After yesterday, we got a late start on the last day of our trip. It can be difficult getting Josh and Jared up under normal conditions, and particularly so when the previous day was so difficult.
Our hotel was only a couple of miles from the USA border, and we spent a good bit of time getting through customs-the line was long and it moved slowly.
While the weather was bad the previous day along the northern shore of Lake Superior, it was excellent along the north coast of Lake Michigan. The road runs along the lakeside for long stretches. The riding was fun. We are still waterlogged from yesterday, but the sun is warm and things are beginning to dry out and return to normal.
We arrived in Appleton around 6 PM and have concluded the Trip.
Josh and Jared are on their way home to their families.
More to come from each of us as we reflect on this.
The best laid plans must be flexible enough to deal with obstacles that you can't control. Apparently, the remnants of Hurricane Fay reached the Great Lakes/southern Ontario area yesterday. As we were leaving Thunder Bay, it began to rain. It rained constantly for about 400 of the 430 miles to Sault St Marie. At times, the rain was so hard that you could barely see the ground in front of you. At other times, the fog was as thick as soup. We considered stopping and waiting it out. Each time, we would have to ride to the next town (usually 60-80 miles) for a place to stay. By the time we arrived, the rain would have slackened somewhat, the fog would have lifted, and we would continue. After a few miles, the intensity would increase, and the cycle would repeat. Most everything got soaked.
We did catch a glimpse of the potential beauty of this drive, with occasional peaks through the clouds. Much of the road runs right along the lake's bed, and we will need to return eventually to experience this again.
South Carolina had it's opening game last night and Jared's target was for us to be in the room by kickoff---8pm. We made it by 8:10 p.m., but the game was not showing on the Canadian Sports Network, so he had to settle for listening on XM radio. The win was a nice ending to an otherwise trying day.
Very few pictures. We are headed back to the US and Appleton today. Weather permitting, we have some time to add to our picture portfolio.
(Side note by Jared: We have tracked down a design flaw in our great Harley Davidson FXRG all-weather suits. Until today, we have praised these suits for keeping us warm and dry during the terrible weather. However, the FXRG was no match for the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay. After being soaked by steady rains for over an hour, the rain located a vulnerability in the waterproofing of the FXRG located near the zipper of the pants. Apparently, there is a small gap where water can seep in between the zipper and the liner of the crotch. The result: Kelly and Jared ended up looking like Charter Members of the Billy Madison Cool People Club - Ontario. Anyone looking to buy this suit should beware: it handles great in mild rain or short bursts of downpours, but not very well in constant downpours. You might want to find additional waterproof protection in this circumstance...or just get out of the rain like a normal person.)
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Submitted by Ashley on Fri, 08/29/2008 - 2:55pm.
Hey guys! You are being missed in the US of A! I can't promise any better weather here, but you won't have to wear the sexy weatherproof suits, ride a motorcycle, eat fast food or sleep on the couch or a cot (well, pending your behavior). :) However, I will request that Kelly continue to carry his pink camera with him to progress his budding photography career.
I am so glad that you got to have this wonderful experience together and so thankful that you shared a lot of it with us. The website is awesome and I think that you make great writers. :) Drive safely and fly safely home. Jared-I cannot wait to see you and show you the belly progress--"little jones" is getting big. You'll hardly recognize her (and maybe me with this new haircut!).
A repeat of yesterday, as it relates to terrain and photos:
The trip from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay was a long one. We again exceeded our daily mileage (473) and the hours on the road (11).
The terrain continued to evolve from agricultural to forest and from flat to more rolling. We were interrupted several times for construction--in one case in the middle of the small town of Kenora, where we had stopped for gas. They had dug up the center of town to rearrange facilities that would accommodate more visitors, and we were trapped for a good hour as the heavy traffic wound its way through the small town.
We crossed the border into Ontario early in the day as we continued on the Trans-Alaska Highway. This is a good road, but it has only two lanes without many opportunities to pass. Surprisingly, a major highway connecting essential sections of a country as developed as Canada is still only two lanes wide. The commercial traffic was heavy, and in our country, this is a major thoroughfare justifying either four lanes or interstate status.
Thunder Bay is on the shores of Lake Superior and is a major shipping hub for the agricultural products grown on the Canadian Prairies to the rest of the world. The trip today was exhausting.
As you can see, we took very few photos, primarily because we didn't see anything particularly unique to justify spending much of the precious time we have left on the trip for a photo. I am enjoying taking pictures with the digital camera mounted on the handlebars of my motorcycle. Some turn out pretty good.
We are eagerly anticipating the trip tomorrow around the north shore of Lake Superior ending at Sault (Soo) Ste. Marie. Lake Superior is the least polluted and most westerly of the Great Lakes, and the world's largest freshwater lake. We are planning an early departure with time to add to our photo file.
