Kalispell, MT to Parson, BC

Day 5    July 23, 2016

Kalispell, Montana.  This is our “down day” that we used to tour Glacier Nat’l Park, do wash, conduct some maintenance on the motorcycles, and plan a couple more days into our trip.  Oh?…agenda?  We don’t have one.  We have a general idea of our route and no reservations beyond a day or two…

Going to the Sun Highway (West entrance to Glacier)

The ride up Going to the Sun Highway was a stunning surprise in that we fully expected to witness extraordinary vistas, but we were unprepared for the canopy of conifer and deciduous trees tunneling our approach up the road with a roaring creek filling the gaps between the trunks.  Suddenly the canopy gives way to reveal breathtaking visuals that touch the deepest part of one’s soul.

We continued to the top of Logan Pass and hiked the trail with sightings of mountain goats, bighorn sheep, then we were notified that the upper part of the trail was closed as a grizzly bear was parked up there eating his fill of wild berries.

Day 6  

The Priceless Gems on day 6…

We started out of Kalispell refreshed and energized with a short 280 mile ride crossing into Canada and up Highway 93.  While researching our trip I came across a forum post that said to not pass up the “locals only” Lussier Hot Springs off of 93.  We saw that there were many ads for Radium Hot Springs and Fairmont Hot Springs along our route and their fee based man-made pools, but Lussier was off the beaten path and not on the maps.  We noted the GPS coordinates and drove 22 miles round trip on rustic dirt mountain roads and came upon the priceless gem!  It was crowded with locals on a Saturday, but that had it’s own magic as we sat among our new friends in the hot pools and chatted about the local happenings.

The Icing on the cake was when we rolled into the bed and breakfast (www.timberinn.com) that we reserved at the last minute the day before and discovered that we stumbled onto another priceless gem.  The proprietors, Marianne & Rainer Jaeger from Germany soon became friends.  Rainer is a MotoHead too as he rides an Italian Moto Guzi, a beautiful piece of motorized art, and rents Ducati’s when they travel back to Germany.

They both cooked up a first class multi-course dinner that Mary and I will always remember.  Marianne reminded me of my amazing sister and master cook, Alicia Lixey!