Canadian Hot Springs Ride

When I first came to Cheney, WA. way, way back in 1980, I had not yet learned to drive. But living on my own at the ripe old age of 18 required some form of transportation getting back and forth to my high-paying job of flipping burgers at the local Zips. The cheapest, quickest to learn transportation of choice?....a 250cc, street legal dirt bike.

I never forgot the freedom associated with riding versus driving. If you can get past the riskiness of two wheels versus four, there's nothing like it. Our new upgrade to the 650 scooter has been a blast, and the first real test of it's capabilities were during this hot springs loop.

Two very good friends of ours living in Deer Park (BJ and Kevin who we've known from our Davenport days) invited us to ride along-side their soft-tail Harley for four days through the winding roads and mountains of Canada. It was a trip I looked forward to all summer. So we packed up just enough gear to fit in a small pack and underneath the seat to last us for the next 800 miles. I'd say we were "fully-loaded".

An early morning start from our home base at the Deer Park RV Resort.

After a stop for breakfast we crossed the border and headed into Canada...

...260 miles later, we're more than ready for our first overnight stop at Radium Hot Springs resort. To date, this was the longest period of time I've had my butt on a bike seat : )

The next day took us thru Banff National Park and the last day of dry pavement : ) It was a beautiful ride through the mountains.

 

After 156 miles we pulled into the town of Revelstoke. It was raining so hard at that point, all we were interested in was some downtime at the hotel, skipping the hot springs completely to dry out. On the plus side, the hotel did have a hot tub : )

We did check out some local attractions the next day like a train museum and wandering wildlife.

Day three brought more rain and at times vision became so difficult on the highways with traffic, that we considered just pulling off under a tree. Problem. No trees on the side of the freeway.

After 136 rainsoaked miles we ended at our last stop in Ainsworth. The hotsprings here were part of the hotel which was awesome and included natural caves leading into the pools. We enjoyed a nice dinner, great conversation with friends and a long hot soak in the springs.

After breakfast...

...we packed up for the last leg home...

crossed our last bridge....

waited in our last ferry line...

did our last map check....

rode our last ferry...

and stopped for our last gas up...

The entire trip was incredible! We very much enjoyed the time with our riding partners BJ and Kevin, and are grateful they thought of sharing this adventure with us. We are already looking forward to the next ride this summer through the cascades to the pacific ocean.


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And as usual I'll close here and leave you with this artsy-fartsy photo.

Thanks for reading!

The Hiawatha

Just wanted to add this short blog entry to share our summer ride on the Hiawatha Trail in Idaho/Montana. I highly recommend this bike ride for just about anyone. It can take a couple/few hours depending on how fast you ride. The trip out is almost entirely level or slightly downhill (and I mean some pretty easy peddling : ) You can choose to take the shuttle bus back to the entry parking lot (including your bike) or turn around and ride back. The return ride climbs gradually uphill taking the same exact route.

The tunnels and cool and the train trestles are amazing,
allowing some magnificent views of the mountain forests.

 The road is hard packed, sand and gravel, so just about any tire will give a smooth ride.

Even if it's a sunny warm day, take a jacket for those that chill quickly. A few of the tunnels reach complete blackness and the temps drop quickly to almost frigid!

They rent everything you'll need. But that can get expensive with your trail pass, shuttle bus pass, and rentals. Every rider is REQUIRED to wear a helmet and have a light of some kind for the tunnels. So if you have all that stuff, the cost is completely reasonable for an excellent afternoon of riding : )

I'm closing here to move onto my next blog which was completely different type of bike ride!

Thanks for reading!

Our First Glacier

A trip that has been on Sheila's list for years...way back during our Davenport days is Glacier National Park. This summer we finally took the opportunity.

We got an invitation to visit some friends living in Great Falls, Montana. We settled into a campground just outside the east entrance to the park and invited Darrin and Terri to stay with us in our new garage/bunkhouse. We had an excellent time, and two of the best Glacier tour guides you could ask for. We spent the entire time enjoying the scenery instead of trying to find our way around.

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The view of the campground out the back as you walk thru the living room, garage and down the back ramp. The garage then converts to sleeping quarters for our guests at night.

The day before our friends arrived. We took the opportunity to ride "The Going to the Sun" road.

Another absolutely fantastic ride on a bike. Someone told us, you can DRIVE these roads in a car and watch the views, or you can RIDE these roads and live in the views. That's so very true. It's a whole different experience riding a motorcycle.

When Darrin and Terri arrived we didn't waste any time getting right to the hiking! We packed into Glacier Lake. Pictures and words will not do any justice to what we experienced. Breathtaking.

I met Darrin thru a mutual client, hired for an Annual Report as the photographer. I highly recommend him for high quality work! (Darrin Shreder Photography)

So of course there had to be a very cold, dark-thirty of the morning wake-up to catch a sunrise over a mountain, right? Yep... (this was my version, Darrin's were much more professional : )

There was plenty of rest and relaxation as well.

After our guides left, we took one more opportunity to hike into the park. This is a simple hike just behind the visitors center as you start up the "Going to the Sun" road.

This trip was an awesome experience. Highly recommended if you've never been here.

We will be back for sure.


 

 And I almost forgot...we actually fit in a rafting trip as well : )
(this rapid was filmed in the movie River Wild)

 

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I'm going to leave you with yet another artful image of my incredibly wonderful partner.

Thanks for reading!