) that was a tonnnnn of fun. Dan eventually soaked his bum after we added more harness and got lower and lower to the river. Silly dan :P
After leaving Whistler, I headed back down to the Vancouver area. I knew I needed to go to the island, to walk in the ocean... the real ocean... on the other side of the island. The ferry ride turned out to be cheaper than I expected! 36 bucks for a person and a scooter :) It was a Friday, and it looked like it was going to be a pretty cooking weekend on the island. The ferry ride was gorgeous.. I spent the entire time with the wind in my hair on the deck. It lasted a little over an hour. Put on my Ipod... chilled on the deck... yeah :) After getting off on the island, I landed in Nanaimo, which was apparently a good place to be, as the only road to the other end of the island was connected to it ( Victoria, the other landing point, was about 30 mins due south). I asked around and discovered the place I needed to get to was this... Tofino place. I hear it was beach, surf, sand... and a cool little town :) The road there was like the one to whistler. Windy, rough... mountainous. It was fun though because it was day :) I arrived right when it became dark, and lucked out when I got pretty much the last room in a local Hostel. My one room mate, Tross, was pretty cool and offered me beer and stuff :) I was too tired though, and ended up checking in and passing ouuuut. Hard. It was a hard long ride across the island. I was awoken at about... oh.... 6:00 in the morning? When my other room mate came in. Well, there was two. One of them was a motorcyclist from down south up touring :) I didn't know this at the time though, because I thought he was just a crazy old man at this point. Don't worry, I had justification... he sang in his sleep. Strange, strange songs. With words and language I have never heard. And he had pipes. How someone sings that loud in their sleep without waking themselves up, I have no idea. Seeing as I am a morning person, though, I found it entertaining. Now, the other room mate was up to something a little different. We called him 'Q'... which stood for something a little more complicated. Anyways, he had been at this party and ended up hooking up with this chick from Montreal. So let me set the scene here... Hostel room, 3 bunk beds, 3 other guys in the room... and Q decides that this is a great place to bring a girl to bang. The beds are squeaky as hell, by the way. He knows all of us are awake, and we all have a CLEAR vantage point of whats going on. He even looks at us all. The chick is just like, looking around like she doesn't like whats going on. I ended up feeling super awkward for her and left the room to do my whole morning routine thing. Q looked at me on my way out, and I mentioned offhand, 'uhh... its ok man, i'm still on Ontario time anyway..'. If he was still able to perform after clearing two guys out of the room from embarrassment, then props to him.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
I've been chilling in Whistler with my buddy Dan for the last few days :) It's very beautiful up here. The 'city' of Whistler itself is far, far smaller then I imagined, considering that it is such a winter hotspot and that it is supposed to host god knows how many people in the upcoming 2010 winter Olympic games. Anyways, I am alive and very well :)
After I posted in Winnipeg, I ended up finding a campsite that night and pitched tent. To my surprise, a father-son duo, also on motorcycles, showed up and pitched tent right beside me! They were headed somewhere a little more adventurous though :) Alaska! They promptly offered me a cold beer, which put me to bed at an early 9:00. Haha. The time zone had shifted though, and I was feeling the effects of it.
