Vancouver to Banff

Leaving Vancouver, we headed up the Sea to Sky Highway. The views were amazing, and the road was newly paved and twisty. Whistler was a mess of traffic, but we pressed on in good time so that we could make it to Pemberton by lunch time. I had been through Pemberton a couple of times in my travels and know that they have good restaurants.

When we got to Pemberton, I was feeling pretty hungry and so my attention was fading. We waited at the light to turn off the main road and when the light turned green I made a left turn only to see two very distinctive BMW's motorcycles. Those bikes were my friends Simon and Lisa Thomas. I thought, "No friggin way", and pulled off the road to see them sitting on the porch of a restaurant. It was only two weeks before that I had seen them in Seattle for lunch. Turns out that I have now reached "level 5 clinger" in the stalking realm.

L&S have been good friends for about 10 years and I have had the privileged to host them in my home and catch up with them in Baja, Mexico.

So it was quite funny to once again, run into them on the road. Simon saw us stopped at the light and said to himself "There's a couple of bikes that look like they are going some......oh fer fuck's sake"

We stopped briefly, just to say hello and got back on the road. After lunch, we started on some dirt tracks that my friend Dave on Vancouver island gave us. It is possible to take dirt tracks all the way to Banff and beyond, but seeing we had to get to Colorado by the end of the month we opted to take some, but not all of the dirt tracks.

(A view from one of our campsites)

(Big ass pipeline)

(We met this guy on a KTM 690 and a Mosko Moto duffle. He had ridden the Trans American Trail west and we now riding the Trans American Trail east) He actually offer the shirt off his back to Lyndsey because she was getting wet through her rain jacket.

We stopped at this Motorcycle Museum, but it was closed. The Cafe was open, and the food was good.

(Riding the Canada 1)

(I found these sunglasses in a bathroom at a restaurant. Score!)

One of the towns we passed through was home to one of the largest copper mines in the world. This truck was on display. This was a small truck

(Camping along a picturesque river in BC)

One of the challenging things with traveling on a budget is trying not to blow your money on things like hotels. So, even when it's raining, sometimes you have to suck it up and camp. We were fortunate that we hadn't had very much rain throughout the trip thus far, but it can wear you down and change your mood. You can get pretty miserable when you and everything you have is wet.

Feeling exhausted, we were miles from Banff when we decided to camp along a river. We had been using several resources to find free camping. One of our favorites was Ioverlander.com. Ioverlander is a database of traveler contributed information about campsites, hotels, border crossings and more. It is one of the most invaluable items in our toolbox and used almost on a daily basis. The campsite we found was just off a road. We had to do a little bushwhacking to get the bikes in, but we managed just fine and got camp setup before the rain.

(taking a power nap while the water boils)

We finally made it Banff, home of the Mountain Film festival and launching point for the continental divide trail. After spending the day in Banff, we were ready for a new chapter of this adventure.