Grande Prairie to Cadomin.

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A confusing start to the day as we hadn’t realised that by crossing into Alberta we had advanced an hour. After a good breakfast in the restaurant adjoining the motel we visited a couple of motorcycle shops – Ian bought a tyre (front) to fit in the next few days, & I was looking for a new helmet visor – unsuccessfully.

We left Grande Prairie at 10.30 and rode east on a freeway for 40kms before gassing up then turning South onto road 734 which soon turned into a gravel road. For the first few kms it was as firm as seal but a bit bumpier. Gradually the road got a bit rougher as we continued and eventually became 2 hard packed wheel tracks with the rest of the road on both sides, loose slippery looking dirt which we kept out of. Occasionally a large truck came the other way and we had no choice but to negotiate the slippery stuff. The road was climbing gradually and we occasionally passed a clearing amongst the trees where there was either a “nodding jenny” pumping oil or some sort of natural gas installation. Nearing the summit we passed a huge gas exploration installation with what looked like workers accommodation. One minute you are miles from anywhere and Nek minute there are trucks, pickups and people everywhere! Just after passing the installation we reached the summit at 1680m – the highest we have reached on this trip. About this point I stopped & photographed my odometer, intention was to do it at 12345.6 but decided 3 was an unlucky number so did it at 12456.7 – (close enough) It was cool but the weather was fine so the sun, a rare commodity in recent weeks, kept us warm. Stopping for photos we were looking across at the Banff, Jasper & Lake Louise areas in the Rockies. Descending to meet Highway 40 we turned left onto a fast flowing sealed road heading for Hinton. We had done around 170kms on 734 - a great gravel road. 110kms took us into Hinton on 40 where we had lunch at Tim Horton’s “welcome back Mike”

Over lunch we checked our maps & found some fantastic gravel roads that would take us 90kms to our destination of Cadomin. This was 40kms longer than staying on Hwy 40 but was well worth it as we rode some of the best gravel roads we have done so far. Winding, scenic and with not too much dust we could maintain a good pace with potholes & corrugations to keep us alert.

Arriving in Cadomin we found a neat tidy small town nestled on the eastern side of the Rockies. Beautiful weather today however the motel owner tells us they had 1 inch of snow on the ground yesterday & we can see that the coating on the mountains is fresh. Bear warning signs in the village go into great detail on what to do if confronted but strangely no mention of what you would actually do….c..p yourself! Our wildlife sightings today – zero. A great meal of Teriyaki rice,pasta and vegetables cooked by Ian completed a great day. ...but not before Bryan decided to change his rear tyre.



429kms today. Total now at 12677kms.

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