That morning I woke up, freezing cold, at around 4:45... right before sunrise. I promptly packed up my tent and was on my way. The drive to Regina was well... flat. Very flat. Haha. There I met with my friend Neil and he helped me out by giving me a couch to sleep on, making me some food, and other fun things ;) which I then rode his girlfriend's bike under the influence of. He took me to one of his Regina hangouts and I had an amazing quesadilla. I passed out harrrrd, as I believe by now the time zone was now two hours behind... and at 12:00, and a few beers, I was ready to crash. I think I didn't mention this in my last post... My Ipod died. Yes, RIP shiny 2G ipod touch, you lived a long and fufilling existance, I hope I... 'touched' you... while you were still here. *snigger*. Anyway, when I was in Montreal camping, all the rain caused some serious water damage which could not be cured by sun, gentle heat, patience or a bowl/bag of rice. Sooo... as soon as I got into Regina my first stop was Best Buy before it closed. I bought a shiny new 8 gig purple Ipod Nano (I wasn't a huge fan of the touch to be honest... too much power in those things, when all I really want is music). Thanks to Neil's help I was able to sync it up with my music, which is hosted to the internet for download remotely off my PC at home just in case anything like this should happen :) Go preparation/technology! So thank you so much Neil for your help... and I will be stopping in again on my way back for sure :)
When I awoke in Regina neil made me breakfast and I loaded more songs onto my ipod. It was, of course, a rainy day. It seemed to be the trend thusfar on this adventure. Sooo, we both just chilled out and listened to some tunes and everything was awesome. Eventually 2:00 rolled around, and it had turned into a nice sunny/cloudy day! So neil took me out and showed me around all the coool spots in Regina. When I first entered the city, I entered the uh... Barton street district, and I think that initially gave me the wrong impression. It is a very pretty city filled with some very interesting things, dispite the fact that the landscape is for the most part pretty flat. We said our goodbyes and I headed out for my 9 hour drive to Calgary.
Now, when I say 9 hours, that means 11 hours with stops and rests and food and whatnot. And it was already about... what... 2:30 when I took off? So needless to say I was not going to make it to Calgary by nightfall. I passed through Moosejaw, which had a cool little main street with lots of neat little shops. I passed through Swift Current, but didn't get a chance to look at it too closely... no time to lose getting to Calgary! On the way back though, I think I will pay it more attention :) By 9:00 I made it to Medicine Hat.... roughly 275 km away from my destination of Calgary. I have been following the weather very closely on this trip, and I knew there was a crazy country-wide low pressure trend, along with a system which was rolling off the rockies and bringing thunder storms to the praries. After studying the radar and hourly forecasts, I was given the impression that thunder storms weren't supposed to be hitting Calgary until 9:00 am, giving me plenty of time to get there from Medicine Hat. The stampede is on right now, and I would much rather get stuck for a day in Calgary than Medicine Hat, or as it says on the city welcome signs, "The Gas City". Charming, isn't it? So I set off for the 3.5 hour trek to Calgary.
About 10 minutes out of medicine hat (which was forecasted for no thunder storms until late next afternoon), I began to see dark clouds in front of me. It was pitch black out by now. Let me establish two things... no, wait... three. 1) The dark sketches me out, in many different situations. 2) Driving on the highway at night on a motorcycle, when the highway is littered with "watch for deer" signs, then seeing deer, sketches me out. 3) Boo night riding. I was going as slow as I could, but it was still sketchy. After 25 minutes though, thats when I saw the lightening start. It was far to the south to me, so I thought I would be fine... I was heading north west. Yeah, that storm is totally heading east. I'll be fine. Uh... wait... hmmm. Its getting closer to me. Is that lightening in front of me too? Oh great. Well that lightening is definitely heading east.
So basically, I was being boxed in by two systems of lightening, one heading right for me, one heading north from the south. As soon as it was totally obvious I was heading into these storms, on the open praries, on the sketch highway, I freaked. I found the nearest U-turn, and hauled ass back to Medicine hat. When I got to medicine hat, I found the cheapest motel I could open at that time (12:00 or so). As soon as I got under the roof of the deck with my bike, BAM. The storm hit. Lightening right over top of me. Thank god I managed to get out of that. Whew.
