Alberta-BC-Washington-Idaho-Montana

[roox]

Did a 2300 km trip in June and found some great roads. Started in Calgary and headed West through Banff. My friend and I (he was riding a 2009 Vmax (he’s crazy)) took the Bow Valley Parkway from outside of Banff to Castle Junction and then Highway 93 into BC. Made it as far as Creston BC the first day. I should note that it was raining all day but as some wise person once said a bad day on a bike is better than a good day in the office! The next day was still raining so had a good breakfast and hit the road. We was planning on crossing into Washington through Osoyoos so even with the weather being sh*tty kept to the scenic route Salmo, Trail, Rossland etc. It wasn’t until driving down into the valley at Osoyoos that the weather finally started to cooperate and I found out how nice it was to ride on dry pavement. I was wearing Frogg Toggs (Road togs) the whole trip so far and they kept me nice and dry. We took highway 97 into Washington and turned east onto highway 20 at Tonasket. This is where the ride started to get fun. Highway 20 has lots of twisties and little traffic and was a great road to prepare us for the even better roads up ahead. We took 20 to Colville and turned south on 395 to Chewelah. From here there is a great road called Flower Trail Road that runs to Usk where it joins up again to highway 20. This is a great road, lots of twisties, great views and one that I would definitely go back to do again. From there we headed into Idaho and stayed at Sandpoint the second night. Good food good beer and good night. The next day we headed North on Highway 2 up to Bonners Ferry and then into Montana. The speed limit is 70mph there so the trip started to speed up a bit. A few km into Montana we took the Yaak Valley-Libby Dam Road. Stopped for some refreshment at the Yaak River Tavern and then on to some of the best riding roads I have been on. The Yaak Valley-LibbyDam Road east (National Forest Development rd 92) has switch backs and and everything in between. I even left some of my floor boards on some of the turns, something I don’t do on Alberta’s relatively gentle roads. We crossed the river and took a short detour on 37 north to Eureka (the Vmax has a very short range and we were stopping every 120-150km) and then back down 37 to Libby. From Libby it was a short hop to Kalispell for night 3. A lot of beer that night. The plan for the next day was to hit the Road to the Sun but it was still not opened all the way. We headed to Whitefish to see it and then back on highway 2 to Browning. At Browning we took 89 east and then north to St Mary and were again rewarded with a great twisty road. 89 took us to the boarder and then it was straight boring highway 2 to Calgary. We really enjoyed the trip and I would highly recommend highway 20, the Flower Trail road, yak river Road and Highway 89.

[Netnorske]

Nice ride. So many roads....so little time..... .

[pirate]

Sounds like a great time. I was just on the Sun Road last week. I haven't been on the other one north of Browning. I'll have to hit that one next time.

[AlabamaNomadRider]

Nice trip report. Sounds like you had a great ride.

[schoeney]

I have ridden a couple of these roads and agree. I may have to incorporate some of your suggestions into my next ride up that way.

[elvis]

sounds like a great trip, thanks for the write-up.

E.

[b2]

What a great ride.

Last year I hit some of the same points..

Route 20 through the cascades.. glorious. Sandpoint.. Bonners Ferry.. roads around Libby Dam..wow.. Eureka, Kalispell, Glacier NP. All great stuff..

We did it in the reverse direction to you.. came up from SoCal through Nevava, Idaho (route 12... wow) and Montana.. through Glacier NP (in July 2009.. road was open but it snowed and rained on us all day..), then into AB for a bit, along CA Hwy 3 through Pincher Creek, Fernie, then crossed back into USA at Roosville to escape 7 days of rain forecast in AB/BC (so we missed getting to Jasper...). Then it was Eureka, Libby Dam, Bonners, Sandpoint, Route 20 etc and south home (via all the landmarks.. Mt Rainier, Mt St Helens, Mt Hood, Crater Lake, Redwoods, Golden Gate Bridge, Big Sur etc).

It's just over a year ago I did my trip and I'm not kidding when I say that not a week goes by without me thinking about that trip and dreaming of when I can do it again.

Hope your trip leaves a smile on your face for as long as it has on mine.

Brian

p.s. the pic below is entering the Cascades on route 20. Just a little bit out of Winthrop as I recall...