Life of Pedro

Days 5-9

2009-09-02T23:45:00.000-07:00

Day 5 (Aug 18th)
So today was an adventure day. Rode some great roads, saw a bunch of wild life, climbed a mountain and then went on to soak in Miette Hotsprings. It is really nice when you don’t have to take down camp the night before heading out for the day. My first stop was to go to the Jasper motorcycle rental and check out what the good roads in town were. He suggested most of the roads that I was already gong to take, plus advised me to go and check out the lakes close into town.
The first stop for the day was to go and check out the road that runs up to the Marmount Ski area. It looked real curvy on the map but was a bit of letdown on the motorcycle. The final bit of road to the ski lodge was closed so I couldn’t even check out the ski lodge.
The road of the Mt. Cavelle trail on the other hand was great. The whole way up was pretty much a 1.5 lane road. Meaning if two cars wanted to pass one another, they both had to scoot over to the edge of the road and inch by. This was not a road that I was use to at all. I am thankful that it was the morning and most of the traffic was going up the mountain as I only had to dodge a few oncoming cars on the way up. Passing was another matter. Now usually the only concern when passing is that you will get hit by an oncoming car. This danger is minimized a bit because the on coming car should see the other car and brake. But it still felt very claustrophobic going around a car with only about 2 feet of clearance. But after a few aborted passes in the turns, I figured out how to pass on the straights. The road itself was great. Twisty, tight, and relatively free of cars. Was able to maintain about 40mph most of the way up but those two hairpin turns made me go down to 20. I was following the posted limits, as long as you substituted mph for kph.
There are 2 hikes coming out from the Cavell Mt. trailhead. The most popular one is a short little jaunt out to the edge of the Cavelle Glacier. It was really neat be able to walk out to edge of a lake that is filled with chunks of ice that have come off of the glacier. There was an ice cave at the center of the lake that you could walk up to and even into, if you were so brave. I went right up the to edge and poked my head inside, but decided against actually going inside. I felt much better about my lack of courage on the walk back because I head a loud “crack” and saw the upper glacier (I think it was ghost) have a big crack open up on it. Everyone who was still looking around the glacier ran away pretty fast after that.
The 2nd hike goes up to the mountain meadows and there are 3 view points that give you a great view of the glaciers you were looking at earlier as well as looking at some pretty wild flowers. I was surprised by 2 things at first. 1) Only about 5% of the people who went out to see the glaciers were hiking up to see the flowers, granted it was about a 1000 foot climb to see some flowers but it was nice. 2) of those that did go up, over half of them were speaking German or german accented English. Actually the prevelance of Germans in the parks has been something that I have been noticing for quite a while already. The first two view points were pretty uneventful. You were in the middle of flowers and after the climb up into the meadows fairly level. At the 2nd view point, a marmount came out begging for food. I am glad to report that none of my fellow travelers, (one French family, 2 groups of germans, an American/Canadian family and myself) fed the Marmont. The third view point seemed to end with a brief climb up above the meadows and up a rocky ledge to the view point.
Before I go on with the story, I should point out that it is trial was far and away the best marked trail I have ever been on. At each intersection of trailheads, there was a map, with a red “you are here” dot, and little arrows pointing in the direction to the parking lot or the next view point. Periodically along the trail there was also a little yellow triangle to show you where the trail went. Each of the view points had a little sign saying it was a view point and giving a description of what you were looking at.
After going along the ridge line and going up to the crest of the hill there was a single yellow triangle and the trail kept going on first level and then disappearing up a hill. After resting for a bit, I pushed on up the hill to what I though was the end. When I crested the hill I saw that there was a metal pole in the ground being propped up on rocks. There was no yellow square or view point sign, and the trail kept going on. I had climed up this portion of the climb with 2 groups of germans. One group a middle aged man and woman went, the other went back and I sat down to have some trail mix. While eating a trio (2 from Toronto and one from California) came up they were young but clearly not dressed for serious outdoor adventure (lots of cotton, one water bottle, and one backpack between the three of them). While waiting there a French/Quebeca couple came down and said that there was a great view, but it wasvery cold. While the trio waited, I went on ahead to what I thought was the end. After climbing that hill I find out that I am in another flat area and the TRAIL KEEPS GOING!
While standing around two gentle men come down, they say the view is great, you can see the Athabasca river from up there. I looked up and could see the German couple trudging along. I figure what the heck and keep going. At this point it appears we are high enough so each passing cloud drops a little rain on our heads. Very glad I have the waterproof layer with me. It is at this time that I notice that I am higher than Angel Glacier, and I can look to the left and there is a chunk of ice still on my mountain. This hill is quite steep and long and as I go up, I see one of the young Canadians coming up the trail fast. He passes me and keeps on trucking along. I should say that while I am climbing this hill I go a few steps and take a rest, a combination of the altitude and the fact that this is a really steep hill.
After this hill there is another flat area and then another hill that is mostly made of shale and even steeper than the one before. About half way up the shale, it starts to rain pretty hard, I feel like I am going to fall and I decide at that point that I am going to turn around. I have made 8200 feet and I had earlier placed two acceptable turn around points, 8k in altitude or 4pm.
As I go down, the young Canadian passes me on the way down. He tells me that the shale is just about over, and then it is just a small flat area and finally the summit which is great because you get a 360 view of the area. “It will be the most incredible thing you see while you are out here.” So I turn around and keep going up.
Past the shale, I see the middle aged German couple coming down as well. They also say it is an incredible 360 view and totally worth it since I am almost there anyways.
Long story short, the view was incredible. The altitude is about 8460 feet. I can see all around me and because of the misting, I can see a rainbow below my feet. This is so cool. After so much effort to come up here I decide to stay up there, have some gorp, and took some photos before heading down. As I am coming down, I think about the experience I just had and compared it to hat I had originally thought to summit Mt. Whilstler on the tram. While Whistler is a little taller and probably has a better view with the town below it, I think that what I saw was a better view because it was special (probably 10 people see it a day, and they all work for their view rather than just paying $30 to take the train up.
On the way down from the mountain, I had a bit of a problem. I really needed to take a shit. After several minutes, I realized that either I take the most scenic shit I have ever taken in my life and crush the fragile mountain ecosystem or shit my pants later on and still hurt the environment. So I went number two in a little depression trying to hide behind some rocks so that none of the other hikers on the mountain would know what I did. As penitence I walked a cigarette and two aluminum cans down that I found on the mountain side.
After that I went on to Miette Hotsprings. The highway up there is lovely and the road to the springs themselves is twisty hilly and great. The hot springs themselves were very well civilized. The water is clear and blue and there is a hint of chlorine rather than sulpher in the air. Miette has 4 pools, a hot pool, a not so hot pool, a cool pool and a really cold pool. At first I did not realize that there were two cool pools. Taking a break from the heat in the “cool” pool only. I soon found that a dip into the really cool pool and then running into the hot pool makes your skin feel like it is on fire and it is a fantastic feeling. The pool also has a great view of the surrounding mountain and valley, they even have a little café in the pool area.

