Date: 28/08
City: Fletsher Falls, BC
Miles ridden: 119
Cumulative miles: 11016
In the morning we were woken up by the smell of coffee and fresh baked muffins. That got even me out of bed. CJ (our host) setup the breakfast table on the veranda. The sun was shining, the temperature was just right.
Unbelievably, we started to talk to CJ while drinking coffee which made it was really hard to get moving. At around 10AM we decided to stay a day longer and, lucky us, the room had not been booked. So we caught up with all our stuff, blogs, mails etc., had great conversation about CJ’s journeys and Buddy the dog kept us company (and kept us save from bears).
It was a real relaxing day. Sigrid and Wombat hat too much energy, so they walked to the waterfall near by.
At night the three girls had a glass of wine before we had tea.
But tomorrow we are realy leaving… 😉
Date: 29/08
City: Whitefish, BC
Miles ridden: 273
Cumulative miles: 11289
We had a long day planned so we got up early, had a nice breakfast, took some pictures of the house and said goodbye to CJ.
After a ride on a beautiful road along a lake we hopped on a ferry for a leisurely 30 minute ride.
On the ferry we meet a Canadian couple that just started to ride motorcycles together; she turned 50 on Friday and got a bike – a Honda Shadow – as a gift. After we got off the ferry, we continued to ride along a lake. Then we stopped at a glass house, or more specifically a house that is build out of glass bottles.
Sigrid and Wombat went in, Val and I stayed outside, 10$/visitor was too much for us, and apparently there was no rocks in the glass house. But I didn’t get bored – a guy named Miles came over and we talked about trips and motorcycles. After all the pictures were taken we continued our trip. Another 150km then we had a short lunch at Burger King, just before we crossed the border to the USA. At border crossing we ask the customer officer what to do with the white card in our visa as it was only valid until the 2nd October. He said, exit the USA, give the I94 paper to the Canadian officer, they will forward it to the US and on the next entry to the US ask for a new I94. That didn’t sound too difficult to do. So we will give that a try in the next couple of days. After another 100km we arrived in Whitefish, unpacked our bikes and went to dinner at pizza hut. At dinner we discussed that we would ride the ‘way to the sun road’ in the Glacier National park tomorrow and then cross the border to Canada to give our I94 away and get a new one on the next US entry. After that we would aim for Rapid City and stay there for a couple of days. That would give us the chance to get our bikes serviced and to get some things sent to us.
Since we determined that we would be in Rapid City on Monday we organized some highway pegs, a mirror for my bike and a replacement lid for my helmet camera to be sent to the motorcycle shop. After making all the arrangements, we started our trip to the Glacier National Park. Riding through the national park was just fun, good curvy roads lined by pine trees. After a while we started to climb and the view got even better.
On the way to the top we hit 2 road work sites, both had muddy gravel roads, but it was no problem. At Logon Pass we stopped, walked around and had a look at a bit of snow. There was also a hiking trail to the snow, but we don’t do hiking on Thursdays and today was Thursday, what a pity 😉
We had a short walk back to the valley where we could see the road that we came on, there was another hiking trail, but again, it was Thursday 🙂
We talked to a couple of motorcycle riders in the parking lot then continued our trip. On the way out of the park we stopped at a view point from which we could see a glacier. The sign said that the glacier is only 25% of its original size (around 1900) and will disappear around 2030.
The water from the glacier was running into a crystal clear lake and there was a bikie chick sitting on the side rail.
The plan was to go over the border and give our form I 93 away to the Canadian officer and enter the US the next day again to get a new form. At the border crossing we got rid of our form I93, we will see if we get a new one tomorrow. The landscape changed dramatically, from a mountain range to a plain with roads disappearing into the horizon. After a short ride we arrived in Cardston not far from the border and found a good motel with a double room for just 116$, it had even a pool, but no breakfast.
Hope it works tomorrow with the I93 form, otherwise we might be stuck in Canada for a couple of weeks 😀
Date: 26/08
City: Nakusp, BC
Miles ridden:
Cumulative miles: 10902
We took our time to talk and farewelled most of the people that we met during the last three days.
We said goodbye to the Berlin couple, the couple from East Canada, Alex and Andrea from Rumania, Randall and Dawn, a couple that Wombat and Val met on the Alaska ferry and to the Duvals. Below are a picture of Randall and Dawn and the Duvals with their steed.
We will keep in touch and might see some of them on our trip to South America
Then we packed up and went to a laundry, washed our clothes,
filled the bikes up and went shopping. Then we returned and settled again in the Riders Retreat Campground. I started to update the blog but didn’t finish it. At night we had a nice bonfire, roasted some marshmallows and Wombat cooked some popcorn over the bonfire.
