Purden me! Well Excuse You!
Day 11: Pocohontas, Jasper Park
Distance traveled: 413.9 km
Cumulative Distance: 4450 km
Maximum Speed: 132 km/h
Moving average: 91 km/h
Temperature range: 6.8 -19.0 C
The only thing about this morning that surprised me was that there was no frost.
We were in bed by about 8:00 p.m. last night - there isn't a whole lot to do when it is pouring outside - I was working on the blog and Nan was reading. I packed it in around 9:30 p.m. and apparently, Nan kept reading. However, I was awaken about 1:00 a.m. and in desperate need for some air - someone had chili at lunch - and it was amazingly clear outside. I'm sure I could see every star in the sky. It had rained hard for hours plus it was soaking inside the fly of the tent from condensation from our breath. Fortunately, there is a good gap between the tent itself and the fly, so none of the moisture was inside the tent.
By morning, the condensation had continued to build and it was a challenge to get out of the tent without dragging a whole lot of that condensation onto our clothes. Inside the tent there was moisture as well, only this was from rain having fallen from the tent onto the ground sheet, then rolled down the sheet an under the tent. I'll have to plan that better next time. However, while the floor of the tent was wet in some spots, for the most part there was no harm because we are elevated off the floor by a whole centimeter by our mattresses, so there was a layer of insulation between us and the wet.
Rain that has splashed down onto the tent pad has splashed sand up onto the sides of the tent. It was a miserable mess and while we would normally shake any moisture off the gear before packing it, we elect to just pack up everything wet since we are only 36 hours from home. Aside from which, it is pretty fresh and stuff isn't going to dry off before we get rolling.
When we do hit the road, it is a paltry 6.8 degrees - this is our coldest start of the trip. Not our coldest morning on the bike by a long shot but with the rain last night, it is a penetrating cold. There is a heavy fog in the air and the leaves are taking on a noticeable yellow colour. Fall is in the air. We each have our heated vests set on "thermo-nuclear" and I have my hand grips alternating between "somewhat scalding" and "blisters happening, but it's worth it." Despite this, because my arms are exposed to the wind, I have a chill running up my arms into my core.
Five minutes out of the gate, we pass the place we had breakfast our last time through Prince George, five years ago. It is closed for the winter. Labour Day weekend - that's it. We stop for lunch at the next town we hit, which is McBride, 150 km down the road. This is in fact our usual m.o., - to ride for an hour to an hour and a half before breakfast except that this morning, being cold, we badly wanted coffee.
While we are having lunch, the temperature warms up about five degrees. Inside and out. Amazingly, with it being a pretty short day, we are halfway to Jasper already, and we are heartened. The sun has come out and burned away all the fog and we get yet another great picture of Mount Robson. This is actually Nan's pet peeve: we have done numerous motorcycle trips past Mount Robson and while it has a reputation for being enshrouded in cloud, it is often clear for us and I say "get a shot" and Nan says "why do we need yet another picture of Mount Robson?!" and I say "for this blog!" Same thing every time.
The whole day we have been talking about a trip up to Miette Hot Springs. This is where we will really get the chills out, even though it is at least 19 in Jasper and ironically, one of the warmest moments of the trip. However, we stop and get gas and grab a bottle of Champagne at the gas station because the Champagne I had picked up for our actual anniversary we consumed two nights earlier. So we need to make up for it. We continued east and saw a bear along the way. We have actually seen a few this trip. That was my second and Nan's third. We stopped and took some pictures of some elk, too. We wouldn't normally bother with taking elk pictures but we realize not everybody reading this blog has had the opportunity to see elk. Hi Shayda!
We get to Pocahontas Cabins about 45 km east of Jasper. They have a nice little cabin for us with an amazing hanging basket of flowers at our door. We get changed and immediately (well, almost immediately) jump on the bike and head up to Miette. For the uninitiated, the road to Miette is 17 km of sheer riding fun, or sheer terror, depending on your perspective. Sharp, twisty turns including a few hairpins and it is about the only place close to home for pure riding pleasure. But it is surprisingly busy with tourists descending after having soaked in the hot pools. So no colouring outside the lines. It's o.k., we still have fun.
We spend about a half hour in the hot pools. We did venture into one of the cool pools for a second. Nan got in all the way up to her ankles. My knees knocked. It was a great way to unwind after 11 days of riding and a night camping in rain.
We went for dinner at the hotel restaurant. We each had some wine, then decided we would drag the Champagne home. Nan is keeping me company by sleeping on the couch while I type this. Tomorrow we get a dog greeting!