Day 6 August 19th
Today is a travel day. I headed from Jasper to Banff. My plan was to go down see the icefields parkway and check into my hotel in Canmore. The ride down is great. I stopped several times on the way south to take pictures of the mountain that I climed the previous day. I am delighted that I can make out the “stepped” profile of the mountain. On the ride down, I am torn because there are so many great views, but if I stop to look at each one, I will never make it to Canmore in time. I tell myself that I will stop at the Columbia Icefields to take in the Athabasca glacier.
My stomach and the first real big glacier make me stop have a bit of lunch. I pull up next to a guy on a BMW FS800? He is happily snapping away on a fancy Canon DSLR. It turns out that his name is Steve and he is out of Calgary and going for a little 3 day spin around the Canadian Rockies. He recently got the new camera and wanted to shoot a lot of photos with it. He is spending the night at Skaskatchewan Crossing, but is likely to go on to Lake Louise that day for a quick look around. We decide to ride down together for a little company. I can’t say how much I prefer riding with another biker than riding alone. I am always thinking that there is a chance that I will go down and no one will come to help me. However, if you are with another biker, they will certainly come to your aid. Though our bikes are both 750-800 cc machines, his BMW is significantly zippier on the hills. I am just barely able to keep up with him and miss a couple of the passing windows that he takes advantage of.
At Skaskatchewan Crossing we gas up, he checks in, and I go get an ice tea. When we are ready to go, I realize that I don’t have my bike key with me. I am at this point EXTREMELY happy that I followed Elise’s advice and took a spare. After a 10 minutes of fruit-less searching by Steve and I, I decide to press on using the spare key. But to first check at the motel office which is the site of their lost and found. I am a little surprised when the clerk pulls out a key when I ask, but it turns out to be for a Honda Goldwing. As I am pulling away from the motel office, I spot a shiny thing on the parking lot. I drive up and am see my key. It is in a place that I did not go on foot while wandering around earlier. I can only imagine that the key dropped onto my bike somewhere, and fell to the ground as I drove to the motel office. Thank goodness.
We make Lake Lousie without incident and I am a little put off by it. There have been several fires in the area and the sky is a little hazy. Plus there are so many people at the lake, and a huge hotel right on the lake shore, that it feels like I am in the city and not in a national park. After taking some photos, I bid Steve farewell and push on to Canmore.
I check into Canmore with the intention of going to get some groceries, do some laundry, and otherwise reset my gear. However, I flip on the TV before heading into the shower and am then sucked in for the next hour watching Star Trek Enterprise on the “Space” network. When I finally pull myself away, I go and find that the hotel has a laundry in the basement for our use. Unfortunately there is a big gathering of Asian folks celebrating something in the lobby area and it is a huge ruckuss. I get to bed much later than I should after getting sucked in by some anime.