Date: 27/08
City: Fletcher Falls, BC
Miles ridden: 119
Cumulative miles: 11016
Before we left we took a couple of pictures of the tent and the area around.
We took as well a picture of the kitchen and our host.
Riding through Canada is great, the landscape is stunning and the roads are nice and windy. Our first stop was on a coffee shop with a view onto a glacier.
From here on we were riding to Fletcher Falls and the road followed the river. At one view point we stopped and took a couple of pictures.
When we arrived in Fletcher Falls, we had a look at the oldest paddle steamer wheeler of its kind. It was built around 1900 and was nicely restored.
In the information office we asked about accommodation. We found a B&B that was reasonable priced and not too far away so we booked it. When we arrived CJ (our host) showed us the rooms and the rest of the house. We had a short lunch, peanut butter sandwiches prepared by Val in the morning.
It was so nice to sit outside that we hardly wanted to move. Finally by around 16:30 we went to the Ainsworth Hot Springs. They are hot spring coming out of a cave with a water temperature around 40 C.
On the side was a small pond with crystal clear water (11C)
And another big pool with 35C water.
We spend a couple of hours there. In the pool we meet a German couple and started talking. The husband was riding a motorcycle since three years. We talked about what they have seen in Canada and about our trip. After all the cold/hot dips, we got hungry and went to dinner at the restaurant on site.
Food was great and not too pricy. Came home at 22:00 and all went straight to bed.
Date: 22/08
City: Nakusp, BC
Miles ridden: 14
Cumulative miles: 10916
The rain stopped during the night and we had a closer look around. The whole place looked great and even the trees around the campground had personality, I thought they looked cute.
After breakfast we took our time packing our bikes, had lunch and then went down to the campground where the Horizon Unlimited would be held. Wombat and Val had been there before and reserved a nice spot with shade during the day.
We unpacked the bikes and setup our tents. Wombat had a cover that we put over the bench. During our setup, we saw a couple arriving with a BERLIN number plate. We went over to talk a bit and it turned out that they just came up from Ushuaia. We left it there for the moment, since we had to leave for the toad fest a couple of miles down the road.
The toad fest you ask? Well it is more like a toad rescue with a party after. The young toads try to cross the road to get to the forest where they mature for the next couple of years before returning to the lake. Well, the toads have to cross the road and the cars won’t stop. So people come up each year, put the toad into a bucket before they reach the road
and then release them on the other side of the road. The toads are the size of the small finger nail.
To be honest it was a lot of fun. It was sort of addictive, every time when we thought we are finished a swarm of toads started to approach the road again. So we thought, well, we can still rescue these ones.
A couple of hours later, we finally stopped and went home. It was fun. When we left the mornings campground the owners offered that we could come back and use their kitchen at night, so we left some food in the fridge, came back at night and had dinner there. Below is a picture of a happy toad rescue crew.
Date: 23/08
City: Nakusp, BC
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 10916
In the morning we registered for the meeting, we meet Susan, the founder of the Horizon Unlimited, in person.
It was great to see Suzan in person after watching the DVDs with her on it for the last year or so. During the first day, there was not much happening, dinner was at 17:00 and the first presentation started at 19:00. So we spend most of the time talking to people; to the Rumanian couple, Alex and Andrea, whom we had met in Riders Retreat and we talked a bit more with Patrick and Jana (the Berlin couple) about their experience traveling the Pan American Highway. We also met a couple from French Canada; they would start their journey to Argentina after the meeting was finished. We were actually surprised how many people planned to travel to Ushuaia after the meeting. The dinner was great and the first presentation was about one couple traveling with a sidecar through South America, some of the pictures were amazing. One presentation was about Africa, again the pictures where fascinating. For me, it looks like east Africa is not too bad, but West Africa is nothing for me. The last presentation finished at 23:00, on the way back it started to rain. It didn’t last very long, but it was nice to lie in the sleeping bag and listen to the rain.
Date: 24/08
City: Nakusp, BC
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 10916
On the second day we were mostly listening to seminars. In the evening we meet the Duvals- Ken and Carol, a couple from Australia traveling around the world for over 10 years. Unsurprisingly, they have a wealth of information. The first time we meet them was in Flagstaff a couple of month ago and with all their tips and information we rewrote our South America trip. The seminars during the day were very interesting and informative, from packing light to a photography seminar to a Sri Lanka guy, living in Switzerland on his 1200 GS traveling around the world and sharing some of his adventures with us. We also talked to Patrick and Jana and they showed us their route on a map and gave us some useful tips about petrol, border crossings and accommodation. The day was over in no time with the last seminar finishing at 23:00, what a great day.
