Banff will have to wait

What, not go to Banff when you are this close? Yes. Diane’s pretty anti-social so the thought of throngs of tourists, RVs, tons of traffic all while riding on our bikes just didn’t appeal to her. Gregarious me wanted to mix it up of course ;-). In the end, we decided to skip the crowds, knowing that it would be just as bad as Glacier National Park. Crazy? Perhaps, but it’s our journey and we like to travel on the less beaten path. Plus it gives us an excuse to come back, combining it with a trip to Alaska and to Deadhorse in Prudhoe bay.Instead of Banff, we decided to head north and travel on some of the roads written about on advrider.com. We even managed to get in a ferry crossing on Kootenay Lake :-). Todays ride was pretty technical with lots of turns (some of them blind) that required close attention. Max speed limits for the day were 80 km/h with many of the turns marked 30 – 60 km/h. We encountered a lot of motorcycle riders on 31 and 31A.

At the chance of sounding repetitive – awesome day. The weather cooperated nicely, ‘scenic’ is an understatement but it’s still tiring so by the time we reached New Denver we were both ready to call it a day. On a fluke I followed one the camping signs off highway 3 and we ended up at the Silverton Municipal campground. Tucked away by the lake, maybe 20 spaces total. Pretty basic, no showers, no hot water but flush toilets, thus meeting the minimum requirements. Good enough since the alternative meant keeping on riding.

After setting up camp, we ventured into ‘town’ – all 300 meters of it, ending up at the only Hotel/bar in town. They had Guiness on tap (pretty much the only ‘decent’ beer they had) which we ordered. I nearly fainted when I got the bill – $17.50 for two beers! Holy shit. Airport bars have nothing on these guys. Let’s just say we drank really slowly ;).

Here’s the route.