Day 7 August 20th
Today is my big adventure day in Banff! Go climb up to the valley of six Glaciers, go see Mt. Agnuss and maybe also go and see Lake Moraine and finish it off with a soak in the hot springs. I set my alarm for 6:30. I wake up and am still really tired, it is much tougher to leave a nice bed than my sleeping bag and thermarest. After arguing with myself and finally coming to the rational, that this is a vacation, I should not be pushing myself so hard that I need to take a rest once I get back from the trip. At the end of the day, I am up by 9:30, showered, breakfast, packed and out the door around 11am. Yes the TV was on… I needed to check the weather right?
The first stop is Lake Lousie. It really is a pleasant walk on the lakeshore. The further I walk, the fewer people there are around me. By the time I am at the end of the paved portion, it almost feels like I am out in the wild again. The only things spoiling the illusion are the hotel and the fact that people have cell service.
It is a nice but uneventful climb up to the teahouse. When I make it up there I am in for a sweet treat. They have paved the trail here with large stones and placed several log benches near the bridge that straddles a small mountain stream. The teahouse itself is a two story affair, with an upper balcony, a few tables on the upstairs inside, a kitchen downstairs and a few more tables set up outside on the ground level. I take a seat in the upper level and realize that the person at the next table seems to be alone as well. I ask her if she is and if she would mind some company.
Her name is Ester from the Netherlands, though she says that she is Dutch. She is 27 recently got her PhD in psychology and recently changed jobs and had 7 weeks of lag time in the middle so she decided to go and see Canada. She is currently in the middle of her trip after spending the first few weeks in Montreal and Toronto. She is currently staying in Calgary with a friend of a friend’s mom. She took the bus out to Banff the day before to see the rockies. Apparently she bought her first pair of hiking boots the day before coming and did some hiking the day before with a 69 year old woman. We have a nice lunch, even though my soup is way too salty. Ester suggests that I pour a little sugar into it to take the edge off of the saltiness. It helps a bit, but I still do not finish the soup. At the end of the meal place my trash from my snack earlier in the day on the tray and go to the rest room. When I get back, I see that they took the tray, but left the refuse that I had placed there. Apparently they have to pack out everything and refuse to take your garbage up there. I regret tipping so generously for a salty bowl of soup and a way to hard piece of heel bread.
After lunch I persuade Ester to come up to the six glaciers lookout rather than just going back after the tea house. Apparently she and the 69 year old had already gone to see the St. Agness and Mirror lake the day before. It is nice to have company on the walk up and I don’t mind that she is a bit slower on the up than I am. The last few hundred meters to the view point are up a rocky berm that they have constructed. It is about a foot wide with steep drop offs on either direction. Ester is afraid of going up on the berm. I suggest going over the boulder field to the right which seems fairly rugged, but she again refuses. So I go up to the view point myself. For all of the talking up about this being slippery and cold, it is nothing compared to my earlier hike. I am left feeling a little disappointed. By the time we make it down to the Chateau it is too late to go and see Lake Moraine if I still want to make the hot springs.
So I rush for the Upper Hotsprings in Banff. I get a little lost on my way up and am half way up tunnel mountain before I realize I need to be on Sulphur mountain instead. The springs are located near the top of a mountain. The bath house building is built of stone and quite impressive. Inside I see for the first time that AAA members get a discount. The bathouse has a single pool with a shallow kiddie pool built into it. The entrance to the pool is a ramp that is filled with water. I guess you could go to these pools even if you are in a wheelchair. It was kinda weird to set out of the men’s locker room and into a hallway that was filled with warm water. I first thought there was something wrong with the plumbing. I think you have nice view out over the city from the pools, but by the time I get there it is dark and all I see is the night sky. It is a nice soak.
As I leave the bathouse, I check my email and txts to find that Claudette has forwarded a message to me from Elise. She will not be meeting me tomorrow. Apparently she has had some mechanical trouble/had slow going. She has Just gotten to Ft. Nelson, BC. Rather than just getting into Dawson’s Creek. Over dinner I wonder if I should go north, but decide that there is nothing I can do to help. She has made it to a city to do the needed oil change, and I am not going to be able to bring anything to help her. I send her and e-mail and head back home.

Wild life review:
I have seen many animals on the trip so. In Jasper I saw 1 female caribou and two male caribous. More squirrels and pika’s than I can shake a stick at, and the marmount on the trail up to Mt. Cavelle. I almost ran into 3 big horn sheep in the Miette Hotsprings parking lot (those guys really don’t seem to mind people). The only animal that I kinda wish I had taken a picture of was the black bear that I saw on the side of the road in Jasper. Every time there is an animal on the side of the road, there are at least 5 cars stopped looking at them. It was the same way with the bear. I see several cars stopped by the side of the road, I decide to go around them and look to my right as I pass the first car and see a bear not more than 5 feet away from me. I want to stop and take a picture with everyone else, but then realize that I don’t have any steel surrounding me. I brake briefly but then carry on. The day that I leave Banff, I take run up to Mt. Norgay and have my first close encounter. While going through a hairpin turn, I see some activity to my right after I pass through the apex. I brake a bit and look to see a big horn sheep going up the embankment. I shutter to think where he was a second before that.

