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Ride Report - 2011 Parkland to Glacier to Prairie Ride

Discussion in 'Hangout Lounge' started by RangerG, Aug 28, 2011.

  1. RangerG

    RangerG Member

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    Location:
    Lloydminster, Saskatchewan
    My friend Gerry, on an '09 Harley V-rod Muscle and I started our 2011 trip on August 8th. We left the border of Saskatchewan and Alberta and headed West. Nice sunny day, following a day of rain.

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    Getting close to the mountains.

    We spent the first night in Jasper National park. We saw a bear in the ditch on our ride back to camp after supper. Gerry says it was a Grizzly. I was too preoccupied trying to avoid the ass wipe that parked his motor home in the middle of the curve, to look at the bear, than to determine the species of bear! It sure gets cold at night. The hood on the sleeping bag was pulled tight over my head with just my nose sticking out.

    Day 2.

    Another sunny day greeted us. Still the electric vest plugged into the Seca felt very nice in the morning. First stop was Athabasca Falls.

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    We continued riding south and stopped for a few photo ops.

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    We stopped at the Columbia Ice Fields and had lunch. The Glacier is still impressive but has shrunk a great deal over the last century.

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    The Icefields Highway features one long climb. We were heading down.

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    After a couple more photo stops we crossed into British Columbia.

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    I stopped in Fairmont Hot Springs to spend the night with family and Gerry continued on to Cranbrook. About 5 minutes after I stopped Gerry ran into a downpour that lasted just about all the way to Cranbrook.

    Day 3

    Leaving Fairmont on another sunny day, I stopped in Canal Flats to take a photo of the road named after me. The mountain in the background is Mt Grainger.

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    Met up with Gerry and we crossed into the US. Riding on sunny days makes pit stops mandatory.

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    We rolled into Glacier National Park and set up camp.

    Fish Creek campground was our stop and this is it's namesake.

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    I found some Canadian content there.

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    Day 4

    We left camp at 8:30 AM and headed up the Going To The Sun Road. This is one crazy road. A couple of drunk engineers must have looked up the mountain side and saw a mountain goat walking. "Let's build a highway up there" they said......... and they did! This road is barely wide enough for two vehicles and has sheer drop offs guarded by a low cement retaining wall. There is little time for sight seeing as your attention is directed at keeping your carcass safe and sound. Construction stops gave us a few photo breaks.

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    The road is visible on the left side of the previous picture.

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    We stopped up at the top of Logans Pass. Snowbanks were still here. As of July 10th the Road to the Sun was still not open because of snowbanks on the road.

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    We got one more stop at a pullout where we could see a glacier.

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    We road some nice twisty highway on #89 and #49 as we left the foothills. After that we needed to put some miles behind us in order to reach the International Peace Gardens in ND by Friday. I set the throttle lock and took a couple pictures.

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    Most of MT does NOT have mountains!

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    We grabbed a hotel room in Glasgow MT at 8:30 PM. Not a long day mileage wise but with the time it took to clear Glacier Park and the endless contruction on Hwy #2, it was a very long day! We had followed one storm cell and kept ahead of one for the last few hours.

    Day 5

    The weather was less than ideal today. We finally had to stop and don the rain suits just outside Williston, ND. About 15 minutes of drizzle was all we had to endure. Mid afternoon saw us at Lake Metigoshe State Park where we met fellow riders for the 5th Annual Wardens on Wheels Rally.

    Day 6

    A Poker Run through the Turtle Mountains was part of the rally.

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    Camp Metigoshe

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    Day 7

    I returned to Canada and rode to Yorkton SK to spend the night with the original owner of my Seca.

    Day 8

    Rode across SK to arrive home on the SK/AB border.

    In total I logged 3,975 Kms.(2470 miles) The Seca never missed a beat. Before the trip I checked the plugs and tweaked the idle jets a couple degrees leaner on the outside two cylinders. This cleared up a slight problem with the bike loading up when it idled for 30 seconds or longer. The idle isn't as smooth as I'd like but the bike pulls as hard as it ever has an is an absolute joy on the open road.
    On last years trip I replaced the chain before I got home. Used a standard HD chain. As I got ready for the trip this year I found that my new chain was shot. This with only 3,000 kms (2000 Miles) on it! I didn't have time to get new sprockets so I grabbed an new standard HD chain and hoped for the best. I had been very careful to adjust and lube the last chain as per factory specs. This time I used BigFitz specs and left the chain 40-50 slack. What a difference! At the end of each day I would adjust the chain and usually only turned the adjuster 1/6 of a turn, or one flat on the bolt. Two flats was the most ever. This was with running a new chain on old sprockets. The chain is in fine shape but will be replaced with a new one and new sprockets in the spring.
    I did use close to a liter of oil on the trip and this does bother me some. However I do have 76,000 kms (47,224 miles) on the bike. When I got home I went shopping for some semi-synthetic oil, as per BigFitz's recommendations. Yammalube was $14 and Honda HP4 was $12/liter. I went with the Honda stuff and we'll see what it does.

    I keep telling my wife I'd like to replace, but never sell, the Seca. Until then I'll keep the old girl maintained and running. Still not scared to strike out on a long journey such as I just finished.

    Highlight of the trip. Stopped to take a picture and a Harley shirted guy walks up and asks, "is that a new bike or an old one?" Told him it was 30 years old and he said "that's a nice looking bike, and that's a big compliment coming from a Harley guy."

    Get those XJ's tuned and ride 'em boys!
     
  2. cutlass79500

    cutlass79500 Well-Known Member

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    nice ride looks like you saw lots of good scenery. Cooler weather looks nice for a change. Been a very hot summer here in the 90s every day and less then 2 inches of rain the whole summer. Great pics
     
  3. rustysavage

    rustysavage Member

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    fantastic pics! I noticed the speed in the pic where you locked the throttle and snapped a few pics!
     
  4. bigfitz52

    bigfitz52 Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    Look at the tach. It's a KPH speedo, he's running a little over 60mph.

    Ranger-- NICE PICS! Beautiful scenery, quite a trip. Thanks for posting that.
     
  5. ski84

    ski84 Member

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    Great ride report and some nice photo's of the journey. I went to Glacier a number of years ago and the 'Going to the Sun' road is awesome indeed.
     

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