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2 Women, 2 bikes, 17 States, 5 Provinces, 23 riding days, 11870 KM

August 6th 2010 - Video

Where has the time gone? Seems like yesterday we were taking off for this adventure and here we are in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Only days away from being right in our driveway where we started on July 16th. This morningÔÇÖs ride started off with temperatures just right. About 15 degrees Celsius..about high 50ÔÇÖs Fahrenheit.

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Warmed up to about 22 C and then we hit Canada....Saskatchewan heated up to a ripe old 30 or 90 degrees. Head winds on highway 1 were as usual intense and knocked us around the entire time from the border to Swift Current. Again no deviations, no real fun reports from this ride today. The goal now being Banff and then home.

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Staying at another hotel with a/c.

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We both feel that this is a holiday after all and why not indulge since we have been pretty good with camping out an all. A quick but intense lightening and thunder storm passed through and cooled things off.

Look what we got to see after the storm. Maybe this is why we went through Saskatchewan. No offense to the prairie folks!

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When we get to Alberta and Banff or Canmore at this point we had no place to stay. The one thing we wanted to do was spend a night in a Tepee but the place is all booked. We figured something out.

Cheryl had decided to take us the long way home via Pemberton, BC. But from the sounds of it this might be a challenge. According to the news and reports we are getting from friends and family, the fires in the interior of BC are really bad and so is the smoke etc. I guess we will see them first hand on Sunday.

Straight riding and I mean straight and now we are off to the Casino next to our hotel for some grub and maybe win some of the $$ we have spent on this Big Adventure. Take a look a map....it is crazy the amount of territory we have covered....Maple Ridge, BC to Orient Point, New York (Long Island), then bar Harbour, ME and back west....crazy eh? We are beginning to think so at this point!

A video of a Saskatchewan sunset!


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Wow, what a great ride and excellent posting - many thanks!
"Next time" you're in Glacier National Park - you MUST do the little trail hike up behind the tourist center at Logan's Pass. It takes you to the Hidden Lakes Overlook, and you're surrounded by snow-capped mountains horizon to horizon...:thumb
 
August 7th 2010

Woke up in Swift Current, Saskatchewan after a great night in the Holiday Inn Express. Had another free hot breakfast and headed west in dry cool weather. The bad part was that we had to drive the dreaded Tans Canada Highway 1 all the way to Canmore, Alberta.

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We got creamed by bugs with all sorts of colourful guts all day long. When I say all day long I mean we rode over 670 km and by the end we were a bit beaten up by the wind, turbulence of the trucks, the bug attacks and just riding on that boring boring road. It never really got that hot yesterday which was nice and we only got drizzled on every once in awhile. So all in all we can't complain too much. Also, we are still on the road so life ain't that bad. August 7th was day 22 of this incredible tour and I know if we had another month we could just keep going.


Rode through Calgary but before we did stopped at a BMW service dealer called Anderwerks and thought we could sneak in a valve inspection for our bikes. We are over 20,000 km on each bike and that is a service we need done. We learned very quickly this was not going to happen. The owner told us he would need our bikes to cool for 4 hours and usually keeps the bikes over night.


While we were just taking a break and knew we were not going to get the service a nice man came up to me and asked if I was soph9 from the F800 motorcycle forum I post on. I forgot his nickname from the forum but I thought that was cool that he read we were taking this trip and somehow put 2 & 2 together that we were the gals. Anyway, that was pretty cool. After chatting with him we got back on our bikes and carried on to Canmore our destination for the day.


Before we made it to Canmore we stopped in Kananaskis Country. Just west of Calgary and Southeast of Banff. Beautiful area surrounded by the Canadian Rockies. Barrier Lake was gorgeous!

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Once in Canmore we could not find a place to stay. Once we got to Canmore we got the run around and a storm was moving in fast so we were desperate. Ended up staying at this place called Rundles Lodge and it was a smelly dive and the TV did not even have a remote plus the "cable" was less than satisfactory.

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Having no choice we unloaded our gear and went across the street for a meal and lot's of beer. Came back to the dark smelly room and finally fell asleep after a very long day.

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Over the last two days all I have to say is hotels in tourist traps suck! Every single time we went to a hotel in Canmore and Jasper we got the same response...."we have one room or cabin left and it is the deluxe one and will cost $200 + dollars". No matter where we went that is what we heard and the places did not look full. Anyway we are more than happy with our version of camping.
 
We think this is a funny video at Barrier Dam in Alberta

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August 8th 2010

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August 8th 2010 was a much better day for riding. We took a little tour around Canmore than headed to Banff. Picked up some decals for our bikes, looked around and then headed to Lake Louise, Alberta.

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Not too far from Banff, like ?¢ hour ride. We did not see the lake this time around, we have been there before....we did not want to pay the Banff National park fee and were not allowed to park and see the lake. Oh well....it is a beautiful glacier fed lake very aqua in colour from what we remember. Not worth the $20.


