Even though this trip is about the riding, the day off I spent in Jasper was nice. Slept in, check out the shops, rode a tram to the top of a mountain, the usual tourist stuff. Yesterday I left Jasper and headed into BC towards Kamloops. BC is every bit as gorgeous (you hear me use that word alot) as the icefield highway. Rolling hills as far as the eye can see and forest all around you. No real twisties yet, but interesting scenery, especially when I got to an area where the was a forest fire in the past. It just looked strange, yet picturesque in it's own way. I'll be uploading tons of pictures once I get back.
I also seemed to have developed a sharp pain in my right shoulder, which I'm assuming is from holding a throttle all day for several days. It's a shame because it took away from what otherwise would've been a nice ride.
I stopped in Kelowna for the night, tired and sore. This morning I decided that I wasn't very fond of the highway around there. Too busy and not challenging. Overall the major highways are no fun, and you should look for the much less traveled ones. With that in mind, I backtracked to Vernon and took highway 6 headed east. Here's where the fun begins...
Highway 6 is the epitome of the entire trip. Non-stop twisties. You know those winding roads with tons of turns and amazing views that you may have only seen videos or pictures of? Well, this is it, only better. I can't even describe how much fun it s riding down this highway. Every few seconds you're carving around a turn and lining yourself up for the next one. It was awesome. I was tempted to turn around and do the whole thing again. And when you get to the end, there's a free ferry which crosses a river. Call me a kid, but that was pretty cool too.
I'm not an expert at riding, but I kept a good pace without getting ridiculous. I lucked out too and had almost nobody in front of me. Almost the entire road is double yellow and for a good reason, and following a minivan doing 10 under the limit is no fun. At first I had an RCMP truck follow me for a good 15 minutes before I decided to pull over and let him get some distance so I could actually have some "fun" on my ride.
But, it's not all good news. After a good section of twisties, I noticed something felt "off" about my bike's handling. I pulled over and looked at my back tire. Low and behold, my rear tire has barely any tread left. It had plenty of tread when I started my trip, but I guess 3000kms of highway speeds can eat a tire fast. What's more, there was an inch long gash in one spot. Fuuuuuck. I checked the tire pressure and did the soap test and no air bubbles, so it doesn't appear to be leaking. Either way though, it makes me feel uneasy riding on it. I called around the nearby towns and no one has a tire in the size I need. Called up a place in Calgary and they have the exact same tire on hand, so I made an appointment to have it swapped out. Now I just need to pray that it holds out till then.
Right now I'm in Cranbrook for the night. Probably going to Banff tomorrow, then back to Calgary to visit a good friend of mine. C'mon rear tire, don't fail me now!
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