Journey to the Sun 2017 Motorcycle Trip

Day 13 - Thursday, August 10, 2017 - Kalispell, MT to Cranbrook, BC Distance: 402km,  Time: 6:00hrs Sunny, Hot 30c to 18c Overnight: Super 8, 2370 Cranbrook Street North, Cranbrook, BC, (***), very clean with a pool and allowing MC to be parked under of the office window, very East end of town - not waking to anything. Today is a waiting day, I am at the mercy of UPS Air Freight, I was told that Fasttoys gets a delivery at 9am and again around 2pm, I hope my part is the 9am delivery - of course it is not.  So I went for lunch at 12noon, and got the call just as I was heading back to the shop, anyway part installed by 2:20pm and I am off, I have to cover 400km before darkness falls over the Kootenay Mountains and have to avoid any closed sections of Hwy#3 because of major forest fires in BC and one or two in Montana as well.  BTW the part is about 1/2" thick and the round size of a dime.  Oil drip has stopped, but the rear of the bike is dirty, and may ...

Day 12 - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 - Essex (Glacier National Park), MT to  Kalispell, MT  Distance: 106km,  Time: 6:00hrs Sunny, Hot 30c to 20c Overnight: Travelodge Kalispell, Sunset Blvd, (350 North Main Street) Kalispell, MT (***) clean with getting very worn down. This will be a bit of an odd posting, my motorcycle developed an oil leak last Saturday somewhere North of Sturgis, it was minor like drips but it stopped when the bike was cold.  Anyway the last thing I need is to lose my entire oil supply, which could lead to some major engine damage.  So once I reached Essex last Monday I found a  Kawasaki dealer called Fasttoys, sound like a good place, and it was.   Enroute to Kalispell I stopped in at a great little (super busy) coffee shop in Columbia Falls, MT called Coffee Traders Link:  https://www.coffeetraders.com/docs/SPRING%202015_MENU_CFALLS.pdf Arrived around 10am and the problem was found and temporary fix by 11:30, the part...

Day 11 - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 - Essex (Glacier National Park), MT and Return Distance: 151km,  Time: 6:30hrs, Sunny, Hot 30c to 10c Overnight: Izaak Walton Inn This will be a rest day - but I need to get Gas in West Glacier and chase the Empire Builder East to Marias Pass.  But because of track work today, the train is about 7 hours late, so i am in no rush plus I am not entering the Park, so no traffic issues either.  Scoped out my two photo locations and wait for about an hour for the eastbound Amtrak.  But my efforts paid off with some good shorts. After 11 days on the road it was time to relax at the lodge with a cold one from Great Northern Brewing

Day 10 - Monday, August 7, 2017 - Essex (Glacier National Park), MT and Return Distance: 238km,  Time: 10:30hrs, Sunny, Hot 30c to 10c - Light Rain on the East side 23c Overnight: Izaak Walton Inn This was the sole purpose of this trip - taking my motorcycle over the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park, this is the same road that Karen and I did on the Great Rail Trip of 2014 ( www.ontape.ca/rails2014 ). Glacier National Park had 1,010,000 visitors in July of 2017, so this is going to be a slow and long day - but with a motorcycle you can fit into parking spaces that a car will not so there is a plus, but it will be a slow day day for sure.  After going from West to East on the Sun Road, I exited the park at St. Mary and followed US#89 South to MT#49.   US#89 is a challenging road, it departs from St. Mary straight up the hill with curves and some rough sections of pavement, for a US numbered road it was a bit of a surprise, but the real challenge wi...

Day 9 - Sunday, August 6, 2017 - Lewistown, MT to Essex (Glacier National Park), MT Distance: 493km,  Time: 7:00hrs, Sunny, Hot 30c to 10c Overnight: Izaak Walton Inn (former Great Northern RR Crew Change Bunk House) (*****) Outstanding - one of the historical inns in the US, not to be missed. As I mentioned each place I stay or the route taken (if I don't miss the turn) has been designed in detail to include something of interest.  In the case of Lewistown it has one of the longest wooden railroad trestles in the US, and when built served two railroads which were rivals but pooled resources to cross Big Spring Creek.  Also Lewistown is the geographical centre of the state of Montana and it had a rich railroad history as well. So here are the details - This was a GN and Milwaukee Road Trestle over Spring Creek, deemed unsafe to support a train, and has been closed for years. It is several miles west of Lewistown MT. Check out his link to an interesting article on ...