Comments
Amazing...
Submitted by Scott on Fri, 08/29/2008 - 12:56am.
This trip is absolutely amazing. It's really cool that the three of you make time to do this each year. Thanks for sharing the trip and the pics with us. Jared, you'll have to show me how you put some of this together. Great job with the site!
- Scott
An awesome experience
Submitted by suefleuren on Thu, 08/28/2008 - 1:04pm.
What an awesome experience you Jones guys are having! Have especially enjoyed the commentary, the phenomenal pix, and the thought that you all followed through on such a great vison. Even the pink camera seems to be working for you!
Thanks for the link!
(A sidebar for Kelly: Sure beats riding the yellow school bus, huh?)
After a restful evening at a nice Sheraton in Saskatoon, we got the earliest start (9:30 am) and the most miles (493) of any day yet. Saskatoon is the largest city in Saskatchewan and primarily an agricultural center.
Continuing down the Trans-Canada Highway, the landscape is primarily agricultural. While this makes for excellent riding conditions — long, straight roads with very little traffic —it is not particularly conducive to much variety in photography. Therefore, we took very few pictures today.
The primary difference in the terrain in Saskatchewan and Manitoba is the size of the fields. In Saskatchewan, they extend as far as the eye can see, while the fields in Manitoba are still large, but many are bordered by trees or drainage ditches, providing more definition.
There was a gravel pullout at the sign marking the entrance to Manitoba. We stopped there for a couple of pictures. Josh and Jared were horsing around to see if they could spin the back wheels of their bikes and throw the gravel. Jared was able to do this with his three-wheeler, but Josh didn't realize how heavy his bike was and ended up laying it down. No damage done other than a little to Josh's ego, and we had a good laugh after it was all over.
The last two hours were slow going as we encountered a rough thunderstorm and heavy winds. The raindrops were so big, they felt like small hail. We had planned to stop east of Winnipeg; however, it was late, dark, and we were tired. We spotted a Howard Johnson across the street from our last gas stop and decided to call it a day. Another first--a room under $100
A local Chinese restaurant provided us a good meal and we are getting ready for another long day tomorrow. The trip to Thunder Bay is supposed to be more scenic than today's, but it is over 400 miles. Hopefully, we can take some more pictures.
The tentative plan is for the trip to end in Appleton Friday Afternoon. Josh and Jared will fly home Saturday. This schedule remains dependent on the weather and our progress.
We awoke in Calgary after a brief night of losing a few bucks at the Casino to drive to Bow Cycles and pick up a new Chatterbox for our broken unit. We can't say that the new unit works better than the other, as Kelly had it plugged in improperly today, so it still didn't work. Perhaps better luck tomorrow.
Leaving the bike store, we headed out across the prairies of Canada for Saskatoon. The scenery for the day was mostly farmland. Kelly was impressed by the immense size of the farms, which apparently average thousands of acres and are rarely corporate-owned.
No crazy adventures today, or terribly interesting stories. Josh's GPS led us down some unusual roads today. Several of them weren't paved. Reminded us of Alaska (not necessarily a good thing).
One thing of note is that the weather today was considerably warmer. The days of wearing the full-out Harley space suit may be coming to an end. And another change was the insane amount of bugs we ran into (literally) driving across the countryside. The bikes and our clothes resemble a bug killing field, and we're pretty sure that the yellow-jackets following us around later in the day were trying to seek revenge for their fallen brothers.
Again, we find ourselves roughing it tonight. I'm writing this from the cozy Sheraton Cavalier Saskatoon. Josh had hoped that we would stay some 20 miles past Saskatoon tonight, but the only place we found offered single rooms for $35, and it took Kelly all of 20 seconds to walk in and walk out, saying that we were heading back to Saskatoon. Must have been pretty bad.
Tomorrow is set to be another long day. The bell-hopper mentioned that the drive to Winnipeg is an 8-hour affair. That means it'll probably take us close to 10-11 via bike. Pictures might be scarce tomorrow as well, but we'll try to make up for it when we hit the Great Lakes.
Today, we took a little break from the road and spent the day fishing on the Bow River just outside of Canmore. We hired Jeff Perodeau, a guide from Banff Fishing Unlimited, to take us down the river and show us how to fly fish. The day started early (for us), as Jeff picked us up around 9:00am. Our first stop was Wapiti Sports to get our fishing licences, and then we headed off to the river.
