Jasper, Canada

I'm in a hostel up on a hill in Jasper, Alberta.

Lots of friendly people about from all over. Basketball hoop, hammocks, and a gondola up the mountain.

It's a long way to Vancouver, I'm trying to figure out whether to stay here another day and rest. I'll decide in the morning. I'm finally getting a little tired.

Maybe an all day hammock session tomorrow....

I heard about the "Ice Fields" that were on the way to Jasper from Banff and got excited. Turns out its just a glacier turned into a tourist trap. $40 to ride in a 6 wheeled bus with 40 other people and look at the ice up close. What-everrr!

I'm thinking I'll be back around June 9th or 10th.

bye for now!

in Banff, Alberta, Canada at a really fun hostel.

Headed up to Jasper today, then I will head west to Vancouver.

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We is clearin brush!!!!

Maybe he will let me swing his axe or dig a ditch or something so I can feel rugged.

Starting tomorrow the weather is sunny and warm from Glacier to Banff so I'm going to wait the weather out a day with Conrad.

I'm in Kalispell, Montana and I'm about to meet up with Max's friend Conrad.

The cashier said "everyone in is these stomach things this morning" he poisoned the whole town, including himself!

The morning after was in the market and the chef from the restaurant was there buying a pack of rolaids.

I had fish and chips and woke up in the middle of the night with massive stomach pain.

The only food in town was a grill. I don't know why it was called a grill because everything was deep fried

Idaho : it's neat-o

My cabin is right along the river and it's surrouned by mountains. Really neat-o

Stopped in a cool little town called Stanley in Idaho. I wanted to camp here but none of the campsites in Sawtooth are open for a few more days.

I don't know what sounds better: 'craters of the moon' or 'sawtooth mountains'

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';690 miles to Kalispell!'; Isn't that a famous folk song?

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This works 100 percent of the time.

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it was all foretold in this tome!!!

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Pretty skies... Half storms, half clear

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double arch

I got caught in memorial friday traffic around Ogden,utah so I pulled off and got a room for the night.

I got to moab then had a double sized breakfast and rode north to get to montana via Idaho.

Its a dirt road that goes through the famous photogenic canyon that you overlook at dead horse point.

I camped in canyonlands NP last night then I got up and rode back to Moab on the Schaefer trail

Oh well. I was there too, crowding it up for everyone else. :-)

Then there was 'film the arch from every conceivable angle' guy. He spent 45 minutes squat walking around taking video. Wow.

There were sooo many people up there and they all had to get a picture of thenselves standing under the damn arch.

Watched the sunset from there while I ate a Chevron burrito for dinner.

Hiked up the hill to 'delicate' arch, I think the most famous one from the the utah license plate.

The skies cleared when I got to Moab, utah. Campground was full at arches so I got a bed at the hostel in town.

It's not raining!!! It's not raining!!! It's not raining!!! It's not raining!!! It's not raining!!! It's not raining!!! It's not raining!!!

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Crappy dune pic!!!!

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Extra especial crappy video of walking through the dunes

Banff, vancouver, seattle, Portland ( vaseline alley, oh yeah!!!) and then down the coast back to mommy and daddy's house.

I Have to figure a route to Kalispell with less rain and snow. I can meet Max's friends and then head into canada.

Nasty weather forecast for yellowstone next 10 days. I'll skip that.

half way through desert solitaire, the book taking place in arches. The book enriched the whole trip. Thanks max!

I will have to save my colorado mountain ride for later in life. On to canyonlands tomorrow, then Arches NP.

When I saw cars coming the other way caked in snow I knew I had to turn back :-( I am in cortez,CO instead eating pizza hut

I wanted to stay tonight in Silverton,CO but I got half way up the road and it started dumping snow on me.

Then I re-enacted all my fave scenes from the english patient in case any girls were watching me with binoculars.

I woke up at 6:30 and ran / walk / crawled up the dunes to the tallest one - 750 ft. Tall. Amazing!!!

It took me about an hour to make a simple fire at 8500 ft. With strong winds. I will not have my own Discovery channel series.

The sun went don and the stars came out and it was perfect temperature. I walked back to camp in the dark.

I layed in the sand next to the mountain runoff that had waves in it for some reason.

I left santa fe a day earlier than I planned and arrived at the great sand dunes, colorado just before sunset.

Santa Fe seemed really lame after being in all these parks the last 10 days. The hostel employees were grumpy meanies too!

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Great sand dunes, CO

Tanja's travel blog

(http://www.getjealous.com/tanja08209)

Tanja is headed west to San Francisco via Yosemite. She will take around 3 weeks to get there so hopefully I will be back to show her around.

We got along great and hung out all night around the fire. Another BMW GS rider named Mike from Seattle also joined us for a bit.

I got back to my campsite and had a new neighbor - a round the world bicyclist from Germany named Tanja.

The ranger was a native american scholar/activist. He talked about the plants, history of the cliff dwellings,and the spirits

Yesterday I took couple of ranger-led tours of mesa verde. They were great.

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A bad phone cam of the view overlooking monument valley

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On top of mesa verde

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The end of the burr trail,utah

Visiting all the parks on a loud bike on the paved roads, using the flush toilets, eating at the cafeterias, etc... :-)

And thanks to Max for reccomending the book Desert Solitaire... Even though it makes me feel like a jerk for...

Clear skies tonight.. thank the lord. My fire is done. Time for bed. Sorry about all the mini posts, I can only do about 130 chars per post.

Then back through colorado, white sands, durango, telluride, the million dollar highway, then to canyonlands, arches, then north to wyoming

So far I have gone 2200 miles. Tomorrow night I stay here, then monday I'm going to ride to santa fe....

