O Canada in Saskatchewan

Kerry entering Saskatchewan

John entering Saskatchewan

If I have one overwhelming impression of the prairies this trip, it is how good it smells from the top of a motorcycle.  Yesterday it was the smell of canola blossoms.  Today it is the delicate scent of the blossoms of the alfalfa alfaqlfa that grows wild on the edge of the highway and in some of the fields that haven't been planted.  Mile after mile passes by and every breath brings that haunting smell.  I think most people in  cars would miss that.

At least 30 kilometres to the horizon

This land goes on forever

Much of Alberta and Saskatchewan are this green

Close to the Alberta side of the Alberta-Saskatchewan border the land changes subtly.  Rather than being mostly flat it begins to undulate with gently rolling low hills.  When the highway crests these hills you can see for at least 25 kilometres in every direction.  That's a circle 50 kilometres across!  and the colours are incredible with the green of some fields to the yellow of canola, to the dun brown of other areas.  And the roads are straight.  I measured one section that was 17 kilometres straight ahead without even a curve.

We left Medicine Hat at 8:30 and were in Swift Current by 11:00.  I tried to find a coffee shop so I could have a good coffee.  I stopped to ask a guy who was walking across the government building parking lot.  His lower lip was filled with snoose so that should have been my first clue.  The words, "Could you tell me where I could find a good coffee shop?" were no more than out of my mouth when I knew what was coming next.  After all, this IS Saskatchewan.  "Yeah there's a Tim Horton's two blocks down the one-way (street)".  Tim Horton's I suppose is the epitome of 'good coffee' in this part of the world, and truth be told we did not see another coffee shop in the whole downtown area of Swift Current.  The land is beautiful, but that alone would make it difficult to live here.

On the way to Moose Jaw we came across the remains of a summer snow storm with the snow piled high in the river bed.  The photo below will give you an idea of what it was like.

Snow in July? No. It's potash by the road.

Saskatchewan potash mine

Actually, it wasn't snow but potash which Saskatchewan exports to China as fertilizer by the trainload.

Kerry with the 'bull' moose

We had to stop to see Moose Jaw's giant bull moose. How do I know it is a 'bull' moose? The picture below should make that clear.

And now you know!

Since today was a put on the kilometres kind of day, we didn't stop for long in many places except to buy gas and lunch.  We did see quite a few prairie dogs, one of whom stood on the centre line while Kerry and another biker passed on either side of him before he made a run for if right in front of me.  He made it but from the numbers of bloody little meatballs on the highway, quite a few of his brothers did not.

We have seen quite a bit of wildlife today.  Along with prairie dogs, two coyotes, hawks, a baby skunk, and numerous flat foxes and raccoons, we saw two pelicans flying overhead.  I didn't know what they were until Kerry told me at our next stop. Pelicans?  In Saskatchewan? Uh-huh. There's even place called Pelican Lake and Pelican Narrows in northern Saskatchewan.  I have no idea why they're here or where they come from.

There are all kinds of great names here as well, but the two best ones today are: Carry-the-Kettle First Nation, and Dyer Straights Campground. 

Many of the places here are celebrating their 100th anniversay this year.  Since the railway came through in 1882 and some places here date from then, I have no idea why so many places were started in 1911.  One of the things that has changed in the past 20 years is the removal of the iconic prairie grain elevator that each small town on the railway lines used to have.  With the abandonment of many of these lines the elevators had no further use and were demolished only to be replaced with industrial scale feed mills that now dot the prairies.  It is a real change from the first time I rode this way.

Feed mill near Whitewood, SK

Heading east from Regina we experienced very little traffic but the sidewinds were vicious at times.  I was thrown around the highway for the last 150 kilometres today.  The wind was great for the wind generators though, and the whole wind farm outside of Whitewood was benefitting from it.  Our last stop for gas before going on to Virden was to be Moosomin but when we looked to the east the clouds were threatening so we decided not to risk riding another 30 minutes if it meant getting wet so we stopped here and wrapped up our day's ride after 720 kilometres.

