Day 16 - June 25, 2009 - The Jouney Home

This will be the last posting as we will be in Calgary tonight ............assuming we dont hit any more rain storms. Our route will take us out of Vanderhoof to Prince George to McBride to Jasper to Lake Louise to Calgary. Today will be a long day as we had to cut our day short yesterday because of yesterdays Mother-Of-All rain storm. Todays total distance was 890 km; our longest day mileage of the trip. We got home around 10pm.

We left Vanderhoof under overcast skies but at least it wasn't raining. It was strange riding in traffic again and seeing houses, farms, ranches, etc every few kilometers. We had gotten so use to riding deserted highways and nothing but wilderness around us.......kinda sad.

Just when you think you had experience the worst weather possible, Mother Nature hits you again. We were going up Sunwapta Pass just past Saskatchewan Crossing in the rain and the temp dropped to 8C; it was freezing but thank God for electric vests. Then going over Bow Summit just before Lake Louise, the temp dropped to 4C; the coldest temps we've had thru the whole trip. Thankfully, the skies cleared and temps rose once we got to Lake Louise. The rest of the trip in was smooth and comfortable.

The total mileage for whole trip was 9140 km. Thats like Calgary to Halifax and back. However, we estimate that just over 1000 km of it was on gravel/dirt roads. Overall, it was a great trip. The weather could have been better but that is part of the adventure. Both bikes ran very well with no problems and the two of us got along (at least there was no fist fights.......just some verbal abuse). The days just flew by and it was over way too soon. If we had to do it again, we would take more days and ride shorter days so that we could sightsee more.

For those of you that followed us on our trip thru this blog, we hope you enjoyed; it took a few hours every night posting it. Thanks to Mikes Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Dave in Anchorage. It was good to meet Bob and Zack and we hope they have a safe ride back to South Carolina (if you are ever in Calgary, give us a call).

Packing up at the Siesta Motel in Vanderhoof. Overcast but at least its not raining........yet.

Prince George. Geez there a lot of cars and traffic lights here. Where are the open roads, the wilderness????

Leaving Prince George BC taking the road to Jasper Alberta.


I forgot how much I dislike traffic when riding a motorcycle.

Mike fuelling up in McBride

Riding thru Mt Robson Provincial Park.

Heavy traffic thru construction zone.

Road construction. Sand on tar filled cracks.

We are back in Alberta.

Waiting at construction zone in Jasper.

Gordon self portrait in rear view mirror.

Riding in Jasper again.

Last group photo and second-last fuel stop in Jasper.

Heading out of Jasper.

Going down the Ice Field Parkway.

Coming up to the Glaciers.

Continuing down Hwy 2 to Lake Louise.

Day 15 - June 24, 2009 - Hyder Alaska to Vanderhoof BC

Todays route: Stewart BC to Hyder AK back to Stewart then to Mezadin Junction to Kitwanga to Smithers to Burns Lake to Vanderhoof. Temps for the day between 13C to 18C.

Woke up to partly cloudy skies today in Stewart BC so we got a chance to see the mountains around the town. We drove across the US-Canada border again into Hyder Alaska about 3 km away. The Salmon Glacier was another 37 km up a gravel road but we did not have time to ride up there.........too bad. The ride out of Stewart on Hwy 37A was spectacular as we had good weather going out. The road wound down thru the mountains with glaciers and fans of snow. We also had to stop to let a family of 4 bears cross the road. It started raining lightly at Kitwanga where we stop for home-made pie and coffee.

The plan today was to overnight in Prince George but that didnt happen. We hit the "Mother Of All" rain storm just outside of Burns Lake. Rain came down in sheets with howling winds, and thunder and lightning (it was actually quite spectacular to be riding thru it). We slowed down and got to Vanderhoof at 9:30pm. We decided that descretion was better part of valour and decide to call it a day there; this will make tomorrow a very long day for the ride home. This was a good test of all the waterproof motorcycle equipment we had..........the gloves failed.

Mountains just behind our motel.

Downtown Stewart

Mike starting breakfast without me.

Riding to Hyder.

Entering Hyder

Rode out on a wooden pier.

Group picture

Mud flats

Mike writing postcards from Hyder

Crossing the Canadian border back into Stewart. There was no US border checkpoint
to go thru going into Hyder.

Bald eagle in tree.

Riding out Hwy 37A

Glacier

Huge snow fan at bottom of chute

Closeup of snow fan

Mike and Bear Glacier.

OK so we took a lot of pictures of Bear Glacier.

More glaciers on top mountain

4 bears crossing road......2 in ditch on left side of road.

One of the bears munching on grass on other side of road.

Getting into Burns Lake. You can see the big rain clouds up ahead..........an ominous sign as it turned out.