The Alaska Highway

After a night in a somewhat odd Hotel in Fort Nelson the next stop is Watson Lake, wow what a change with a great road, scenery and wildlife all in one day.

Black Bear feed on Dandelions after their hibernation as it's a form of laxative, it's been a long time since the last pooh! The weather is glorious today & both of us are enjoying the road.

The Alaska Highway winds through Summit Pass with the lake still frozen in places, the air still has a chill but the temperature from the direct sunshine means we can ride with only T shirts under our gear.

Bighorn Sheep eat salt from the edge of the road to help with their digestion, here is a female with her kid, Lamb chops!!

Along the route are a number of RV parks & Lodges which also sell fuel & food although you have to be careful as some are still closed, John has a bit of a problem with his consumption (fuel that is) so we now carry additional containers.

The Lodge at Toad River has a collection of 7000+ hats taken from visitors fixed to the ceiling & walls, they tried to take our crash helmets but we had to say no!

The road passes along the shore line of Lake Muncho with it's Jade coloured water, is this fun?

The Bison are also out grazing in the Sun, these beasts are pretty big but very docile.

About 100km from our destination a stop is called for at Liard River Hot Springs, we take a dip in the 40 degree water, John is cooking nicely.

To The North!

Leaving Grande Prairie in brilliant sunshine we are now beginning to head North and join the Alaska Highway at Dawson Creek, the usual travellers photo is a must!

The road was built by the American & Canadian forces during WWII with more details available here: building the Alaska Highway

This first stretch of the road is not the most scenic with large flat forested areas, the signs of oil extraction is however everywhere with plant being hauled up & down the road.

a)                                                        b)

Our Bed for the night is another frontier town of Fort Nelson, as a small competition see if you can tell which half or the room is mine & which is John's, please post your answers to us via the blog!

Grande Prairie & The 'Stompede'

The journey from Edson to Grande Prairie is not the greatest with the Northern Alberta roads straight and long, my mind started to notice the Canadian road signs & listed below is some English Translations:

1) Divided Highway = Dual Carriageway
2) Highway Pulloff = Lay-by
3) Caribou on Road = No f****** Caribou to be seen!!

As we enter Grande Prairie I see a sign for a Stompede, we decide to stay for 2 nights even though this Oil boom town is not the most attractive, beer was however available close to our Motel.

Tickets brought, we get the free bus to the Stompede held just outside town, the afternoon had all the usual Rodeo activities as you can see from the pictures below.

Cowboys & Country Music sure is popular in these parts!

The evening was given over to Chuck-wagon racing which is quite spectacular especially the figure of eight start, reminds me of some of the films I used to watch.

Just in case you thought I can't spell it is called a 'Stompede', it was a great day & another activity on the 'wish-list' ticked off.

Jasper To Edson & BMW Club Members

Jasper turned out to be a great evening stop with our Hotel having the liveliest Bar in town with several artisan beers, as you might expect a good nights sleep followed.
Our destination of Don & Pauline,s place in Edson was only a couple of hours away so a leisurely morning was had looking around Jasper before departing, the weather was fine but dark clouds surrounded the town.

Some Australian visitors were taking a ride out on Harley combinations from a hire company, you can see from the clothes they were given what could lay ahead.

We had some showers on the way but it turned out not to be as bad as suspected with just showers and the lookout for wild critters continued without success. We did however find our BMW Club members & the Red/Yellow workshop we had heard so much about from Bob, it did live up to expectations along with the 'Boys' & 'Girls' toys inside.

The next day was rain and the decision to stay with Don & Pauline turned out to be good one, a 'Safari' drive in the afternoon in Don's car provided no wild game with only a couple of White Tailed Deer providing the wildlife, no new career here for our hosts!!

Don & Pauline send their regards to all in the UK BMW Club, they also tell us that a move to British Columbia should happen later this year, can they find another workshop this good?

The Famous Icefield Parkway

Destination today was Jasper back in Alberta, to get there however we would call in at Lake Louise & then head North along the famous Icefield Parkway.

Lake Louise is one of the most expensive resorts in Canada & having seen the setting it's easy to see why, the lake again is semi-frozen but with the blue sky it looks amazing.

The Icefield Parkway runs through Jasper National Park & has fabulous views all the way.

As well as the views you come across the Columbia Ice Field glacier, the first of many on this trip I hope.

Plenty of waterfalls as well including Athabasca, a great ride with frequent stops to admire the scenery.

The whole of Canada is Bear country although we havn't seen one yet (although John reckons he had a brief sighting in Sicamous?), until we do have a look at the label on the special bins.

Old Friends & The 'Plywood Palace'

After a long day's ride from Canmore we arrived in Sicamous around 6pm minus the hour due to a time zone change. Chris & Alice returned from work shortly after & we settled into our accommodation in the famous 'Plywood Palace' which would be our home for the next 4 days.

'First Aid' Chris as he is known showed us around the local area & took us to 'Lifeboat One' where he is a volunteer, we can also recommend the 'Dutchman Dairy' Ice Cream in town.

