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.