Day 8 August 21, 2009
You know this whole bed thing is really tough to get out of. Again I set my alarms for 7:30 but am out of bed at 9:30 and packed up to go out the door around 11am. My plan for the day is go see the cave and basin hot springs, lunch at the Fairmount Banff, a soak at Radium Hotsprings, and get as close to Glacier as I can before the light runs out.
Cave and Basin hotsprings is the first hotsprings found in the Banff area by Europeans. 3 railway workers found some hot sprins and followed the streams up to a hole in the ground which they decended on a log to find the cave hotsprings. This discovery and subsequent dispute over ownership resulted in the creation of the Canadian National Park system. These days the hot springs are off limits for bathing because it is the only habitat for the Banff hotsprings snail. The old bath house is now a museum/discovery center. You can still go see the original cave that the 3 workers discovered, though the park service had already blased a tunnel to the chamber years before, but is quite neat to go into the bathouse, turn left and go into a tunnel. I think that this is the cavern that I saw that touched off the whole Banff trip idea. Nature photographers do a good job of making the every day seem extraordinary.
Up the hill from the bathhouse are several natural hot spring fed pools that are the actual habitat for the snail. There is also a semi-natural pool next to the swimming pool at the old bathouse that apparently is a habitat as well, the whole area is under “electronic surveillance.” Violation of the fenced area can land you in trouble with the Mounties. I am curious, but not that curious. I look but do not see any snails, though I do see some interesting alge, and what look like little fish in several ponds.
The Fairmount hotel is nice. There is nothing else to say about it. The whole place looks like a Scottish castle and the staff in the lobby area are dressed in kilts. I wander around the public areas and have lunch on the terrance. This is probably the nicest meal I have had in a long time. The terrance is connected to the main dining area which is full of stuffy leather couches/chairs, ornate tapestry, and beautiful wood furniture. The terrance has a view out into the Bow river valley with several mountains visible in the background. I have the coconut curry chicken and wowed by the service, the view, the food is O.K., but the chicken breast was just a little dry.
Today is a hot day to be out on the bike. My bike’s thermometer says that it is 85F when I look at it around 4:30 when I pull over for a little nap at a rest area. Am tempted to go see some falls and the paintpots that are on the road leading out of Kokanee National Forest, but it is the weekend, and I need to get in to Glacier early on Saturday if I want to have a decent chance of getting a camp site that I can stay at for the next three days.
Radium Hotsprings was just around the corner apparently from where I took my nap. It is unusual from the other two for several reasons. One it is set in a canyon so there is no expansive view from the pools. There are 3 pools, a hot pool which is huge, but never more than 1.2 meters deep; a very cold 17C pool (yeah, I can get my tingly on!) and a huge standard swimming pool with a diving board, and two water slides. It is the first time on the trip that I regret not having my goggles with me. I am a little bemused by the “no diving” sign on the concrete right next to the diving board. I ask the life guard who says that they just don’t want you diving into where the diving board dumps out the people. Next to the spa at Radium there is a little model explaining how things work. Apparently, the original springs are located in the eastern portion of the hot pool. The water is pumped to the southern end and chlorinated before being pumped into the hot pool. The runoff from the hot pool is then cooled re-chlorinated and then pumped into the cool pool, before finally being discharged into the original outflow stream.
I plan to dinner and gas up at Fort Steele which apparently is a wild west show town. I pass by a camp site and general store, but decide I want to have dinner in the actual town. When I get to the town, I find out that the whole thing is now a “re=enactment town” and it is closed for the day already. Disapointed I push on down the road. Dinner is at gas station in the town of Jaffray, and I am currently camping at the Kikomun Creek Provincial Park. First night in overflow parking, it is kinda bad that I can hear the RV next door, but I don’t think I will have to pay any camp fees.

Day 9 August 22nd
Today was a travel day, going from Kikomun to Glacier National Park. I started a little worried because I am going into a national park on a Saturday without a reservation. My only hope is that I get into a camp site before it has been taken by another camper. I am pretty hopeful because I make into a desirable campsite because I should get to Glacier by 2-3pm. My goal in Glacier is to hike the highline trail and either go see iceberg lake or something else. I think that it would be best to get a camp site in the middle of the going to the sun road so that I can easily get to Logan Pass where the highline trail begins and easy to get to what ever my 2nd trail head is.
Now that I have been here for a day or so, the campground situation at Glacier works like this, there are large camp grounds at the two gateways to the Going to the Sun Road, St. Mary and Agape. In the middle there are two medium sites and one small site right in the middle, and there are also campsites at the other roads into the park that are not “going to the Sun”. The ranger at the entrance station recommended Rising Sun (medium campground on the east side), but I wanted the small one in the middle or Avalance Creek. Sadly there is road work between Logan pass (the middle of the park at the continental divide) and the “loop” the hairpin turn along the “going to the Sun road”.
Long story short, I wanted to be in the small camp ground, or failing that the Avalance Creek site because it seemed more central than the “rising Sun” campground. Unfortunately, most of the stuff I want to see, the glacier stuff is all on the East side of the park and both Avalance and the small site are the western side of the park. When I pass by Rising sun there is still room at the campground, and decide to push on for Avalance. After spending half an hour going through the road construction, I find that avalance still has sites, and decide to go to the small one to press my luck. The small site is full. By the time I make it back to avalance, it is full as well. I rush back to rising sun, and find that they are full. At the end of the day I end up camping at St. Mary. In the end this is probably not such a bad idea because I am close to the many glacier entrance and can go into town for supplies and wood easily.
BTW, the “going to the sun” road is increadible. Especially the eastern portion which is mostly carved right into the side of the mountain and right over the shoreline of Lake Mary. \
That night while eating dinner a fox ran through my camp site twice.

Rough draft of the first few days.

