I left Nelson shortly after writing the last blog. Headed East to catch the Ferry at Balfour. No wait, I just rode on. It looked like a short ride, but it was not.
At Kootenay Landing we got off loaded, I wasn't first this time. I had to pass a lot of cars to get away from them....why, twisty winding roads again!. This was 70 kms worth to Creston BC. Lots of fun and I took lots of pictures.
A bit of history, may as well stick it here. The Kootenay Valley is smaller than God made it. Man built a reservoir and the valley last 2/3 of it's arable land. See the history at - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_LakesWorse, the North American Water and power Alliance (NAWPA) had a proposal in the 70's to flood the whole thing to supply water to California, Arizona and Nevada. It hasn't happened......yet.
The area is Canada's best ranked motorcycling area. It is pure fun. I had as much fun on the way to Creston as to Kaslo the day before.
I stopped in Creston for coffee and lemon poppy seed cake. Creston is not a pretty place, it tries though. I got gas there, the bike did well on gas, it appears that because I go closer to 100 on twisting roads, I get better mileage.
I did learn one thing though, I don't know if the is is math, but it worked for me. When you pass the sign with the slower speed and the exclamation marks all around it, gear down on a bike, when you get to the corner, you are set for either gearing down more or speeding up. Depends on how tight the corner is. No brakes or clutch required!
The ride from Creaton East was pretty boring. a Dodge mini van decided he was going to show me how to drive. He snuck up on me on a 7 mile long hill, I twisted and was gone. I think he used A LOT more gas than I did.
Originally when I got to Yahk, I was going to turn right and head to USA. But plans changed. I was surprised I was in Yahk, but when I looked at a map, you had to go to a flat place to cross to the next valley. The Canadian Rockies are a collection of ranges.
Cranbrook was ok, it is a commercial centre for the region. I got rain clothes, better gloves and clear goggles on. Good thing I did, it started pouring on the way to Invermere.
Originally I planned to overnight it in Invermere, which is next to Windermere. I got into the town, I was soaking wet. I didn't see any reasonable motels. I went to a bar, Bud's had some awesome chicken wings and found out on line that there is no place to stay in Invermere, Radium is the place to stay.
I went to Radium, I found a place. It was the only open one out of 5 motels. Radium's claim to fame is it's Hot Springs. From my wondering around, that appeared to be it's only claim to fame. I walked to a bar, to get drunk. Well that didn't work out, I had two beer and more wings. Then I went back to motel to watch Clinton's speech.
The pics attached to this blog are all from Balfour to Radium. There is place to label them in this app.
I woke up early to get a move on, I planned on making it home after leaving Radium. I got up, looked outside, it was grey still. I rode to breakfast and got gas. Breakfast was rather expensive $20 for two eggs, bacon and toast. I was still trying to figure out why Radium was such a place to go for more than a dip in a pool.
I did manage to dry all my clothes, I cranked the heat to 30C in the room and hung stuff up all over the place. I was gone to the bar for a couple of hours. Everything was dry when I came back. Radium shares Alberta's humidity levels :)
So I headed East, ironically enough I was on the road East to Alberta - this was not intentional, it was just a road that had lodging on it to me.
So I headed East, past the park gates for Kootenay National Park and then past the hotsprings......
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