Embracing the Unexpected

Day 2
Distance Traveled: 417.9 km
Cumulative distance: 873 km
Maximum speed 131 km/h
Moving average: 83 km/h
Temperature range: 9.8 - 19.0

Part I

Last night, Bandit and Molly's parents Tyson and Julie invited us over for a drink. It seems to me that we have been in the reverse situation on many occasions. In fact, we still maintain a friendship with our buddy Bob whom we met in a Waterton Park campground many years ago. In fact, Bob was motorcycling in Montana, on the same road as us, 24 hours before us. A little better communication and we could have crossed paths with him but he is on his way home to Minnesota today. Anyway, I was in, as were Molly and Bandit. Leaving only one on the inside looking out. Not mentioning any names but considering that same person stashed a mickey of tequila in her pannier, surprised she decided that she suddenly hated fun. This morning, I was thankful SOMEBODY had more brains than me.

On the road about 9:45 a.m. No great rush because it is a relatively easy day at around 400 km. A short ride to coffee and breakfast in Crowsnest Pass. AND WHAT A DISCOVERY! We were too early to go to our usual food stop so we were looking for something different. We saw a coffee shop called Cinnamon Bear and it was so good we promised to make them famous by featuring them on the blog. Great lattes and great baked goods. The Cinnamon Bear is a happening spot. People with much greater knowledge than us are piling in a fantastic rate and everybody is talking to everybody. Nan's organ transplant bag has drawn lots of attention and we are trading stories with a couple riding adventure bikes. And I was looking for eggs.

Everything was so fresh. I had two lattes, a cinnamon bun and muffin.

They should call it "Heaven"

Part II

We are heading to Yaak, Montana. Our plan is to ride down to Libby, along she shores of Koocanusa Lake. Koocanusa is actually a reservoir formed by the Libby Dam built in 1972. The name is the first three letters of Kootenay, Canada and USA and covered towns on both the U.S. and Canadian side of the border. At Libby, we are going to turn north on secondary 508 for what I hope will be a fun ride in the back country.

Ostensibly, the world's largest truck. I don't know, I think I've seen bigger.

The GPS says Yaak is a mere 250 km from Croswnest. Not possible it seems; it has calculated a shortcut through the mountains but it is supposed to recognize and avoid gravel roads. In my experience, my Garmin GPS is about 95% accurate. Its biggest failing is in making a distinction between the fastest route and the shortest route. But that is a different story.  In planning a trip like this, I spend an inordinate amount of time on Google Maps and Google Streetview and I had actually identified the shortcut but wasn't confident that it was not gravel. From the map it looked like a maze of forestry roads, more complicated than I would be able to navigate without a GPS and maybe with.

We want to get gas on the Canadian side and this is the last gas in Canada (on 93 south). It wasn't even clear that the pumps were operable.

At the border, there is NO traffic going south, except for one vehicle ahead of us. We are almost instantly at the border crossing and the border guard, who looks like he had a hard one last night and hadn't found his razor this morning and maybe yesterday morning can't help us identify whether the shortcut to Yaak is paved. But his side kick, who looks like he is still in high school, tells us that the road is indeed paved and that it is very scenic.

The bridge over Koocanusa.

It is a big bridge!

We are in luck. There is a long bridge across the lake and leads to my favourite kind of motorcycle road:  twisty, paved and no lines. This is gnarly at its best. The road is a curvy, spirited affair that has us leaning hard on all the corners and we are totally exhilarated. There is almost no traffic; we see three vehicles going the opposite direction until we eventually come across a few groups of people training on road bikes. It is very beautiful thick forest and the road climbs high into the mountains until it reaches a pass at around 1750 metres. Sadly, the view, like everywhere is obscured by smoke. 

As we get closer to Yaak, to my surprise, there are more signs of civilization. My impression from Google Streetview was that Yaak was only a about four buildings at an intersection in the middle of nowhere but in fact, there a number of houses and small acreages around in the middle of nowhere. Not sure what goes on out here but something must.

   

As we roll into "town" there are about four buildings. One is a bar. Another is a combination mercantile store and bar. The other two are barns. We pull up to the one bar thinking 

we are going to get a bite to go and eat while camping. There are a lot of bikes outside. Harleys. A sign outside is telling: "Female Cream Wrestling Saturday Night 25th". Whoa! Just a day late! We go across the street to the other place to see what THEY have to offer. TVs. Though one of the TVs has motorcycle jumping. We opt for chicken sandwiches with pesto. I'm intrigued because I'm thinking that out in the middle of nowhere, do they really serve pesto? I'm imagining our cook, who appears to have most of his teeth - behind the bar - there is no real kitchen per se - grinding the pine nuts into the fresh basil. The chicken breasts are pre-cooked (I didn't mind) and two strips of pre-cooked bacon are laid on the sandwich. The hamburger buns are surprisingly fresh. Our host, the bar tender, is chatty in a friendly way.   And wonders where we are from and what we are doing out there. "The scenery" I tell him. I casually mention we are camping that night but someone outside has told me the rain, which is now falling, is supposed to last all night. He tells me the bar across the street has rooms to rent. No thanks, I'm thinking. I think I would rather camp in the rain.

We really haven't come that far as we lopped about 75 km off our anticipated distance today, so we decide we'll push on to Bonner's Ferry and get a motel. It is only about 80 km and we are feeling pretty good despite the rain which is falling harder at this point.


 Bonner's Ferry is a small town and judging by the buildings, has been around for a while. All the buildings in the downtown are brick and look like they are from the century before last, which gives them a certain charm. But we don't see any activity. There is a Best Western across the highway and that appears to be the only hotel. It is attached to a casino owned by an Indian band (you are allowed to say that down here) and the parking lot looks pretty full so we are wondering if there will be room. Many people are milling about the hotel, mostly people considerably older than us with a decided blue tone to their hair and I wonder, are we in an episode of the Twilight Zone and seeing into our own future? Forever riding around America visiting casino hotel after casino hotel. There is room and they promise me a quiet room and true to their word, it is a quiet room. There is a view of the river and the Canada geese are collecting outside for their journey south. I suggest to Nan that we go sit at a slot machine, pretend to play and let them bring us drinks but it actually doesn't look like that happens here.

Nan's pants and socks made their own way to the chair.