Valemont BC to Hinton Alberta via Mt Robson and Jasper

Today was the shortest riding day of the trip, only 209 kilometres, but what a magnificent segment.

Since my Valemont  Hotel room was just across the road from the main CN rail line I was awakened many times during the night by long trains that announced their presence by blowing their whistle as they approached and crossed nearby road crossings.

I had a quick breakfast at the local A&W and rode north on Highway 5. The sunlight reflected off the mountains on each side of the highway.

My first stop on Highway 16 was at the

Mt Terry Fox is  off in the distance in the middle of this picture.

And then a few kilometres further this huge snow capped Mt Robson, the highest mountain in the Rockies appeared.

The first picture is of Moose Lake, one of the light Jade lakes along the highway.  The second was taken when a while later I stopped to watch people wading knee deep hundreds of yards from shore in Jasper Lake

Rounding a long curve I noticed cars parked on both shoulders of the road, a sure sign that some wildlife was close by.  Sure enough, just a couple of metres from the road this magnificent specimen was slowly munching and posing.

I had some really delicious fish tacos for lunch at Earl's in Jasper where I took the time to ride around and walk along the main street.

All in all a wonderful day under sunny skies.

From Crowsnest Vineyards Guesthouse to Valemont BC via Kamloops

Yesterday's ride after breakfast at the Mountain Dinner from Keremeos to Kamloops along Hwy 3 to Princeton and then the 5A took me through one of the places north of Merritt that had recently been struck by one of those devastating forest fires.  The area affected extended for many miles on either side of the highway.  I can only imagine how terrified the property owners felt as the flames approached.

It was another hot day and I arrived at the Double Tree Hotel right in the centre of the city of Kamloops.  I had a great steak dinner with a lovely glass of BC Merlot at the Mittz Kitchen and then wandered over to the Waterfrront Park to admire the flowers and take in some of the Music in the Park programming.  There was a really good blues band on the bandshell stage and a fair size crowd listening on the lawn in front of it.


Two boys playing in the water at a boat launch area. Who could resist?

Or who could resist buying these amazing BC cherries and stopping to have some at this same spot?

These beautiful roses were in a bed at the Riverfront Park in Kamloops.

This is the North Thompson in Kamloops with the bridge that I would ride over the next morning as I continued me journey north.

I had the hotel breakfast buffet and headed out to Valemont along Highway 5. From Barriere you could really smell the smoke and from Clearwater north it was difficult to make out the tops of the mountains on either side of the road because of the smoke which is covering all regions to the east of where major fires are still burning. This is what the view looking north from Clearwater looked like at around 10:30 this morning 

This is a picture of the North Thompson river a few kilometres further north.

Already at Blue River where I stopped for a burger at The Grill in the Sandman Hotel the mountains begin to re-emerge from the smoke

And by the time I arrived in Valemont where I will be staying for the night you could see some hazy blue sky and white clouds above the mountains; and even small patches of snow in the elevations.

I must say that the roads I have traveled on in BC are very well maintained. The frequent double and passing lanes, along with the generous, as high as 120 KPH in some places, make getting from one place to another extremely easy in the summer.  I imagine though that things slow down a bit on the sections in the mountains in winter. 

I have now reached the northernmost point of my trip. Tomorrow I point the bike east and begin the return trip. What an amazing country we have!

Last half day Mr. Greg Basky, a great riding companion

After a good night's sleep at the Creston Valley Hotel, an establishment that I would strongly recommend to anyone, and particularly to bikers because of the attention to the little things that are so important to that breed like a bucket, soap, clean wash rags and a hose to clean the accumulation of dirt and bug splatter from their mounts, Greg and I had an early breakfast at the Break In Time Cafe. I had a coffee with a dainty small English muffin with egg, tomato, cheese and ham, while Greg feasted on a humongous breakfast burrito.

Greg had expressed a desire to "sit on" my motorcycle at some point "to see how it feels", and I must admit that I was curious to see how his Yamaha 1300 cc felt like, so we swapped bikes outside of Creston and rode to Salmo where we stopped for coffee and a treat at the Dragonfly Cafe.

There are small differences between the bikes but as I told Greg, I love my beemer but wouldn't be unhappy riding a bike like his. It has loads of power, great protection from the elements behind the windscreen and fairing, and it tracks admirably through the corners.

The ride west from Creston is beyond doubt one of the nicest I've been on.  These view of Christina Lake, and of Osoyoos, do not do justice to the many impressive vistas along the Crowsnest Highway.

While we were stopped to admire Christina Lake an older local motorcyclist stopped to say hello, ask where were from and going, and as he does to other bikers that are passing through wish us a safe trip. The short encounter is one of those beautiful moments that stick with you long after they've happened.

Greg and I stopped at the Rock Creek Trading Post, for our last meal together on this trip. My cold and thick double espresso vanilla milkshake and ham and cheese sandwich were delicious. Rock Creek is at the intersection of the 33, that Greg would take to ride north to Kamloops, and the Crowsnest Highway that I would continue on. After lunch we said our thanks and goodbyes, and reminded each other to ride safe and "keep the shiny side up".  (By the way if you want to read a really great blog, one written by Greg, a professional communications person, go to https://keepingtheshinysideup.wordpress.com/  )  I extended an open invitation to Greg to come and ride in Eastern Canada at some point and I genuinely hope he takes me up on the offer.

