If you do what you always did, you’ll get what you always got.
Lake Louise, BC -> Radium Hot Springs, BC (80 miles)
Radium Hot Springs, BC -> Lake Louise, BC -> Hungry Horse, MT (458 miles)
The weather report called for scattered thunderstorms all day around Banff and I still hadn’t gotten to see Lake Louise or Moraine Lake. I decided to book an Airbnb an hour and half south in Radium Hot Springs to hole up for the day and relax. I didn’t bother visiting the hot springs because it just looked like a recreational pool and I wasn’t too sore.
The next morning morning I woke up at 5am so I could backtrack an hour and half to Lake Louise to try to make it for sunrise, but the ride through the passage was frigid to say the least. It must have been 40°, because despite doubling down on my gloves and filling them with hand warmers, I still had to stop every 10 miles to warm up my hands.
The cold ride was worth it. I’ve honestly never see a lake more beautiful than Lake Louise. It’s the combination of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, which reminds me of the Grand Budapest Hotel, the turquoise water color, the glacier, and the reflection of the mountains that make it so beautiful.
However, within minutes of getting a picture fog started to roll in and I couldn’t see more than a foot in front of me.
I tried to wait out the fog in hops of grabbing a selfie, but it didn’t seem like it was going to let up anytime soon so I rode 7 miles up a winding road to Moraine Lake. Like Lake Louise, it’s the color and surrounding mountains that make it so beautiful. I couldn’t spend too long because I had to ride an hour and half back to my Airbnb to grab my gear and pack my bike before it was time to check out.
The ride from Radium Hot Springs to the Ride to the border wasn’t too eventful. I mostly passed farmlands, but there were a few stretches where I rode along the top of a valley.
I had learned at earlier border crossings that it’s better to lie about being unemployed because it raises too many questions and makes me look suspicious. So when I reached the U.S. border the conversation went something along the lines of:
Border Patrol: “What do you do for work?”
Me: “I’m an entrepreneur.”
Border Patrol: “What do you do as an entrepreneur?”
Me: “It’s kind of confidential, but basically I’m building a business to business mobile messaging app that helps them connect socially with their customers in a local setting.”
Border Patrol: <blank stare>
I think he on to my bluff because he proceeded to make me take everything off my bike and out of my saddlebags, which was a huge pain because it takes me about 15 – 20 minutes to pack my bike properly. Then he tried to slip me up about buying stuff in Canada or how much money I was carrying. He must’ve asked me 3 times if I bought any alcohol or tobacco. It must be my new mountain man beard that has taken away my innocent look.
Finally, he let me pass through and I could tell there was a long line behind me so I felt a bit rushed. Like before, I instinctively put my bike in gear and tried to start it. It died again. The patrol man gave me a push to try to kick start it, but the lights didn’t come on. I had to go into the building and wait 30 minutes for someone to come and jump my bike.
It’s at this point that I started to think that maybe there wasn’t something wrong with the electrical system. After we took off my battery cover and touched only the positive lead of the cable to my battery my light turned on. I turned my bike on and was back on my way, but I was still confused how that worked. If I remembered correctly from high school science, you need both positive and negative leads to be attached for a current to pass through. It also helps when the jump kit is plugged in.
My plan was to camp just outside Glacier National Park so that I could wake up early and take my time riding through the park. I found a campsite just outside in Hungry Horse, but found out the famous Going-to-the-Sun Road was closed half way up due to all the fires they had been having. They were hopeful that the road would open the next morning.
I hopped on my bike and tried to start my bike while it was in neutral, but I pulled in my clutch. My bike was dead again. At that point, I figured there was something wrong with my electrical system and it was tied to my clutch somehow. I went inside to see if lady behind the desk had any jumper cables, but she said I’d have to wait for the owner to get back. I ended up carrying my bags up a hill to my campsite and set up my tent.
After a while of sitting at my campsite I saw a pick up truck roll up to the site across from mine. They also had a motorcycle parked out front that was covered so I decided to ask them if they had any cables. Unfortunately, they didn’t but we started chatting about motorcycles. Turns out the guy, Lauren, who was obviously a harley owner with his big gut, white goatee and american flag bandana, was towing his bike around to go riding. He generally would ride with his wife, Jerry, but they wanted to camp and not have to worry about packing all their gear on their bike.
These people were awesome. They knew I was stuck and couldn’t go out for food so they invited me over to their campsite for beer and dinner. We were talking about my adventures and all the kind people I had met. It was at that moment that I realized I had not only met a stranger at every location I had gone, but I’d had a meaningful conversation with them as well. If you had asked me before this trip if I would strike up a conversation with a random stranger I would’ve told you not in a million years.
We continued talking about motorcycles and I started talking about all the issues I had with my bike. I was planning on skipping Glacier National Park and heading straight for Missoula where I knew they had a Harley Dealer. Lauren told me that he did all of his own mechanical work and it really wasn’t all that hard. He ordered the service manuals and they pretty much tell you step my step how to take apart and reassemble your bike. I had been reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and thought it would be cool to learn to fix my own bike, especially after meeting those gearheads up in Fairbanks.
When I bought my Harley I figured it was a good brand/build and I would never need to worry about it breaking down. Obviously that hadn’t been the case on this trip. I decided at that point that I could no longer rely on my motorcycle to just “work.” After I got my bike serviced, I planned to buy the service manual and actually learn how to fix it or at minimum change the oil and air filter.
After a few beers, I went back down to the campsite office to wait for the owner. In the lounge area there was a TV that was showing an episode of The Legend of Mick Dodge. I’m not really sure if you can call it divine intervention or coincidence, but it was the episode where a woman’s car breaks down and Mick helps her get back on the road by knocking the battery with a rock to break up acid build up on the terminals. I started to think that maybe that’s the issue with my battery.
The owner walked in not long after, we took off the battery cover, and sure enough there was corrosion on the terminals that was causing a bad connection. We brushed off the corrosion with a metal brush, sprayed some WD-40 on it, and my bike fired right up. I’m not surprised the terminals were corroded after all the vibrations, mud, and rain I rode through, but it made me wonder if my old battery was still good. It didn’t matter in the end. I was just happy everything was working correctly on my bike and I would be able to ride through Glacier National Park the following day without worrying about my battery having any issues.
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