Day 3 - I'm pretty sure 90km/h an hour is only a suggestion

Yesterday I didn't have the time to post, so here's the gist of it. Leaving Swift Current and heading to Regina I had about 4 hours of riding into the rainy wind across prairies that stretched forever. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't fun. Sure, I kept a positive mindset, but I would've rather had a positive mindset and dry feet. Once I got to Calgary I promptly got lost and wound up on the Deerfoot Trail, which makes you A) appreciate a good freeway system, and B) scare the crap out of you a little bit.

While in Calgary I stayed with a couple friends of the family, Bridget and Chris and their daughter Nora. They were extremely generous and accommodating and it was a good time overall. Chris has a new Triumph Bonneville, which is a gorgeous bike. I'm pretty certain my next bike will now be a Triumph :). That evening we figure it would be appropriate to watch a motorcycle movie, so we watched "The World's Fastest Indian". Today Chris rode with me out to Canmore (which is good because I never would've found my way out of Calgary otherwise), and I got to experience my first taste of fun twisty roads on highway 1A. Pretty good start to the day.

From there we parted ways and I headed up to Lake Lousie. The trans-canada highway is pretty boring and busy, and should be avoided whenever possible. Once I got onto highway 93 headed to Jasper, it was smooth sailing. The ride up to Jasper is great. Long sweeping curves, mountains as far as the eye could see, and not much traffic. This is where I wish the GS had more power. It can go pretty fast, but once you up to around 130 it doesn't have much power left on tap to pass. But it still did very well and kept a good pace. Oh, and I'm going to say that doing this ride in September, heated grips are a must. Not "nice to have", but actually required. I had the heated grips cranked. My hands would've been frost bitten and numb otherwise.

Now that I'm in the mountains I can easily say this trip is every bit worth it, and anyone in Canada with a motorcycle should make the trip at least once. For once it actually feels like I'm getting the most enjoyment possible out of riding a motorcycle, and riding it the way it was meant to be. Nothing, and I mean nothing in Manitoba comes close to the riding here in the mountains.

Right now I'm staying in Jasper for a couple nights. I figured it'll be nice to do the tourist thing for a bit and some hiking as well. Then it's off to BC for a few days. Chris helped point out some twisty road that I'll be looking forward to. :)