The rest of the ride to the Crowsnest Vineyards Guesthouse west of Osoyoos. in (Duh!) Wine Country was beautiful. I admit that I had pretty high expectations for the place, a small guesthouse with less than a dozen rooms, at a winery with a restaurant. It couldn't be better.  As it turns out just about everything should have been. Well ok the cold German beer, and the wine, particularly the Dry Riesling that I sampled and the Pinot Noir I had with with dinner, were more than just good.  But the rest, not so much.  When it's Pizza Night at the restaurant and everyone else, including a fair number of locals, are all ordering their individual custom pies, it's probably not a good idea to order from the menu, and as it turns out certainly not the lamb loin chop that the waitress at the bar had highly recommended a few hours earlier. A smaller, more grizzled, bony and over cooked piece of lamb I have yet and wish never to encounter again. As for the vegetables, the potatoes wedges were burnt not caramelized, and the the carrots and what I took to be two french fry shaped pieces of turnip were more raw then al dente. In fairness though the 6 green beans were nice.

As for the rest, the room had a noisy under performing AC unit, a slanted ceiling that I managed to bang my head on and a small television, on a dresser next to a tall cupboard, that you could not see from the flannel sheet covered mattress single bed with the small pillows (all furniture, decor accent pieces and bedding from Ikea). Not that it mattered because the television only had a few channels all of which were broadcasting shows that were shot during blizzards. I thought that the football game was a rebroadcast of last year's eastern semi-final in Ottawa (WHICH WE WON!!). Oh and there were no blinds on the window which explains why I am up writing this blog post at 6:00 am.

So if you are riding through BC Wine Country, deny yourself that pleasure, don't, DO NOT stay at the Crowsnest Vineyards Guesthouse.

Here's hoping for a better experience in Kamloops today.

From Lethbridge Alberta to Creston BC - Crowsnest Highway

After a quick breakfast at the Holiday Inn, Greg and I rode off on Highway 3. We stopped at the Frank Landslide Disaster Interpretation Centre in the Crowsnest Pass.  The Frank Slide was the deadliest Canadian rockslides that buried part of the town of Frank on April 29, 1903 killing between 70 and 90 of the town's residents.  Over 82 million tonnes of limestone slid down Turner Mountain.

The scenery along the Crowsnest Highway which winds its way between ridges in the Rockies is amazing and has enough curves to keep it interesting for motorcyclists.

I took this picture of the Welcome to British Columbia shortly after having nearly run Greg off the road as I pulled onto the shoulder of the highway.

I'm sure that as he waited for me to take the picture he was thinking, who the heck does this crazy BMW rider think he is!

We stopped for lunch at the Lunch Box restaurant on the main street of Fernie, a town that most would know as a premier ski destination in the BC interior.

The rest of the ride to Creston, where we are staying tonight was one of the nicest I've had in a long time. Having a riding companion has been great and we've each alternated between being the leader and the follower during the day's ride.  The lady at the desk of the Creston Valley Hotel gave each of us a plastic coaster (actually a large disk) to put under our motorcycle's side stand to prevent them from sinking into the softening asphalt as a result of the 35 degree heat.

As we walked back to our room after an excellent cod teriyaki dinner, which came after a good pint of Kokanee at another establishment, I took the following pictures of old grain elevators in the town.

And finally here a sign in the restaurant's washroom that I found amusing.

But I can wash my own hands; and if I need some help in doing so it's surely not all the staff. Which isn't to say that I have unusually small hands, or fingers for that matter.

Pictures as promised

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I was experiencing technical difficulties but said I had one of the sharpest minds of Saskatchewan working on it.  Well, that didn't work but a change of accommodations did.  We are now at the Creston Valley Hotel and the wifi here seems to be working well.  I'll write more about today's ride later but for now here are some pictures from the last two days.


Tuesday crossing into Saskatchewan from Manitoba on the TCH, a closed visitor centre; what's with that, restraint?

The inland grain terminal just to the west of Grenfell, Saskatchewan. The gravel road to the Tholl family farm is just past here.

This field of wheat is one one side of the driveway leading to Bill's boyhood home;

and on the other this field of canola.

This is the house,

and the barn and grain bins. The bike is just to prove that I was really there.

This is a field of flak; from a distance it actually looks like a lake.

Tuesday, Greg Basky and I had dinner at Brown's Social House on River Street in Lethbridge.

Wednesday Greg and I started our journey on Hwy 3 together we stopped for lunch at the Star Cafe and Grill in Maple Creek Saskatchewan. Those are our bikes in front of the restaurant, the yellow building.

We crossed into Alberta on Hwy 1 yesterday and a guy from Quebec took this picture of Greg and I

This is just a picture of the wide open spaces next to the stop where the Welcome to Alberta sign on Highway 3, the Crowsnest Highway.

