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Deane and Norm's Motorcycle Trip to Northwest Territories & Nunavut | |
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August 12 - Shelby, Montana to Edmonton, Alberta - 435 Miles |
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What a difference a day makes! Yesterday we were riding and sweating in very hot weather, in the high 90's, and today most of our riding was in the 60's and 70's.
We rode the first 100 miles at about 60o F, with our riding suits and heavy gloves on and feeling cool. It gradually warmed up, and spiked up to 82o then went back down to 60o by the time we reached Edmonton. We crossed the Canadian border at Sweetgrass, MT. It doesn't take far before the scenery starts to change from gold colored wheat fields ready for harvest, to green wheat fields not yet ready to harvest. Farther north the height of the new green wheat in the fields gets shorter and shorter, indicating the later and later start of the growing season. As we came into Calgary, we observed a very interesting weather phenomenon. A great pall of smoke from forest fires was hanging over Calgary, and extended in a narrow band perhaps 60-100 miles, As we rode under the smoke, the temperature went down 5o within 5 miles, with quite windy conditions! With Norm being very knowledgeable in weather because of his being a private pilot, he felt that the pall of smoke was creating its own weather underneath, due to its cloud-like thickness. Sure enough, as we rode out from under the smoke, the temperature went up to what it had been before, and the wind calmed down. Very interesting - one wouldn't notice this in an air conditioned car, but on a motorcycle temperature and weather changes are very noticeable. Our route in Alberta was beautiful, with the gently rolling wheat fields giving way to tree-lined creeks between fields. Then pines and aspen started to show up, and every thing was green, green, green. We arrived in Edmonton just after a hard downpour, and rode expressways with trucks throwing up spray that coated our windshields with water. This, combined with riding into the west sinking sun created very difficult conditions for seeing the road. Then as we approached our motel, it started to rain, with some hail, but we zoomed in under the motel entrance shelter, and didn't get too wet.
Just as we parked, I caught the rainbow in the background. One of the best things about today was that we began to find "Tim Horton's" restaurants! This is a Canadian chain we have liked in past Canadian trips, for their good soup, sandwiches, coffee, and pastries. All in all, today was a beautiful ride, and we stopped to talk to quite a few people that were interested in the motorcycles and us in our riding clothes. That is one of the best side benefits of motorcycle touring. Tomorrow for us will be a "tourist" day in Edmonton. We planned this as a much needed rest after 4 long riding days for Deane and 5 long riding days for Norm. |
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