I ended up getting a motel room in Bluff,UT and then today I rode around monument valley and then looped back around to Mesa Verde,CO

The only thing that would have made it better was Cat Stevens with a full backing orchestra and maybe a box of ice cream bars.

And shed a single tear that was mostly gooey with a crusty tip... The view of monument valley with the setting sun was maaaagic

I came within a few miled of town and a sign came up that said 'crappy dirt road' and I came over the pass and literally gasped in my helmet

I missed the ferry across the lake so I rode around towards mexican hat, Derek told me about the view around there of monument valley

Dirt switchbacks... I can't send pics of any of this cause I am on roaming non data reception.... The trail ended at lake powell north shore, gle

Epic views of the south part of capitol reef. I rode through some side trails through some red rock canyons and then came to an enmormous slope o

The burr trail started with a series of bright re canyons with pastel green vegetation lining the road down the middle, then opened up to some

Had a veggie buurger at the only other place in town with the only employee a 19 year old kid who was really friendly

And just smiled around at eachother like they were waiting for something to happen. I felt really out of place so I thanked them and

It was kind of bizarre and I was super hungry but I sat down and had half a cup of tea with them. No one said anything...

The waitress was nice in a crunchy granola way and said "were closed but you can sit with us if you're into monks" ok...

The organic california looking place I wanted to eat was closed for lunch because they were hosting 15-20 monks at a long table.

I took a paved, gravel, and dirt road called the Burr Trail. It was unbelievable. It started in a little town where I was looking for breakfast.

In the morning I rode towards capitol reef park, but it had lightning over it in the distance so I decided to cut east to avoid it.

Yesterday was the best day yet. I rode from Bryce Canyon,UT to Bluff, UT.

I'm camping out on top of Mesa Verde, CO thanks to Richard's suggestion. Tomorrow I'll get up and go on the ranger tours of the ancient villages.

Is this thing on?

that's what she said!

There are subway sandwich shops EVERYWHERE! I spend $8 a day on food. Clif bar for breakfst, 6inches for lunch, then six inches for dinner with a

I left my boots in the 95 degree sun yesterday and I think they shrunk half a size :-( oops. Maybe I can get some leather oil?

Met a few bikers at this campground and hung out for a while. They gave me some good routes to ride through colorado.

I had the best ride of my life today. I found a 60 mile dirt road from Zion park to highway 14, near cedar breaks monument.

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Beer and fire at bryce canyon, utah. Hopefully I will get up on time and see the sunrise over the rock formations. Prbably not.

I didn't get to hike 'the narrows' which is walking knee deep up the river in a tiny narrow canyon. Hopefully my eyes will be OK with the plant l

I said screw it and got a motel instead of another night of sore, crusty eyes. The hike to angel's rest was amazing yesterday but I can't stay an

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I have never had much allergies, but my eyes got all gooey and my whole head got stuffed up at Zion. the cottonwoods shading the campground were spewing pollen.

Ah crap I messed up
a haiku is five seven five
you get the idea

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mother bird fly fast catch worms for your young radiator splat

Arrived at Zion national park in Utah. Wowie wow wow, I'll have to stay here a few days and look around. Small mammal lecture tonight at the amph

I wanted to walk through antelope canyon in page,az but apparently you have to hire a $30 guided tour that takes 2 hours. Boo to that! On to Zion

Well, now I know I can go at least 26 miles after the gas meter is empty.

Fajitas @ Lake Powell, AZ

"I really like these two. They're very 'August first weekend' "

Overheard in a tacky Route 66 souvenir shop, a wife to a husband while holding up 2 ugly gray t-shirts with logo graphics all over them :

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On top of Route 155 after grinding on Highway 99 all afternoon.

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a pic of Arriving at lake Isabella. I'm finally in cell range again so I can upload a few photos

I got hit with 2 separate june bugs. One in the left shoulder and one on the kneecap. It felt like a paintball. Not that I am manly enough to kno

I rode 531 miles today from lake something to Seligman, AZ. Its an old route 66 town and I found a good motel in lonely planet book.

Camped out @ Lake Isabella, CA. Route 155 was gorgeuos and featured purple flowers, bendy roads, and a 30 - 1 squirrel to car ratio.

Leaving for real!!!!

I'm leaving for reals now. It is 536 miles to Death Valley, which I won't get to after losing yesterday. I will probably end up in a Days Inn in Bakersfield or something.

Bye!! (again)

Everything is going to be OK

I had the bike towed to the BMW dealership by this guy Dave that has towed my bike before. Nicest guy ever.

So over the phone, the BMW guys say that it will take a week just to look at the bike. Dang.

....but when I arrived with Dave I got the VIP treatment and they are going to fix it tonight and hopefully I will be on the road tomorrow.

Dave is cool. He is like the P.Diddy of motorcycle towers or something. He got me hooked up.

http://davescycle.com/

At the end of the trip when it is time to pay, he says some hippy stuff like "I hope you had a wonderful enriching experience. That'll be $50" Total deadpan delivery.

It turns out that I had blown out the "oil window", which is the clear round window that you can check your oil levels by looking into. When I was trying to diagnose the problem on my own I was just looking blankly at the bottom of the bike thinking "Dang all the oil fell out".

Then I got to BMW and the guy pointed it out to me. It was pretty much a giant round hole in the engine. Which explains perfectly the gallons of oil all over my boots and pants. Buhhhh. Sorry I don't have a picture of this.



Tomorrow : I will attempt to travel BEYOND PINE ST.!!!!!!!!! dun dun dunnnnn....

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Holy crapple the bike just puked all the oil onto pine st. 5 minutes into the trip.

LEAVING!

I'm outta here. Just one more burrito and I'm headed down Highway 1 to San Luis Obispo... .or somewhere that sounds cool like that. Then I will pitch my tent and eat a pizza. This my plan.