The next morning I woke up super early, like 6:30. I ditched medicine hat pretty quick, and was on my way to Calgary. Now, there were still thunder storm warnings, but I took my chances based on what I saw and didn't even get rained on! I'm not sure if i've said this, but if I have I'll say it again.. the praries is pretty much like 'choose your own weather'. You can see storms so far, you just adjust your course in order to miss them :) doing this I managed to avoid the rain (you can see it falling in the distance, because it blots out the clouds behind it). Along my way to Calgary, I stopped in at a gas stop and got gas. And seafood egg benedict :) Very good. On my way out, I met a woman who was also going to Calgary, and she said I should check out this awesome motorcycle parts shop she was going to. I needed new gloves, so I said I'de meet her there (my scooter couldn't possibly keep up with her cruiser). After getting lost and adjusting my speakers, I ended up there and she was still there. I told her about my adventures and how I was on my way to B.C, and she seemed really pleased and interested in it. I found a great pair of gloves, and a new set of mirrors for my bike (mine needed replacing due to dropping it during an oil change). I bought my stuff, and tried to put my mirrors on. Blast, they're for a yamaha, which has reversed threads. Well... i'll just return them for honda ones. Whats this on the bill? A 25 dollar gift certificate? :) The woman, Kat, anonymously put 25$ towards my purchase :D and told me she was going to do a write up about me in a column in her friend's newspaper... a column called the knuckle busters. Well suited ;) I was very grateful and was on my way.
I wanted to check out downtown Calgary, so I headed that way. It POURED. I couldn't see sky scrapers from 2.5 km away. After taking refuge under the entrance to an appartment building parking lot, it calmed down enough that I could move shop to a tims and have an extra large coffee and a FEW bagels. By the time that was taken care of, it was a sunny day again :) I hopped on my bike and went through Calgary and headed towards my next stop, Banff. Up until now, I hadn't seen any mountains. Or anything close to a mountain. Suddenly, going out of Calgary, there were mountains. The mountain range started on the other side of the city. I was smiling so hard it could have ripped my face in half. Days of flatness leading to days of huge mountainness :) :D
Tomorrow I will post about lake louise, Whistler, and Vancouver :)
After I posted in Winnipeg, I ended up finding a campsite that night and pitched tent. To my surprise, a father-son duo, also on motorcycles, showed up and pitched tent right beside me! They were headed somewhere a little more adventurous though :) Alaska! They promptly offered me a cold beer, which put me to bed at an early 9:00. Haha. The time zone had shifted though, and I was feeling the effects of it.
That morning I woke up, freezing cold, at around 4:45... right before sunrise. I promptly packed up my tent and was on my way. The drive to Regina was well... flat. Very flat. Haha. There I met with my friend Neil and he helped me out by giving me a couch to sleep on, making me some food, and other fun things ;) which I then rode his girlfriend's bike under the influence of. He took me to one of his Regina hangouts and I had an amazing quesadilla. I passed out harrrrd, as I believe by now the time zone was now two hours behind... and at 12:00, and a few beers, I was ready to crash. I think I didn't mention this in my last post... My Ipod died. Yes, RIP shiny 2G ipod touch, you lived a long and fufilling existance, I hope I... 'touched' you... while you were still here. *snigger*. Anyway, when I was in Montreal camping, all the rain caused some serious water damage which could not be cured by sun, gentle heat, patience or a bowl/bag of rice. Sooo... as soon as I got into Regina my first stop was Best Buy before it closed. I bought a shiny new 8 gig purple Ipod Nano (I wasn't a huge fan of the touch to be honest... too much power in those things, when all I really want is music). Thanks to Neil's help I was able to sync it up with my music, which is hosted to the internet for download remotely off my PC at home just in case anything like this should happen :) Go preparation/technology! So thank you so much Neil for your help... and I will be stopping in again on my way back for sure :)
When I awoke in Regina neil made me breakfast and I loaded more songs onto my ipod. It was, of course, a rainy day. It seemed to be the trend thusfar on this adventure. Sooo, we both just chilled out and listened to some tunes and everything was awesome. Eventually 2:00 rolled around, and it had turned into a nice sunny/cloudy day! So neil took me out and showed me around all the coool spots in Regina. When I first entered the city, I entered the uh... Barton street district, and I think that initially gave me the wrong impression. It is a very pretty city filled with some very interesting things, dispite the fact that the landscape is for the most part pretty flat. We said our goodbyes and I headed out for my 9 hour drive to Calgary.