After getting turned away at the lake we had to make a decision.....go to BC or head north to Jasper. Since we are a bit ahead of schedule we decided to go north and so glad we did. The Glacier Highway is stunning. Rt 93 got us off Highway 1 and the scenery all along this road is breath taking. We have lots of pics to post. The weather varied from 13 degrees C to 22.



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Doing what I do BEST, talk to strangers about our trip and bikes:hungover

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Sleeping ELk

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It rained and it was sunny. It was gorgeous and fun riding even though we had to share the road with cars, RV's and trucks. This made for a great day and making me realize that we are almost at the end of this adventure.

 
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Video of our ride up the Glacier Highway!

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Leslie:

Sorry about your Canmore experience. In July and August, Banff and Canmore tend to fill up, and you have to bring your Plutonium Card. Think Whistler, East. :)

...we stopped at a BMW service dealer called Anderwerks...

So you met our local BMW genius, Dave Anderson ( shown here with Spanish adventure rider, Miguel Silvestre):

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Great report! Fantastic trip! Wonderful memories.

Thanks for sharing!:wow

Voni
sMiling
 
The effort you put into reporting your trip is amazing. Great job. Not many people get a chance to take such a great ride and have video records to share.

Ken
 
thanks for noticing my effort on this RR.....i actually am loving putting it together and I really want both the guys and gals to see what the 650 can do....I have just a few more days to post here and need to edit a few more videos....sort of sad for this RR to come to an end but to be honest it is just the beginning because we are all ready planning our next adventure and are ready to go away as I type!:wow
 
bravo :thumb Great first report !! I was about a day ahead of you from Glacier through Lewiston, MT. Didn't know about Browning...... I'm pretty sure that's where I stopped and went to a hardware store and bought some nuts and bolts............ pretty sure the clerk was tweaking.......... how about all those "meth" signs in MT???? I had no idea..... a sheltered life. So, I really like your writing style.. I think I spit some beer out a couple times. Also agree on the pizza. If you can get that first bite in your mouth using only one hand, either you are double jointed in the neck or it's not really pizza !!!

You gals come down south, give me a holler. this is my garage fridge.......


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August 8th 2010 con't

Once in Jasper we tried to find a hotel but heard we had to spend almost $300 for a night. After getting pissed off we headed about an hour east out of town and landed at a good ole KOA in Hinton, Alberta. Out of our way but we got ourselves a little cabin/house with a bathroom, TV and wifi. We are happy campers now and again we had a long day. Not KM wise but time. We were on the road from 0745 to about 1800.



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This was a deluxe cabin and pretty comfy!

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The Hinton early morning Sky


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Went into Hinton for gas, did chain maintenance, and checked our oil level and tires. My rear tire has a little crack in it and the plug is still holding. We have 2 more days on the road and then we should be home. We saw a sign saying Scenic highway to Alaska and we so wanted to turn left and go north. Maybe next year.
 
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A few pics of Jasper as we passed through!

We have been to Jasper before so we did not take a lot of pics. Plus we needed to find somewhere to sleep so in and out real fast!

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My little Panasonic Lumix camera surprised me with it's zooming capabilities...back at Mount Rushmore and here. This is the Gondola in Jasper at the top of the mountain and we are in town taking this pic. The Gondola is miles away.

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On this day something weird happened to me while riding. We were on I-90 doing about 140km/hr when we hit a very uneven long stretch of road. I was feeling a little tired but I guess was not aware how tired I was. .....

....The heat, 90 degrees and maybe not enough food + being tired made for one wake up call for both us. 5 Hr energy drinks came into my daily morning routine after this incident!

first, great ride report, but this caught my eye.

i can't believe how many stories like this i've read about people riding this summer.

correct me if i am wrong, but i don't see you two using any hydration system... like a camelbak? (i did see the water bladder in your gear pic...)

dehydration is almost definitely your problem, and 5 hour energy drinks are really not a great way to solve it.

you might enjoy reading the ironbutt associations 25 tips for long distance tourning.

thank you for taking time to post such a great ride story and have fun on the rest of your trip.

ian
 
Not dehydration

Visian...we stayed hydrated the entire trip....on this day it was only about 2 hours into the day and early in the morning. What I think happened was that I ate fruit for breakfast not the oatmeal I planned on doing all trip long or eggs etc...I don't sleep at the best of times and even when driving a car, sun plus heat puts me into a daze. After this happened, I ate better in the mornings despite my chronic lack of sleep and would use the energy drink on bright sunny hot days.

In the end that totally worked for me and I don't recall even getting close to having an issue like this day again.
 
Thanks for sharing your adventure. Sorry about our "Milwaukee-Aroma". Although it's much better now that the yeast company and the alewives are gone. :whistle
And finally, B.C. rocks. I rode through this past June/July and enjoyed it immensly.
 
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