West Canada - CCW 1801
We made it! After almost two weeks of travelling through the gorgeous mountain ranges and river valleys of British Columbia and Alberta, we have returned to Vancouver! Our final riding day took us from Kamloops along the twisty road at Duffy Lake. The big highlight of the day was Whistler, the beautiful olympic town in the mountains north of Vancouver. The Sea-To-Sky-Highway finally led us back to Vancouver. A final dinner, and then we’ll have to say goodbye to our new friends! so goodbye Carlos and Denise, Roberto and Ana, Steve and Marie, Winfried and Gabriella, Christina and Stephen. Thank you all for the great atmosphere and friendship during this tour and hope to see you all on another Edelweiss tour somewhere, sometime!! all the best, Ted and Marko
After a nice and relaxed restday in Jasper the crew was ready to hit the road again for the longest day in this tour: more than 500 km on the menu today! Heading out Jasper with a bit cloudy and cool morning we rode out of the province of Alberta back into British Columbia, which meant that we had an extra hour of riding today! First photostop was mount Robson , the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies, almost 4000 m Soon the temperature began to rise again and ended up at 38 degrees Celsius down in Kamloops. Underway we stopped for a giant caribou along the road, and everybody had him on picture! In a nice and cosy coffeeshop we had a nice espresso, capuccino or other coffee varation. Again underway the lunch spot was at Dutch lake, where we had a nice terrace at the lakeside in the shade! The final highlight of the day was the beautiful waterfall Helmcken Falls - then we headed straight to Kamloops, in search of a cool air conditioner!
Rest day - after more than 2000 kilometers, we definitely deserve it! But in the middle of all this beauty, nobody really wanted to rest all day. Our British and Guatemalan couples even decided to leave at 6:30am (!) to enjoy the nature in the morning light and before the other tourists arrived. The rest of us slept in, enjoyed a very nice breakfast buffet and then started our trip to Maligne Lake. At the lake we decided to take an excursion on a tour boat to Spirit Island- and were rewarded with magnificent scenery in an unspoiled nature! Now everybody is back in Jasper, ready to explore the little town!
What a blast, what a day! Absolutely one of the most beautiful routes in the world! From beginning in Lake Louise to the very end up in Jasper we enjoyed the full 240km of astonishing views, dramatic glaciers, fast and slow streaming rivers, powerful waterfalls and so on and so on. Starting out at `lake Louise, one of the most photographed lakes in the world, we began this wonderful day already at 7 in the morning, then took a nice breakfast back in the hotel and then rode up the Iceland Parkway all the way to Jasper. In the middle of the day we had a nice picnic at the banks of the river, which was quite a nice break to digest all the impressions of this fantastic landscape Not too much text, pictures will talk for themselves!
Just when we thought that the scenery can’t get any better - we arrived in Kootenay-Nationalpark! It’s difficult to describe the beauty of this region...clear lakes, snow-covered mountains, green pastures, wild rivers - no wonder that this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site! Banff is just as pretty - but it gets fairly busy on beautiful days like today. Finally the Bow Valley Parkway lead us to our world-famous destination: Lake Louise!
What a breathtaking day again. View after view after view.....in Canada , with this kind of beautiful weather throughout the day, all our senses have been treated very well ! Heading out in northeastern direction we stayed on the transcanadian highway the entire day. But in Canada that is really not a punishment. Riding through two national parks today and going up the Meadown in the Sky parkway is giving us the whole day spectaculair views over this beautiful area in British Columbia. Tired but with a sense of satisfaction we ended up the day in the restaurant , with a little birthday ceremony of Carlos
The ride from Nelson to Vernon can only be described with one word: breathtaking! Scenic lakes (Kootenay, Slocan and Arrow), cute little towns (Kaslo and Nakusp), all connected by twisty mountain roads and one ferry - what more could a motorcycle rider wish for? And to top it all, we saw a black bear today, plus a few deer - what a day!
What a wonderful riding day we had in this amzaing country! We took off a little earlier to have a nice breakfast in a restaurant close to the hotel. And afrer having the morning brief we headed in eastern direction again to fully enjoy the nature and landscapes. Before the morning coffeestop we payed a visit to a smal but wonderful museum called Kettle River Museum. Here they hold an amazing array of antifque stuff mostly related to the railroad who was there in the last century. After leaving this we stopped in Greenwood , which looked like we were in an old cowboy movie. Net to the saloon we all had a very good coffee with some self made pie. Riding further along the lakes and rivers we fully enjoyed the long swerving curves and well maintained roads towards our lunchstop at Lake Christina. In the meantime the temperature was about 35 celsius so some of us tooka jump into the refreshing lake. Then the last leg of this wonderful riding day , one tankstop and arrived in Nelson at Lake Kootenay A nice dinner outside and everybody could look back at a very nice riding day!
Austria, England, Germany, Guatemala, Netherlands and USA - these are the nationalities on our tour group. All 12 of us departed Vancouver this morning on our way to explore British Columbia and Alberta. We crossed the beautiful Cascade Mountains on our way east. And those of us that thought that Canada is a cold place were in for a suprise... 36 degrees Centigrade are not unusual in this part of the country, where wine growing is one of the main businesses. Lake Osoyoos was a welcomed refreshment after the warm day!
A new motorcycle adventure is about to begin: the West Canada tour through the astonishing landscapes of this amazing part of Canada. Today all the customers arrived over the day and enjoyed as much as they could the beauty of this vibrant city! The weather is beautiful and the weather outlook for the tour looks also very promising, bikes are prepared and ready to roll, so all ingredients for a wonderful tour are there! Welcome briefing is done, everybody enjoyed the welcome dinner and the mood in the group is already super! One night sleep and tomorrow we will head out Vancouver in eastern direction and start this great tour!!