Thursday, June 18, 2009
CFR - Day 5
When I woke up, it was cold at the Waterton Springs Campground in Alberta. Really cold. The walk to the restroom was not enjoyable. But, after I got moving, things started looking up, and I made good time packing up the bike.
AB-6 up to the Crowsnest Highway/AB-3 was about how I remembered it from my trip up here back in 2007. Back then, I stayed on Hwy 3 for only a few miles before heading north to meet up with Carole in Banff. Today, I was heading over Crowsnest Pass to Creston.
There was some decent rain showers going over the pass, but it wasn't too bad, all in all. I stopped for gas and an A&W burger (and root beer, of course) in Fernie, BC, a pleasant little town just into the Kootenays. The rain continued off and the rest of the day.
At Creston, I stopped for another small burger, and headed up BC-3A for the east shore of Kootenay Lake. What a fantastic motorcycling road! There were a few too many driveways for really, really fast riding, but the road, the scenery, and the light traffic made for a special afternoon.
At Kootenay Bay I began a tradition that would last throughout the trip: I only had to wait all of two minutes to board the ferry. The ride across was smooth and uneventful. From Proctor I headed north on the west shore of the lake on Hwy 31. If anything, this road was even better, if only because there were far fewer driveways and side roads. From Kaslo over the hill to New Denver, I passed one small group of cruisers, but otherwise I had to road all to myself. When I stopped for gas in New Denver, Nightshine (Sam) and his son stopped to say hi, which was nice. (Sam and I found ourselves at the same table a couple of times at last year's NAFO.) A bunch of other FJR riders went past as well.
After filling up I headed up Hwy 6 to Nakusp. I was riding pretty aggressively, but fell in behind Sam when I caught up to him a few miles before Nakusp.
The hotel is quite nice, and had a great system in place for handling large group check-ins. As a semi-late arrival, I got room 87 in the new wing, upstairs, which suited me fine. After a couple nights in the tent, I was looking forward to a nice shower and a warm bed.
I did the rally check-in in the lobby, and was very impressed with the goodie bag. The rally shirt is really kinda nice.
Waterton Springs Campground in Alberta to the CFR hotel in Nakusp, BC. 355 miles.
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