Canada - Motorcycling the Canadian Rockies

top: Lake Maligne
2nd: the disappearing lake on the road to Lake Maligne
3rd: Lake Louise

What an amazing ride! This was my first motorcycle road trip, and I have to say that winding roads are growing on me. There was at least one hairpin corner that I was certain I was going to go down on when it suddenly turned to gravel halfway through due to a recent landslide, while I was still very much leaning into the turn (a motorcyclist's worst nightmare), but incredibly the bike pulled through it smoothly. whew...

The scenery was spectacular. Breathtaking.

Riding through the ice fields in the top of the Rockies I got VERY cold, just in time for us to meet up with an old friend from highschool who was on his own 34 day trip on a BMW touring bike with heated grips and plug-in thermal underwear. I so wanted to kick his ass ;)

The stay at Lake Louise was great and we were upgraded to a room on the gold floor simply because I was a member of the Fairmont hotel chain's President's Club (their points program) after having stayed there a few nights for a scientific conference. We had a private concierge on that floor as well as an honor bar and canapes served in the private lounge for our floor. I took a little hike/jog around to the end of Lake Louise in the morning and befriended a marmot along the way.

I saw 5 black bears along our route (1 was a tiny cub standing on the side or the road on his hind legs munching something he was holding in his hands/front paws, 2 looked to be yearlings, and 2 were much larger). We also enjoyed getting to see a baby big horn sheep with its family (including his angry father who very much disliked the asian tourist woman who wanted to have her toddler's picture taken with the baby sheep...she nearly had his head and horns up her behind as she ran from him holding her baby in the air...duh).

At Jasper we took the boat trip out toward the end of Lake Maligne (the top picture with me in it). What an amazing place. The water was completely milky turquoise due to the glacial rock flour (rock ground to powder by the glacier then deposited in the lakes and rivers) lending a very surreal quality to the scenery. The canadian rockies look absolutely photoshopped when you see the lakes and rivers and lush green patches mixed in with blue-white glaciers and stark rocky peaks. I dream of going back to hike trails and see more of that scenery.