Radium’s location between my home and the Kootenays always made it an ideal crossroads for getting to or from my destination.  I never considered it a destination of its own because it was just a *little* too far from home to make it a convenient launching pad for a return trip…and the conditions were never ideal as a Day 1 destination for the same reason.  This time around the conditions were different.  I was heading all the way to Astoria and I want to get there in three days, so that means I’d have to commit to three long, full days of riding.  I also thought that Radium was ‘due’ for a night stay, and there are a lot of affordable motels in town.

To get there at a decent hour I had to leave by 7am.  I was up at 6:00 to get ready but I just wasn’t packed enough yet and I wasn’t able to get on the road until 8:00.  I decided to take the Wainwright/Wetaskiwin route, so I could enjoy entering the Rockies using the David Thompson highway.

The morning seemed long at the time but in the context of a very long day it went by pretty uneventfully. My goal was to have lunch at Rocky Mountain House, but since I was late leaving I didn’t get there until 2:00.  I had a late lunch anyway (just to stick with the plan), and headed off toward Saskatchewan River Crossing.

The David Thompson Highway is arguably the most beautiful of the four possible entrances into the Rockies.  I’m not sure if that’s true, but it does seem the most interesting…maybe because I’ve exhausted the Jasper and Banff entrances, and the Crowsnest Pass is hand’s down the least dramatic.  The cool thing is that the David Thompson follows the North Saskatchewan River into the Rockies to its source.  Being the same river that flows through my hometown, I found this fascinating.

The best part of that highway, however, are the mountains. Damn it I love the mountains, and when you enter from this spot you end up right smack dab in the middle of the Icefields Parkway and you’re surrounded by glacier-capped mountains…the biggest and most beautiful that the Rockies have to offer.  Bang.  There they are…hello…welcome back to the spine of the continent Ryan.  It’s been a while.   Seriously, look at the map below…you come in right into the whitest of the white parts.

I had to stop at the Crossing Resort at the junction of the David Thompson Highway and the Icefields Parkway to soak it all in.  I sit around all winter and think about those first few moments as I enter the mountains on a motorcycle…there is nothing like it in the world.  It feels like being on a different planet.  The scenery is so stark in contrast to where I live that I instantly forget about all of the stresses of every day life.  I am now free and filled with joy.

The weather all day was in the mid to high 20s, and when I finally reached the mountains there were sporadic rain storms, but I was able to avoid them all. The ride down the Icefields Parkway toward Lake Louise was stunning, and they recently completed a major resurfacing project so I got to ride new asphalt too.  I had to wait for a major traffic pileup south of Lake Louise but I was able to get to the junction of Highway 93 into Kootenay National Park by about 6:30 or so.

Kootenay National Park is the only way to get to Radium from the east so I’ve been through it many times, but never as a final stretch.  That park and the highway through it are incredibly pleasant.  It was nice to sit back and enjoy it for once, instead of hurrying through so I could make good time to get somewhere else.  I stopped at Numa Falls to discover the bridge had been washed out, and most other sites were either busy with Sunday traffic or else they were closed.  I did manage to stop a few times, and finally crossed through the final pass into Radium at 8:00…almost exactly 12 hours from the time I started.

My body was sore from the long day of riding so I jumped in the motel pool for a half hour.  The motel is located on the side of the mountain as you first descend into Radium, which gives a fantastic view of the Purcell Mountains to the West.  The pool was incredibly refreshing and I was able to watch the sun set from my vantage point.  I spent a good half hour in there before going back to my room to dry off, change, and walk down the road to the The Old Salzburg Restaurant.

I was in the mood for some schnitzel, spaetzle, and Steigl.  I was not disappointed, and after that hearty meal I was ready for some sleep.  Tomorrow had to be an early rise because I had to get all the way to the Cascades in Washington State.

At this point I realized that I forgot my macbook’s power cord at home.  If I can’t find one tomorrow, this will be the last post for a while.  Damn it…I even took gopro footage I was going to show off as a surprise.