2015 Bike Trip - Day 1

The last few days have been busy as I made preparations to leave on my annual bike trip. After working out of town all winter, I was looking forward to taking some time in May to do a little planning for the road trip. After a chat with my bosses, and learning that the month of May might be a little slow at work, the thought of leaving early took root in my mind. I decided Friday that I was going to leave Monday, and took the day to catch up things in town that I needed to get done before leaving.

For some reason I had it in my mind that I was going to need a lot of time on the weekend to get ready, but by Saturday afternoon I had decided that Sunday morning was going to be the departure time. Now that I'm in my room for the night I'm glad I decided to just leave this morning, I would have been bored at home and would have regretted it if I had waited until Monday.

The sun was shining brightly as I made the final preparations and packed my bike for the next three weeks or so. Despite the sunshine the temperature was cold, right around 2 degrees Celcius (35F), as I  got rolling down the highway. I had dressed warmly but the wind still found a way to cool me down, and by the time I stopped for the first cigarette I was already quite cold. Clouds rolled in shortly as well, though that made no discernable difference in the air temperature.

Making the first gas stop of the trip in Red Earth gave me a chance to warm up a little, and then I was back in the wind. Not long after leaving Red Earth the sun started poking out a little more, and by the time I arrived in Slave Lake for some food the temperature was up to 5C (41F). Looking west as I rode it looked like there was some bad weather out there, and I was very thankful to have this route down highway 88 instead. Coffee and chilli from Tim Hortons hit the spot, giving me energy for the next leg of the day. Not long after leaving Slave Lake I pulled over to gear up for my first rain riding of the year. It rained lightly for a half hour or so, and I was so grateful for the awesome gear in the saddle bags. Getting wet today would have been nasty with the cool temps, and I was able to stay completely dry.

I felt like a complete rookie as I babied the bike into Westlock, the fuel tank almost as empty as I've ever run it. There was around a liter left in the tank, but I would have felt like a fool had I run it out of gas. I do pack a gallon of gas in a can that's built to sit in the back corner of a saddlebag just in case.

Passing around Edmonton on the bypass was smooth, and once I got on the Deuce heading south I opened up the throttle, running pretty much the whole way to Red Deer in the hammer lane. By now the temperature was up to 12C (54F), which already felt quite balmy. Pulling up to the hotel felt good, as I was more than ready for some dinner and a hot shower.

As I sit here now I can feel that I'm going to be tired for the next few days as my body adjusts to traveling on a motorcyle again, but it's a good kind of tired. I'm looking forward to the days ahead as I get a chance to once again see new roads and stunning scenery, and hopefully some conversations with new friends as well. Hopefully those of you that choose to follow via this blog can enjoy the trip vicariously.

Loaded and ready to roll

It looks so warm on the picture:) The trees are just starting to sprout leaves now, though it's hard to see in the pic

Saw a lot of that to the west of me today, thankfully I only had a little rain and no snow!

I went in there and got nice and warm, after a quick dinner

This is what Westlock looked like a little over 2 hours after I passed through!! So happy I missed that, would have never guessed it was going to snow as it was sunny when I passed through. (photo credit to uncle Andrew)