Day 11 - August 16, 2010
Time: 6 hours
Kilometres: 375.6
Weather:
Calgary: Sunny, 18 C at 9:15 AM
To Drumheller: 20 C - but the coldest 20 I've ever felt
Rocky Mountain House: Sunny, 29 C at 3:45
I am never, EVER, staying at another Howard Johnsons hotel again. Last night I was in a dirty room, very noisy and very stinky. I kept the door open from the time I checked in until after 11 PM. I asked for another room, but was told it would cost me more. There were only about 7 or 8 other cars , so I'm guessing that they were not full and just couldn't be bothered. Thankfully, it is the last Howard Johnsons I've book on the this trip.
I was up at 7 (I could hear the roar of the traffic through my earplugs), had a quick breakfast and then headed over to Blackfoot Motorcycles. A few weeks ago I asked people on the Adventure Riders Forum where I could get a Schumbarth C3 helmet. They are reputed to be the quietes and most comfortable helmets available - but they are not licenced for sale in Canada or the US. The helmet meets European standards, which are more stringent than DOT (for Canada and US), but for some reason Schumbarth hasn't applied for DOT certification.
The other night I had to replace my do-it-yourself soundproofing I'd done on my GMax helmet. I replaced the weather stripping and added more electrical tape to hold things in place. When I took my helmet off yesterday, I had a piece of black electrical tape stuck to my right cheek and a black mark on my left cheek. Hmm, not a fashion statement I want to make again.
To make a long story short, the C3 fit me perfectly. I couldn't carry the old helmet with me all the way back home, so I took out a few useful pieces that I may use for something or other, and left the old helmet with them. My old helmet was about twice as heavy as the C3. My chiropractor will be happy.
From Blackfoot, I headed north through Calgary and then got onto Hwy 2, which goes north into Red Deer. I turned off at 73 and headed towards Drumheller - the heart of Alberta's badlands and also famous for the dinosaur fossils. 73 is VERY straight, but that gave me a chance to take in the surroundings. The landscape is gently rolling fields. Lots of hey is harvested here, and there are also cattle ranches. I saw one alpaca ranch and one sheep farm.
The wind was rather fierce. I hadn't fought the wind like this since the storms between Regina and Swift Current.
Up in the sky to the north, clouds were gathering and heading south. I kept an eye on them as I didn't want to go through sever storms again. This time there was no shelter. The shoulder of the road was hard, but maybe a metre wide with a rumble strip taking up about a third of it. There was no way I could safely pull over and park (a kickstand on a rumble strip doesn't seem like a good idea to me).
On the horizon, I saw the ominous dark blue clouds and a couple of thermals rising. I really wanted to see Drumheller, but I decided that that would have to wait for another trip. I headed north into the storm. I'd noticed that it was coming from the north west and headed south east. If I continued into the badlands, I would most likely get hit by the worst of the weather. It didn't make sense for me to turn around, so I headed into the storm and then when I thought I was close enough, I headed west into the blue skies.
I eventually wound up back on Hwy 2 and took that very windy ride (I was doing 120 kph and I was in the slow lane) into Red Deer. It was time for a break and I stopped in at Kelsey's for a nice warm bowl of soup. The 45 minute rest was just what I needed. I got back on HWY 2 and then veered west on Hwy 11 to Rocky Mountain House.
Sorry there aren't any pictures today. It was impossible for me to pull over safely. Instead of pics, here's a map of today's route:
Tonight is a "fix-it" night. I've done a quick repair sewing job on my riding pants, did the laundry, figured how to hook up my iPod speakers for use in the new helmet, and have readied my cold weather riding gear for tomorrow's adventure in the mountains. Would you believe that my old hiking gear (rain pants, gaters, polar fleece and rain jacket) are holding up better than my motorcycle clothes? I guess it's fair to say that without Mountain Equipment Co-op, I would probably be a very unhappy rider.