Wind generator near Whitewood, SK

Part of the 'wind farm' near Whitewood, SK

Kerry at the Moosomin grain elevator

Today is Kerry's birthday so we celebrated with Hawkins' Cheezies from Belleville, ON, Kerry's home town, and some Polish beer.  He also received a gift from his wife Theresa and a birthday card from me as well.  Today was a glorious day of riding.  The weather is perfect (except for the wind, but it is the prairies after all) and the road is good for the most part.  Tomorrow it is on through Manitoba into Northern Ontario.  I was wildly optimistic about making it to Winnipeg today, an optimism born of ignorance of the distances involved here, so I will make no predictions about where we will stop tomorrow.

While I have always been proud, in a quiet way, to be Canadian, this ride reinforces that pride.  We are blessed to live in a country with such an abundance of resources, people, and beauty.  Our strength is not derived from a strong military or a large economy, but from the land itself.  I wish that many other Canadians could have the chance to see our country as I am seeing it for the first time in more than 38 years.  I believe it would do them, and the country, a great deal of good.

On To The Flatlands

Our day started with a relaxed breakfast at about 7:30 and I had a cup of Kicking Horse coffee to jump start my day.  This was entirely appropriate because the Kicking Horse River is about 150 metres from Joan's front door.  About 6 kilometres up Field Hill we stopped to see the Spiral Tunnels, but sadly there were no trains running so we weren't able to see the front end of a train exiting the tunnel while the back end was yet to enter.  There are still some remnants of the old railbed above the highway and the old Trans Canada Highway made use of the old CPR stone bridge farther up the hill.  The road is being twinned from just outside of Field to the BC border so we rode through some construction with a minimum of delay.

Spiral Tunnel near Field, BC

Kerry at the Alberta border

John at the Alberta border

The ride from Field to Banff and past Canmore is still breathtaking.  The Bow River runs its braided way higher up in the mountains until its blue-green waters become a fully fledged river.  The highway from Field to Calgary was thick with groups of motorcyclists heading west.  Our guess is that they were heading to the festivals in either Salmon Arm or Merritt. 

Mount Rundle, near Banff, AB

Looking across the Bow river near Banff, AB

We rode in to Banff, went to Sulphur Mountain after taking a wrong turn then made the right turn and ended up at the Banff Springs Hotel.  What an incredible place for the idle rich and those who  would like to be so!  Recreational opportunities are numerous and the middle-agers were out hiking, biking, and jogging.  I have never seen Bow Falls before so it was a real surprise to see them when the river is in full spate.

Banff Springs Hotel

Bow Falls

Kerry at Bow Falls

John at Bow Falls

The ride in to Calgary was easy but we stopped in Canmore for gas. The last time I was there it was a sleepy village whose main virtue lay in the fact that it was outside Banff National Park so people could own land there.  Now it is booming and it hosts the National Nordic Skiing Training Centre.  We saw a small group of mountain sheep beside the highway and I was able to take a few pictures of them before other people stopped and scared them away.

Mountain sheep near Canmore, AB

Our time in Calgary was quite busy and I was able to buy a new camera and avoid the dreaded HST!  What a treat to only have to pay 5% instead of 12% on something like that.  I love it!  If I can figure it out I should have some better pictures tomorrow.  I also called our former Superintendent and left a message on his machine.  We were running low on gas while we were leaving Calgary and we couldn't find a gas station.  In Calgary, no less!  I was able to find one using my GPS.  I love that gadget! I would literally be lost without it.  Joan Fields says she doesn't trust them but I do because I have been wrong far more often that it has!

The interior of the restaurant where we had lunch at Strathmore, AB

The ride east from Calgary was perfect.  The temperature was in the low 20s, the sun was out, and the road was clear with no idiots doing dumb things.  Just east of Brooks we saw a small herd of antelope and as we entered Brooks three deer played chicken as the crossed the highway in traffic.  So, today Alberta was the place 'where the deer and the antelope play', the deer in traffic and the antelope on the open prairie!  Shortly after that I saw a coyote hunting a mouse apparently unconcerned about the cars roaring by less than 20 metres from where he was getting his meal.

