This year I bought a new 2026 Triumph Tiger Sport 800 Tour and sold my FJR after 16 years of owning FJRs. Well respected riders on the FJR forums had gone lighter over the years and at 70 years young it was time for me to follow in their footsteps. With 6500 miles on the new Tiger I am glad I did.
This was my second trip with the new Tiger and the first trip with one inch handlebar risers. It has taken a while to get the bike to fit me and my style. I am not quite there yet but close.
I ride with a group in the Spokane Coeur d'Alene area and we are known as the Tuesday riders. There are some very fine veteran riders in this group and we have blast. A subset of these riders decided to go on a 3 day ride and I was invited, lucky me and someone dubbed us the Fab Six as there was six of us on this ride.
Our route from day one began in Sandpoint Idaho and ended in Fernie BC Canada.
At Bonners Ferry Idaho we cross the Kooteai River.
I was really thrilled to ride with my friends and strengthen our bonds on this trip. A bonus was riding on some roads I have never been on before so a should out to Patrick who created the route. Very cool.
This photo reminded me of Diana Krall song 'S wonderful. The lyrics:
'S wonderful, 's marvelous
'S awfully nice, 's paradise
'S what I love to see
I have about 2300 songs on my GPS and I use the GPS's media player to enjoy all of them and sometimes a lyric pops into my head. Mostly rock, pop, lots of jazz and a bit of classical.
My Canon G7X is in my tank bag and I love taking moto photos.
Lake Koocanusa and we did find that Confounded Bridge!
Stan taking of photo of the Bridge.
Regrouping and taking a break. I am the slow guy who likes to sniff. Thanks for waiting guys.
One last bridge photo.
On the road again near Fernie BC. Canned Heat.
Mountains yeah. Life is a mountain not a beach and it is always beaching to ride my motorcycle.
I should have removed the power lines. Ah well. The mountain on the right is severely uplifted. Fascinating.
End of Day One.
Day Two
Today we traveled through some spectacular country between Fernie BC and Kalispel Montana.
Not long after our departure we where came upon the Frank Slide a rock
slide from 1903 that took 90 lives. I need to go back here and tour the
visitor center and here a great summary of the event.
Onward to Waterton Lakes National Park where much to our surprise no one
was staffing the entrance booths so we paid no fee. Sorry Canada. The
geology here is stunning. The layers and lifting are hard to fathom and the rocks are up to 1.5 billion years old.
Photos from Waterton NP.
Faceshield closed.
Faceshield open.
Open or closed do you have a preference?
After eating a late breakfast or early lunch it was off to Glacier to ride the Going to the Sun road. As we were going east to west there would be not going to the sun for us! I was quite apprehensive about riding the Glacier part as a my last experience on the Going to the Sun Road was most unpleasant, overly crowded, loved to death and a slow going grind. In someplace people just stopped in the middle of the road, slid through the sunroof to take a picture holding up 20 cars in the process. Just nuts. Thankfully, while busy today, it was better than I remember.
You can't deny the beauty of Glacier no matter how crowded it is.
Wild Goose Island.
I wasn't sure if my sniffing and picture taking habit was gong to let me keep up but in the end I did keep up.
The Weeping Wall. Most of us had Cardo's and I was egging folks on to ride through the falls on this warm day.
We had a nice meal in Kalispel and found a meeting area for breakfast in the morning.
End of Day Two.