2009-08-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

Day 1:
Am quite amazed at how much work it takes to go on vacation. Last minute prep, trying to remember all of the things that normally depend upon you and pass them on to someone else. Got back home around 6pm to start the final pack and was not able to get on the road until 7pm.
I was alarmed at how loud my bike was on the highway. Was wondering if they did something weird to it when I took it into the shop. It wasn’t until about Everett till I realized that I was not wearing headphones for the first time in forever on the bike. What I also started noticing was that my left mirror kept getting out of alignment. Each time I pushed it back into place it got looser and looser. L:ooks like I did not tighten that bolt enough after getting on the ram mount. It is a little disconcerting to ride on I-5 without a left mirror. Kept favoring the far left lane. Started thinking about a bird that is doing its best to hide a broken wing from predators.
Found out about Burlington that Elise had decided to stop near Hope, BC. Which is about 100 miles short of where she thought she would stop the first night. Score! I will get to sleep at a normal time.
Pushed Monica across the border and realised too late that I lied to the custom agent about not brining in booze. Oops.
Hit Harrison Hot Springs around 10:30pm.
It is now 8:30am and I am pretty much finished with breakfast and rain is threatening to start. Got to go.

Day 2:
Dear Canada. Your beer is too expensive.
So apparently BC is a package store kinda place. Liquor in the liquor stores. And beer sold in a special store that most of the time is also a pub and a liquor store. I gotta make my purchases early. I am fine with that. But bought beer in BC for the first time today and it was $12.90 for a six pack of bud light. I thought I was reading the wrong tag when I saw it. Maybe reading the price for the 12 pack or heck even the 24 pack. But no, my bud lights cost over $2 a can. Even with the Canadian dollar conversion, that is over a dollar fifty a can! WTF Candada. Will check into the prices of wine and liquor tomorrow.
I woke up at 7:30am and pushed it to see how fast I could break down camp and be ready to go. Apparently it takes me about an hour to be ready for the road. I kinda felt bad for waking Elise, but she poked her head out of the tent around 8:30 and we were on the road by about 11.
I was struck by the many different environments that we rode through yesterday. We started in forests like home, went into scrub land and ended the day at Lake Mclellen in a Pine forest again. The best part of the ride was going through the granite mountains. The trans Canada highway goes along the fraisier river so you are riding on a ridge with the river below you. Across the river from the road were the most amazing granite mountain peaks. Which were white and grey with no vegetation on them at all. It was an amazing sight. Sadly, we did not stop to take pictures.
Kinda funny that both elise and I think the other is more aggressive when leading. She seems to have more pickup in the straights, and I reduce the speed as much in the curves. Today is the day that we split up at Prince George. While trip planning last night I was surprised how blaze Elise is about the fact that she has a 140 mile range and there is a stretch where she will have to go 152 miles to the next service station. I offered my reserve tank which should just about cover it, but she was confident that she could hitch hike into town. In the end she has decided that she will probably buy an extra tank in Prince George before she goes.
As I am typing this, the loons on the lake are calling to one another. They have quite an interesting song.

