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Greetings Riders,

Well, I am back, getting caught up and ready to share our latest ride with you. As you probably know by now, our ride this year took us from Spokane, Washington North to Banff, Alberta Canada, through Calgary and back into the States East of Glacier National Park through the Lewis and Clark National Forest and Red Lodge, Montana, the Beartooth Pass, Chief Joseph Highway, Cody Wyoming, into Sturgis and the Black Hills. A total of 8 days covering 2500 miles.

For the third year in a row, we shipped the bike to Downtown HD in Seattle where I flew in and rode the bike to Spokane. Mrs. C. met me in Spokane and on Monday morning, July 31st we were on our way to Banff for the next 2 nights. Most of you know by now, I love to ride, especially on long trips, as evidenced by my 13 month old Road Glide odometer that just surpassed 15,400 miles. I have to admit, my excitement was starting to build when we got the T-Bag loaded onto the bike, Mrs. C. situated behind me and the GPS locked onto Banff, at 4537 feet, the highest town in Canada.

When I turned on the ignition, toggled the switch to "Run" and pushed the "Start" button, you could have pulled a 14 year old boy out of this 50 year old body. I couldn't wait to get that first 100 miles behind us. It seems as though every time I embark on a motorcycle ride, the dreams and anticipation of what we are about to see and experience on this next adventure creates a sort of giddiness in me that is hard to explain. But I guess that is why there is the old saying, "If I had to explain it, you wouldn't understand".

Those nine words couldn't be more true when it comes to motorcycle riding. For those that have not experienced a good long motorcycle trip, there is no way to explain how you can ride through heat, torrential rains, bugs, wind, cold and hail, and somehow reflect on it with an eager smile on your face.
How do I explain it?
"It is the opportunity to travel the back roads of America and intimately see, feel and smell this great Country that we live in, almost as if it were from the "inside out". And it is those special one of a kind moments, which cannot be duplicated, that overcome the inconveniences of travel on a motorcycle". But if you don't take that first step to get out of your comfort zone, that is everyday life, you will never know what I mean.

This reminds me of one of my favorite Garth Brooks songs called "The River".
Here are a few lines of the lyrics from the second verse that might be talking about you:

Too many times we stand aside, And let the waters slip away
Till what we put off till tomorrow, has now become today
So don't you sit upon the shoreline, And say you're satisfied
Choose to chance the rapids, And dare to dance that tide
And I will sail my vessel, 'Till the river runs dry
Like a bird upon the wind, These waters are my sky
I'll never reach my destination, If I never try
So I will sail my vessel, 'Till the river runs dry

To play the song, Click Here.

Ok, now that you can see that I am passionate about riding and am encouraging you to give it a try, I will finish telling you about the first couple of days of our trip. We leisurely made our way on Hwy. 95 the 139 miles from Spokane to the Canadian border in British Columbia at Kingsgate where we got a first look at the Canadian countryside. Canada is a beautiful place to ride. The Canadian Rockies are older, bigger and more majestic that we have South of the border. We then went through many small Canadian towns the next 140 miles of our journey to Hwy. 93, the entrance of Kootenay National Park near Radium Hot Springs. This was now the beginning of the last 84 miles of our journey that would take us through Kootenay and into Alberta which is the home of Banff National Park and to the Rimrock Resort overlooking the Valley of Banff. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the roads through the parks are excellent and well maintained.

On our way into Banff we opted to take Hwy. 1A also known as the Bow Valley Pkwy. This is a much more scenic route and is known for a better chance at seeing wildlife. Many of you know we are big animal lovers and are always looking for that opportunity to see something in the wild. You might also know that typically have the worst luck at seeing wildlife as a rule. Mrs. C. and I always kid each other that the animals must send out a memo that the Caraway's are coming and to make sure and hide. Well, as it happened there were 2 Elk that didn't get the memo and we were able to capture them on film, and boy was it a good one. This guy was huge and had a gigantic rack. We thought with seeing this kind of animal in the first 15 minutes of arriving in Banff that this was finally going to be our year to see some bear, big horn sheep, caribou and other wildlife.

Wrong! I won't keep you waiting on the edge of your seat for the answer to this one. That was it! Other than a couple of random deer and a couple of goats that was all we saw. We finally had to go to a zoo in Rapid City known as Bear Country to see any wild animals. That story and photos will come later.

On the heels of our giant elk sighting we rode the beautiful 1A through the wilderness into the Town of Banff where we had dinner at the Maple Leaf restaurant on the Main St. Banff is a really cool little town with lots of things to do. We checked into our hotel and opened the curtains to see this view. What a beautiful view overlooking the Bow River and the Valley of Banff.

We got a good night of sleep and Tuesday morning pointed the GPS North to the Columbia Ice Fields to see the glaciers and the Canadian Rockies. Unfortunately for us, it was a cloudy day and turned down right cold and rainy by the time we reached the Athabasca Glacier where the Banff and Jasper National Parks connect. As you can see by the pictures, it was as cold as it looks. 57 degrees and rain. So it was up to the park building for a couple of hot chocolates and then a quick exit back South to Lake Louise for lunch at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise where the rain seemed to follow. So picture taking wasn't the best, but there were a couple of times the sun peaked through when I could get some good shots.

Lake Louise was a fantastic place to visit. This is just an incredible sight even in cloudy weather. The water is an intense turquoise blue with mountains all around and a beautiful Hotel built right on the shore. This is a must see if you are in the area. Lake Louise is about 40 miles North of Banff just off of the Trans Canada Hwy 1.. About 8 miles South of Lake Louise is Moraine Lake. This is also a great ride and a must see area as well. Be sure and look at the stunning pictures in these areas.

After a couple of hours at and around the Lake Louise area, we were almost thawed out from our ride to the Ice Fields and were on our way back to Banff to take a ride on the Gondola to see Banff from high above the valley. This was a great trip and something that I would also recommend doing. You get a tremendous 360 degree look of the area from the top of Sulphur Mountain. After our trip on the Gondola we took a short ride around the corner to the world famous Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and golf course. This is a beautiful old place full of history and worth a walk through. You can also take a 7 mile ride around the golf course that is excellent as well. My next recommendation for food would be Guido's, located just above McDonalds. It is a single door entrance located upstairs that you could easily miss, but the food is excellent.

Wednesday morning we did a little more riding around Banff and then were on our way to Calgary to turn South and head back into the States. The ride to, in, and around the Banff National Park was all that I had hoped it would be and is excellent. I would easily do it again and make my way to Jasper and swing back around to Banff. However, if you are going to make this trip, I would take the same route we did up through Idaho and enter from the West side and leave to the West side through British Columbia and back down through Whistler and Vancouver. Leaving to the East through Calgary is a pretty boring flat ride. I will cover that more next week.

As usual, I went picture happy on this trip snapping over 1800 photos. I tried to cut as many as possible, but I still have over 150 for you to view. Some of them are stunning scenery and will surely light that fire for you to make the trip. Next week I will continue with our trip and take us through Calgary, Montana and the Beartooth Pass into Cody, Wyoming.

Click Here for 154 Photos of the ride to Banff.

Maps:
Map of our Route.
Banff National Park.
Kootenay National Park.

Useful Links:
A very good 3 minute video from the Banff/Lake Louise Tourism Department. Click Here.
Banff Information. www.discoverbanff.com
General facts about Banff. http://www.banff.com/facts/index.shtml
Banff Gondola live cam. http://www.banffgondola.com/live_cam.asp
Lake Louise. http://www.lakelouise.com/
Columbia Ice Fields. http://www.columbiaicefield.com/
Jasper National Park. http://www.jaspercanadianrockies.com/