Now, when I say 9 hours, that means 11 hours with stops and rests and food and whatnot. And it was already about... what... 2:30 when I took off? So needless to say I was not going to make it to Calgary by nightfall. I passed through Moosejaw, which had a cool little main street with lots of neat little shops. I passed through Swift Current, but didn't get a chance to look at it too closely... no time to lose getting to Calgary! On the way back though, I think I will pay it more attention :) By 9:00 I made it to Medicine Hat.... roughly 275 km away from my destination of Calgary. I have been following the weather very closely on this trip, and I knew there was a crazy country-wide low pressure trend, along with a system which was rolling off the rockies and bringing thunder storms to the praries. After studying the radar and hourly forecasts, I was given the impression that thunder storms weren't supposed to be hitting Calgary until 9:00 am, giving me plenty of time to get there from Medicine Hat. The stampede is on right now, and I would much rather get stuck for a day in Calgary than Medicine Hat, or as it says on the city welcome signs, "The Gas City". Charming, isn't it? So I set off for the 3.5 hour trek to Calgary.
About 10 minutes out of medicine hat (which was forecasted for no thunder storms until late next afternoon), I began to see dark clouds in front of me. It was pitch black out by now. Let me establish two things... no, wait... three. 1) The dark sketches me out, in many different situations. 2) Driving on the highway at night on a motorcycle, when the highway is littered with "watch for deer" signs, then seeing deer, sketches me out. 3) Boo night riding. I was going as slow as I could, but it was still sketchy. After 25 minutes though, thats when I saw the lightening start. It was far to the south to me, so I thought I would be fine... I was heading north west. Yeah, that storm is totally heading east. I'll be fine. Uh... wait... hmmm. Its getting closer to me. Is that lightening in front of me too? Oh great. Well that lightening is definitely heading east.
So basically, I was being boxed in by two systems of lightening, one heading right for me, one heading north from the south. As soon as it was totally obvious I was heading into these storms, on the open praries, on the sketch highway, I freaked. I found the nearest U-turn, and hauled ass back to Medicine hat. When I got to medicine hat, I found the cheapest motel I could open at that time (12:00 or so). As soon as I got under the roof of the deck with my bike, BAM. The storm hit. Lightening right over top of me. Thank god I managed to get out of that. Whew.
The next morning I woke up super early, like 6:30. I ditched medicine hat pretty quick, and was on my way to Calgary. Now, there were still thunder storm warnings, but I took my chances based on what I saw and didn't even get rained on! I'm not sure if i've said this, but if I have I'll say it again.. the praries is pretty much like 'choose your own weather'. You can see storms so far, you just adjust your course in order to miss them :) doing this I managed to avoid the rain (you can see it falling in the distance, because it blots out the clouds behind it). Along my way to Calgary, I stopped in at a gas stop and got gas. And seafood egg benedict :) Very good. On my way out, I met a woman who was also going to Calgary, and she said I should check out this awesome motorcycle parts shop she was going to. I needed new gloves, so I said I'de meet her there (my scooter couldn't possibly keep up with her cruiser). After getting lost and adjusting my speakers, I ended up there and she was still there. I told her about my adventures and how I was on my way to B.C, and she seemed really pleased and interested in it. I found a great pair of gloves, and a new set of mirrors for my bike (mine needed replacing due to dropping it during an oil change). I bought my stuff, and tried to put my mirrors on. Blast, they're for a yamaha, which has reversed threads. Well... i'll just return them for honda ones. Whats this on the bill? A 25 dollar gift certificate? :) The woman, Kat, anonymously put 25$ towards my purchase :D and told me she was going to do a write up about me in a column in her friend's newspaper... a column called the knuckle busters. Well suited ;) I was very grateful and was on my way.
