PAGE 33
FALL 2019 ISSUE 02 / VOL . 04
Fiberglass sculptures of blue herons , standing six feet high on a street corner , where ? There ’ s no context , the images stand alone . I know only one person who can recite a motorcycle ride in exact order .
Lesson : Don ’ t pack for conditions at home ( we ’ d left in 97-degree weather ). Pack for everything . Shopping on the road is not a trustworthy option .
DAY FIVE : The sunrise enters the motel room like a nail . It is cold . I joke about scraping ice off the bikes . We breakfast in Hinton , a boomtown on the edge of the Canadian Rockies . The foyer has a weird set of public service ads , asking patrons to Cage Your Rage . Tense little scenarios suggest reasons to avoid barroom brawls , to quell the impulse to take it outside .
Maybe it ’ s a promotion for a local cable TV show . Don starts a conversation with Chris , a local rider who is heading the annual Toys for Tots ride later that morning . He has a Harley Road King , a Ducati and a couple of Nortons . He tells us that beyond the trees there is a network of roads to oil exploration sites , natural gas pipelines — that is a minor city . The past summer 1,000 workers had lived in a tent city . That probably explains the posters .
Outside of Hinton we catch our first glimpse of the Canadian Rockies , an arc of snowcapped peaks that cover a third of the horizon . Snowcapped . In September . Yikes . We ’ d had days of wheat , of wings , of weather , now we enter a day of rock and ice .
When your riding partner wears a DayGlo yellow jacket , who needs GPS ? Just follow the fireball up the Going-tothe-Sun Road .