This morning was cold, again. When I poked my nose out of my sleeping bag at around 6:30 local it was still pretty dark and by my estimate around 20 degrees. I decided to wait it out in the sleeping bag, nothing productive to do at that time and temp. Around 8 it was lighter and seemed warmer but still no sun. I realized I was in a valley between 2 tall mountains so this time of year it's probaby missing out on 90 minutes each side of the day of direct sun. At least at this hour I could start packing up and be ready when the temp got high enough for riding. When I looked at around 8:30 it was 26 so too cold for me and makes me nervous about frost on the road. I made some hot chocolate with my rice milk. I bring rice milk because it doesn't have to be refrigerated and comes in single serving boxes. Anyway, around 9:30 the sun is above the peaks and I'm ready to roll. On to Banff!
Banff was beautiful. It reminded me of other ski resort towns I've been to but in the best ways. I stopped to get a pic with the town sign on the way in then into town to pick up a couple t-shirts to commemorate the trip. I drove around town for a few minutes too see the place quickly then back to the highway to continue the journey.
Calgary was huge and sprawling! It sort of reminded my of Raleigh and what I've heard Austin is like. Just neighborhood upon neighborhood and miles and miles, it seemed to go on forever. I got a good view of downtown going by and actually this time I'm glad I didn't try to go right through, it looks like it would have taken me hours.
South of Calgary and I'm headed for the US border. Things are flat again and I can see for miles. The rockies are to my left. The wind is blowing pretty hard, generally an afternoon phenomenon on the praries I've found, in my limited experience. I come over a slight rise and windmills as far as I can see, all turning away, its beautiful! There's some confusion with the directions and I think I'm supposed to get off at this exit because the highway I'm on is coming to an end. There's also an RV with a boat blocking most of the exit so I commit to taking the exit and pay attention to avoiding the RV.
I'll briefly interject here about how I do my routing and general finding my way around on these long trips. I have a Garmin Zumo 550 made specifically for motorcycling- control buttons on the left, waterproof, etc. In the past I've mapped out the exact roads I want and loaded all the directions in. On a trip of this length I do things a little looser. I know the cities/towns I want to hit and approximately how far I'll go in a day. So I put in the city beyond my next destination. So say I know I'm headed for Saskatoon today, I put in Edmonton in the GPS. If Saskatoon isn't automatically on the route I add it as a via. That way if I get to Saskatoon and decide, for whatever reason to keep going I have a city exit mapped and ready, no need to stop and fiddle with the GPS in the middle of the city. Another couple thing I like about using the GPS (I resisted at first but after my first long trip I'm hooked) is it does voice directions- stuff like "in one mile turn left on route 2" and it automatically reroutes so if I mistakenly get off at exit 5 instead of 6 it finds a way for me from wherever I am. So in general I can let the technology worry about navigating and I focus on driving. And that is how I ended up on a gravel road in southern Alberta.
I surmise I took the wrong exit, it was confusing- so my GPS rerouted me along a gravel county road to get back on track. It seemed reasonable. I've done gravel and dirt roads before. Well this gravel was loose. Remember the Jolly Lodger? Marble size and nothing to bind it. But I'm not one to back down from a challenge, right? I mean, Ben from one week was on some gravel roads right? Or was that just the shoulder? I couldn't remember but to heck with it, I was going to give it a go. I was going pretty well, got up to maybe 30 (all speeds are approximate, I spent no time looking at my gauges at the time) and thing started feeling squirelly. I slowed down, better. But still, it wasn't right and at this speed it'd take forever to do the 3.5 to the next turn, then what? The front end wobbled. I gave it a little nudge to get back on track but was being careful not to manhandle the steering. All OK. But it wasn't, I was getting by but it was nerve wracking and it was still further to go than I had come. Time to turn back. I stop, try to manuever the bike around. The stones under my boots are rolling all around and I'm not making any progress backing the bike into a 3 point turn. OK, need to keep going further to at least find a place to turn. Find a small intersection where the side roads are dirt instead of gravel, perfect. I wait for a local horse hauler to drive past, she must have thought me a fool, and she'd have been right. But I'm headed back to sanity. Hey, I know when to fold 'em! The wind blows, the bike wobbles, I get it under control, slow down. I get into a little rut from a previous traveller. The bike wobbles, it wobbles further. Now I'm desperately trying to get it under control. "Mayday, Mayday!" But all I really say is "woah", like its a horse. And I'm down. I never gave up on the bike, I tried to power through, I didn't lay her down- but down she went. Now a couple thing are happening. One, I'm sliding along the ground. Two, my bike is coming around to face me and also sliding on the ground. I had the good thought to extracate myself from the sliding bike. I don't want it to end up on top of me and I don't want any spinny bits grabbing me. And in an instant there we both are, stopped. I hop up, run over and kill the bike. With the wind and my earplugs I couldn't tell for sure it was running but I think it was though I don't recall the wheel spinning at all at that point either. Next thing I do is grab my phone to take a picture. So the picture is looking in the direction I was travelling, in roughly the oncoming lane. First order of business, get the bike up. With the engine guard and the way it's sitting I've got a pretty good chance at getting her up. I throw out the kickstand (need a place to lean her once she's up right? And fortunately she's laying on the good side) and give it a tug with my back to the bike and one hand on the handlebar and another on the frame. Feels heavy. So I unlatch the duffle bag I have on the seat and set it aside. Much better! One big lift and she's up. No sweat. Take a look around. Some scrapes to the engine guard (what it's for) a couple minor to the head cover and some rash on the plastic side bag. Oh, and the mirror is popped sideways, just twist that back and pretty much none the worse. I'll do a little cleanup of the guard and case over the winter and she'll always have a few scars to show but could have been a lot worse. Now onto me. I seem OK actually. A scuffed boot toe and some road dusty riding gear but I feel ok. Adrenaline does that but seriously, I was fine. I get everything back together on the bike, my pulse is almost back to normal and I'm breathing. I try the starter. Nothing. Oh wait, the kickstand is still down. Once more and she fires right up.
Now I still have a couple more problems. I'm not facing in the direction I want to go and I still have almost a mile back on the stuff that just dumped me. I am not in a thrilled mood. I decide to turn where I am. What's the worst that could happen? If i'd thought about it at the time, people have been known to turn a boxer BMW by rotating it on the cylinder head while it's on its side like that. But I woudn't have wanted to scuff it any worse anyway. So I say, what the heck, I'll try the turn and maybe end in the ditch. I did start slipping into the ditch and some might know the way they mow sometimed makes ditches look shallow even when they aren't! So I almost lost it again in the ditch, and she's going deeper but I power through and we're out! Now to continue the mile out withou dumping again. I took it really slow, used a lot more clutch to keep it slow and somehow made it out. A couple miles later I look down to see some weeds from the ditch still clinging to my footpeg.
So that was kinda the highlight from the day, not the best of events but it really turned out as well as it could have. I consider myself lucky again. It can be hard go get back on and put on the miles after an off but I guess I didn't see any other way to deal with it. I did decide I really needed a bed for the night after a day like that. It didn't help that Montana seems so desolate. I thought some places in Canada seemed remote but the part of MT I saw today (reservation land I think) was just eerie. Nothing at all as far as I came up on this little town of ramshackle places. Some trailers but some places just stuck together plywood in the rough shape of a house. I felt like I came back to another planet.
And the journey continues tomorrow. I decide whether to try to do the part of Going To The Sun road that is open, it sounds like large parts are closed for the season and construction, or start making miles towards home. For now I need to sleep and see how things look tomorrow. Hopefully less eventful that today.
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