A night in Jasper - what if?

After fuelling up the V-Strom, I headed across the street as two guys with BMW 1200 GS Bikes were there, and their bikes looked like they had been through a lot. I chatted with them for a few minutes. They were on a ride from Arizona to the Jasper area and back. It was nice to see someone else who was actually doing a long ride as I had never met anyone who had before. After a few minutes chatting they went on their way and I decided to change the oil in the bike.

I changed the oil and then set about finding a campsite for the night. I ended up riding another 75km or so before I found one that wasn't full. It was an enjoyable twisty road up a long hill near Castle Mountain.

Setting up camp I realized I had never done anything like this by myself before. It was nice to be alone with my own thoughts for the night. The trip around the world, my ride to Jasper, what life on the road would be like were all things that I pondered.

How would Dylan and I get along? What if... ah, the "what ifs". That's exactly what this trip is about. It's about conquering "what ifs" that we will face before the trip and during it. The "what ifs" from our friends and colleagues. The "what ifs" from the people we meet while planning this adventure. The "what ifs" will cause the trip to never happen unless the obvious ones are planned for and the others become an acceptable part of the risk we will face. Heck, I got a big "what if you encounter a bear" when I was entering the campground in Jasper as a warning from the warden. If the "what if" of encountering the bear was so bad, why would I even camp? Why would I ever go to such a beautiful place? Why bother?

The bother is that it's about experiencing life. I've spent too much of my life in classrooms and in achingly boring corporate meetings rife with buzzwords and balderdash to not go out at least once and stick it out there. We might get hurt, we might end up in jail somewhere, we might be delayed by politics or nature. The point is, that's ok. I have as much chance of getting hurt walking down the street, or as Dylan learned first hand, trying to get a glass of milk.

Ahem,
The next morning I didn't expect I'd sleep in as late as I did. I'd slept well and was very excited about tearing the camp down and moving on. I loaded the bike back up and headed toward Kamloops, BC. I calculated it to be about 6.5 hours away.

More to come...