Antelope at play on the prairie

People complain about the prairies being boring but I find them anything but.  The fields of canola are stunning and the sky goes on forever.  There's an expression they use here.  They say that the land is so flat that you can see your dog running away for three days.  And because of the higher than average rainfall this year, everything is really green instead of the ususal brown of mid-July so what isn't yellow is green.  Along the highway there seem to be more oil pumps than there used to be and many fields will have four or five of them slowly pumping crude oil from under the ground.

Canola field near Brooks, AB

Canola field near Brooks, AB

The smells as we ride are wonderful.  The new-mown hay has a sweet smell and the canola fields as well as being beautiful. smell like a delicate perfume.  I can understand it when prairie people say that they feel 'hemmed in' when they are in BC.  I think it would be quite hard to give up the wide open spaces here.  They have a beauty all their own if people can open their minds to it.

As I ride across our country I am gaining an new appreciation for its wonders.  And not just the spectacular ones either.  The land here has its own attraction and while I don't think I would want to live here I can see why people would never want to leave either.

The land goes on forever near Brooks, AB

We are staying at the beautiful Parklane Motel in Medicine Hat for only $54.95 tonight.  Tomorrow morning we should be on our way quite early.  I hope we can make to Winnipeg before we stop tomorrow but I may be optimistic.  Today we made more than 550 kilometres with stops for sightseeing, in Calgary, and just to stretch our legs after riding for 150 kilometres non-stop.  We're geezers now and we have to do that.

The Beautiful Rockies

Jim, John, and Kerry ready to roll.

Sue, in her sheepskin slippers, vamping it up. ;-)

We are blessed to live in one of the most abundant and beautiful places on the planet.  It is never more obvious than when one has the good fortune to ride from Kamloops to Field along the South Thompson River and Shuswap Lake and through the Rocky Mountains to Field, British Columbia on the border with Alberta.  Today was the quintessential riding day with a cloudless sky, warm temperatures, breathtaking scenery, and traffic that moved along quite briskly.

Jim, Kerry, and I left Kamloops riding east along the South Thompson River this morning.  To say thatt his road is one of the best rides in Canada for the scenery alone would be an understatement.  When you are not used to the scenery that continuously appears around each curve it is very difficult to keep your eyes on the road. Our whole day was a series of these moments.  And to add to it we followed the route that the Canadian Pacific Railway carved through this country more than 125 years ago.

This week Salmon Arm is hosting an event for motorcyclists called Sturgis North, and for much of our ride we met solo riders and larger groups heading west presumably to attend.  We were asked several times if we were going to Salmon Arm but we told the people who asked that we were heading east to Ontario and would miss the event.  Over the course of our day I estimate that we saw 200-300 riders heading to Salmon Arm.

An hour's from Kamloops  ride took us to Salmon Arm where we stopped to stretch our legs before moving on the Revelstoke.  The scenery is breathtaking with rushing blue water rivers and peaks that tower over the highway and whose flanks are covered with snow, trees, or that are simply naked and often striated rock.

John at the Craigellachie memorial

Kerry and Jim at Craigellachie

The Trans Canada Highway monument

Between Sicamous and Revelstoke we stopped at Craigellachie, where the last spike of the CPR was driven in November 1885.  This was a monumental undertaking for the time and the memorial there commemorates it.  Further on there is also a monument to the completion of the Trans-Canada Highway in 1962, the modern equivalent of the completion of the CPR. For us it was hard to believe that we rode it to BC only eleven years after it was completed and next year we will be observing a half century since John Diefenbaker, the PM at the time, declared it open.

Jim blasting out of Revelstoke for Kamloops

We rode in to Revelstoke for lunch and stopped at a deli there and had sandwiches while unit trains of potash and coal rumbled by across the main street.  Revelstoke is booming because of the skiing and other recreational opportunities it offers and the road entering town is flanked by two very large bas-relief grizzly bears.  We have not yet seen one in the wild and it doesn't seem likely that we will this trip.  We did however, see a mountain sheep eating beside the highway, apparently unconcerned with the traffic speeding by less than fifteen metres from him.

