Dawson Creek to Jasper to Kamloops

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Riding out of Dawson Creek this morning was 'one out of the box' weather wise. We set off towards Jasper changing time zones by one hour as we entered Alberta.

We rode through Grand Prairie County where there was a lot of harvesting and hay making happening. Once we got to Grand Prairie city we stopped for a break and a drink. Grand Prairie is quite a large and established city which displayed well in the sun and blue sky.

The morning's ride was very scenic with snow capped mountains and reflective lakes. We started to get a bit hungry and saddle sore but places to stop for a refreshment were scarce to none. We rode through Greenview which was an industrial area where they appeared to be mining coal. There were rich seams of it in the hillsides and a plant of sorts nearby.

Eventually we arrived at Grand Cache where we stopped for lunch at Subway (I had the lobster sub - can't get that in Warkworth!) and enjoyed a stretch and some air con.
Refreshed, we got back in the saddle hoping for some stimulating scenery for our stretch to Jasper. This wasn't to be, most of the road heading to Jasper was tree lined and I struggled to stay awake (actually I didn't).

After we got out of the tree lined roads we entered Improvement District 12. The district is the municipality that provides local government for the portion of the park outside the Municipality of Jasper and was very pretty to drive through.

We stopped to pay the $9.80 each to enter the national park and upon entering almost immediately saw a huge deer, it was an amazing beast which was clearly very comfortable with all the people and vehicles surrounding it.

We arrived in Jasper and wound our way up a cute forested road to our accomodation at the Pyramid Lake Resort which was nestled into the hillside overlooking the lake. It was very picturesque and there was a wedding held there while we were there.

We went out for dinner at the resort and had a sumptuous feast where they treated us with warm rolls and homemade raspberry butter, marinated smoked salmon taster and then our respective mains and desserts. DELICIOUS!

The following morning we rode into Jasper township and found a cute bakery for lunch. On entering we found a large (or so we thought) queue but decided based on that, it must be good. Wasn't too long before we were served and the food was great. We then noticed the queue had at least doubled and was out the doorway! Good choice.

On the road again and more stunning scenery - getting fussy with what I photograph now. Around about Fraser Fort George the sky started to appear muted by ribbons of smoke. These increased as we headed south towards Thompson Headwaters where we stopped for lunch. The guy at the gas station recommended we continue 25 minutes up the road for lunch but I was quite keen to go to the (what appeared to be) bike friendly pub. The guy at the gas station was weird and a bit pushy about us going elsewhere but we went to the pub anyway. Turned out to be a great choice, we were warmly received, had a great meal (and cold one) in a setting not dissimilar to the puhoi pub.

Getting back on the road the smoke had increased markedly and was a bit bitey in the back of the throat. Visibility was poor scenery-wise but didn't inhibit riding visibility.

We stopped at a lay area to check out the burnt trees from a previous wildfire and watched a train go by which took considerable time!

The final stretch to Kamploops passed quickly and we arrived at a VERY smoky city. A good ride today!

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Photos

Mount Robson Provincial Park
Stunning riding through here

Thompson Headwaters
Most awesome lunch and ambience at this place.

Grand Cache
At last!

Comments

[Anna]

Your photos are amazing...are you sure you're not publishing postcards here!! Had to laugh when I saw you were in harvesting country....how ever did Trevor restrain himself from stopping for a closer look! Isn't there a joke about Com-bine 'Arvesters?? There used to be a bunch of guys who came to NZ in our summers from somewhere in Canada. They grew some form of grain so once harvest was done and the winter snow set in they came here. Friends of Flash and Stu Adolph. Bloody hardcases thats for sure!!

[Kubabelle]

'Arvesters
Yeah the scenery is great and you'd be pretty incompetent not to be able to get some good shots. Trev seems to have got the knack of riding forwards whilst looking rapidly to the sides to check out harvesting action or equipment. ? I guess our vistas will be limited as we head toward Washington (we need to head that way to the BMW shop in Seattle as the bikes not running 100%).