Day 1- Edmonton to McBride the long way

Go Spot Go
Latitude:53.30544
Longitude:-120.16309
GPS location Date/Time:07/14/2012 09:26:12 NPT

Message:Ted is OK

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=086W5QOEo1UTJlkdVtsM3hipWGYHPIhz3

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/8dKMP/53.30544N/120.16309W

The general plan today was to meet at the Husky at highway 16 and 60, be ready to leave by 8:30, ride to Edson to meet more of the group, continue to Hinton to pick up Larry and Myrna, then continue on to McBride. Well it turned out to be a longer ride than that.

When we were passing through Hinton, because unknown to me we were supposed to meet Larry and Myrna at a spot further on, a desperate looking woman ran from the IGA parking lot, tripped and nearly did a face plant, then wove her arms wildly as we passed by. I was at the rear of the third group and was the only one to recognize this woman was Myrna. I have to work on my communications skills because no matter what I said over the radio the group just kept going doggedly forward to the original revised plan. About thirty km past Hinton we finally arrived at the muster point and I was able to let everyone know that Larry and Myrna were back in Hinton with some kind of tire problem as Larry had come on the radio and said so. The Mozzies were eating us alive and everyone wanted to get moving so Dave and I decided to backtrack while the rest proceeded on.

We connected almost immediately with Larry and Myrna and the tire problem was actually a problem with the torsion bar axle system on their trailer. We tweaked it, had lunch, went over to Canadian tire to affect a better repair, bought a spare tire as his original was chewed up by the problem a bit, and finally moved forward towards Jasper. It wasn't long before the problem reappeared, but now both sides were affected. Dave suggested we detour to Valemont where he had a friend with a shop. After a few howdy dos they got down to fixing it and Myrna and I went back into town for supper and a cool drink. About an hour later the other two appeared with a repaired trailer, had their supper, and we continued on to McBride.

Other than that it was a gorgeous hot wonderful ride. I had to break out the cooling vest around Jasper, we saw a magnificent Elk, the biggest Grizzley bear I have ever seen, and a first for me, magestic Mt. Robson where you can actually see the summit. What a beautiful sight. And the late evening ride could only be improved if the sun was at our back instead of in our eyes. The wind was calm, the temperature finally cooling down, and the pavement was smooth.

Now tomorrow, we have to do it all over with Lloyd's trailer as his has the same problem developing that Larry's had. At least we know how to fix it now.