I wanted to check out downtown Calgary, so I headed that way. It POURED. I couldn't see sky scrapers from 2.5 km away. After taking refuge under the entrance to an appartment building parking lot, it calmed down enough that I could move shop to a tims and have an extra large coffee and a FEW bagels. By the time that was taken care of, it was a sunny day again :) I hopped on my bike and went through Calgary and headed towards my next stop, Banff. Up until now, I hadn't seen any mountains. Or anything close to a mountain. Suddenly, going out of Calgary, there were mountains. The mountain range started on the other side of the city. I was smiling so hard it could have ripped my face in half. Days of flatness leading to days of huge mountainness :) :D
Tomorrow I will post about lake louise, Whistler, and Vancouver :)
Friday, July 3, 2009
Here I am writing this post in Winnipeg :)
It has been very hard to find a computer, as the first leg of my trip has been through northern Ontario primarily and most of the towns I have been through range from 600-5500 people or so. I have taken lots of really cool pictures I'll post later, however this computer is a library machine and there is no access to the USB ports. I also only have half an hour to write this post before the library closes :P (its a friday). Winnipeg is a beautiful city, but finding its libraries is very difficult even with a GPS and local listings.
After a camping weekend south of Montreal, Monday night I drove up into the city to see a friend's band playing before heading west. Along the way (only 40 km), I was DRENCHED. Boots squishing, heavy leather, cold and shivering, drenched. Because of this, I got a room at Mcgill for the night so I could be dry and warm, and the next morning departed for North Bay. The drive south of ottawa and into the north was beautiful. Ontario's landscape is comprised of hills, and lots and lots of coniferous trees, and lots and lots of cool rock formations. Many small pretty lakes too :) It was a beautiful drive... and I got soaked again. The weather was scattered showers with sunny breaks, so I could see when I was going to get soaked as well as when I was to receive warm glowing sunlight :) Again, still nice pictures from that, which I will post whenever I can. I was fairly dry by the time I got to North Bay, and it was looking like I was going to pitch tent for the night. SPLASH. I am obviously unfamiliar with the city, and thus was unaware that the streets flood at the sides after a heavy rain storm. I was drennnched yet again. I checked into a motel which was stricken (like everything) with shad flies and had a beer with my neighbour tim, the caulker. Nippissing Bay has nice sandy beaches, and its warrrrm. I didn't get a chance to swim because of the rain the next morning, though... and thus avoided "the itch" I was told.
After North bay I headed out that morning to the Thunder bay area. Weateher: Cold, miserable, foggy. I was soaked yet again. Great trip weather so far eh? Eventually the weather patched up and I was stuck on the other side of a huge thunderstorm, and it was preventing me from reaching Thunder Bay. I pulled into a little town called Kapuskasing, and checked (soaked) into the cheapest motel in town... which turned out to be by far the best. The room was excellent, they fed me, did my laundry for me (which was soaked), and my Ipod has been on the fritz ever since Montreal (water damage... I am trying my hardest to dry it out) so they helped me try and fix it. All that kindness really made the weather something of a nonissue, and I was pretty pleased :)
The next morning was thunder Bay. Alll the way north and west up highway 11... I was trying to avoid a weather system using data from my trusty weather watcher (thanks Robyn ;) ) and took the northern route instead of the lake superior route. The temperature did not climb above 10, and the whole landscape was draped in fog. Absolutly draped. In thick, wet, chilling fog. I not only was soaked, but I frr-r-r-r-ozzzzze. It was here I also discovered two things: 1) The relentless force which is northern Ontario mosquitos. They are up there in the hundreds of millions. Even in the middle of no where, you can not stop for more then 10 seconds without being completely swarmed in a blanket of them. They are not dumb, like our southern ontario mosquitos. They bite hard, suck a lot, make you puff up and itch like you wouldn't believe, and know exactly where to go, even if you're body is completely covered with leather and a helmet. This leg of the journey lasted about 7 freezing hours, before getting to the point where I could head south to thunder bay. The more south I got, the better things got :) Suddenly, at one point, what seemed to be all coniverous trees exploded into a mix of deciduous and pines and birch and all sorts of different plants... just suddenly. The landscape before thunder bay is beautiful rock faces and lakes... I have great pictures i'll be sharing.
Im running out of time here.
