Canadian Rockies (day 26)

Day 26 – Wednesday, July 25th (465 miles,Coal River, BC to Fort St. John, BC):

This morning I woke up around 5am after getting into my campsite at 11pm last night and not getting much sleep throughout the night. After packing up my things and getting my motorcycle ready, I grabbed my tent, walked right over to the dumpster at the campsite, and threw my tent in. Every night that I’ve camped on this trip, I’ve woken up with nearly everything in my tent wet. My tent was a single-wall tent, so the condensation was almost impossible to keep out. I finally grew tired enough of waking up in a wet tent and decided it had to go!

The ride today was incredible. Beautiful mountains, glacial lakes, and rivers surrounded me for most of the ride. My first stop for gas today was at the Northern Rockies Lodge on Muncho Lake. This lake and the surrounding area might be the most beautiful place I have come to on this trip so far. The lake sits in the middle of the Canadian Rockies and the water is crystal clear.

I ate breakfast at the Northern Rockies Lodge and as I was getting on my bike to continue riding, I met a group of three older men (two were brothers) who were also on a motorcycle trip. After speaking with them for about 20 minutes, I found out that they live in British Columbia and were on a ride for about a week, visiting different places within the province. The oldest of the three was driving a beautiful KTM motorcycle. As I started asking him questions, he told me that he has ridden around the world on motorcycles multiple times! He has done London to NYC, Alaska to Chile, and ridden in parts of Africa, completing some of these various trips more than once. I was in total amazement. Up until this trip, I did not know much about people riding around the world on their motorcycles (I thought Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman were the only ones to do this!) , but I have now realized that this is more common than I thought. Its definitely got me thinking about my next big trip!

I spoke with the three gentleman for a few more minutes and then got back on my bike to ride. Over the next few hours, the road continued winding through the Canadian Rockies, passing Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Toad River, and other scenic areas. I made a brief stop in Toad River to fill up my gas tank and met a group of about 15 girls and 2-3 guys that had ridden their bicycles from Austin, TX to BC so far, heading north to Alaska. We traded a few suggestions of things to see, as we were going in opposite directions, and I continued on my way.

As the afternoon progressed, the mountains disappeared and the landscape changed more into open fields that are used for farming. I rode until I arrived in Fort Nelson, where I stopped to get gas and headed to the visitor center for about 30 minutes for the free wifi. Wifi has been hard to get over the past few days! I booked a hotel in Fort St. John (another 4 hours down the road) for the night and got back on the bike.

I arrived in Fort St. John at about 9pm, checked into my hotel, and ordered some food. It was a great day overall, with perfect weather, stunning scenery yet again, and met some unique people great stories.

Goat on road - edited .JPG