2009 Summer Motorcycle Trip: Day 6 - Lake Louise to Grande Prairie

Cold night. 3C Slept in after struggling to stay asleep. Riding at 9:30. I wanted to see the great divide in Lake Louise – a spot where a river forks and half the water flows to the Pacific.. the other to the Arctic. I was there 14 years ago with the family. But now it is blocked off and inaccessible. I then went to Moraine Lake in LL for the first time. 11 kms each way down a side road.. but it didn’t disappoint. Busy place with busses and RVs. I finally got on the Icefields Parkway and completely enjoyed the day and the ride. Lots of photos of places I had been twice before.. and some new ones. Never tired of looking at the changing face of the mountains and lakes, and streams.
Met 3 guys from Kentucky on similar bikes. They were off to Alaska. Saw and spoke to them a few times at different places.
I walked up to the edge of the Columbia ice field glacier.... disappointing this time as you no longer were allowed to walk on the glacier. Global warming had made it too dangerous. 4 deaths since I was there last made it considered unsafe. Sign marked spot (no ice there now) were a 4 year boy on July 4th 2001 fell though weak snow into a crevasse. He and the 3 other accidents all were deaths.. they simply could not be accessed before the cold killed them. I was shocked the location of a sign marking the edge of the glacier in 1992. The edge of the glacier now was 60 feet lower down a hill and a good 500 feet away. Roughly 60 feet thick ice had melted away back 500 feet in 17 years.
The parkway is one of those gems of a road to travel... as long as you can stand following RVs and slower moving cars. Lots of international tourists at the pull offs – many Asians. Eventually I travelled past Jasper and onto Hinton. Along that stretch of road I saw 2 herds of Goats on or beside the road and also a cow moose and calf walked across the hwy in front of me... a trucker flashed his lights at me to warm me of something... which turned out to be a good thing, timing without slowing and noticing would have been close. I stopped but was too slow with the camera to get a picture of the 2 moose on the road... but did get a photo of them grazing beside the road.
Gassed up in Hinton, made a few phone calls and headed to Grande Prairie up Hwy 40. Great road. Little traffic, sweeping turns with good straights too. Really let the hammer down and made good time. Fun ride. I arrived in GP on time.. got directions and arrived at Norris home for the night. We chatted, met his wife Julie and daughter Briele (age 22 months). Norris and I went out for my dinner – he had eaten. Norris has a V-strom same year and colour as mine. Comparisons were made.... of course. Back to his home and more chat, then turn in after updating this journal. Tomorrow, Fort Nelson is 8 hours away.
Trip Kms is just over 4500 now. Average speed moving is 97.8 km/hr. Bike has 10,900 kms now.