Stateside

And availabled.
Hit me.

Soundtracks, Mostly Off Topic

Hit more wind yesterday from Medicine Hat, AB to Regina, SK, this time coupled with rain, too. After a few hours of it, I decided to stop in Swift Current to warm up, get some coffee and check the email.
Normally employing no shortage of words, Jason Baker'd emailed me saying only, "I know you're on the road and shit, but do you have the new Brian Wilson?" I'd read a few months back that the man who 40 years ago was writing teenage symphonies to God had a new record in the works (his first album of truly new material since he infamously dropped off the grid while working on his masterpiece, Smile), but I didn't know that it'd either been released or leaked yet. Turns out the latter is the case, so I quickly called up my local file sharing bonanza. Five minutes later it was loaded onto my GPS unit's music player, and I was somewhat oddly going rippity rippity through pouring rain in the plains of Saskatchewan listening to Brian Wilson's paean to Los Angeles, That Lucky Old Sun; a stronger dissimilarity between aural and physical environments I can hardly imagine.
Perhaps that experiential disconnect can be blamed, but Sun didn't affect me nearly so strongly as the rest of the Brian Wilson/Beach Boys catalog; Smile or Pet Sounds it ain't. There are some truly cringe-worthy moments, but also heart rending ones: on Sun we hear for the first time Brian referencing in song his own meltdown at age 25.
The only other record I'd previously transferred to the GPS was the Panda Bear album Person Pitch, and this record began playing just as Sun faded out. Utilizing a wholly different set of musical tools, Panda's Noah Lennox is nevertheless perhaps the 21st century's closest analog to BW. A closet musical perfectionist, prematurely world-weary, Lennox creates layered masterpieces of looped, nuanced samples, overlaid with reverb-drenched vocal harmonies that remind as nothing so much as the Beach Boys recorded in a silo (underwater?).
Heading toward Winnipeg today; probably won't arrive till tomorrow, and so will camp along the way. More when time and internet access allows.

Wind, Sky, and Wheat

If Montana is Big Sky Country™, then southern Alberta should just rebrand itself Bigger than Montana (By a Lot). Monday I made the trip across Alberta on Hwy 1 surrounded by the bright greens, golds, blues and whites you see wherever the land is flat, the sun is shining, and the, uh, amber grain waves atcha -- the drive was remarkably reminiscent of the half-dozen or so trips I've made from Minnesota to Oregon across the American plains. Toward the end of day, for the last 200k or so before I hit Medicine Hat, I hit the worst wind I've ever encountered on a motorcycle. Because the bike is so loaded down with luggage it can act like a sail sometimes -- that it's relatively lightweight compared to a car doesn't help much either. I have no way of measuring how fast the wind was blowing, but there were stretches where I'd have to lean the bike upwards of 20 or 30° into the crosswind just to keep it upright, and I'd still get blown three or four feet to the side when big gusts came up. Passing (or getting passed by) semi trucks and their wind-wash all the while made an incredibly straight highway about as challenging as any twisty mountain road I've hit yet...

Icefields Parkway

The real reason I decided to take this path through Canada on the first leg of my trip was to see the Icefields Parkway, one of the most scenic drives in North America. It only took about 4 hours to drive it, but it felt much more epic. I finished up in Banff and made camp near the shore of Two Jack Lake (which was probably objectively too cold for me to swim in, but fuck it - I swam anyway). Photos of everything follow:







Camp:

Kamloops -> Jasper

Saturday, I rode from Kamloops to Jasper, BC and into the Jasper National Park. Not the most exciting of drives, but I did get a great vista of Mt. Robson (its peak still hidden in the clouds) along the way. Pulling into the campground, I ran into another motorcyclist - we chatted while waiting in line to pay the requisite fees, then decided to camp together since we were both traveling alone.

Bill's an excellent guy. He's worked in the ski industry near his home in Vernon, BC for the last 30 years or so, and currently runs operations at Silver Star. We spent the evening hours talking about our bikes (and all the gadgets we've either purchased or fashioned ourselves to make touring on them easier), work, family, and Bill's time in the Canadian Navy. People have always told me that you'll meet some of the nicest people in the world when you travel by motorcycle, and Bill was certainly no exception. If you're reading, Bill, thanks again for the cocoa, and ride safely!

The last few

So, I should know this since I've been here before, but Canada is stunningly fucking gorgeous. After spending the night in Victoria, I headed out early toward Tofino on Vancouver Island's west coast. The drive across the island on Hwy 4 is spectacular: tons of well-maintained twisty roads, massive island lakes and steep, tree-lined cliffs are everywhere you turn. Canada's parks system is pretty robust, and Canadians take advantage of it much more so than we Americans do - I realized a bit late that I should've had a reservation for camping at the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, but with the early start I got out of Victoria, I lucked into one of the first-come, first-served spots. I set up camp,

then headed down to the beach and took a nap.

Saw some washed-up sea-flora,

then headed back to camp to make a fire, read for a bit and sleep.

Today, I headed back to the mainland along Hwy 4

through the same twisty roads. Mom, don't watch this. The rest of you, I'm sorry the quality is so bad. I don't have a damped mount for my cheap digicam, so it's, uh, really really jittery. But you can kinda get an idea of what the roads are like. Rest assured, I wasn't really feeling all those bumps...

Anyhow, I'm resting in Kamloops, BC now - more soon.

It's swill, but it's warm

Stuck in Port Angeles most of the day, but now I'm ferrying Canada-
way. It'll be too late to find camp before dark, so I'm hoteling it
with Mr. Howard Johnson tonight...

Sign of the Day

Just beyond Sequim, WA, on my way to Port Angeles and the ferry to Victoria, BC, I passed a sign advertising the local tribal gaming establishment. The directions read:

"Right on Kitchen-Dick, Then Right on Woodcock"

I was moving too fast to take a picture, but you'll have to trust me that it was made all the funnier by its proximity to a sign requesting that the locals re-elect commissioner Hugh Haffner...

Surprise!

Day two in Seattle

Liz said she was happy to host, but she wasn't so much into getting
her picture taken... Ate some delicious sushi, drank some beers, and
got to spend some quality time with a surprise guest (see below) [err... above, I guess]

At Jeff and Ryan's

Meet Halston (licker) and Greta (lickee). Six months old, brother and
sister, and cute as hell - and I'm really not a cat person.

Day One!

Loaded up on the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle. A long, cold and rainy drive along the coast from Portland to see Ryan, Jeff and Liz. Had to hunt around the house for an hour this morning to find my rain pants - not sure how I'd've fared if I hadn't...

Testphone

Number one.