What a difference 24 hours makes. The weather today is absolutely fantastic, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the 50s stretching across the landscape. I’m really starting to love Kicking Horse Road. With bluebird skies, the descent down to Golden was going to be fantastic. I stopped again at the 180-degree panoramic turn to take a few shots with my SLR camera.

I’m learning that in British Columbia, it’s the secondary roads where the motorcyclist truly comes alive. Sure, the primary highways are beautiful in all the right ways, but as scenic beauty goes up, the joy in motorcycling sometimes drops, and precipitously so. This little squiggle of asphalt has both beautiful scenery and athletic curves.

Since I had taken the rain delay in Golden, I was prioritizing distance over “smelling the roses,” so I didn’t have much time to explore beyond the Trans-Canada Highway 1. That being said, today’s itinerary included Glacier National Park, Yoho National Park, and Rogers Pass—three epic beauties that adorn the Canadian landscape.

I still can’t get over the fact that all of the Canadian national parks are free to all tourists for the entire summer. You don’t even have to be Canadian. Canadians are exploring Canada in record numbers, and all of this tourism activity at home funds solid economic activity across the country. It’s actually an ingenious way to strengthen the domestic travel business.

I contrast that with the extended government shutdown in the United States in 2012. All of the national parks were closed, canceling tens of thousands of vacations and shattering local businesses that depend on those tourist dollars. The Canadians are likely making up for park admission fees with increased tax revenues from businesses in the area. Every hotel stay on this trip more than covers whatever park entrance fee might be charged at the front gate.

Right near the entrance of Glacier National Park, I’m reminded that the time zone shifts from Mountain Time to Pacific Time. It’s surprising to me that the time doesn’t align with provincial borders but rather what seems to be a somewhat arbitrary boundary for this wayward American tourist. I’m also intrigued by the snow control infrastructure. Being so far north and in valleys of giant mountains that receive massive amounts of snow, all of the infrastructure—like tunnels and no-parking zones focused on avalanche control—is a sight to see.

A little later in the morning, I finally crossed over Rogers Pass. R and I went through quite a bit of consternation on this part of the journey due to the large amount of construction, transport truck traffic, and the real possibility of inclement weather moving into the area. It was absolutely the right thing to delay the trip, as this area is stunning and came alive in the partly cloudy skies.

I still scratch my head as the road through this area is being upgraded into a four-lane superslab freeway. I’m used to tiny roads in national parks which wander through the mountains, but that’s not the case here in Canada. One road serves all kinds of people and vehicles, and the capacity is designed to match the demand. I was lucky that most of the construction was fairly benign. I never left the tarmac, but there were a couple of sections where dirt mixed with water made the pavement a touch slippery, but it was nothing the motorcycle couldn’t handle.

R asked me to stop by the RCMP station in Revelstoke to pick up a package, saving him a trip or the police detachment from having to ship the package back. I was glad to wander through this community, as my neighbor had spoken well of it on his ski trip a few months before. I know no organization is perfect, and I’m sure the RCMP has its own chapters of a dark history, but I can’t help but notice the amount of outward inclusion the police put forth during my time in Canada. On the doors of the detachment, I saw small signs with a rainbow sticker indicating the detachment is a safe place for queer people. The RCMP often participates in the Vancouver Pride Parade, and in this moment, picking up the package, they were just lovely people!

I used the Destination Highways book to pick out another off-the-beaten-path pavement squiggle: White Lake Road. It was a nice diversion from the now monotonous Highway 1 making its way across the valley. This gently used two-lane highway had excellent pavement and no cars, circling a beautiful lake and then leading back out to the main highway. This detour was like finding a fun little diversion inside of British Columbia’s treasure of hidden adventures.

A friend of mine in the diabetes community often takes his family camping and adventuring in the Shuswap. As an onlooker on Instagram and Facebook, you never really get a true sense of people’s adventures from a mobile phone or even a laptop. Since I was crossing through this area, I wanted to stop at one of his favorite lakes.

In doing so, I wandered into the town of Chase, right at the western end of Little Shuswap Lake. It just so happened that the city was hosting a car show at Memorial Park that night. What fun! I quickly became aware that I was the guy nobody knew with a big camera, so I only got one photograph of a car I found neat. However, the train rolled through town, highlighting iconic brands that are common across the Canadian landscape, and they were much easier to photograph with an iPhone.

I rolled into Kamloops well into the evening, but the northern sun kept trying to pretend it was only midafternoon. Two days of rain and six days of riding were definitely starting to show on the motorcycle, especially the rain. Every time I take the GS out in the rain, it comes back filthy, whether it’s a 20-minute ride or crossing the entire province of British Columbia. Note to self: If you’re going to ride in the rain, make it a long one, as the cleanup process is the same!

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