Well, Pete has about said it all. And Bob was correct, the ride from Banff to Jasper is one of the most picturesque I’ve ever experienced. I made a trip from Denver to Banff in 1983 and fell in love with the Rocky Mountains. With every mile I can feel that love affair being rekindled.

Here are a few more of the over 100 photos that Pete and I took on the way up to the ice fields.

Just past the ice fields, it started to cloud up and spit snow. Pete convinced me to suit up for rain and it’s’ a good thing he did — just past Jasper, the bottom dropped out. That kind of riding will test you. Two hours later, when we finally found a safe place to stop and wait out the rain, we decided to forgo the remainder of the day and find a place to dry out. All the gear worked well except the gloves — after about an hour in the rain they were no longer waterproof.

Here is a detailed map of a trip we highly recommend you take:

Banff, Alberta to Valemount, BC

Here is a taste of the early part of the day:

Banff, Alberta to Valemount, BC

Here is a taste of the early part of the day:

Then it turned stormy on the other side of the mountains and we spent another three hours sans sunshine. Tomorrow is a big day and we have over 100 photos to sort through and a very slow connection, so I’ll save the commentary until later and leave you with these shots for now:

Pete decided to hang with me for two more days before going back to work at Microsoft, so we planned our most aggressive drive yet, a whole 326 miles! We’ve discovered that stopping, taking pictures, smoking cigars, and generally enjoying ourselves is not conducive to covering ground — so we pretty much gave up covering a lot of ground.

Dave cooked us breakfast, and we lingered over coffee (since the border crossing we planned to use didn’t open until 9 am), and then the navigator (me) missed the turn off into Canada. On the way back, after a pleasant little half hour side trip, I found the curve, and promptly low-sided at 5 MPH in first gear. Luckily I had a wingman to help upright the bike and we were on our way. There’s a reason boys and girls that you wear the right gear!

The result was that we found ourselves finishing lunch at 1:30 a mere 60 miles from whence we started. We actually had to limit ourselves to only two stops to make Banff by 7:30. The last two hours of our drive were through Kootenay National Park. We saw deer, bald eagles, and bighorn sheep too numerous to keep count, and three moose (“mooses” if you are from the South). They were all so close to the road that I was praying “Lord, I know that I’ve asked to go on a moose hunt, but I really don’t want to kill one with a bike.”

If you haven’t been up here, this is a beautiful drive. Even in a cage, a hem, I mean a car.

We topped the evening off at Saltlick with a medium rare filet, and Pete took it upon himself to fulfill a personal request from Peter Madison.

Pete and I are in Marble, Washington on a 28.8 modem, so everyone will have to wait for the numerous photos we took today. We are well into the second bottle of wine, I’ve successfully convinced Pete to continue into Canada for a few more days. (Told you Bob!)

I don’t know how easy it will be to connect over the next few days, but I’ll update the blog the first time we find high speed access.

The update:

Ah, high speed access!

After enjoying the Moon’s gracious hospitality, Pete and I left for Marble. Until this picture (taken by Mr. Moon as we left) I had no I idea that Robert De Niro was along for the ride…

Sunshine again! We spent the day enjoying a slow, multi-stop ride up the Columbia River on Hwy 25, it is some beautiful country:

Sunday night we had the pleasure of staying with dear friends of mine, Dave & Sue Chambers. Their hospitality is overwhelming as they had just returned home from a multi-week trip about 90 minutes before we arrived.

and, with only dial-up available, this is how we ended the day…

PS: File under the categories of “count your blessings” and “don’t always believe MapQuest.” Dave also informed me that “Camp Road” from Day Two was the ill fated route taken by CNET Editor James Kim and his family in December of o6.

Pete took one look at this view this morning and said “Now this really DOES NOT suck!” Sunshine at last! What a welcome sight.

First order of business was to wash the grime off the bikes, gas up, and head southeast to the tri-cities area

More views, vistas, and scenes along the way:

After stopping for yet another cigar,

we ran across a large group of bikers on a poker run — and felt right at home.

And finally we arrived at Tim Moon’s. Master Chief Taylor joined us and it was everything Pete said it would be. Here is shot of the Master Chief, Moon, and I around the firepit (with a spare chair for Bob Rankin who didn’t make the event — we missed him.)

Tomorrow we head north to Marble, WA to see friends and stay with Dave & Sue Chambers.