Date: 25/08
City: Nakusp, BC
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 10916
This was the last day; we had a choice of more seminars or a couple of hands on session. I went to a hand on session about fixing bikes on the road and changing tyres
Sigrid went to a seminar about bears. That puts me on the safe side, if a bear threatens us, that’s now Sigrid’s business 😀. In the afternoon we watched a slow race and a keyhole challenge, it was quite interesting to see what some skilled guys can do with their bikes.
After tea there was still two interesting session, one person showed some nice pictures from South France and Austria, I must admit it looked very interesting. The next session was held by two brothers who talked about South America, parts of their trip matched our plan and I must admit I’m looking forward to see the Andes. We took a couple of pictures of people we talked to, so below are Jean and Chan, the French Canadian couple, and Alex and Andrea, the Romanian couple who also start their journey to Ushuaia after the meeting. And we thought we were the only ones! 🙂
And a picture from Patrick and Jana, the Berlin couple that made it up from Ushuaia. What I particular liked about their journey was that they had simular starting condition to what we have. They were no dirt bike heroes and they didn’t speak Spanish, so there is hope 😀
The last night Patrick sold his bike and the money went to a charity organisation sponsored by Horizon Unlimited, I thought that was a great move. Below is a picture when Patrick told Grant that the money from selling the bike went to the charity.
So the plan for tomorrow was to pack up and ride for 3 km, back to the Riders Retreat campground, so a pretty short day. It’s amazing how fast the last 3 days have passed.
Date: 17/08
City: Airway Heights, Washington
Miles ridden: 176
Cumulative miles: 10729
I tested the tyre pressure in the morning, just to make sure.. thanks Keith! I was using the pressure gauge that I got from Keith and Sigrid took a picture of it. The weather was hot and we took our time. At our first break in a small township we had subway and saw a nice sculpture, called the farmers and the bankers.
Over the time the landscape changed to plains with lakes on the side. We found a couple of really nice rest places, which was not very common so far.
When we drove through Airway Heights we called it a day, checked into a motel and had an early day.
Date: 18/08
City: Colville, Washington
Miles ridden: 81
Cumulative miles: 10810
The plan for today was to ride to Colville to the Ranger station, get some information about the campgrounds in the Colville National Forest and camp for the next few days. So we took off and when we arrived an hour later at the Colville Ranger Station, we were surprised to find it closed.
That threw the spanner in the works, there are more than 26 campgrounds in the forest, but not much information available. We had problems to find out if they have fresh water and if you have to book in advance. The ranger station was not really a ranger station, it looked like an office building and they closed over the weekend, great. On the way in, we passed a hotel with pool, so we inquired; price was great so we stayed there instead.
We had a swim in the pool and a dip in the hot water tub. After we dried off we started to ask around and finally found some information about the camp grounds and earmarked one for tomorrow. It was only 45 miles ~ our travel distance seems to decrease every day ;).
So we were sitting outside our room, had some alcoholic beverages, looked at the mountain around us and watched the sunset.
At night we talked to Wombat and Val, they were staying in a bike camp ground until Tue and then ride to Nakusp. We will try to meet there a day before the HU meeting starts.
Date: 19/08
City: Edgewater campground, Washington
Miles ridden: 45
Cumulative miles: 10855
We took our time at breakfast and met a fellow motorcycle rider who recognize the Ulysses sign on our bikes. He was from Canada and travelled through Australia in 2000. A Ulysses member lent him a brand new Harley to travel around. After a while I got the map out and he suggested some nice roads for us to ride. So we started late, went to Wall Mart, bought some tent fix material to fix the holes from the accident properly and had lunch there at subway. Then we jumped on our bikes and started the long ride of 45 miles. After 2 miles, we couldn’t sit anymore on our bikes so we stopped to have a look at the crystal falls.
It was just on the side of the road. After taking some pictures we continued to our destination, the Edgewater campground. Just before the campground we had to cross a river and they were rebuilding the bridge. Guess what, it was the same shitty grid iron as on the bridge in White Salmon a couple of days before. The bridge was not long, but to make it a bit more entertaining they put a narrow lane change at the end of the track. Anyway, we survived and arrived at the campground safe and sound. The first sign on the campground was a warning sign that a cougar has been seen.
I wasn’t worried since I’m over 50… 😛
The sign suggested taking extra precaution, similar to being bear save. Don’t leave food out, put it in container and if you can hang it in a tree. I’m not sure if this really protects you against a cougar. Our campsite was exactly what we were looking for, it was remote, had fresh water, a toilet and had access to the lake, so we headed for nice swim.
After reading the sign, we made sure that most of the food was either hanging in a tree or was locked up in our panniers sitting under the bench.
