Rocky Mountain National Park

We had a bit of a slow start thanks to the festivities last night but I was able to get Tom moving and we set off, heading West once more. The weather was a bit mixed with showers showing on the radar but that could not dampen our spirits as we headed towards the mountains. First up was Boulder Canyon - a road Tom used to ride on his friend's motorbike way back when. Then we joined the Peak-to-Peak drive which, as the name implies runs between two high mountain peaks.

This led us into Estes Park, a lovely high mountain town where we enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee by a pretty mountain stream:

Next up was the road into the Rocky Mountain National Park, the Trail Ridge road. It always amazes me how you can read about these routes but you are never quite ready for the incredible experience of the actual thing! The road was a well maintained National Park Road with lots of scenic pullouts with vista after vista to marvel at. We climbed to over 12,000 feet and there was snow on some of the peaks around us. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees as we climbed. Photos cannot do it justice.

Looking back into the valley we climbed up from - note the fun switchbacks

At the top

We are well above the tree line.

Two happy bikers!

We finished off the trail ridge road and unfortunately our luck with the weather ran out and the showers caught up with us. Thankfully we only had another 30 miles to go to get to our hotel for the night so we made tracks and got very wet in the process!

We are staying in Winter Park tonight - another lovely mountain town.

Made it to the Centennial State!

Sunday August 30th:

This post is a day late but this is catch up.
We left Cheyenne fairly early and took the highway across to Laramie, WY. We then turned south and took the scenic route into Colorado.

At this point we were still riding through grasslands and it was a beautiful day

 The obligatory photo of the state border.

We rode a lovely windy road into Boulder, Colorado where Tom used to live when he was in his twenties. We walked around town for a bit, grabbed a coffee and then headed to Broomfield where we  were staying with one of Tom's college friends. We had a fun evening, although the boys, even by their own admission drank too much!! Bill had amazing views of the foothills of the Rockies from his back deck and we couldn't wait to get out there. But that is tomorrow's adventure.

Cheyenne, Wyoming.

This was another day of riding Westwards. What we thought may be a rather uninteresting ride turned out to be lovely as we rode through the Sandhills of Nebraska. As we got further West the skies became increasingly hazy and as one rather disgruntled local told us, this is due to the fires that continue to burn further to the West of us. This confirms that we made the right call not to go to the NorthWest where the fires are the worst. Although the skies were hazy we couldn't smell smoke at all, which is obviously a good thing as we do not have AC on the bikes.

We followed NE Route 2 for most of the morning.

 Tom finally got the GoPro out today - practicing for when we reach Colorado!

We made it into the very southeastern corner of Wyoming today. We are pleased with our progress and will reach Colorado within a few hours tomorrow. Our total mileage for the trip so far is: 2373.
We are going to stay with an old college friend of Tom's on the outskirts of Denver tomorrow.

Day 7 (already?). To Valentine, NE

When we woke up yesterday there was a huge blob of doom on the radar and we decided to stay put for the day in Marshall. We really didn't fancy another day in the rain and we desperately needed to study some maps, search the internet and come up with a rough plan for the next week or two so we know which direction to point our front wheels.

It was a productive day and we have mapped out a plan to hit some of the highlights of Colorado. If you have ever looked at a road map of Colorado you will see that there are numerous scenic routes over the high mountain passes. We could spend a month there and not get to ride it all - but we hope to hit some of the best.

This morning we were up early and heard of the torrential rain that fell south of us yesterday - 6" in an hour in Sioux Falls where we would have passed through! Good call not to go then. But today the skies were clearing and off we went.

We said good bye to Minnesota and Route 23 that we have traveled on for the last day and a half;

 and Hello to South Dakota!

The day grew warmer, the scenery changed to the open rolling plains we remembered from last year and we made excellent progress. We even took a detour into Mitchell, SD to see the Corn Palace - the only one in the world.

 The scenes on the side of the building have been made with corn cobs!

After that minor detour we crossed the Missouri River;

and then turned South to ride into Nebraska. We are staying in Valentine, a small western town surrounded by farmland. We have just enjoyed excellent Black Angus steaks for supper. Off to bed for an early night and we continue our trek SouthWest tomorrow.

Day 5: Leaving Wisconsin, heading to Marshall, Minnesota

Much relief this morning when we looked out the window and saw clear blue, sunny skies.

 Now we could really appreciate what a lovely spot this is. There was a gentle tap on the door at 7:00 as coffee was delivered to our room. This was followed by an amazing cooked breakfast of baked apple French Toast, sausages and fruit. This certainly set us up for the day. After polishing off breakfast the bikes were packed;

 and we said goodbye to the lovely Fo'c's'le Inn

The first part of our route continued along the shores of Lake Superior which had become very brown after the stormy weather yesterday

Shortly, we left the lake and turned Southwest picking up Route 23 which cuts diagonally through Minnesota. We had some excitement when a detour took us off the paved road and down a very rutted gravel / mud road. No fun on a fully loaded touring bike! Eventually we got back onto a decent road surface where we had several deer sightings including one suicidal fawn, still with his spots, who ran between us and almost got hit by me. Thanks to my "cat-like" reflexes I slowed in time to miss him but not without a squeak of the brakes and a big squeak from me.