On Saturday it was time for a 300 mile circular ride starting with the Galena Ferry, via Trout Lake, Kaslo & Nakusp, fabulous ride with some gravel & great twisties (something of a rarity), Chris also made his first ride of 2014.

The gravel roads here are great for getting you to out of the way places but for motorbike fun you can't beat a fast bit of twisty tarmac, John is enjoying it!!

Chris & Alice were great hosts & it was a pleasure to stay with them, great hospitality & I hope Alice gets her new cooking stove soon!

First Rides & New Friends

Following the 'Travelers Meet' in Calgary we had an invite to stay with Nevil & Michelle http://www.rtw2013.com/ in Canmore just down the road from Banff. As this was not far from Calgary we took a ride to Elbow Falls & Bragg Creek on our way to enjoy our first motorcycle trip into the Canadian countryside.

Speaking to some locals we learnt that the river had moved about 100ft to the left (in the picture above the original course of the river was straight ahead) during the floods of June 2013 which engulfed large areas in and around Calgary.

Already the scenery is stunning & over the next few days it will get better!!

Nevil & Michelle made us welcome and gave us some tips for the following day and a recomended ride along The Spray Lakes Trail with our first taste of gravel. Nevil is also a regular speaker at HU meets here and an expert on Bears, following stories of his close encounters we left with some Bear spray in the tank bag just in case!!

We followed Nevil's route on our way to Chris Stone's place at Sicamous in British Columbia & was not disappointed, semi-frozen lakes, snow caped mountains & blue sky, what more can you want from a road trip.

Calgary, let me get my Bike!!

Well we arrived safely on Saturday & after picking up the car headed to the cargo depot just to find out where it was, the office is very small and we soon found out that the bikes were there but not yet in the warehouse, if they had been we could have got them the same day.

The Air Canada guy's confirmed the Customs office that normally handles cargo was closed until Tuesday due to the 'Victoria Day' Holiday but said that the office in the Airport may be able to help us, he also warned us there my be a dangerous goods storage charge to pay based on weight!!

On Sunday we returned to the Airport to check Customs but no joy, it would have to be Tuesday, c'est la vie!!
We spend the rest of the day looking around down-town Calagary and the recommended 'MEC' camping and outdoor shop, we managed to restrain ourselves and kept our wallets firmly closed.

The viewing platform of Calgary Tower

As previously mentioned I had been in contact with Jordan & Sandra who we met on Stahlratte during my South American trip with a BBQ organised for Monday along with Daan & Mirjam plus a larger collection of bike travellers living in & around Calgary.

Before this get together we visited 'Head-Smashed In' Buffalo Jump http://history.alberta.ca/headsmashedin/, those Blackfoot sure said it like it is, this is a world heritage site where Buffalo were herded over a cliff for several thousand years until the settlers brought in guns & virtually wiped out the species within 20 years.

The BBQ turned out to be a great evening & once again proved that on these trips the people you meet are just as important as the places you have the pleasure to visit, thanks again to Jordan, Sandra, Daan & Mirjam.

Tuesday is here at last & after about 45 minutes at Air Canad Cargo, we have the bikes at last!! Initially they were charging us C$600 for the storage but we managed to negotiate a discount with total fees reduced to C$50 for each bike.
Note: if anyone else is thinking of shipping a bike the same way, check for public holidays, travel midweek the same day as your bike & you can get it the following day without the possibility of the storage charge, the actual process in Canada is very easy.

John's on his way

Calm before the storm on a sunny day at home showing off the freshly painted panniers and top box.

Weighing the lighter bike... Some people just carry too much.....Don't they Terry.

Made it to Heathrow this time!!

Hi all!! following my trip from Los Angeles to the bottom of South America in 2011-2012 (see previous blog www.granfuga.blogspot.com) myself & John Shill will be embarking on a tour of Canada and The USA starting on the 17th May 2014 for 6 months.

I should of seen most of this trip last time but stupidly due to a badly loaded bike the trip to Heathrow to ship the bikes ended with a high-side on the M3 and a 10 week delay while my collar bone healed, as you can see I managed the short 15 mile trip without incident this time with our bikes now in safe hands at Air Canada cargo for the trip to Calgary.

It's also 2 years to the day that my close friend Dave Walker who was on the South America trip suddenly passed away so I would like to dedicate this journey to his memory, we will also enjoy a toast to Dave in Calgary when we meet 6 fellow travelers from the good ship 'Stahlratte' (http://www.stahlratte.de/index_neu_en.html) who live there next Monday, we still miss him!!.

Apologies for the name of this blog but after 6 months of thinking this is the best we could come up with, hopefully you will remember it and visit the site on a regular basis, we would also love to hear from you.

John retired from British Airways in April & has been working on his bike virtually every day since, he even decided to re-spray his panniers this week and tells me that working on aircraft was always last minute (I thought they were organised!), a replacement V5C also only arrived today as he couldn't find the original.

As I'd done the previous trip my bike was pretty well prepared apart from an ignition problem that took a few days to sort out, I also thought I had reduced the amount of stuff I was taking but my bike was 4kg heavier that John's at 258kg.