Sometimes plans don't work out. On this trip we had planned on riding the Highway to the Sun but last night Garry found that the highway was closed because of a forest fire so we decided to ride into Waterton and Glacier Parks without doing that part of the ride.
Before we left Fernie we stopped for our morning Starbucks coffee. From the parking lot the mountains stood out in the morning's light so I stopped to take some photos before we left for Sparwood. When Garry bought his new phone the sales person didn't off him insurance against damage so he had to make arrangements to stop at the Telus dealer in Sparwood to do all the things he had to do.
Mountains around Fernie, BC
Leaving Fernie, BC
I stopped to take more photos and met him at the dealer. Because it was going to take some time I went ahead to the museum and to see the world's largest truck that had been used in Sparwood in the 1970s. The scale of this thing is massive. The truck itself weighs 250 tons and has a payload of 360 tons for a total of more than six hundred tons. In addition to the two huge front tires it also has eight more under the box. The numbers for the amount of fuel it used and the electricity that it produced are amazing. The information on the sign said that the truck produced enough electricity to power 3200 homes. Incredible!
The Terex, the world's largest truck
Payload capacity: 360 tons
Truck weight: 250 tons
Tires are about three metres high.
Garry met me at the museum and before we left I gave our remaining cherries to a young family with two children. The kids were delighted and the little guy ran over and gave me a hug.
Sparwood is near the Alberta border and the entrance to the Crowsnest Pass. The ride through the mountains here is impressive. This is another beautiful part of our country and this was the first time I had ever seen it. I had never been through the Crowsnest Pass before, even though I had known about it from reading Canadian history when I was in high school. I have waited too long. The ride is incredible, especially a section of the highway that runs between two lakes. I'm glad I saw that.
The Crowsnest Pass
As you enter Alberta there is a visitor centre that sits in a scenic setting. There are mountains in every direction. I imagine that the people who work here really appreciate the beauty of their surroundings. The women at the counter were really helpful as we planned how we would do our ride into the United States. However, this was the first time today that s#*t happened.
View east of Sparwood, near the village of Crowsnest.
Views from the Alberta Tourist Visitor Centre
I left the centre to get a bottle of PowerAde from my motorcycle. When I got close to it I saw a bright spot on my rear tire. Upon closer inspection it looked like I had picked up a nail, and having a nail in your tire when you ride at 110 kph is not a good thing. Immediately plans changed. Now, instead of turning south at Pincher Creek and entering the US through Waterton National Park, we now had to make the 150 kilometer to Crowsnest Trail H-D in Lethbridge, AB.
Further on we came to the Frank Slide. At 4;10 a.m. in the morning of April 29, 1903 a huge slab of rock slid off the face of Turtle Mountain moving across the valley below and wiping out about one third of the town of Frank, AB, killing more than seventy people. The scale of the slide is massive and it is estimated that eighty-two million tons of rock slid into the valley and part way up the slope of the neighbouring mountain.
Views of the Frank Slide
Turtle Mountain
The interpretive centre above the location of the slide gives a good view of how far the debris travelled across the valley and gives an explanation of why the slide occurred. It was a horrible, but very impressive event and I think it dwarfs the Hope Slide that happened near Hope, BC in 1965.
Riding through the Frank Slide
One of the things that can make a ride difficult is a strong wind. When we moved into more open ground we experienced strong cross winds that buffeted us quite a lot. When you are riding at 110 kph it can be somewhat disconcerting. It seems though that someone in Alberta has decided to harvest the wind because as we rode east we saw hundreds of windmills. With the price of generating power from fossil fuels and the regularity of the wind blowing, this seems like a natural fit.
This was Friday afternoon of a long weekend in Canada and the weekend before Sturgis so with the number of riders on the road, H-D dealerships are busy and sometimes it is difficult to get work done. On our way to the dealership we stopped in Pincher Creek to refuel. While we were there a group of riders arrived to gas up as well. I spoke to one of them and the guy said that the group was heading to Sturgis.
Because it was Friday afternoon we had no time to waste so we did the next 110 kilometres without stopping and we arrived at the dealership at a little after 2:00 p.m. Initially, the owner of the dealership was reluctant to take on the work because they were busy and they were going to be closed on Saturday. When he looked at the rear tire he realized that there was a screw in it and that the tire would need to be changed so he put his technician, Adam, on the job. By the time he changed the tire and took my motorcycle for a check ride it was 4:30.
This was when the second bit of s#*t happened. Adam returned from the check ride and told me that the engine compensator was going and that it could fail at any time. In addition, they were closed on Saturday and they didn't have a compensator in stock anyway. Adam suggested that I contact Big Sky H-D in Great Falls, MT to see if they had a compensator and if they could install one tomorrow. Garry made the call and explained the situation. They had the part in stock but it was up to me to get to Great Falls and deliver my motorcycle to the dealership before 9:00 a.m.
With a part that was going to fail at any time, my only choice was to make the 310 km run as quickly as possible. We rolled out of the dealership at about 4:45 and headed toward the border. We arrived at the Sweetgrass, MT border crossing in about an hour but then had to wait as the lines going through the crossing moved incredibly slowly. Along with us there were at least a dozen people on motorcycles who were heading to Sturgis as well.
After successfully entering the US almost immediately we saw dozens of oil wells in the what fields just south of the border. In juxtaposition to this was a large number of windmills generating electricity, just as in Alberta. and just as in Alberta we experienced heavy crosswinds which tossed us around despite the fact that we were riding reasonably heavy motorcycles.
Our next stop was Shelby, MT where we refueled. Again, about ten motorcyles arrived. All were on their way to Sturgis. It has been amazing to see the number and variety of people who are heading to the motorcycle Mecca of the world this weekend.
When we hit US15 I dialed my bike in to 120 kph and headed toward Great Falls, 134 kilometres away. As i rode, the though of my engine blowing up was never far from my mind so I tried to keep my speed steady without putting too much stress on the engine. Long, story short, we arrived in Great Falls, having taken three hours and five minutes to make 308 kilometres. Even with the delay at the border and the stops for gas in Shelby, we averaged more than one hundred kilometres per hour. I think that this was the longest and fastest high speed run I've ever done, and Big Red handled the challenge like a champion. I love this bike.
After checking in to the Motel 6 we walked over to a restaurant called Beef Obryan's where we each ordered a rack of ribs. They were huge. Garry ate more than half of his before he gave up. I plowed through half of mine before calling it quits. I asked the waitress to wrap the leftovers and took the package back to the motel. Motel 6 doesn't have fridges in their rooms so when I entered the lobby I had the idea to offer the lady behind the counter my ribs. She gratefully accepted so I didn't have to deal with them tomorrow and I did my good deed for the day.
So, the plan is to get my motorcycle to the dealership before 9:00 a.m. tomorrow and hope that they can fix it in time for us to ride a bit closer to Sturgis. In some respects, today was a bit of a crappy day, but we did make it to Great Falls, Big Red ran flawlessly, and we are set to get things taken care of tomorrow. On balance things sort of evened out except for the fact hat buying and having a new tire installed cost me more than five hundred dollars. I hope tomorrow doesn't cost me that much.
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