The radio reports had been right: as one proceeded east towards Revelstoke, the visibility dropped immensely due to forest fire smoke being blown north from Washinton state fires. By the time I finished a quick energy refill at the Revelstoke supercharger, I was inspired to get out of the smoke. Head southbound, baby. Banff would have to wait.

What a shame this smoke had arrived, though, because the route from Sicamous  toward Banff clearly offered fabulously scenery.

The route eastbound from Sicamous was gorgeous with deep gorges and  lovely lakes. Really smokey, though.

The supercharger station at Golden, Canada, is one of the most unique, with a park next door open only to Travelodge and Tesla supercharger customers only.

From Golden I needed to abandon the supercharger network again, however, to pursue a southerly route, and with 278 miles to Kalispell, I would need a helper charge along the way.

Iceman and I stopped for a helper charge at the Kicking Horse Cafe, about 60 miles south of the Golden supercharger. The cafe offered an excellent 26 mph charger at no charge, free internet, and a chance to buy great coffee and food.

In a little over 2 hours we had a full range of 241 miles and headed south again for our most ambitious leg yet: over 210 miles to Kallispell, Montana. Plan B in case we couldn’t make the distance? Stop for the night at one of the many RV parks between the U.S. border and Kallispell.

I crossed the U.S. border after dark and entered one of my favorite states: Montana

Pulling into the RV Park at Kallispell, I had used less than 50kwh of electricity to cover the 210 miles and averaged a miserly 235 kw per mile. 

I drove about 45 mph on this route to Kalispell but did better than on the Alaska legs because the temperature was warmer, I demanded nothing more than a fan from the environmental system, and the road had considerably fewer turns and hills than the legs through Canada.