Part Four - Banff to Waterton

We awoke in our nice Banff hotel, got some breakfast, and got rolling. Earlier we'd discussed taking a shortcut road, looked like it'd save some miles instead of going almost to Calgary then turning south. It was a good decision. Canmore to Longview, the road followed a huge valley the whole way. 10 cars maximum was what we saw the whole trip. A beautiful run. Just getting started...

Scenery Break...

Us, the views, the road, the shining sun. Loving it...

Again, the whole "feeling pretty small" thing...

Bored with the scenery, the lead bike practices the "look ma no hands" trick (fricken using cruise control is cheating!!)

Photo Op...

After Longview, the road has some long, straight, lonely stretches. Like...

Messing with the camera. I carry it in my pocket, attached to a neck strap so if I get butterfingers or have to quickly readjust the bike's trajectory I can just let go and it won't hit the pavement. This means I have to be careful about getting the strap in the shot, especially rearfacing ones as the wind blows the cord back. Just after this shot I was putting the camera back into it's pocket when I felt the cord snag on something. I realized with horror it was my bud's borrowed Chatterbox, which was now no longer attached to my helmet! ( For those of you who don't ride, Chatterboxes are basically helmet-mounted walkie-talkies with which you can communicate with your riding partners.) The cord had pulled the mount right off the helmet! Frantically looking back, expecting to see electronica shards littering the roadway, there was... nothing? I pulled over to find the box dangling precariously from the neck strap. Whew!

One of the rare cars we met...

Long straight road. Where's my transporter?

Stopped at a Wal-Mart in the little town of Pincher Creek for a few things, My bud decided to take ol' Nelly here for a spin. We had been riding pretty straight roads all day, I think he was missing the twisties....

So much he forgot an essential piece of safety equipment! Friends, don't let friends ride plastic donkeys unprotected...

Back in the lot, we traded stories with a couple of Gold Wing riders. ( Big Honda touring bikes - basically cars with two wheels) We discussed the ergonomic challenges of riding sportbikes long distances, laughed at the compromises, talked a bit about gear and the heat, the road ahead, and as we parted, I noticed this truck. Now, it was so hot here that the inside of your helmet was a bit of an oven, you constantly had a few trickles of sweat somewhere, and this genius decides to block off virtually all the air to his radiator with a chrome shield?!?

Did I mention the long straight stretches? Actually, in this shot you can see the mountains rising in the distance that signal we're almost at Glacier National Park (That's Waterton Lakes Park in Canada)...

Waterton is a cool little town, on the lakeshore, maybe 10 streets, it's in a park so the population is held low per regulations. Unfortunately, we got there a bit late, the only hotel in town with a room was a "romantic" suite. We took it, despite the grin of the desk clerk, otherwise it meant a 20 mile backtrack to the previous town. As it is a park theres a resident deer population just hanging out on the lawns, grazing, unconcerned about vehicles or people.

Cleaning the bikes. Our nightly ritual was to give the bikes a little buffing to remove some of the days' grime. Also made it much easier to apply chain lube with another guy holding to wheel off the ground.

It was a nice hotel, just not very romantic (well, this trip anyway - didn't even get to use the bedside jacuzzi tub...)...

Overlooking the whole town is this monstrous building, the Prince of Wales Hotel. I like this shot as it shows the sudden weather change we experienced. After a sunny, hot day, a squall moved up the lake and engulfed the town in weird light, gusty winds, rain and lightning for about two hours, then ended as fast as it began.

The boys rushed to cover up their freshly-shined bikes. Me? It's a bike, I didn't even take a cover. We waited out the rain by going to the only bar in town and playing some pool with the locals until the bar closed and we walked (stumbled?) the two blocks home(Canadian beer=higher alcohol content).