OCT 14, Thursday, DEPARTURE DAY
We were up by 7 am as we had a few things to do first. I covered the car after removing the battery; shut off the water main; turned off the lights; said good bye to our neighbour and we were on our way by 9:45 am. We stopped in Salmon Arm to pick up our mail and let them know we were on our way then we were on our way.
We stopped in Revelstoke for lunch and continued on to Golden. It was a nice drive with not much traffic and little road work happening. No snow on the mountains passes and very little on top of the Monashee. We did see an 18 wheeler in the ditch and DOT, police and wrecker were already there. We arrived in Golden at 4 pm Mountain Time Zone. We are staying at Whispering Pine; we’ve stayed here before. We even had 5 to 8 mountain goats were around. There is a lot of construction on the highway here in Golden, widening and straightening the Kicking Horse Pass.
N 51* 18.021
W 116* 56.810
ALT: 2954 feet
We travelled 188 miles (203 KM) in 5 hours @ an average speed of 49 MPH. I fuelled here but only took on 35$ as it was $1.19/ Litre
OCT 15, Friday, to Kalispell, Montana
It snowed overnight on top of the mountains and we had a bit of rain down here. We got up to a dark sky at 7 am. Actually, it wasn’t light until 8 am. After breakfast and showers, we left around 9:30 pm and headed south on hwy 95. We had a bit of rain but it eventually cleared and by the time we got to Fort Steele, it was sunny. We stopped just north of Ft Steele to fuel @ $1.09/Litre. We turned East on hwy 3 then south on 93. We crossed into the U.S. quickly and with no problems. The drive south to Kalispell was nice and interesting scenery. We arrived at our campsite at Rocky Mountain Campground and paid $21 for one night. After dropping “Bear” and unhooking, we drove to town where they had a Costco, Walmart and Best Buy...all my favourites and Val’s too. We bought groceries and phone time for our US phone and fuelled the truck at 3.19/gal. We are happy to be here; we even have internet!
N 48* 15.183’
W 114* 15.000’
Alt: 2926 feet
We travelled 456 KM (284 miles) in 6.5 hours at an average speed of 52 MPH
OCT 16, Saturday, to Ennis, Montana
We got up at 7:30 this morning. It was -2*C (30*F) but went up as the day went by. We left Kalispell at 9 am and drove south on 93, East on 82 then south on 83. The highway was great and fairly flat until we turned on 83 where it became rolling but still easy to negotiate. We could peak at the Rockies once in a while through the trees and whenever we got an opening. We stopped in Swan Lake for a break and coffee; temperature was around 10*C (50*F). This is beautiful country for fishing and hunting. We finally arrived to the Highway 200 junction and headed east once again. The scenery here was rolling hills, open ranch country reminding us of home near Kamloops. Actually it also reminded us of South Dakota near Sturgis.
Anyway, once again we turned south on 141 to Hwy 12 East, where we climbed to 6400 feet (almost the same height as MT Cheam near Chilliwack, BC) and crossed the Continental Divide and went down to Helena, Montana’s capital. Thank goodness for the Jake, it held back the whole rig at a comfortable 40 mph in 5 to 7% grade, all the way down to 3400 feet.
Helena was a very clean and small town from what we saw however, in all fairness, we didn’t stop, and continued on to Hwy 287 south. We crossed I-90 and arrived in Ennis around 4:30 where we called it quit. Believe it or not, we are at 5000 feet and it is a balmy 12*C (54*F), the warmest it’s been since we left. We have a beautiful view of the Rockies and are about two hour away from Yellowstone. We are staying in a very nice and clean park called Ennis RV Village, a Good Sam member. It had a heavy rain in the early part of the evening and lighting & thunder to boot! Right it is 9 pm and still 7*C (44*F)
N 45* 22.029
W 111* 43.622
Alt: 4917 feet
We travelled 506 Km (316 miles) in 7 hours at an average 51 MPH
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