CPR 5468 in the Revelstoke Railway Museum

Jim left us to go back to Kamloops so we carried on to the Revelstoke Railway museum.  The displays were rather limited but they had a steam locomotive, CPR 5468, a Mikado type in the museum.  These machines were incredible in terms of their size and power, but also for their aesthetics.  Simply put, to many they are beautiful.

The number of coal, grain, and potash trains we saw was surprising.  For someone not used to it, seeing trains every 20-30 minutes is unusual.  The CPR route through Rogers and Kicking Horse passes is truly a main artery of the Canadian economy.

Rocky Mountains near Revelstoke

Rocky Mountains with a CPR freight in the foreground

One of the really great things about riding is one which is probably overloooked by those who don't ride.  There is a tremendous variety of smells as you ride.  They vary from those of fresh cut hay, to the smell of lake water on an early morning, to the unmistakable odor of animal manure, to the smell of spruce from a passing wood chip truck, to the unpleasant smell of burnt break linings from cars and trucks braking down a long hill.  It is a part of the experience that you can appreciate if you pay attention to your surroundings.  When you ride over small streams that tumble down the mountainsides you get a blast of cold air as it follows the course of the stream downhill.

We stopped at the Dairy Queen in Golden to take a break and were treated to a piece of ice cream cake.  Just the thing to two sweaty bike riders!  Outside of Golden the road was under constructiin and that terrible twisty section was being improved.  Farther on, we crossed the new bridge over the Kicking Horse River.  It is a magnificent piece of engineering and architecture.

The mountain behind Joan's house

The last part of ride today took us to Field where we are staying at Kerry's friend Joan Fields.  The house is right above the railway year and I was in heaven watching perhaps a dozen trains arrive and depart with their big road diesel-electric locomotives straining under the effort to overcome the inertia of perhaps 10-12,000 tonnes of potash or coal.  When we arrived Joan had a dinner of vegetables and Stone sheep for us. Yummm!  We could see the ridge behind which lie the famous Burgess Shales that have the world's earliest fossils of complex animal life and directly behind the house a mountain thrusts upwards perhaps 1000 metres.  This place is awe inspiring!

We have ridden about 800 kilometres in the past two days but tomorrow we'll stretch it out a bit when we hit the flatlands east of Banff.  We hope to see a train going through the Spiral Tunnels near Field tomorrow morning and after a brief stop in Calgary, we hope to make it into Saskatchewan, perhaps to Swift Current. Again, today was just an incredible day.  I think seeing the beauty that we saw today is good for the soul.  I know it is good for mine.

The Adventure Begins

While it may be presumptuous to call this ride an adventure for us it is.  Kerry has made this ride many times over the last 30 years but this is only my third time and the first one since 1974 so it does qualify as an adventure, at least for me.

When I left Campbell River on Saturday morning it was about 10 degrees, the sun was rising over Quadra Island, and my bike was running perfectly with its new rear tire.  The ride to Courtenay was relaxed and after filling up at the Chevron with $.96.9 gas, it was off to Nanaimo and the ferry.  There were about 25 bikes on the ferry and the riders were as varied as their bikes,  I talked with a man who owned four Harleys, two in Port Alberni, and two in Yuma, Arizona where he goes for the winter.  The extra bikes were for his twin brother so they can ride together when he visits. What an excellent brother that guy is!

Vancouver traffic was crazy but after adding a luggage rack and new grips to the bike I rode out to see Darlene's dad at the home he is living in.  After some cajoling, and "I didn't ride this far for a, 'No,'" comment, he got in his wheelchair and I pushed him out to the parking lot.  This 89 year-old man never seems to smile much but when he saw the bike his eyes lit up and when he heard it he had the biggest grin on his face I have seen in a very long time.  It was worth the traffic for that alone.

