Day 15- Banff.

41 miles.

Today just started off shitty. I went to the bear box to get cooking stuff and dropped and broke my 3/4 full bottle of Jameson. Alright, no big deal. We make coffee and Rudi decides he's gonna fix his leaking valve cover. No big deal.
I'm in the bathroom with diarrhea and I hear him yell out my name. This isn't good. As he was tightening the center nut on the valve cover gasket the stud stripped from the cylinder head. This isn't good.
We were pretty much packed up and we talked to the rangers about leaving our stuff for a couple hours while we sorted it all out.
I headed into Banff and went to the only shop in town, they didn't want to work on a bike, but they gave me the name of a shop in Canmore, about 15km east.
I find a pay phone and talk to Greg Waldner at Summit Motorsports, www.bsummit.com. He says he can do the heliocoil, but probably not today. I arrange with Progressive to get towed to the shop. $5 a year for 5 tows is the best deal ever!!
We wait almost 4 hours for the tow truck to arrive at the campground and we finally make it to Greg's shop. He has the right size heliocoil in stock and agrees to do it today, so we get the bike ready for him to install it. He's a super nice guy with a new little shop and he also rents bikes and does tours. If I ever make it back up here I'm gonna hit him up for sure.
We stop by a Safeway for some groceries and they fly off my rack on the freeway. Now it's starting to rain. I like Canada and the people here, but Canada hates us. Like Southpark said, "blame Canada". I hope the next few days are better.

No Bug report today. Sorry.




Hiking around, waiting for the tow truck.



Do not eat.



One mad Rudi.



Working in the back of Greg's shop.

Day 14- Calgary to Banff.

258 miles.

Tim Hortons is awesome. We stopped there and had donuts and coffee before heading to the Canadian Badlands to visit the Royal Tyrell Museum. It's about 170km northeast of Calgary and is one of the largest dinosaur museums in the world.
We got into the town Drumheller, where it is located and were immediately swarmed by dinosaur stuff everywhere. They take dinos very seriously in this town.
The museum was pretty amazing and they had tons of complete skeletons, many which were found in the nearby badlands. Even Queen Elizabeth has been there, I wonder if she braved the boring ride there or got to take a chopper.
From there we headed west once again and made a beeline to Banff. We eventually got there, stocked up on food and got a spot at Two Jack Lake campground. The Provincial campgrounds are expensive ($21.50-$40.00), but they are really nice and have hot water. Chef Rudi cooked up an awesome meal again and we headed into Banff to check the town out.
Banff is like any other resort town, tons of tourist shops and "resort wear" shops, but we're tourists right now so we soaked it up and bought postcards and other crap. We also found a coffee shop with free wifi, so we caught up with our emails and internetting since our phones are off here.




Rudisaurus Rex.



Tyrannosaurus Rex.



Don't pay the fish.



Some kind of Dino.



Another Dino.



Downtown.



Not a safe neighborhood.



Proof that man was around with the dinosaur.


Wheat County. Alberta.


Middle of nowhere.



Two Jack Main campground. Site 2G.



Lake Minnewanka.



Lake Minnewanka.



Bears fucking.



Dream car.

Bug Report.
9.5/10
Another day of smashing bugs and today was great. I even caught a little yellow butterfly on my forks. Take that jerks!

Day 13- Glacier NP to Calgary.

260 miles.

We left our campsite and made the trek over Logan Pass. They have been doing tons of construction along the Going to the Sun Road, so we got to sit in traffic. By the time we got to the top it was starting to rain and getting really windy and cold. It took about 2 hours to do the 40 or so mile trip.
We fueled up and got our paperwork ready to cross into Canada. Rudi was asked to pull in for an inspection and it took forever, I figured he was getting a cavity search or the Canadian Welcome. They searched me too, but they just wanted to make sure I was carrying bear mace and not human mace.
We took our obligatory photo in front of the welcome sign and headed on our way, we finally made it!
Alberta is like the Midwest. Pretty flat and very windy. We got pounded. It is very beautiful, but the wind was miserable. We made it into Calgary and started looking for hotels, they were all super expensive, just like the fuel. We ended up at an overpriced dump, but it was the cheapest. Rudi went out to buy some more oil and I stayed in and caught up on stuff. We only had one queen bed, but it was still twice the size of our tent. I slept like a baby.




Glacier NP "Jammer"



Last US Divide crossing.



Eewwww Eeesssss Aaaaayyyyy!!!!! Vee luuuv eeett!



Border wait.



I'm in two countries at once!!!!



More border wait.



Rudi mad. Me glad.



Alberta. Canada or Kasas, USA?

Bug Report.
9/10
I fucked them up again. I even got some smears. I think the national bird in Canada is the mosquito.

Day 12- Seeley Lake to Glacier NP.

171 miles.

We made the trek down the dirt road and back onto Highway 83. It's a super fun, fast, and smooth road through the forest. The speed limit in Montana is 75 pretty much everywhere, except in towns. It makes for awesome riding.
We stopped in Bigfork for breakfast, gas, and bought some Flathead cherries.
We made it to the park early and found an awesome campsite at Sprague Creek. It's right on the shore of Lake McDonald, so the first thing we did was go for a swim/bath. It is a super deep lake formed by an ancient glacier, it's sand and rock bottomed and the water is super clear.
We then rode The Going to the Sun Road to the top of Logan Pass. It's amazing up there and we hiked up through snow and along glacial lakes. The views were amazing and we saw some mountain goats.
Back at the campground we made dinner and went for another swim. We met our neighbors, Kate and Hannah and we sat around their campfire talking and roasting marshmallows. Today was most excellent.



Glacial lake.



Hidden Lake, I think.



Tourist viewpoint.



Mountain Goat.



Mom and baby.



Glacier NP

Bug Report.
6/10
The bugs were mellow today, a few on our way to the park. No in the park.

Day 11- Hebgen Lake to Seeley Lake.

346 miles.

We woke up super early in order to get to Missoula in time for Rudi to get his new tire. It was butt ass cold, probably in the high 30's. We froze our asses off until the sun came up.
I was a little bummed we couldn't take the roads I took last year, instead we just mashed up to the 90 and got to Missoula ASAP. The tire got installed and we left town, headed north into the mountains to explore an old ghost town called, Garnet.
It was an 11 mile dirt road to get to it and it was totally worth it. It's considered Montana's most well preserved ghost town. It's like a much smaller version of Bodie, CA. While there we also learned that there are huckleberries all over the mountains.
It was getting late and we were planning on staying at a NFS campground at Seeley Lake, being 6:30 pm on a Saturday we had no luck. Instead, we turned up a dirt fire road called, Rice Ridge Rd. About 4 miles up we found a perfect spot to camp. It was a little nerve racking camping up there, as it's grizzly country, but we were fine.




Garnet ghost town.












A big ol' blower.






TCOB.












Safety Zone.



Old flooded mine shaft.



Dinner.



Dessert.


Rice Ridge.

Bug Report.
8/10
Lots of good ones, I even have a new moth friend.