:: 150

The ride starts. Saturday morning. The plan Jasper. The result, Fernie. I started quite hungover but kept getting better along the way. The destination change happened at the 93 interchange to head south to Radium Hot Springs. The highway to Lake Louise and therfore the 93 north to Jasper was backed up and I knew there was heavy construction in the area. I said fuck it and went back up the on ramp and started to head south instead. Quickly I had to turn around and gas up as there was a 103km to next gas and Beema tells me she only has 90km left in her. Well I gas up, eat a hot dog, buy some double HO and jam.

Ride begins.

My first picture. The road to Radium. I hadn't planned on taking a lot of pictures so... I don't have a lot. A few choice ones at least for you folk.

Shhhh. This is now on the way back from Radium. I'm messing with the space time continuum by putting it here but it works. Deal with it. This is now on the way to Fernie. There is a few hundered km's of riding between here and the last picture. And a story or two.

First, the temperature on the way to Radium was in the high 20degs but as you enter town you go through a cut in the mountains and the Radium side was about 7 or 8 degrees hotter. I stop in town at a bar to catch the end of one CFL game and the start of the next, also refuel and eat. I plan out the rest of the trip and figure I'll camp near or in Fernie. The temperature quickly hits 39 deg and stays between 37 and 39 all the way down the kootenai(?) river. Sick ride. Never been past Radium before so it was all new from there. I make it all the way to Jaffery and stop at a/the pub there. I only had canned soup and tuna for camping so I get a good meal there and head back out. This is where things mess up a bit.I can't find the campground I was looking for, or any for that matter. My gas is at about 50km and there's no more stations until Fernie. So fuck it, I'll gas up in Fernie and camp somwhere near there. It's about 30km away. The first and only campground around there is the Fernie Provincial grounds and it is totally full. So I go for some gas. The first two stations are closed. It's maybe 9pm. Oh well, small town shit. I give up and grab a hotel room. Kinda a weak way to camp but that's camping sometimes.

So, Fernie (above). Nice town. I will go back one day. I find out from the hotel lady while I'm booking my room about a bar two blocks up. If I'm not by a fire chillin' I'm certainly not going to sit in a hotel room and watch TV. I hit the bar. Awesome patio facing the mountains you see in the pics but at night. Beautiful. (It faces them in the day too, I suppose)

Of course, evertually I get invited to sit and drink with a table of roofers getting their full drink on and I become one of the group. We get going and I meet some new friends. We close this bar down and hit another up. Fun times in Fernie.

A small twist at the second bar we are at breifly... briefly due to the roofers actually having to work at 7am the next day. Hehe, crazy fucks. The boss of them starts working on the waitress but she ends up chatting me up a bit. Her name: Breanna. Very pretty. The guys finally leave and she more or less asks me to hang out 'till they close up. I figure what the hell. Seems down to earth and chill. I stay until her, the kitchen guy, and the other waitress close up and she goes in the back, grabs her bike and leaves with a wave goodbye. I'm confused and fair her well, finish my water and say g'night to the other two. The other waitress looks at me perplexed, "I thought you were with her?"

"So did I. Have a good night."

Oh well. Easy come, easy go. I managed to find my heavily inebriated way back home via slow stroll in my riding boots, an inside-out T-shrit, and my good blues. The stars were just right. Been a while since I seen the dipper. I can't wait to visit Fernie again.

RAM ATTACK!!!! 2009. Oh yeah, at the last point he was 15' away and advancing slowly. Camera dropped in pocket, ignition, 1st gear and gone. They look surprisingly dangerous up close. And in no mood to play.

Hold up though. Time travel again. That was now a whole 24 hours later, lets step back 12 hrs.

Camping! I did it!
I made fire!
A fire to be proud of.

I lost control of it.



Heh, nah, but I got her big enough.

My tent. First use. Mec Butterfly 2 or something?
W/fly. Although I ended up unhooking it on one end and tying it off to trees to let air in but water still off.
The sites by the water were full. I had creaking trees and no neighbors for as far as one could see. Very peaceful.

This is Mt. Rundle from what I'll call the back the evening I slept in the woods.
The Morning.
Full morning now.
This is the other side of the Mountain. I love how it so obviously is a huge piece of land crashing out of the planet.
Silly really.

Anywho, some notables. On my way back from Fernie I went into Cranbrook and through Kimberly on my way back to Radium. Between Kimberly and Radium I had my most scary Moto experience and was stung by a bee that got into my coat. Seperate incidences, of course. The scary thing was a wobble after hitting some of the rubber they fill the cracks in the road with. Screw that stuff. I almost went over a cliff. The bee hit me in the neck and I thought nothing of it... well, I thought "Wow! that was a big one!" But didn't know it had bounced down my collar AND my shirt. A bit later I feel something crawling around and then a quick sting on my cheast. I start hitting my cheast and trying to squeeze the area to try and smoosh whatever it was while slowing down from about 130 and looking for somewhere to pull over. Little fucker, I open my jacket and lift my shrit in as fluid a motion I could and he almost falls right against my belly alive and kicking.

I rip him in two. I don't know who was right. Maybe I hit him, maybe he hit me. Either way I won the argument and no one decided to claim insurance.

Notables continued. 1. In Radium I stop in an authentic German restraunt and have Real German wheat beer to accompany my Weiner Schnizel avec spatzel out on the patio. Fucking great food. 2. The first time I looked at my Odometer when I left Saturday it was 5959. As I pulled into my spot back home Monday it was 6959. Cool. 3. When I went to sleep Sunday night it was 25deg. Maybe 5 when I woke. :] I put all of my clothes on including riding coat while still in my sleeping bag.

A while after I get home I can't sit cause my bum was so tired of sitting.

So I went for a bike ride.

Around the resovoir.

Ride or die.