Thursday July 15th 2010 – Circle to Hanna Alberta

Miles travelled = 596
Miles travelled since leaving home = 10004

What a great day of riding. Clear and cool to start the day, a cloudless sky all day, and great roads with very little traffic. And best of all, the wind had died down. I could just let the bike run, and run it did.
As Kay’s Diner next to the motel opened for breakfast at 0600, I decided to fuel up before leaving. I had also gassed up last evening, a good job as it turned out as neither of the two gas stations in Circle were open when I left.

Lodging in Circle

Kay’s Diner

View from the parking lot

I hit the road about 0630, and SR200 was empty. During the 66 miles to the next town Jordan, I counted 13 vehicles and a jogger. Even during the ride from Jordan to Lewistown, some 145 miles, there was virtually no traffic. It was just the bike and I, cattle and birds. Amazing. I decided to top up the gas at Jordan, a good job as it turns out, as the only place with gas between here and Lewistown was at Winnett. I stopped off, and found two pumps, unknown and diesel. I thought about just topping up, but decided against it as thought I would be OK as long as I kept the speed down. As it turned out I had gas to spare.

The landscape for the first 100 miles or so was typical for east Montana, wide open and barren, with periods of those large bare rocky mounds, but then it started to change, with evergreens, hills, and even bends in the road. After Lewiston it became more rural with what seemed more crops than cattle.

Before Lewiston

Not much traffic on this road – SR200 to Lewiston

Traffic was heavier between Lewiston and Great Falls, but one could still move along at your own pace. The landscape changed to more rural, with many trees and hills. The wind started to pick up as morning wore on, but nothing like the strength of yesterday.

So into Great Falls.

I took I15 north towards the Canadian border, and again traffic was light. Many bikes were headed south, and interestingly many had trailers. There seemed to be more and more riding that way, interesting. I must find out more about that, and the effect it has on handling, especially on curves. One could occasionally see the Rockies to the West, and it was good to see mountains again after many miles of relatively flat terrain. The landscape was still wide open, but many fields were crops. Through the border and back into Canada with no line up at immigration. At my first gas fill up I really missed the premium prices of less than $3 a gallon in the States.

I picked up H36 at Warner and headed north for about 180 miles until hitting H9, and west to Hanna, arriving about 6:30PM. Again I had good roads, with virtually no traffic. One thing with this part of Alberta is that it is flat, so once the bike is rolling, it just trucks along as though on cruise control. You could see they had had quite a bit of rain lately, the landscape was really green. This time last year when I rode up from Seattle, it was mainly brown.

So I’ll spend a few days here in Hanna, then head for Edmonton and the north, most likely on Monday. I will head for Haines direct, as the time I have left to be there to catch the ferry, coupled with road and weather conditions in the Alaskan area means I will not be able to make the daily miles needed to do the full loop of up to Fairbanks. I'll play it by ear on route. I have been following a really great regular trip report on the HDForum site written by a rider touring with his wife as pillion (now that’s gutsy :)), and the weather has been quite wet for them. So it needs better planning on my part, and will keep for another day. The ferry is my original reason for heading that way anyway, so as long as I catch it I’ll be satisfied.