Jeff started us off with spinners one the side of the river while he put the boat in and, as quickly as we started, Jared hung his on the bottom and had to snap the line to free it (little did we know that this foreshadowed a common occurrence for the remainder of the day). After tossing a few, we coasted down the river for a while until Jeff stopped and let us cast a few more while he rigged the fly rods. Jared and Kelly spent a lot of time hanging in both the rocks and the trees, so we weren't able to actually start using the fly rods for a while, as poor Jeff kept having to either untangle or reset their rods. However, Jared was the beneficiary of the first fish of the day (actually, Jeff hung it and Jared pulled it in), and we thought that might bode well for the rest of the day.
However, unluckily for us, the wind picked up, and apparently, that isn't great for fly fishing. For one, wind makes a mess of the water, so the fish tend not to rise to the surface to feed on insects. In addition, wind makes it incredibly difficult to cast a fly. However, Jeff found a nice spot (away from the trees!) and spent time teaching each of us the proper technique. In no time, everyone had caught a couple of brown trout, with Jared having the best luck. Unfortunately, they weren't, but about 6-8 inches long - it was fun nonetheless.
After this stop, we didn't have much luck for the rest of the day, until the last 20 minutes of the trip. We were basically killing time on the way to the landing site - casting spinners and trolling on the bottom of the river - when Josh hung a nice-sized brown trout. It was the size of the fish we had expected to catch for most of the day (and with fly rods no less), but it wasn't meant to be. Even still, it was a great day, and Jeff was a great guide.
After fishing, we rode about 70 miles to the Deerfoot Inn and Casino in Calgary. We have to head out to buy a new Chatterbox tomorrow morning, so we are planning to get out early, as we need to start making better time for the remainder of the week if we ever plan on making it back.
The only way to describe today is "absolutely awesome".
This was a sightseeing and photo day rather than a motorcycle riding day. The total miles covered was approximately 180, and most "iron buts" would consider that limited mileage laughable. Riding a motorcycle intensifies the experience of seeing some of the incredible sights of nature we drove by today.
After a good breakfast at the Astoria Inn, we spent some time in Jasper (Alberta, Canada) this morning shopping for some items to send to the wives and kids.
We then left Jasper on the Icefields Parkway. This is a spectacular drive along the backbone of the North American Continent, designed expressly to dramatize the incredible landscape of the Canadian Rockies. This parkway (Highway 93) runs below the highest mountains in the Canadian Rockies.
Jasper is inside Jasper National Park, which was established in 1907, and is the largest park representing the Rocky Mountain region. We stopped at several points along the drive through to absorb the views of deep valleys and ice-capped peaks. We have several pictures of these.
One of our stops was the Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier. The glacier is fairly close to the Parkway, so you are allowed to drive near enough for a fairly short (but steep) walk to the base of the glacier. Markings reflect the edge of the glacier in 10 year increments starting in 1982. The amount the glacier has receded during this 25 year period is remarkable. We took a number of photos and Josh got some good video of the Athabasca river running under the glacier (actually created by the melting of the glacier).
Continuing on the Icefields Parkway, we were passed by about 25 bikes whose riders all had jackets with logos "Alberta Hell's Angels". They all rode Harley's and "hogged" the road somewhat. I was so surprised that I forgot to start my camera for a picture — what a missed opportunity.
My camera mounted on the handlebars of my bike is working well. I took several pictures of Josh, Jared, and the scenery as we travelled the parkway. I took about 150 pictures, and we culled to about 15 for uploading tonight. You be the judge.
The Icefields Parkway also passes through Banff National Park. This is the birthplace of Canada's national park system, created around the mineral springs near the Banff townsite. Banff National Park has 25 of the 30 peaks in the Canadian Rockies that exceed 10,000 feet. The sights were awe-inspiring. It was hard to concentrate on keeping the bike between the lines when you are looking at a 12,000 ft snow-capped peak, and a few weeks ago, you were in 100+ degree temperatures in Columbia, SC. We stopped at a number of the turnouts to take pictures.
We visited Bow Summit, the highest point on the parkway (6785 ft), and visited the Peyto Lake viewpoint. You can see the lake and the Crowfoot Glacier. Peyto Lake is one of the most photographed lakes in the world. We have a number of pictures of the lake, the Glacier, and surrounding peaks, and have included a few for this upload.
We continued down the Parkway to the town of Banff. This is a peak season, and we weren't able to get accommodations. Apparently, Banff is a highly popular ski destination, attracting over 4 million visitors annually.
Tonight we are in Canmore, Alberta. We have scheduled a float/fly fishing trip tomorrow, and this is where the guide suggested we meet him. Canmore is located on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies and is about 1.5 hours from Calgary. In the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, Canmore hosted the Nordic events, including biathlon and cross-country skiing.
Amazing...
This trip is absolutely amazing. It's really cool that the three of you make time to do this each year. Thanks for sharing the trip and the pics with us. Jared, you'll have to show me how you put some of this together. Great job with the site!
- Scott