| Location: | Lethbridge |
We were riding with Jeff Anspach, our American friend whom we last saw in Rio de Janiero over three years ago. He joined us from Portland, Oregon. The three of us rode through to Jasper and then onto Banff. It was good to have the company of another rider to keep spirits up.
The Jasper National Park along Icefields Parkway is a must ride for any biker, provided you get their a little out of season so that the RV traffic has disappeared. Our original plan of then riding Highway 39 to Missoula had to be ditched when news of the forest wildfires reached us. Sure enough at the junction we would have taken, the Highway was signed closed to all traffic.
This meant an impromtu diversion over to Calgary and into the USA on Interstate 15. We are familiar with this because it was part of the World Record route last year - and we did not want to ride it again, but we did not plan for fires!
That night after Jeff had left we rode onto midnight, but holed up in Lethbridge just short of the USA border. With barely 600 miles under our belt that day, it was going to be a tough 36 hours to follow.
