Breakage

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Day 12.

The thunder woke me up last night at some point but I didn’t hear any rain until the next time I awoke at 4:15 but even that wasn’t much. I put the awning out to cover my cooking table and half the bike. Breakfast was PB on toast and yogurt with raspberries and nuts. Quick, easy and minimal cleanup compared to back and eggs. I cleaned the previous days dust off the bike and was off.

I decided I’d try the road I stumbled upon a couple days earlier in the opposite direction for a different view. I saw another road on google maps I assumed was a gravel logging road but went to be sure. The first few kilometres turned out to be paved and lead me to a reservoir on the Kootenay river. I stopped for a picture but was confronted by a man saying no motorcycles are allowed in this particular parking lot/boat launch but since it wasn’t busy he’d let me stay. Boy did I feel special.

He then proceeded to tell me about the reservoir and how the water was good and high because Libby Dam in Montana was still closed. Lots of driftwood, busy on the weekends, where he lived, the mine he used to work at and that he lived in Sudbury for one year. Apparently my motorcycle was not a major threat.

Another paved road lured me down it not knowing what I’d find but before long I had to get gas. On the way there though I stopped for ice cream and a break. I went to Fernie which appears to be a ski resort town for gas and then headed back toward home in a non direct manor.

Somewhere along the route back I heard a familiar rattle and when I stopped for gas back in Cranbrook I confirmed a broken muffler bracket. It’s been a few years since I broke one last, maybe because I haven’t been riding as much, but I’ve had one side or the other welded four or five times. My bike is lowered a bit to accommodate my short legs so on a steep driveway or exiting a gas station a muffler will hit the curb if I’m not careful about the angle. I’m not convinced I broke it today, I just heard the rattle over the music for the first time. I could put a couple zip ties on it to get me through my vacation but I called a local shop about welding it. The man in charge wasn’t answering his phone and it was almost closing time so I have to call back in the morning. Fingers crossed.

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Photos

Reservoir on Kootenay River
Maybe it’s called the Kootenay Reservoir?