A surprise guest In Moose Jaw

OK, so I have been talking about a surprise on this trip and I am about to come good on my promise. But first I have to say a few words about yesterday's ride from Brandon Manitoba to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.  The ride was nice with very little traffic to slow me down.The highlight was a detour to my dear friend Bill Tholl's family farm which is north of the TCH just west of Grenfell, Saskatchewan.  Bill, and his wife Paula, have given me detailed instructions and maps so that I could find the home. The12 miles to the Tholl farm is on the gravel secondary road to Neudorf that is lined with huge golden wheat, yellow canola and purple flax fields on either side. I can't imagine what it would have been like growing up there, though the final product turned out pretty well.

I arrived at the Temple Gardens Hotel and Spa at around 3:30 and spend nearly an hour soaking in the  large hot mineral water pool for which the place is famous.

And then the mystery guest arrived. His name is Greg Basky, a colleague and friend of Jane who is an executive at the Saskatchewan Health Quality Council.  Greg started riding 5 years ago and when he heard from Jane that I was going to be riding west this summer he kindly offered to join me for a few days. He and I introduced ourselves over dinner at Brown's Social House and started off together this morning.  We rode from Moose Jaw to Lethbridge with a stop for lunch at The Star Cafe and Grill on Main Street in Maple Creek. Our very spicy (we were warned) smoked paprika chicken breast salads and ice tea were very good.

The ride from the Saskatchewan-Alberta border in sweltering heat was not very interesting, particularly the long bit where we were stuck behind a line of cars and a tanker trailer truck. At one point Greg took matters into his own hands and lurched out to pass the laggards; and what could I do?  Well, crank the throttle and follow him.  When we reached the Holiday Inn in Lethbridge at 4:15 it was 36 degrees and the asphalt was melting under our feet as we waited at red lights on the highway.

After some down time and a shower we ventured off for dinner at a really amazing establishment, the Owl Acoustic Lounge. As the name suggests this is a live entertainment venue where different groups and individuals perform nightly while patrons drink beer and whatever else, and order from what has to be the funniest menu I've ever seen.  Here is how my $14 1/2 BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich is described: "Savoury pulled pork stacked with coleslaw and Barbeque sauce. We tried pulling the pork apart when the pig is still alive and it turns out their skin is quite tough. We smoke it in-house and it comes out nice and tender after the pig has been prepared by a butcher. Not everyone pulls their pork the same, you have to see what works for you."  While there was no entertainment tonight, except for the reading of the menu that is, our meals and the beer we had with them were great and the service were excellent.  Our waitress gave each of us a menu as a souvenir of our visit. This is certainly an establishment I would recommend to anyone who visits or drives through Lethbridge.  I must say that having someone to ride with, to share meals with, and to swap stories about bike trips is actually quite enjoyable.  As I sit here single-finger pecking out the letters for each word for this instalment, Greg, a former journalist (ink stained wretch) and communications expert is effortlessly typing away on his computer as he completes his own blog post.

Tomorrow the blogging bikers ride to Creston B.C. Let's hope that it's not as hot as today, or at least that there aren't any tanker trailers.

Sorry that there are no pictures with this post but a technical problem, which one of the best minds from Saskatchewan is working on, prevents me from uploading pictures from my iPad to this particular blog application.

Kenora to Brandon

A beautiful day for a ride, 24 to 32 degrees and sun.  As the speed limit on much of Highway 1 in Manitoba is 110 kilometres an hour it doesn't take much time to whip by the endless fields on either side of the road.  The wind however can be an issue as it can push you around in your lane.  The advantage of my Beemer is that it is extremely well designed and holds its line very well.

I discovered this interesting dispenser outside of a gas station along the highway in Manitoba. Live Bait, minnows and leeches, cost just $4.00 a container.

Before stopping for lunch in Portage La Prairie, I stopped to visit the Fort La Reine Museum on the outskirts of that city.  There are many buildings that have been moved there from other communities in the region. Each is full of antiques, books and photographs.  In addition to the museum's own excellent collection there were also two very interesting special exhibitions, one on caribou from Quebec, and a second on the life of Anne Frank on loan from The Netherlands.

This is one of the oldest houses that has been resettled on the museum's grounds

An icebox, like the one sunk in Lake of Bays?

And what housewife would not have wanted one of these modern clothes washing tubs

You could interrupt the daily chores to take a call on your new phone

In the huge Allis-Chalmers building a great collection of tractors and other farm implements including this 1934 Model "U"

A steel-wheeled 1937 Model "U"

A 1926 Model 18-30.

This is the traders cabin in the fort.

An orthodox church that was moved and completely refurbished by members of the local Ukrainian community.

A classroom with tables and seats just like the ones in the first school I attended in Coniston, Ontario

The inside of the grocery store with shelves full of packaged goods.

I arrived at my motel in Brandon around 5:00 and went out for dinner at a Chinese buffet restaurant a few doors away.

Tomorrow it's on to Moose Jaw and I hope you can be there to see what surprise awaits me there.