Day 3 & 4
Made an early exit on day three so did not do the usual wrap up. Day 3 had us leaving Lake Mclellen and going north up to Prince George where the plan was for Elise and I to split up and go our separate ways. Lunch was at a Dennys in Quenolte (sp) and I realized that I could make Jasper by the end of that day, and then I would have 3 days until I had to be in Camloops/Banff. What was I going to do with the time? One idea that had been floating in my mind was to ditch Jasper and Banff and go up to the Yukon with Elise. Every time I think of Elise’s trip planning it makes me think of Calvin and Hobbs when they decided to go to the Yukon on a whim. I told Elise over lunch that we had to stop some place in prince George that had the name of the town written on it so that we could snap a photo of us together before we parted. After meandering about trying to find some example of Prince George’s Civic pride, we found a big log man made out of plastic that had the letter PG on his chest. I should say that I was very disappointed that of the 3 locals we first asked, none of them knew of a visitor center or something with the name of the town on it.
At the PG Man which by the way was next to the Casino, Elise said that if I were up for going up north, she would not mind the company. I will admit that I almost turned left instead of right.
But I did go right and rode through some boring roads until I realized, that the next town may or may not be in my fuel range. I kept trying to do mental math to figure out the distance to McCallen in Miles from the KM.
One of the rest breaks on the ride from Prince George to McCallen was a tea break at a nice rest stop by the side of a river. Just as I was about to get up and go, two dudes came in a muddy Kawasaki Enduro’s. Judging from the mud and the amount of gear they were both backing (full set of bags, sleeping bags, extra tires, fog lights, communication gear, etc) these guys were in the middle of a serious trip. It turns out that they were Larry and Kevin, a 65 year old man and his I would say 40 something son-in-law. Since July 7th they have been on the road from Indiana to Prudo Bay in Alaska and were now on the return leg home. I asked them where they were going till today and they said they did not know, I suggested that they try t stay at Mt. Robinson as I was planning on doing. They thought it was good idea and asked if I wanted to ride with them. I asked them how fast they tended to ride and found out that they like to go about 60 mpg. I thanked them for the offer and said I would see them in McCallen.
I sated getting nervous when I saw my odometer reading 90 miles since Prince George and McCallen was still about a 90km to go. I popped my fuel light at around mile 100 and knowing I had about a gallon left, really hoped that I could make it. After the fuel light came on, I throttled back and started going much slower. After the fuel light popped, I came across two disabled motorists and did not stop because I was worried that I would not have the fuel to make it. I made it to McCallen with no great issues. As I stepped outside after getting setup to pay for the gas with a card, Larry and Kevin pulled up.
We decided to all go get dinner together and talk things over. Apparently, it had been the elder’s dream to go to Prudo Bay Alaska on a motorcycle. His daughter amazingly enough encouraged her husband, who before the trip had only done 300 miles total on a motorcycle, to go with her father to Alaska. I asked, if there was any chance that this was an elaborate insurance scheme. Who ever heard of a wife encouraging the husband she actually wants to see again to go on a ride up to Prudo Bay after only riding 300 miles!!!
After dinner I continued onto Mt. Robinson and they went for an offer from another patron in the restaurant to stay at their B&B/camp site. Only 15 a head and for an extra 5 you can have breakfast with him as well. After making a wrong turn, I ended up in the Mt. Robinson area after dark. That is not a pleasant situation to be in. After scaring a nice elderly couple in their conversion van, I found the camp site which was pretty large and laid out in a spiral pattern. I was pleasantly surpised to find that the camp attendants drove around in a pickup truck to check you in at your site, and they also gave you fire wood. SWEET. The Burn ban is over!!
Day 4 (Aug 17th) During the night I went and put in the Sanyo’s battery to charge just to make sure it could have enough juice. I the morning it was gone. Who would take a battery charger and battery for a Sanyo camera. No one has these things. Mental note, cameras that need their own special battery is out for future moto adventures. Though it will be hard to find that intersection of waterproof, small and uses AA batteries.
After taking down camp I rode up a dirt road on a whim to see what was up there. I was rewarded with a cool picture of Mt. Robinson and some railway cars at the end of the line.
When I went to gas up, Who was there but Kevin and Larry. We all gassed up and headed on to Jasper. This time I decided to ride with them and it was nice to be riding in a pack again. Riding at 60 miles an hour behind a guy who clearly was not interested in staying in a stacked formation, was a little frustrating. But the slow speed let me spend a little more time gawking at the amazing lakes and mountains on the way in.
Got into Jasper and went into the town itself to check it out, pick up supplies, and get a little intel. After some thinking, I decided to ride to the 3 close by camp sites to check them out. My ods on favorite was Snarled River, but was curious what a 300 and 700 site campground looks like. To the planners credit the experience at the camp site is probably not that much different than a standard camp site. But the fact that Snarrled river is the most primitive, sits along a river, and also had firewood available to buy sealed the deal. When I got there there was no attendant even though it was 2pm. But there was a self registration desk and a big pile of wood to pick throught for 8 bucks a bundle. I found a camp site that had an ample supply of wood already there and paid for 2 nights and one bundle of wood for $40. In retrospect, I should have been suspicious of the small BBQ esque fire circles and the fact that so many empty campsites with unused wood piles but more on that later.
After setting up camp, my adventure for the day was to go up to Malign canyon, Medicine Lake, and Malign Lake, and if time go see Mt. Whistler via tram. The first thing I have to say is that Medicine lake is Stupid beautiful. I was behind a car when they suddenly stopped for no reason that I could see. I cursed and put on the brakes and slowed to a stop while I rounded the corner. And got into view of Medicine Lake at which time I just stopped in the middle of the road as well for about 10 seconds before I realized there was a man at the sore had he obviously and parked his car and walked down from some parking lot. Obviously the pictures I took can’t do it justice, let me just say, best mountain & Lake view ever. Medicine Lake is so named because it is a lake that has no outlet, but will sometimes totally drain out. The native Americans attributed this to some “magic” or Medicine, but more recent geology has discovered that there are several holes in the bottom of the lake that let the water out underground.
The rest of the ride up was very nice, and Mlign Lake is pretty. But by the time I got there, the Mosquitos were out in force. Mental note: Never go to a standing body of water in the afternoon. Go mid day or in the morning but never at 5pm. Also striking me is the fact that about half of the people there were German. Why are there so many germans at national parks in North America?
The Canyons were great as well. Though I am noticing that at the three sites I went to today none of them had water. Clearly the Canadian Govt. hasn’t spent as much money on plumbing as the Us Park Service seems to have.
Now earlier I had said something about the BBQ eque fire pit. Well the damn thing is pretty much useless. It is a metal box with 4 full walls (bottom, two sides and a 4th little one in the back. The front is totally open, and the top has a griddle portion and a grating that swings up in the front. The “sides” are the same length as a standar fire pit, but the griddle at the back makes it difficult to use the full length. The “front” and “back” are only about half the size of standar fire pit and you can not lay a log down in that direction. I can see this design coming up in committee trying to desing a fire pit that will cause fewer forest fires. “The short length will force people to cut their logs smaller and therefore, smaller fires and less chance of escaped fire.” Sadly they give us standard sized pieces of wood, and one is going to cut the logs in half againt the grain. So what do you do? What I and every other fire pit in use tonight is doing, Stand the logs up almost straight up resulting in the most precarious fire I have ever managed.

Canada Ho!

2009-02-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

Planning a 10 day motorcycle trip to Banff, Canada. Leave date is 8/14/09 with a return about 10 days later.

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Incredibly cheap thing to do #1:

2008-06-16T23:13:00.000-07:00

Go to the coffee store with an empty glass and pour yourself a glass of whole milk.

