The Careful Canadian Crossing @ Banff National Park

Adam Collins, Helen Clark

05 Jul 2024 — 3 min read

Adam enjoying some relief and checking out the scenery.

Hi friends and family, apologies about the double post on Wednesday. That was an accident, we’re still learning how to best manage this blog. The post are scheduled a day in advance so that we have time to edit and fix typos. The emails are also sent from a no reply address but we’d love to hear from you. If you want to respond feel free to forward or reply to adam.collins@hey.com and helen.clark.r@gmail.com. At some point we’ll set up a proper from email so you can just reply.

We had our last meal in USA at a classic American diner complete with Idaho locals decked out in 4th of July (and Trump) gear; then set out for our final push to the Canadian border!!! Only to immediately hit our first stretch of stop and go traffic. We tried to keep our sanity as we slowly duck-walked our motorcycles forward, never going slow enough to stop the engine or fast enough to put two feet on the pegs. We passed the time by playing I-spy and chatting over the comms. At least the weather was perfect. After an hour or so we eventually made it past the traffic bottle, a 2-lane bridge across the Kooteney River. We took a stop at a scenic overlook to get a pic of Vicky and Luna in their natural habitat.

Eventually, we made it to the border. The border patrol agent wished Adam a good one and a kind “careful it’s going to be a hot one tomorrow.” However the agent expressed less confidence in Helen with a “careful as you pull forward, don’t dump your bike”; much to Helen’s chagrin.

Sexism aside, we were finally in CANADA! To celebrate we stopped at our first Canadian restuarant. It was all good until a group of guys walked in, one had a cast around his hand and was wearing a “Fuck your feelings, Trump 2020” t-shirt and another had on cowboy boots. They spent their lunch talking loudly about the fights they’d been in and the jail time they’d served. It felt like a profoundly un-Canadian moment.

After that odd meal we continued north along the winding highway 95. As we made our way North, canola fields and rolling hills of Idaho transition into pristine lakes and grand mountains of British Columbia. As temperature dropped we pulled over to don warmer clothes and made our way deeper into Alberta and the Canadian Rockies.

The last two hours were the hardest but we marveled at the size of the mountains and how far the valley stretched. The awe felt was more powerful than any ibuprofen and soothed the pain in our knees and aches in our backs as we pushed through the Canadian cold (doesn’t Canada know it’s supposed to be summer?!). We made it to our campsite in Banff around 8 with just enough time for a bonfire. Adam fetched wood while Helen made mac and cheese.