Into British Columbia

You can't always take your gear off for photo ops....too much work.

A German tourist caught us at Bow Falls in Banff along with other tourist types:)

These highway crossings are used by animals to travel safely through Banff National park.

 No I was not riding and taking pictures, Gayle was the photo contributor here.

Starting to see many more riders as we get further west. 

See why we love to ride!

Castle Mountain

Now we are talking scenery folks, back to BC on a ride to Banff then on to Golden "the long way round." We travelled through the Vermillion Pass (1640m) then the Sinclair Pass (1486m) down hwy #93 to Radium Hot Springs. Time for a late lunch before heading north on hwy #95 with the Rocky Mountains on the right and across the Columbia River valley the Purcell Mountains on the left. There is something about being in the mountains that touches my soul. Temperatures reached 36 degrees Celsius and we kept moving just to have a breeze! Now I know why people like Mesh gear!! :)

Would have liked to make it to Revelstoke today, but we were wiped and needed to get out of the heat!! Actually too tired to get into the pool at the Travelodge and had the air conditioning on all night. 

Back on to the Trans Canada for the ride to Revelstoke the next morning. (The last time we were on this stretch of road was 40 years ago) definitely time to repeat and we had the pleasure of being two up on one fantastic motorcycle. Hard not to enjoy yourself with a ride like this under you!

Continental Divide marker.

Summer colours abound!

Snow sheds to deflect avalanches in the winter months cover the road on this section and over the famed Rogers Pass through the Selkirk Mountains at 1327m in Glacier National Park. This was a tourist stop where we had the opportunity to witness a helicopter at work lifting sections of some structure being built up in the mountains. Time changed yet again on this trip, this time from Mountain to Pacific.

Biker chick undressing again because of the heat.

A tourist photo op if I ever saw one :)

Furry friends from under the rocks entertaining the tourists. Are they paid as Federal employees?

Another tourist stop for me to finally see the Revelstoke Dam and powerhouse. This facility was under  construction  when I worked for BC Hydro helping to commission the Peace Canyon facility on the Peace River. It presently holds 5 machines and has space in the powerhouse for one more. Its output is listed at 2480 MW today, still below the WAC Bennett facility that I work at in Hudson's Hope, back in another life. That powerhouse contains 10 machines with a rated output of 265MW each.

They have an informative Visitor Centre.

This is the spillway with the switchyard beyond.

An attempt at shooting through a plexiglass display case containing a Revelstoke unit display.

Very impressive location just the same. You can probably Goggle it and get all the facts, so I won"t bore you with any more techie stuff! :)

A few e-mail checks and phone calls had us change plans and headed south on hwy# 23 along the Upper Arrow Lake to catch the ferry at Shelter Bay to cross the lake to Galena Bay and drive to Nakusp. Talk about ferry Karma ......we were literally the last vehicle loaded. Major lineup and because we were on a bike, we were picked out of the line and asked us to squeeze in just behind a Harley. The couple on that bike were on a ride out of Kamloops, B.C. Ferry crossings are an enjoyable break from saddle time and I'm aways interested in quick chats with other riders, about their machines and where they are off to. Gayle enjoyed the cool breezes out on the lake as well.

The lady from Victoria with the high viz jacket (next to her Honda Shadow) was talking with the Harley guy from Kamloops.

Check out the size of the cedar "sticks" on the truck!

Cool biker chick enjoying the breeze.

 

We rode south-east on hwy # 6 from Nakusp to New Denver after a liquid refreshment break and calling ahead from the tourist bureau to confirm a cottage at Village Dome Quixote for the night. Temperatures in the 30's again and really wanting to get off and rest at the end of this ride. A short nap after settling in, a walk around town, then a late supper at Rory's on Main before retiring for the day.

We met two friends in the parking lot the next morning who were riding in the same direction as us for part of the day. We took the time to chat as we loaded our bikes. One guy riding a 2002

BMW  R1100RS was a retiree from Courtney on Vancouver Island and his friend an industiral mechanic who works at a Hog Fuel generating plant in Williams Lake (originally from Courtney) was riding this 2010 Buell XB12SS Lightning.

If you think it looks a little dirty, it is because it had been ridden into the ditch just the day before.

The rider was game to ride today, but feeling the pain. Just several years ago he had hit a mule deer wrote that bike off and ended up in the hospital with a ruptured spleen! Just one more reminder to be careful out there.

We rode out of New Denver following these two east on hwy #31A to have breakfast at the same restaurant in Kaslo. They had been on this road before and definitely enjoyed the many twisties. They were surprised that we kept up with them on a bike the size of ours and riding two up to boot! :) Needless to say I enjoyed myself on this stretch of road having them riding lead!

They were going to take the ferry at Balfour across Kootenay Lake to Kootenay Bay to ride a section of hwy # 3A to Creston (which Nicholas and I did in 2010, at Nolan Schann's suggestion) and turn around and return to New Denver for the night. Does that tell you something about this ride?

Gayle and I took a different section of hwy #3A from Balfour to Nelson. Stopped by the tourist bureau to use their computer to try and track down Craig Swendson, a cross Canada rider (2013) whom I had met in NB on his return run from Halifax to his home in Nelson. All I could find was his e-mail address, so we mounted up and finished our day's ride to Fruitvale to look up my cousin Janet and her husband Nolan Schann. 

They like ourselves retired from the city and have a wonderful mountainside acreage above the town.

Nolan cooked a tasty fish supper while the conversation continued on towards midnight. What an enjoyable time playing catchup. We certainly do not get to spend as much time with these folks as we would like. The miles do get in the way! Family talk, retirement talk and comparisons about our respective local wild life in BC and NB made our single night stay fly by. One day is definitely not enough of a stop over in such a beautiful setting! Be sure to stay longer with us at Longscreek when you make it back east next time.