First World Problems pt. 1

2008-04-10T01:19:00.001-07:00

Have gotten my kitchen pretty well set up with respect for appliances, plates, utensils, etc. And then I see this.

Who needs this... well apparently some little part of me. I am thrilled at the possibility of having little delightful doughnuts just like I can get down at pike place. This is even cooler than the infrared oven, just not as practical. I mean really, $129 to cook home made doughnuts? When you could probably do them in your cast iron skillet/dutch oven/deep fat fryer, but none of those things has an automatic doughnut flipper.

Is it wrong that the 2nd thing I though was... could I make fries with that to try and justify its purchase. Must put away credit card. Do not want to be tool who buys these sort of things.

Some the world is so full of beauty, it just overwhelms you....

2008-04-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

Saw this on the Duck Show and thought it was fantastic. So here it is for you all Dear Readers.

Here is the original link. Be sure to follow the adventures of Zoro Duck as well.

So did you know that netflix saves your entire history?

2008-02-29T01:47:00.000-08:00

Found out recently that netflix saves your entire rental history and also has your entire billing history there as well. This seems to be rife for an hour or two with excel. But that would take more energy than I have tonight.

So we will just give the rough highlights.

Member since... February 2004.
Total money spent on Netflix: $908.83 (majority of that time as a 3 at a time member)
Total movies rented at Netflix: 325
Number of "seasons" of TV watched: 37.
Price per disc rental: $2.7964.

Assuming I became a member 2/1/04, I have been a member for 1489 days.
Which means on average I watch a movie every 4.58 days.

I really though I would be getting a better deal that than that, but it looks like not a whole lot better than going to blockbuster. Spend $3 to rent a disc for 5 days...

Some times statistics depress me. Next time, a look at these same numbers broken up by seasons!!!!

First Century and Some Thoughts

2007-07-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did my first century and first group ride through Cascade bicycle club. It was the last of the Cascade Training Series for the STP and there were probably about 100+ riders gathered up at Magnuson Park. The day started off a little cloudy and cool and quite nice for some riding. The riders were split up into different groups based upon speed and given a little color ribbon to put onto their helmet: 10-14 yellow, 14-16 green, 16-18 blue, 18+ orange. There had originally been a red group (10-12) but they had been folded into yellow group.

I decided to play it safe and go into green group. I was impressed there must have been 50+ people in green group. Seeing that line of bicycles going down the BGT in a line was quite the site. Everyone using hand signals to warn those behind them of glass or if the following intersection was clear. Even though the 14-16 is suppose to be the average cruising speed on the flats, I would say that the average speed on the flats was closer to 17-18. However, once you factored in the hills the average for the whole trip was 14.7 mph.

The ride's destination was the Flaming Geyser State Park a little south and East of Auburn. I have never heard of this park and never did get a chance to see the park's namesake. After we got to the park the group started to loose people. Some people broke ahead of the group, others got stayed back to join up with yellow group. By the time we reached Renton we probably had about 15 riders left.

I had started chatting with a fellow rider and he and I decided to try and break away as well on the Interurban trail. However, this proved to be a foolish decision; we got a little turned around in Renton and as our little group stopped for a bathroom break/watering stop at the mcdonalds we saw our green group pass us by.

The last 10 miles were not fun at all. The break away and not having enough food put me close to the bonk point. My legs were like jelly as they tried to push myself up the hill. I thought I was in the middle of the pack, but soon realized that everyone had passed me by and was the caboose. I really think I would have been left behind at the UW if it had not been for a group up stop at Husky stadium.

When we got back to the Park, I was shocked by the makeup of the finishing riders. I would say that the average age of the riders was pushing 50, with all of our ride leaders at or above the average. Now don't get me wrong these are some tough riders with their RAW and Ramrod paraphernalia on. When I first thought about it I was puzzled by the advanced age of the group. But then I realized that the young cyclist were in the blue and orange group. My group was made up of older chaps and those just starting out. All of the young folks I spoke with indicated it was their first group ride.

Well, 13 more days to go.

A sense of accomplishment

2007-04-03T00:28:00.000-07:00

So had a few moments over the last weekend. The 1st one came when I was dancing Friday night at Halo. When I started salsa dancing, I always had a little apprehension about asking a girl I did not know to dance. I remember on a few occasions I had to make a deal with myself that I would ask at least 5 different girls to dance before I went home for the evening. However on Friday night I actually got asked to dance by 4 different women/girls. I use the slash because there was a school group there that night and 2 of them were probably middle school girls.

The 2nd moment with a sense of accomplishment was on Saturday when I went for my first loop around the Lake Washington. Actually it was a string of moments. Like when I realized I was passing the pet shop near the Sletten household. Or when I rode past the "bikini espresso" place I had read about in the PI (I thought it was weird that there was such a place out in south king county, and then I realized it was right next to Boeing's Renton plant). And again when i was riding through downtown Bellevue.

The real memorable one though was when I finished my ride. I had parked at Madrona Park just north of I-90 and looked out across the lake as i was putting stuff away. I could see Downtown Bellevue in the distance and knew that I had been there just a few hours ago. To either side of me I could only see the lake, but I knew that I had peddled past the horizon. Yeah biking.

Nerd Score.