Distance traveled: 413.9 km
Cumulative Distance: 4450 km
Maximum Speed: 132 km/h
Moving average: 91 km/h
Temperature range: 6.8 -19.0 C
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| Everything is wet and covered with sand. |
We were in bed by about 8:00 p.m. last night - there isn't a whole lot to do when it is pouring outside - I was working on the blog and Nan was reading. I packed it in around 9:30 p.m. and apparently, Nan kept reading. However, I was awaken about 1:00 a.m. and in desperate need for some air - someone had chili at lunch - and it was amazingly clear outside. I'm sure I could see every star in the sky. It had rained hard for hours plus it was soaking inside the fly of the tent from condensation from our breath. Fortunately, there is a good gap between the tent itself and the fly, so none of the moisture was inside the tent.
By morning, the condensation had continued to build and it was a challenge to get out of the tent without dragging a whole lot of that condensation onto our clothes. Inside the tent there was moisture as well, only this was from rain having fallen from the tent onto the ground sheet, then rolled down the sheet an under the tent. I'll have to plan that better next time. However, while the floor of the tent was wet in some spots, for the most part there was no harm because we are elevated off the floor by a whole centimeter by our mattresses, so there was a layer of insulation between us and the wet.
Rain that has splashed down onto the tent pad has splashed sand up onto the sides of the tent. It was a miserable mess and while we would normally shake any moisture off the gear before packing it, we elect to just pack up everything wet since we are only 36 hours from home. Aside from which, it is pretty fresh and stuff isn't going to dry off before we get rolling.
When we do hit the road, it is a paltry 6.8 degrees - this is our coldest start of the trip. Not our coldest morning on the bike by a long shot but with the rain last night, it is a penetrating cold. There is a heavy fog in the air and the leaves are taking on a noticeable yellow colour. Fall is in the air. We each have our heated vests set on "thermo-nuclear" and I have my hand grips alternating between "somewhat scalding" and "blisters happening, but it's worth it." Despite this, because my arms are exposed to the wind, I have a chill running up my arms into my core.
 |
| Like this almost all the way to McBride. |
Five minutes out of the gate, we pass the place we had breakfast our last time through Prince George, five years ago. It is closed for the winter. Labour Day weekend - that's it. We stop for lunch at the next town we hit, which is McBride, 150 km down the road. This is in fact our usual m.o., - to ride for an hour to an hour and a half before breakfast except that this morning, being cold, we badly wanted coffee.
While we are having lunch, the temperature warms up about five degrees. Inside and out. Amazingly, with it being a pretty short day, we are halfway to Jasper already, and we are heartened. The sun has come out and burned away all the fog and we get yet another great picture of Mount Robson. This is actually Nan's pet peeve: we have done numerous motorcycle trips past Mount Robson and while it has a reputation for being enshrouded in cloud, it is often clear for us and I say "get a shot" and Nan says "why do we need yet another picture of Mount Robson?!" and I say "for this blog!" Same thing every time.
 |
| Mount Robson - always magnificent! |
The whole day we have been talking about a trip up to Miette Hot Springs. This is where we will really get the chills out, even though it is at least 19 in Jasper and ironically, one of the warmest moments of the trip. However, we stop and get gas and grab a bottle of Champagne at the gas station because the Champagne I had picked up for our actual anniversary we consumed two nights earlier. So we need to make up for it. We continued east and saw a bear along the way. We have actually seen a few this trip. That was my second and Nan's third. We stopped and took some pictures of some elk, too. We wouldn't normally bother with taking elk pictures but we realize not everybody reading this blog has had the opportunity to see elk. Hi Shayda!
 |
| Bear. |
 |
| Elk. |
We get to Pocahontas Cabins about 45 km east of Jasper. They have a nice little cabin for us with an amazing hanging basket of flowers at our door. We get changed and immediately (well, almost immediately) jump on the bike and head up to Miette. For the uninitiated, the road to Miette is 17 km of sheer riding fun, or sheer terror, depending on your perspective. Sharp, twisty turns including a few hairpins and it is about the only place close to home for pure riding pleasure. But it is surprisingly busy with tourists descending after having soaked in the hot pools. So no colouring outside the lines. It's o.k., we still have fun.
We spend about a half hour in the hot pools. We did venture into one of the cool pools for a second. Nan got in all the way up to her ankles. My knees knocked. It was a great way to unwind after 11 days of riding and a night camping in rain.
We went for dinner at the hotel restaurant. We each had some wine, then decided we would drag the Champagne home. Nan is keeping me company by sleeping on the couch while I type this. Tomorrow we get a dog greeting!
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| That's Miette Mountain. |
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| You can see clearly the ravishing of the pine beetle in these photos. |
Back in the days of Speedway Park some of the racers would take their race bikes up for a blast to Miette and back in the early morning. Imagine the shriek of a Yamaha TZ 250 in the canyon. I guess the RCMP didn’t patrol there often.
ReplyDeleteOnce again a well written trip with good pictures. Thanks, Bob.
Sounds like another great trip in the books, or in the blog! Thanks for taking us along for the ride. Always a pleasure to read and see the awesome pictures, thanks Nan.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, happy 30th anniversary.