After deciding Thunder Bay wasn't my cup of tea to pitch tent in, I moved further west to Fort Frances, which had a beautiful waterfront as well as a free camping ground. The locals were friendly too, and lots of motorcyclists :) I arose to sunny weather, and now, after taking a detour here I am :)
Next stop... regina :)
Paul
It has been very hard to find a computer, as the first leg of my trip has been through northern Ontario primarily and most of the towns I have been through range from 600-5500 people or so. I have taken lots of really cool pictures I'll post later, however this computer is a library machine and there is no access to the USB ports. I also only have half an hour to write this post before the library closes :P (its a friday). Winnipeg is a beautiful city, but finding its libraries is very difficult even with a GPS and local listings.
After a camping weekend south of Montreal, Monday night I drove up into the city to see a friend's band playing before heading west. Along the way (only 40 km), I was DRENCHED. Boots squishing, heavy leather, cold and shivering, drenched. Because of this, I got a room at Mcgill for the night so I could be dry and warm, and the next morning departed for North Bay. The drive south of ottawa and into the north was beautiful. Ontario's landscape is comprised of hills, and lots and lots of coniferous trees, and lots and lots of cool rock formations. Many small pretty lakes too :) It was a beautiful drive... and I got soaked again. The weather was scattered showers with sunny breaks, so I could see when I was going to get soaked as well as when I was to receive warm glowing sunlight :) Again, still nice pictures from that, which I will post whenever I can. I was fairly dry by the time I got to North Bay, and it was looking like I was going to pitch tent for the night. SPLASH. I am obviously unfamiliar with the city, and thus was unaware that the streets flood at the sides after a heavy rain storm. I was drennnched yet again. I checked into a motel which was stricken (like everything) with shad flies and had a beer with my neighbour tim, the caulker. Nippissing Bay has nice sandy beaches, and its warrrrm. I didn't get a chance to swim because of the rain the next morning, though... and thus avoided "the itch" I was told.
After North bay I headed out that morning to the Thunder bay area. Weateher: Cold, miserable, foggy. I was soaked yet again. Great trip weather so far eh? Eventually the weather patched up and I was stuck on the other side of a huge thunderstorm, and it was preventing me from reaching Thunder Bay. I pulled into a little town called Kapuskasing, and checked (soaked) into the cheapest motel in town... which turned out to be by far the best. The room was excellent, they fed me, did my laundry for me (which was soaked), and my Ipod has been on the fritz ever since Montreal (water damage... I am trying my hardest to dry it out) so they helped me try and fix it. All that kindness really made the weather something of a nonissue, and I was pretty pleased :)
The next morning was thunder Bay. Alll the way north and west up highway 11... I was trying to avoid a weather system using data from my trusty weather watcher (thanks Robyn ;) ) and took the northern route instead of the lake superior route. The temperature did not climb above 10, and the whole landscape was draped in fog. Absolutly draped. In thick, wet, chilling fog. I not only was soaked, but I frr-r-r-r-ozzzzze. It was here I also discovered two things: 1) The relentless force which is northern Ontario mosquitos. They are up there in the hundreds of millions. Even in the middle of no where, you can not stop for more then 10 seconds without being completely swarmed in a blanket of them. They are not dumb, like our southern ontario mosquitos. They bite hard, suck a lot, make you puff up and itch like you wouldn't believe, and know exactly where to go, even if you're body is completely covered with leather and a helmet. This leg of the journey lasted about 7 freezing hours, before getting to the point where I could head south to thunder bay. The more south I got, the better things got :) Suddenly, at one point, what seemed to be all coniverous trees exploded into a mix of deciduous and pines and birch and all sorts of different plants... just suddenly. The landscape before thunder bay is beautiful rock faces and lakes... I have great pictures i'll be sharing.
Im running out of time here.
After deciding Thunder Bay wasn't my cup of tea to pitch tent in, I moved further west to Fort Frances, which had a beautiful waterfront as well as a free camping ground. The locals were friendly too, and lots of motorcyclists :) I arose to sunny weather, and now, after taking a detour here I am :)
Next stop... regina :)
Paul
Saturday, June 20, 2009
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