2006-11-05T18:18:00.001-08:00

Did "better" than I thought I would.

Chinese Militia Shoot Tibetan Monks on Pilgrimage

2006-10-14T21:21:00.000-07:00

Haven’t seen this on the mainstream news yet, but I with luck the networks will pick it up soon. I hope there are mitigating circumstances, but it is pretty hard to justify shooting people walking in the snow from a kilometer away. Here is a link to the video and a news story.

North Korean Bloggers?!

2006-10-10T05:16:00.000-07:00

I went to youtube to watch a clip of the dailyshow talking about the recent North Korean nuclear test and had some patriotic North Korean movies put onto the upcomming playlist. One of them had the url to the songun blog which looks to be a pro-North Korean blog.

I was floored. I can't decide if this thing is someone's idea of a sick joke or if this is really someone who thinks that Kim Jong Il is actually a great leader. If this is a joke this guy is the best straight man in the world! But he puts stuff on there that is so off the wall that it doesn't seem possible that someone could actually think this. Here is a clip from his most recent post:

"Dear Leader Comrade Generalissimo Kim Jong Il is the most praised, acclaimed, and lauded democratic leader in the world for his immortal feats of building the Workers Party of Korea into a Juche party of Korean style socialism that has never suffered a single error, mistake, setback or fiasco in all its history of people-oriented party-building.

Dear Leader Kim Jong Il is the ideal democratic leader, being leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea carrying aloft the torch of Juche Idea under the sacred Banner of Songun politics that are the lifeblood of the Korean nation and world progressives united in single-minded harmony of total worship of the Leader who is more precious than their own lives.

As I said above, this guy does movies as well. Here is my favorite of the ones that I have seen. Apparently we American's will steal ANYTHING to make people miserable.

The restaurant's specialty is... a PB&J sandwitch?

2006-10-09T01:07:00.000-07:00

While waking up today I heard splendid table talk with the road food folks.(listen to it)

Apparently the place's name is Hells's Kitchen, and the food that they raved about was the PB&J sandwitch. The key was their peanut butter which was extra tasty because the peanuts had been roasted. It certainly doesn't look like normal peanut butter. When I first saw it I thought it looked like their spice rub.

I went to their website and saw that the peanut butter runs $6 for 8oz or $9 for a pound. I would buy it in a heart beat to try, but shipping is $10 for orders up to $30. I don't know if I can justify $20 for a pound of peanut butter. Well I suppose that is a reason to try and make it over to Minneapolis.

Space Yogurt Made With Astro-Bacteria

2006-10-07T02:37:00.000-07:00

Space Yogurt from Himawari Dairy is now available in Japan.

Himawari Dairy, a Kochi-area dairy manufacturer, reserved a seat aboard a Soyuz rocket that took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome this spring.

"This is probably going to make these guys a little money. I know that I would probably spend a little money to buy space yogurt. The theory seems to be that the cosmic radiation from space is going to promote mutation of the bacteria and as a result you will get something different. However, you could get similar results by sticking the bacteria next to a nuclear reactor. Now who is going to buy that yogurt?"

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This is my most popular picture on Flickr

2006-10-07T01:46:00.000-07:00

100_429.jpg
Originally uploaded by leep_80.

51 views so far.

Jr. Crime Fighting

2006-10-07T00:54:00.000-07:00

Tonight I checked my AMEX card online hoping to see that a refund had posted. While there I saw that my pizza dinner on Wednesday night had been billed for $17.05. I thought that was odd because I remembered that the bill had come to $15.05. I clicked on the more detail feature and saw that I was getting charged for a $2 tip! This is not the first time that I have had a restaurant check come in a little higher than I expected, and usually the yellow slip is long gone by the time I see the credit card bill. This time, however, the yellow slip was still in my jean pocket.

So I was left with the question as to whether or not to challenge the bill. I wasn't sure if this was an institutionalized thing, a bad guy, or an accident. In the end I decided to find out. I called the place and talked with a gal (not someone that I had ordered from). She was obviously confused and said that the manager was out, but if I left my name and number I would be contacted when he returned.

About a half out later the (I think he was middle eastern) manager who had taken my order on Wednesday returned my call. After a few minutes of trying to locate the record of the order on the computer, he said that he had found it and that I could come in and ask for a $2 credit on my next order. At this point I was thinking... probably institutionalized. I'll come by in the next few days get my $2 discount and pay cash. This is a real shame because they are the closest pizza place, the pizza was really good, but who wants to go to a place that rips you off?

About a half hour after the first call I get another call from the manager who amazingly remembers my name from the earlier conversation. He wants me to bring the ticket down so he can take a look at it. Thinking that this might not be a bad time to take a break, I drive down.

He gets the ticket from the back and I see that someone has clearly and very neatly entered a $2 tip and put in the total of $17.05 onto the white slip. I show my yellow slip which does not show a tip being entered. He asks me if it was a heavy set white guy who processed my order (it was). He then gives me $2 from the till and a coupon for $2 off my next order. He asks me if he can have the yellow copy, which I give him. As I leave, he starts flipping through the rest of the credit slips in his bundle.

Update 10/8/2006
Went into day for a large 2 topping pizza and found out that the manager had confronted my cashier. The cashier denied having done any funny business, but was fired.