Hinton to Canmore via Jasper and the Icefields Parkway; and on to Speedy Creek, Saskatchewan

Yesterday I started by retracing some of the route I had been on Monday afternoon as I rode on Highway 16 from Hinton back to Jasper to connect with Highway 93, the famous, and justifiably so, Icefields Highway. The weather which started off cool and misty cleared rather quickly and it turned out to be one of the best riding days of the trip.  The mountains, many of which have snow covered north facing walls, are so beautiful that it's hard to decide when to pause and have a longer look.  I made my first such stop at a lookout for Mount Edith Cavell which you can see (imagine) in this picture.

A while later I visited the Sunwapta Falls where the roiling river is funneled through a very narrow cleft in the mountains.

And as you round a corner and look off in the distance the road seems to run straight into another mountain.

At the Athabaska Glacier, which is part of the Columbia Icefields, I parked the motorcycle and walked, like dozens of other visitors, to the toe of the glacier.

Off in the distance, across from the glacier, you can just about make out a very large visitor centre located just off the Parkway.

After more stops, including lunch at the Crossings Pub where I got to bbq my own burger, I continued on the Parkway to Lake Louise and then to Banff on Highway 1. I stopped for a Starbucks coffee and parked my motorcycle in what seemed to me to be a familiar spot.

Here's why:

July 1, 2010

August 1, 2017

Not much has changed, except for the guy in/not the picture.

I arrived at our dear friends Neil and Glenda's beautiful condo in Canmore in plenty of time to have some wine and a lovely dinner.  Afterwards we went out for a short walk and Neil showed me the work that has been done to contact a stream that a few years ago overflowed its banks damaging some properties and washing out part of the Trans Canada Highway.  My hosts were extremely gracious and it was interesting catching with with our lives.

This morning after coffee and more chit chat I thank Neil and Glenda for their hospitality and left for Speedy Creek. (Now, how many of you knew that's the name residents of Saskatchewan give to Swift Current?)  The ride started off quite cool, at 13, but gradually got hotter as  I rode through Calgary, where I stopped at the BMW motorcycle dealership to pick up a litre of motor oil - just in case.

The rest of the ride was fast and eventful. Well uneventful except for nearly running out of gas. Do you know that riding at 125+ kilometres an hour burns more fuel than 110 kph? Enough in fact to throw off any range calculations I've been using for years. When I finally pulled into the COOP service station in Tongkins, warning lights were flashing a threatening yellow and I was coasting on fumes. This episode will sound familiar to my new riding buddy Greg who had the same thing happen to him when he and I were riding together .  The moral of the story is, Guy don't be so smug it can happen to anyone.

Because we all love trains, some of us (Mick) way more than others, today's picture of note is of a particularly long and slow one that blocked the highway for over 5 minutes as it pulled into the yards in Swift Current.