Sunday 16 July

Whitefish, Montana, USA

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That is a real colour. No filters applied!

From a personal point of view, but also with a bearing on the team the best news is that I can ride the bike with no problem following my torn calf muscle. Treatment includes elevation and rest – well, riding is pretty restful on these roads even if elevation is a bit difficult!

The team plan was that Ian and I should join Tom in Calgary this weekend, and we ride on together on Monday, but only after he has liberated his KTM from the air freight depot. The service and help in all things from Roddy at Motofreight has been outstanding. He arranged collection of the KTM from Birmingham on Tuesday morning (and many thanks indeed also to Cliona for sending on the V5 document, finding the keys and facilitating collection- we are all in your debt!), changed the tyres, dealt with paperwork and got the bike crated and to the airline by Friday – it arrives in Calgary today. How good is that?

While Tom is cooling his heels beneficailly visiting various friends in Calgary and on Vancouver Island, Ian and I have slowed down and risk killing time which will have to be made up later. A decision was made for us to press on southwards, and bypass Calgary; we need to get to LA by the 31st July and don’t want to be forced to rush on Interstate highways if we can avoid it. There are places to see, roads to ride! Tom will press on quickly as soon as he can, and hopefully meet up with us again in 2-3 days.

This decision made, we felt somewhat better and headed Eastwards from Stewart to Jasper in the Canadian Rockies in Alberta, arriving there after three days of varied and at times slightly tedious riding, in warm sunshine under a blue sky. Jasper is more opulent than anywhere we have been so far – a nice little touristy resort at the top of the fabled Icefields Parkway which runs up from Banff. This was obviously a great treat with magnificent scenery of course, heavily predicted and foretold so it didn’t have the impact of a surprise discovery but very beautiful nonetheless. The Canadian Rockies are big, jagged and raw; iconic destinations for adventurous skiers, and I can see why. Maybe one day…

Now we have a wifi signal!

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Jasper – pretty resort town where we couldn’t get a beer!
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Ian leads the way into the Icefield Parkway

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