AK1 Day 9

MS Day 9 – 12 Jun 12, Tuesday

Jasper, Alberta to Whitefish, Montana

Mileage – 426

WX – cold until afternoon, scattered rain showers

States – Alberta, British Columbia, Montana

CA 16, PH 93, Hwy 93

Note 1: Rode through the Jasper National Park and it is fantastic with high mountains on both sides of the roads which take your breath away. We were at times the only ones on the highway in either direction. Good 2-lane road. Fuel stops are long distant apart (100 miles or more) so fuel up every chance you can. This road is just east of and runs parallel to the Continental Divide for several hundred miles through the middle of the Canadian Rockies.

Note 2: Came upon a herd of Big Horn Sheep blocking the road so we stopped and watched them for a while until they finally decided to move off the road.

Note 3: As we left the Jasper National Park we crossed the Continental Divide Westbound. Just as we crossed the divide and about 100 yards from a sign marking the spot we saw a large brown bear next to the road walking in the ditch. This bear was huge and I would say it could possibly have been a grizzly considering the size of its head.  As we stopped at the sign for our HOG ABC picture I kept an eye up the road to see if this bear was going to come our way. My back up plan was to get into an outhouse nearby but not sure it would have stopped that bear.

Note 4: As we continued down the road we passed black bears on 2 different occasions playing not far from the edge of the road. These black bears were so much smaller than the previous brown bear that they didn’t seem to even be a threat.

Note 5: We continued southbound on a barely used 2-lane road towards the USA border crossing at Roosville, MT. A quarter mile from the crossing we passed an adult bald eagle setting on top of a fence post not 20 feet from the road. I never saw one that close before and it was not at all intimidated by the sound of the motorcycles. I took this as a good sign of our return to the USA until it started to rain on us shortly thereafter; thanks once again Canada.

Note 6: The border crossing at Roosville, MT was just a bump in the road but had 3 border guards who were very friendly and asked about our trip. They said that we were not the first to cross the border with the same story of the ALCAN closure causing a change in travel plans. We continued to our next stop just east of Glacier National Park at Whitefish MT.