Kerry says thet when I arrived at his building he was on the phone with his sister but he told her that I had arrived when he heard the bike in his 6th floor condo.  It was really great to see him again and to retell old stories and catch up on people that I haven't seen for more than 30 years.

This morning we hit the road at about 9:30 but rode to 8th Avenue in White Rock, just north of the border and took the back roads to Abbotsford where we got on Highway 1 to Chilliwack.  We rode past Hope to Othello Road to the Quintette Tunnels Provincial Park.  The Coquihalla River was running fast, loud, and green and the tunnels themselves are incredible pieces of construction considering that they were blasted out of the living rock almost one hundred years ago and then cleared away with pick, shovel and hand carts.  There was no modern machiney there in those days.

We beat the rain to Merrit where we visited Kerry's friends Tom and Sharon.  Sharon is violunteering to help with the Merritt Bike Rally next week.  They expect about 5000 bikes (with their riders) to show up.  Had we not been travelling it sounds like it would have been a great way to spend a few summer days.  We raced out of town just before the rain - yes there is rain this year even in Merritt - and made a quick run to Kamloops.  As we were in the last three kilometres to Jim & Sue's house a crow flew into the front of my bike and seemed to explode when it hit the left fork.  In all the years I have been riding that was the first time I have ever hit a crow.

We're staying at my friends Jim and Sue's place just east of Kamloops and the evening was a great one of reminiscing, eating a great dinner and having some good laughs.  Kerry, Jim & Sue are the friends I have known for the longest in BC, and Kerry and Jim were part of Darlene's and my wedding party in 1983.  Kerry says that at our ages we won't be making any new old friends so we had better take care of the ones we have.  A wise thought, I think although I think Kerry might not expect to be called 'wise'.

Kerry and John ready to roll.

Me, because it's my blog!

It occurred to me on the ride up that we have ridden together on and off for more than 40 years.  It's still good.  Tomorrow we will be riding with Jim to Revelstoke where he will turn back, but we will continue to Field to stay overnight with friends of Kerry who have lived there for some time.  The trip is off to a great start with the weather holding despite some rain here in Kamloops tonight, and the bikes are running flawlessly.  It's great to be on the road again!

Mount Baker from southwest of Abbotsford

Kerry by the Coquihalla River.

The largest of the Quintette Tunnels

John by the Coquihalla River.

The rock face Sly Stallone climbed down in the first Rambo movie.

Through the Quintette Tunnels.

The Coquihalla River

The 'daylighted' section of tunnel that turned four tunnels into five.

The Day Before

The last day before any trip is always a busy one if you are not totally organized. I'm not.  In addition to riding to Courtenay to get a new tire put on my bike I had to power wash the deck so my better half can use it to entertain guests who will be here when I'm not.  After giving Big Red (my Harley) a final wash so it would look good when I leave in the morning, I planted a new row of spinach which should be ready when I return home.  Now all that is left is to pack all the stuff I plan on taking while hoping that it fits in the hard bags & tour pack and that the whole pile of stuff doesn't weigh too much.

Originally the trip was to be with four guys, three of us who had ridden to BC in 1973 on motorcycles, and the brother-in-law of one of the guys. The brother-in-law wasn't able to schedule the trip and Jim, the third guy developed a rotator cuff injury and he cannot hold a phone with his right hand, much less a Harley.  Kerry, the other guy, offered to let Jim ride his Gold Wing with cruise control but was met with deafening silence.  Needless to say, the offer wasn't accepted.

Our plan is to leave Vancouver on Sunday and ride to Kamloops. We'll ride with my other friend Jim to Golden where he will head south to Creston.  After that, it will be wherever we feel like stopping.  We figure it will take seven or eight days to get to eastern Ontario.  We're hoping for decent weather for the whole trip but this year that seems to be a long shot at best.

After 38 years two of the now Geezers are going to complete the round trip that began so long ago. We're excited to be making the trip and to stay in motels instead of in tents.  I will try to update this as the trip progresses and as I become more familiar with the blog I will try to include pictures as well.