Date: 20/08
City: Edgewater campground, Washington
Miles ridden: 47
Cumulative miles: 10902
Got up in the morning and went for a nice swim in the lake before breakfast. There was no wind at all and the lake looked like a mirror.
In the campground there were plenty of raspberry’s bushes, some of the fruit was too dry but some of them where just right.
On our way to the toilet block, we noticed that the Cougar sign has changed to a bear warning sign. We talked to the guy who changed the sign; he saw the bear on the campground when he opened the gate in the morning. We will definitely hang our food into the tree tonight! Especially as we are the only guests at this campground. Just to put it in perspective, yesterday (27/8) a guy was killed by a bear in Denali National Park (Alaska) – but he was taking pictures of the bear.
We needed to buy some food for the evening (for us, not the bear), so we made our way to Metaline Falls and had a look at the Salmon Lake on the way. After we came back we had a swim and when we came out of the water we saw some wild turkeys wandering around, not far from our tent. Do bears eat turkeys ???
In the afternoon we planned our route for tomorrow and a very briefly for the rest of the US, Mexico, Belize and Guatemala trip. We realized that our US tourist stamp is valid until Oct. 2nd, which might be a bit short. In addition my Visa expires Dec. 2012, so I have to organize something from Argentinia before we return to the US next year, will have to find out if we can get away with an electronic visa.
At the campground we could buy some firewood so I made a bonfire in the evening to cook our tea. The wood was still a bit wet, so I tried to split the logs a bit more, using my claw hammer. Bad idea! The good thing is, I tore the hammer handle off and it burned nicely 😀
(Mental note, get a camping axe and don’t use claw hammers for wood chopping.)
The plan for tomorrow is to meet Wombat and Val. Since we didn’t know exactly where they are, we’ll drive up to Canada, send them an SMS and then drive to the camp ground. While we were planning it started to get dark and we had a beautiful sunset in the woods.
Date: 21/08
City: Nakusp, BC
Miles ridden:
Cumulative miles: 10902
In the morning we went swimming and had breakfast. We started slowly; no stress as we didn’t have to go too far, just 150 miles. After another nap we packed the tent and had the usual problem, – pure disbelief that all that stuff would fit onto our two small bikes.
After some pushing, stuffing, reorganizing (I didn’t say anything about swearing) we got started around 12:00. After a 20 minutes ride, we crossed the border to Canada. The crossing was without any problems. We had a brief chat with the border officer, I told him all about our trip. In the end his bored smile indicated that he was more interested if we could support ourselves than in our trip route 🙂
That was our first motorcycle border crossing in the Americans, we made it to Canada!
Our first stop was in a small township called Salmo. We stopped to fill up the bikes and send Wombat and Val an SMS. Big surprise, our phone didn’t work in Canada, well the phone did, but our service supplier didn’t have any support in Canada. Ok, no worries, we went to Subway to eat something and to use Skype to talk to Wombat and Val. Next surprise, Subways in Canada don’t have WiFi, so we were stuffed.
We decided to ride to the next bigger town and try to find a WiFi spot, if that doesn’t work; we would just look for some other accommodation and ride to Nakusp the next day. We would meet Wombat and Val latest on the Horizon Unlimited meeting which starts in two days. When we arrived in Nelson, we went to the tourist bureau. The houses here reminded me a bit of Bavaria or Austria.
The people in the office were very helpful and even better, they had free WiFi access. So we contacted Wombat and Val and they were on a Motorcycle campground just outside of Nakusp, only 200km from where we were. So off we went. The roads were just amazing, winding between mountains following some blue lakes. It looked like pictures from travel brochures. At one stage we stopped at a view point and took a couple of pictures, the view was just mind blowing.
After leaving the view point we saw some clouds on the horizon which was exactly where we were going. 20km outside of Nakusp it started to dribble, then the rain started to get a bit heavier but eased off again. By this time we were only 5km from our destination so we pushed on. When we arrived we met Wombat and Val again! Reunited at last! The campground offered setup tents with beds and provided coffee for breakfast. So we unloaded our bikes and sat together to share some stories. By that time, the rain stared to get heavier and heavier. Val cooked some beautiful dinner for us and Wombat had organized some cold beer. We took our chairs in and huddled in the small kitchen area
During our dinner another couple arrived, at this point of time it started to rain really heavily. As it turned out, it was Alex and his wife, they were on the way to the Horizon Unlimited meeting as we were and after that they would start their journey down to Argentina (as we would). After the meal we found that our tent was leaking and had some big puddle of water. Sigrid was tired and cranky for some strange reason. No problem, we moved to another tent and jumped into a very comfy and dry bed. I like to hear the raindrops on the tent when lying in bed. I was happy; we finally made it to Canada. Tomorrow we’ll move to another campground and setup our tent for the next four days.