Impressions of Minnesota: flat, lots of lakes, flat, farmland. Very friendly people. Scenes along the road:

We pulled into our hotel in Marshall, Minnesota at about 4:30pm. After a quick shower we headed off to the local brew pub much to Tom's delight. This was a pretty cool place where the beer lines were inside a fire engine! The food was good too.

Another great day on the road. After 5 days we feel we are getting back into the groove. The miles are passing easily and we are loving it!

Making tracks across Michigan & Wisconsin

No post yesterday as it was a long rainy day on the road and we hardly took any photos. Quick recap follows:

Monday, 24th August. We left the Sunset Inn and jumped back on Canada Highway route 17 and sped towards the US border at Sault Ste. Marie. It rained on and off for most of the morning so no stopping for picnic lunch today. Thankfully they let us back into USA - no worries.

Photo of me on the US side of the border - happy they let me back in.

Note the stylish rain gear!!!

Thankfully the rain stopped long enough for us to complete the final 50 miles to our motel in Newberry, Michigan. This was a utilitarian stop, comfortable enough and very reasonable. We both slept like logs.

Tuesday, 25th August. Up early and sadly, the weather was even worse today. Not only rainy but now cold as well! It was only 52 degrees when we set off, so needless to say we had our heated gear on. This kept us warm enough but we both got a little wet through our rain gear. We continued West across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Having read about the famous UP pasties we stopped and bought some for supper this evening.

 We made frequent stops for a warm up and coffee and sped along on a caffeine buzz through the rain. Finally we could see clear skies ahead and the rain stopped. We were now riding along the shores of Lake Superior and were treated to some lovely views of the lake. Inexplicably - no photos!!

We found our accommodation for the night. The lovely Fo'c'sle Inn which is just two rooms in a Marina. The bikes are sleeping with sailboats tonight. After getting settled we had our pasty supper.

Sun is forecast for tomorrow - here's hoping!

Back to North Bay, ON, Canada

We were both tired after the long day yesterday and we slept well. We were up early and after a quick cup of coffee, hit the road. It was cool this morning but as the sun got higher things warmed up and we made good progress towards our destination.

We had a lovely picnic lunch at a picnic area off Highway 17.
Here are the bikes parked on a rock by the little lake where we ate.

We arrived in North Bay and the very nice Sunset Inn which overlooks Lake Nipissing by 2:15pm and so we were able to spend a bit of time planning our routes for the next few days.

The trusty bikes parked for the night. 

The Sunset Inn is lovely, this is their private beach!

We are going out to dinner at the restaurant next door; The White Owl. We ate here last year and it is very nice. As it is our wedding anniversary tomorrow we thought we would treat ourselves.

Day 1.... and we're off!

Having survived a deluge of rain overnight we weren't sure what we would find when we got up this morning. The forecast gave us a good chance of having some rain but when we looked at the weather radar online we could see that a massive band of showers had passed and that there was clear weather behind. We left later than we normally would to give the roads a chance to dry off a bit. Sure enough once we got going the clouds gradually cleared and it turned into a beautiful day.

Here are the bikes loaded and ready to go in our driveway.

We followed the same route as we did last year as this seems to be the best way to propel us Westwards most efficiently. We rode through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York before turning north and crossing the St. Lawrence into Ontario.

Coffee stop in Errol, NH. Tom is looking like a biker already! He is grinning because he found a nice big bottle of beer to drink this evening.

We had a nice picnic lunch by the Lake in Newport, VT - just beautiful.

After 8 hours on the road we made it to our Motel in Cornwall, Ontario.

We are always happy when we can park our babies right outside the window of our room.

We have had to scrub all the plans we made for the trip because of the wildfires out West. We had meticulously planned routes and accommodation across the Northern States. We were going to spend a week at Glacier National Park in Northwestern Montana and then continue West to Washington State and Olympic National Park. Yesterday was spent canceling all our reservations - it was quite sad as all our plans literally and figuratively went up in smoke. However, we take the view that this is just an inconvenience for us and our hearts go out to those who have lost so much in the fires that are raging in the Northwestern States. 

So now we are winging it! Lets see where we end up?

Getting Ready!

In just under a week we will be heading West again! We are hoping to make it to the Pacific Coast again but will take a more Northerly route this time. This weekend has been spent getting everything ready and we cannot wait to hit the road!

We did take some time off from preparations to ride out to the Maine Coast just so we can say we rode from Coast to Coast!

 Pemaquid Lighthouse

 Views off the point

It was a great ride and a beautiful day. Next post will be from the road!