Work has been getting in the way of a lot of my riding lately so I managed to pull a little time last week to get away for a quick rip through the Bow Valley Parkway, Jasper, central BC, the Okanagen, and the Kootneys.....in 3 days....and I had to be back on day three for a dinner reservation at 6.....
A last minute call to a couple guys (Marcel and Buzz), couldn't break them free from their plans so it was just me and the VFR. Time for a little solo-trip therapy.
There's not a lot of epic twists and turns heading northbound up the parkway from Lake Louise to Jasper however the scenery really can't be beat. It's taking a little longer to really relax on this trip, likely due to work pressures, the dinner reservation on Friday night, or the fact that the sheriffs in Alberta are out of control recently and my license could use a break from taking another ticket. No matter what though, this is where I need to be on this day, even though I'm riding through multiple rain showers on a 14 year old motorcycle. A REALLY good 14 year old motorcycle mind you.....
Traffic will stop for EVERY kind of wildlife out here and you really have to wonder if these people have lived in the city their entire lives and have not managed to see a deer....or a rabbit as they will stop for EVERYTHING
On this occasion however there was a nice "little" black bear right beside the road so I thought that I would grab a picture like the rest of the tourists. He ended up getting a lot closer to me and the viffer as I was tucking the camera away with one hand on the throttle. It didn't seem to worry the lady who was standing beside me easily 100 feet from her car and 60 feet from the bear at the time. Seeing as I didn't read about her in the paper the next day, he must have been an understanding bear. I didn't hang around to find out as he slowly sauntered over toward the edge of the road.
The Viff is old enough to be eligible for classic plates next year however it still has quite a ways to go to catch up to some of the ice on the side of this mountain. This picture was taken on the 24th of June and as you can see a good lot of it will still be around by the start of winter.
I stop for a shot of Bow Lake, which is fed by the Bow Glacier which is the source for the Bow River which runs through Calgary. It's a great place to stop and take a breather on the first morning of the ride.
The Athabasca Glacier in the Columbia ice-fields is the requisite stop for tourists trucking up the parkway to take guided tours up the ice and by expensive lunches in the cafe. Signs posted on the road on the way up to the glacier indicate where the glacier extended to over the various years. It is a shocking display of global warming and great ammunition for the doomsdayers in the crowd. The non-scientific part of me notes that it was melting at a hell of a rate since the last ice-age, and the largest loss of ice appeared to occur early in the 20th century, and slowed as time went on. Of course I am just an uneducated fool in the science of "climate change", or what was called "global warming" until a couple of years ago, and was even being called the "dawn of the next ice age" thirty years ago, so I'll just let the experts speak and keep my logical thinking to myself
I stop for the required shot down the parkway following the steep mountain climb about 70 km south of Jasper. In just about any information you find on the parkway you will find this picture. Most of them will look better than mine on this overcast and rainy day. The road below looks dry in the picture but rain was drenching me on this very road, not ten minutes before hand.
I stop for a bite to eat a late lunch at the Whistle-stop in Jasper, which is a great biker friendly pub right down town. Highly recommended if you end up in town looking for a place to eat. As I am sitting there enjoying a pint with my lunch I get a call from the local dealer letting me know that they have a new VFR1200 set aside for me to test ride at 6pm today.....in Calgary. I have to miss the opportunity this time, however they let me know that there will be another chance soon. I am having a lot more fun with my old VFR at the moment to feel too bad about it.
As I leave Jasper the rain gear stays on as the skies look ominous and the waitress at the Whistle Stop warned me about the call for heavy rain. I ride in and out of it all afternoon before finally settling in to a hotel in Clearwater on the south edge of Wells Grey Provincial Park for the evening. A quick roadside stop by Mount Robinson for a picture of B.C.'s second tallest mountain. I can't really know for sure as every time I stop by to see it the top of the mountain is obscured by bad weather...
A trip to the local pub in Clearwater that evening has the locals filling me in on how bad business is with the lumber industry having gone completely down the drain. As it turns out they don't really get a lot of tourists or especially motorcycle tourists in this area which seems like a missed opportunity. Although the road-twists are not like you can experience in the southern part of the province, there is a lot to see and I am enjoying this trip immensely.
I ride out in the rain then next morning for a detour up in to Wells Grey park to see Helmcken Falls. It a nice 70 km trip in to see them and I am absolutely the only person on the road. I see another waterfall sign on the way in and decide to make a stop. Although it would first appear that the falls are right by the road I ended up walking about 3/4 of a km down a trail in bear country with nobody else around before I felt the overwhelming urge to give up on this quest before I became bear food. All that would have been found by the search team were pieces of 90's vintage rain gear and a well-worn Shark Helmet in a steaming pile of bear poo. Time to move along....
Helmcken Falls themselves were another piece of Twilight Zone eerie-ness that I finally got to see after many years of wanting to. Again the parking lot was abandoned and the only accompaniment for my visit were this hordes of human-flesh starved mosquitoes. The awesome site made it all worth while.
After the trip through Wells Grey park I double back through Clearwater and finally manage to shake the rain about 45 minutes up the road. As I stop to take this picture you can see the shower that I just left behind, and it is just starting to sprinkle again just enough that I keep the rain gear on for now....
It's pretty awesome if you consider how much fun you can have on a $2500 motorcycle. I do have more in mine than that but I see these things advertised locally in the neighborhood of this price. Once you throw on a $600 aftermarket can to release the music this is one addicting old bike that can hang with many more powerful and much newer and pricier rides. Given that I feel like I am always having to hold back and use restraint I wonder if I could enjoy the new VFR1200 any more than this old beast. In my experience, nothing is more boring than trying to ride a fast bike slowly and rarely using it's potential. Riding a slow bike fast however, is a heckofa lotta fun
This little fixer-upper is on the road to Mabel Lake. If you are on the Monashee just east of Vernon turn north when you get to Lumby for a nice little side tour up to the lake. By this time of the day I'm getting a little burnt out but seeing as I was traveling by myself, I decide to give it a go. Usually I blow right past this little side road but I really only have to make it to Nakusp by dark, so what the hell. These are the kind of last minute changes you can make when traveling by yourself and not have to worry about someone getting their panties in a bunch about it. It turns out to be well worth the extra time.
It's Friday morning and the temptation to fit in a side trip to Kaslo is not enough to overcome the pressure of having to get home for our reservation. I've had my 3 days of fun, which I am thankful to Jen for who has been holding down the fort at home in my absence. On this final day I'm facing a lot of droning down the TransCanada highway, but as I leave Nakusp I finally get in to the zone where it's just me and the VFR on the last remaining nice sweepers of the trip. It's a great way to start the day and somewhat end the trip which up to this point had been more about pushing forward and less about relaxing. I do end up making pretty decent time and stop for my final lunch on the road at a pub in Field BC just inside the border. It's a great little place (really the only place in Field) to stop and have a beer with a pulled pork sandwich.
Cheers,
High_Side
If you're ever ever down in the mid-atlantic region please let us know. I'm sure some of us would be more than willing to tag along side for a few days. 
There is a neat ride in to town from the south east corner of Drumheller where you cross something like 11 bridges in about 6 km.
It woulda been weeks before anyone would have found whatever parts the bear didn't eat....