Day Ten to Fairview

I woke up today at the Mosquito Camp Site freezing. The temperature in the Banff Mountain Valley drops like a rock as soon as the sun goes behind the mountains. The shadows are like ice. The tent was on a gravel pad. All night, I tossed around from the temperature hurting my head. So at 6:00 am I was as rested as I was going to get. Not only did the cold make it a hard night, but I kept waking up to the sound of what I thought was a bear outside. In the morning I figured out that I was actually snoring so loud that I was actually waking myself up! It's one thing to have someone tell you that you snore loudly. It's quite another to realize that you snore so loud that in the middle of the night you actually fooled yourself into thinking there was a bear somewhere around you. I spent the morning laughing at the thought of how silly I was and that I actually had probably scared the bears away with my snoring.

I packed up my stuff and started to head out. I was alarmed to notice that the warning lights were blinking again. I turned the bike off and restarted it and the lights kept blinking. The thoughts of having to end the trip entered my mind. So I checked the oil and decided that its pretty hard to judge the level. So I added a pint and figured that I would give it a better look when I wasn't 100 miles from nowhere and on level ground. On my bike, the oil is checked by looking in a glass window in the side of the engine. Don’t get me wrong I love my bike and it truly is better than all other bikes (yes I am mainly referring to Evan’s Harley) but it is really hard to balance the bike straight up and down and look in a little window on the bottom of the engine. Fear of being pinned under my own bike is always foremost in my mind while I am doing it. Yes, if it happens I am sure a guy on a Harley would find me - oh the humiliation. So I put the cap on a drove out to the road. The light was still blinking so I said a little prayer to the God of BMW's or any god that would listen. Then I started laughing about just how crazy this all is and figured I’d just do it. As I cracked the throttle and added even more distance to Calgary I realized just how damn cold it really was. Needless to say by the time I was going 65 I wasn’t laughing at more. So I turned on the seat and hand warmers. The bike was so cold that the temperature gage was sitting on the bottom even after running for 30 minutes down the road. After staring at the gages for 45 minutes I decided to pull off and snap a picture of mountains. I figured I would just jump off and snap the shot. So I just left the bike running. I returned to bike to discover that it had warmed up and the light had go off. Thank you God. I just have a cold-blooded bike. No problems the rest of the day. It must be a fluid level sensor issue. Once that issue was put to bed I was able to enjoy the view.

The road runs right down the middle of two mountain ranges. I know I have been saying it too much already, but it was beautiful. I followed route 93 all the way to the entrance to Jasper Park. I wished I could go explore it but I am starting to feel the pressure to hit the Alaskan Hwy. It is time to make some time. So I turned west and headed for Dawson Creek. The next town of Hilton was 3 hours and the terrain was starting to flatten out after about a hour. When I got to Hilton is gassed up and headed north for about 100 miles to Grand Cash. It was 12:30 and I decided to top off the tank and get a sandwich at Subway. The town was very friendly. A guy talked to me in the parking lot for 10 minutes about my trip. Once inside Subway another guy named Ted struck up a conversation while I peeled off my extra clothing. Those motorcycle pants were awesome in the morning but it was heating up and I was beginning to really sweat.

Ted was riding an old 450 Honda , so we talked the usual stuff. He was in town to help out with some work on local jeep trails. Once on the road I followed along behind him. It was about 160 to Grand Prairie so after about an hour he pulled off to stretch his legs. I needed to stretch also so I pulled over. I snapped a picture of these guys unloading part of a crane used for coal mining. This thing was huge.
Ted and I continued talking about the area and he invited me to crash in a spare room. I thought it over and decided a bed sounded pretty good after the cold bed of rocks the night before. The town was actually about sixty miles outside of Grand Prairie. So it really added to the drive. I said something about it to him at the next stop and he said the Peace River Road ran right up to the Alaskan Hwy. We were just moving up from the start point of Dawson Creek. We got to his home and I was exhausted and wondering what I had gotten myself into. Checked it out and invited him to get a bite to eat. I grabbed a quick shower and we drove up town to get Chinese. This was a welcome change from jerky and dried fruit. That was about it, Well its 11:30 and I have to get some sleep.