Despite having a little bit of trouble falling asleep the night before (I always find it difficult to fall asleep the first night or two when I'm away from home), I woke up feeling quite refreshed. Unfortunately, the first thing I heard was the wind rattling the windows again. At least this time they were coming from the west, so I'd be heading right into them instead of fighting to ride in a straight line.
As I was getting up, I could hear the guest in the other room going through his morning routine, which pretty much consisted of making nasty cat-like hacking noises. I showered, packed, and then headed downstairs. I'm unfamiliar with B&B protocol, so I don't know if this is normal, but the previous evening I was asked when I would like breakfast. I said 8:30.
Lo and behold, when I went downstairs, breakfast was ready - poached eggs on toast and a sausage. Fresh fruit on the side. It was excellent. The other guest and Cheryle and Manfred were at the table too and we all swapped stories and had a good time. And I'll reiterate - the food was excellent!
After we finished breakfast, it was time to go pick up the KLR from its safe spot (it was very nice to have a safe place to keep it overnight). The wind was blowing pretty hard but nothing like the previous day. Got the KLR back to Prairie Bells and started to load it up.
Once all the luggage was on and secure, I said goodbye to Cheryle, Manfred, and their grandkids. One of them was very interested in the bike and asked me many questions about it in rapid-fire succession (yes, I've made it go fast... no, not THAT fast, that's kind of scary... yes, I can go over a curb with it... yes, I can put two people on it if I want... no, I've only done a jump once and that was by accident...), again, it just drove the point home that these are good people who are comfortable with people staying at their B&B.
Prairie Bells is a great place and I will stay there again. They're also motorcycle friendly!
I got gas on the way out of town (38.7MPG, ouch) and headed west. I decided to take Hwy 570 instead of Hwy 9 because I wanted to enjoy more remote roads. What a great decision. Hwy 570 was... well, let's let the picture do the talking:
Oh yeah... absolutely gorgeous pavement, and wonder of wonders, almost no traffic again! I felt like I was one with the KLR - despite the headwind, the bike ate up the road like it was no effort at all. As we travelled west, the road had more light curves in it and became gradually more hilly.
Ah, bliss.
Two things really caught my attention while I was on Hwy 570. The first was Drumheller. Seriously, as soon as this stuff swam up out of the distance, it finally hit me that I was far from home:
It was amazing. I don't care if it's natural rock formations, excavated rock from a mine, or a giant pile of garbage that has stuff growing on it - when you look at the prairie around it and then back at it, it's jarring how different it is.
Eventually I got to the Hoodoo rest stop, which again looks amazing, but there are some stairs up part of the way and you can climb around on it if you want. I pulled in and parked the KLR amongst the giant RVs and trucks:
The area is quite clean and the signs are in good shape and easy to read:
Anyone looking for a new job? I have it on good authority they're looking for coal miners in the Drumheller area (people who can't travel through time need not apply):
And the rock itself was amazing:
I went up the stairs and crawled around on the rock a bit but decided it would be really ironic if I fell and hit my head while my helmet was hanging on the handlebars a few hundred feet away. Besides, I had more ground to cover! Back on the road (I should mention again how great the roads are in the area), I got gas in Drumheller (41MPG).
The second thing that caught my attention was I had my first real look at the Rockies from the ground. Distant, but real:
I must admit, I was very, very excited at this point. My trusty KLR and I had now officially ventured farther from home than ever before. Actually... I'd never driven anything this far before. The scenery, the smells... what an eye-opener!
I rode for a while longer and got gas again (49MPG, coming back up, whew). It sounds silly, but it was really neat watching the mountains grow closer and closer. I wish I'd stopped and taken more photos!
I turned south on Hwy 22 (the Cowboy Trail). I expected it to be more great views, but it feels very... overdeveloped? Manufactured? Something like that. Not the rugged beauty that I had seen growing on the horizon.
Hwy 22 met Hwy 1, where I turned west. Now THAT was a busy highway. Tons of traffic, and everyone seemed to want me to go faster. I was running the KLR hard to keep up.
A short time later, it was time to turn sough on Hwy 40, also known as the Kananaskis Trail.
If I had to pick a piece of road to ride day in and day out for the rest of my life, this would be it. Nice curves and hills, the mountains looming... there were tons of people out on bicycles, too - it seems to be a very popular area, but you get the feeling that nobody is rushing and everyone's just enjoying their day on the road. It's fantastic:
It's an absolutely gorgeous road, really. After enjoying about 20km of it, I saw the sign for my stop for the evening - Sundance Lodges. I turned off and followed the signs until I came to the main building:
I went in and was greeted warmly by the two ladies at the desk. They were friendly but emphasized the fact that the site is in bear country and it was very important to follow a few rules. No problem - I've no desire to be mauled by a bear (or to have to break up an attempted mating session between a bear and the KLR), so I listened closely and handed them my extra food for them to store in the lodge overnight.
There were lots of families there, which was great to see... but I must admit, it did make me lonely and a little homesick. No time for that, though - I needed to set up Camp KLR for the first time. The KLR unloaded nicely (and I think it gave a happy sigh when its fat owner and a bunch of luggage finally got off it), and I set about putting up the tent. A groundsheet, two poles and four little pins later and that was pretty much it.
I couldn't for the life of me get the pegs into the ground - it was too hard. And, of course, I'd left my little hatchet at home because of weight and space restrictions. I hunted around and found a universal tool that did the job quite nicely:
With the tent up and secure, camp KLR was up and running:
Then... it was time for supper. I broke out my little Trangia stove and the food:
Supper was freeze-dried grilled chicken and mashed potatoes with some Twizzler-ish things for desert.
After supper, I cleaned up and wandered around the campground for a while. The sites are treed on three sides and there is a decent amount of room between them. The main lodge is clean and has everything from real food to junk food (hence the Twizzler things) to souveniers and t-shirts. The staff was really friendly, even to some smelly guy on a motorcycle, and... the bathrooms were great, which was a relief because I can't hack dirty or poorly-maintained bathrooms (blugh).
There is a little open area with some nets for playing soccer or volleyball or badminton, but who cares about that - it's all about the view. Absolutely stunning!
I kept walking up and down this one particular pathway to watch this one mountain come into view as I rounded a curve - it was stunning. Everyone knows Mount Greyskull, right?
And there was Mount Bruticus:
Turning around and walking a few steps the other way revealed the majesty of Melmac Peak:
Everywhere I looked, there was more amazing scenery:
It was a great place for my first campsite. Nestled at the base of the Rockies. This was the first time since I'd left home that I'd felt the air was different. It wasn't prairie air anymore.
I sat down at the picnic table to jot down my notes from the day and copy the pictures off of the cameras. Occasionally, a vehicle would drive slowly by, or some parents would be walking their kids to the field to play or to the lodge to get ready for bed. A couple of people waved and said hello as they went by, I waved back.
It felt kind of strange to be so far away from home, but before I left, Mrs. HAL had a great idea and suggested I pick up a new mp3 player (my old one was getting long in the tooth) and make sure I had good music on it. As I turned it on, I immediately felt better about everything - she was right again!
A little while later, I settled down into my tent and listened to the various birds and animals going about their business before putting my music back on and falling asleep.
The KLR turned 12 today!
Safe riding!
Odometer reading at the end of Day 3: 12125.9km
Distance so far this trip: 1561.9km
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