Ride Across Canada – Day 25

Day’s distance / Total distance – 413 miles / 7,146 miles

Temperatures ranged from low 50s to mid 70s. The day began and ended with sunshine, but there was rain which was expected in the middle of the day as I rode into Kansas City. I knew it was coming and my radar app showed approximately how far out I still was when I stopped for second breakfast.

I did get my rainsuit on so I would be ready.

I got to meet Chief, an 8-week old puppy on my next quick break. He was being taken home for the first time. His father is a firefighter, so the breed seemed an obvious choice.

As I reached Concordia, Kansas, the rain started, though slowly with just light showers.

The rainfall was heavy at times, especially as I was leaving Kansas City. On I-70 east, there was a multi-car pile up due to the storm, but westbound traffic was light and continued without incident. I stayed dry on the inside through the entire approximately two hours.

From the radar app, it looks like I missed the worst of it moving mostly between the upper and lower concentrations of rain.

Last night, I made a few changes to my route home. Instead of staying on I-70 through Denver and into the mountains towards Provo, I am diverting north to Fort Collins and then skirting the mountains to arrive at Ogden, Utah.

To rebalance each day’s mileage, and to travel over La Grande Pass in the afternoon instead of in the morning, I canceled my stay in Boise and will overnight in Baker City as my final night on the road.

The change was to avoid having to ride from Denver west during a very cold morning. Temperatures in the mid 20s are really to be avoided on a motorcycle.

The image below is from a website called weatherstreet. It’s a very useful tool providing temperature, precipitation and wind forecasts.

The site is why I knew I would have some rain to ride through today, many days ago.

The 10-day forecasts provides 2am, 8am, 2pm, and 8pm snapshots. The above is the 8am surface temperature snapshot for Monday morning. My original route would cross right through the deep blue section over the Rocky Mountains west of Denver.

So, I routed around it, staying mostly in the green(er) areas. Woo hoo! It will still be probably my coldest day of travel and I will add a layer for additional warmth and put on my warmer gloves.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, I finish crossing Kansas and end up in Fort Collins. I’m not expecting any precipitation and it will still be reasonably warm tomorrow though I may be traveling mostly in the 50s, just like some days up in Canada.

Monday night will be in Ogden, Tuesday in Baker City and Wednesday, if all goes as planned, back in my own bed in Seattle.