This morning, I woke up again arount 3:00AM. No idea why - I wasn't cold this time and everything sounded pretty much the same as it did when I went to sleep, so I just flipped over and went back to sleep.
I woke up for real at about 6:30, and the air was cool (not cold) and very fresh. Highway traffic was quite easy to hear, and it sounded like some of the truckers were having jake braking competitions or something. I felt very refreshed and despite briefly waking up earlier, I felt like I'd had a great sleep. Here's my first view outside of the tent:
I got up, got cleaned up, had a small bite to eat, and pondered the mosquito netting in my tent. It worked very well - with the swarms that were out in the evening, I was worried I was going to wake up a dried husk, emptied of blood. Fortunately, this was what happened:
Yeah, &*@% you, mosquito... you and all your annoying little friends. I hope you had fun all night, trying to get me through the netting, BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!
Anyway, I had tons of time to work with, so I did everything nice and slow this morning and took my time. By the time I'd showered and flipped the tent over to dry, a lot of the RVs had gone (and so had the one other tenter). I checked the BC highway website and good news - the crash and spill had been cleaned up and the highway was clear.
I couldn't help looking around - the scenery was still catching my eye:
After the tent had dried, I finished packing up the bike and went into the main building to check out. While I was there, I asked about what in the world was making all the "eeeeeeeeeee" sounds last night. The lady at the desk gave me a very piercing "well, duh" look and said, "Crickets. You know, crickets."
Well, crickets don't make that kind of sound where I'm from - they do the "chirp, chirp" thing, not one constant, loud tone. I wonder how they relate to the crickets I'm familiar with in terms of size, hmm...
Anyway, I finished checking out, checked over the KLR again, and headed out. I had a short day scheduled, and I'm sure that the KLR as well as myself were happy about that. Got gas in Valemount (54MPG) and hit the highway.
The views by this time had taken on a whole new form, but were still spectacular. From Harkonnen Hill:
To other places that left me wondering if people had ever been there. For example, if you got into a helicopter and flew to the top of this mountain, would you see footprints crossing the bowl where all the snow was? And if so, would they be human? Deer? Yeti? If you went back 500 or 1000 or 10000 years, would there be footprints there then, too? How long ago would you have to go to find when that snowy mountainside was a lush, humid jungle? What kind of dinosaurs lived there? Is my bike using their remains as fuel right now? You see, this is the kind of stuff I think about.
The highway was in good shape and there was less RV and bus traffic than I'd seen for the past few days:
Fortunately, the road was quite level at this point, so everyone was doing a good, constant speed. There were still good places to pull over and take pictures, though - like here, where I had a sip from my water pack and ate some beef jerky while gazing at Mount Boobies (I've indicated Mount Superfluousthirdnipple with a red arrow):
Got gas and stretched my legs in Blue River (60MPG) and enjoyed the sights and smells. It was starting to get quite warm out and after just a couple of minutes off the bike I was sweating heavily.
A short ride later, I was in Clearwater. The KOA was very easy to find - it's huge and the signage was good. I pulled in, signed in (once again, the only motorcyclist at the campground), and then headed off to my campsite. The campsite itself was quite nice - partially enclosed, a gravel pad, and a picnic table:
The KOA itself feels much more commercial than, say, Sundance Lodges did. Lots more kids running around, lots more slurpee-style drinks and playgrounds, that sort of thing.
It was very humid and warm, and while setting up the tent didn't take any more time, it left me, well, feeling pretty gross. Just as I got the rainfly on the tent, it started to rain. I tossed everything into the tent that needed to be there, and scampered off to the main building to look at what they had for supplies, do some laundry, and try to catch up on email and postings.
Just as I was putting in laundry, the rain went from a light drizzle to something biblical. I could feel the air being pushed out of the way of the rain as it started to fall. Fortunately, it brought with it some instant cooling and after it stopped, the air - while still humid - was much cooler and more pleasant.
I noticed something here, though - if I decide to do this kind of trip again and camp at private sites like this, I really don't need to carry, well... anything in the way of food. Every place I'd been to had a little store, and while some of then charged ridiculous amounts for it, that's a fair amount of room and weight I could save next time. Most of the sites were located either in or by a town, too - so just hit a grocery store or something for some soup or beans or whatever and do it that way...
After laundry was done (and I'd pretty much given up on internet access), I wandered around the campground a bit and then returned to my campsite to do up some supper. As my freeze-dried grilled chicken and mashed potatoes (which were delicious again, by the way) cooked, I spent some very pleasant time relaxing, listening to music, and jotting down some notes.
As the evening went on, the mosquitoes came out in force again - enough so that I didn't even bother with the bug repellent, and just headed into the tent. As the sun went down I didn't worry about what kind of insect was making those weird noises, I just relaxed and enjoyed how everything was going.
While I still missed Mrs. HAL tremendously, I didn't feel homesick and I felt like I had finally gotten into my groove and was really enjoying the adventure. Maybe because it was a short day and I'd had a good sleep? I don't know. But I sure felt good about how everything was going. And - I had clean laundry! And the heavy rain had washed most of the rain crud off the bike!
As I was lying in my sleeping bag, a steady rain started and brought a light, fresh breeze with it that cut through my headphones and lulled me to sleep quite nicely.
Safe riding!
Odometer reading at the end of Day 5: 12811.8km
Distance so far this trip: 2247.8km
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