ragebikeathon:

Oh wow! What an eventful week we’ve had! I have been a little preoccupied and have slacked a bit in my update efforts. I’ll tell you a bit about that later. Our last update saw us in the Saskatchewan town of Swift current. That night we stayed in town at a campground, had some 25 cent showers, spent a couple dollars worth of quarters trying to get an apparently defunct sauna to heat up. The next day we had pretty much had the most average cycling day you can have. We had planned on doing just over 100 kilometers (to keep up our 9 day streak of 100k+) but after a large breakfast and some strong tailwinds we decided that our luck just might run out and we should push every last kilometer we could out of the day. That day we did over 140 kilometers! We pulled into the Saskatchewan Visitor Center (located near the border of every province) around 5 and used their water, picnic tables, WiFi, and outlets until they closed at 6. We camped out back behind the Center. We woke up and as we were eating breakfast they same guy who closed shop came up and said hi. We’re pretty sure he knew we camped nearby but he was only smiles and a bit of chit chat as we packed up. 

On June 1st (the very next day) we rode all the way to Medicine Hat. While riding through Medicine Hat we were deciding where to look to find camp we saw a man standing on his porch and we we rode by I waved at him and he put his hands in the air and yelled, “woop woop!” We took this as a good sign and I rode over and started up a conversation. His name was Derek Hintz and he was a musician, painter, and all around friendly guy! He invited us in for a beer and our worries about finding camp soon faded away. Derek went through great lengths to make us feel at home and for that we are all very thankful. Its really nice to plan to stay with a friend, but when you can make a friend and have a place to stay it really gives you a lot of faith in humanity. Derek kept the fun going all night with some musical performances one of which I will link right above this post! After a late night in Medicine Hat we rode a bit northward up to the town of Bassano. We stopped in at a gas station and they had free showers! We each took a long shower and headed to a nearby RV park. We called the number at the front office and they told us to set up anywhere for free! After Bassano we turned north on one of just a few detours we had planned. We biked north on highway 56 into the town of Drumheller. This town is in the Badlands of Alberta, and we rode down a steep hillside into a desert like landscape, pretty wild after being in the prairies for so long. Erik broke our goal of 80 km/h (50 mph) finally! The reason this town gets a special mention is because it is home to the Tyrrell Royal Museum. The Tyrrell Royal Museum is home to the worlds largest collection of dinosaur skeletons! We spend an awesome night reading plaques, looking at skeletons, and camping under the stars. 

The next day, June 3rd, we rode all the way into the town of Airdrie. Just before Airdrie we caught our first glimpse of the rocky mountains, pictured faintly in the background of the picture with Richard hanging loose, we were really stoked to see them. We stayed with Amy, a friend of Richard’s family who had put a crock-pot of chili with all the fixings and for dessert was rhubarb pie. It was an amazing meal! It was there that I started feeling under the weather. I was having some urinary problems, I was diagnosed with a fairly serious bladder infection. I tried to go to a emergency clinic and they wanted over $1,000 just to see me. I decided to try a different clinic, across the street, for $40. They cultured my urine and wrote me a prescription for some pretty basic antibiotics and after just 24 hours my symptoms are nonexistent and I’m feeling a lot better. After leaving Airdrie we rode a short day into Calgary visited the Mountain Equipment Coop. Calgary is a perfect example of urban sprawl but with urban sprawl usually comes with sweet city bike trails. We rode about 15 kilometers on these trail until we jumped on to the city streets for a little street cycling. We saw all kinds of awesome craft breweries, stone fired pizza joints, and sweet bike shops. We came to rest at the house of Anna and James, relatives of Lucas. We ate dinner and as we were eating a friend of our hosts, Josèe or Josée, planned a day of mountain biking for us. We didn’t really have much say in the matter, but we didn’t want to object at all. We slept very soundly and the next morning we were up and at ‘em fairly early to get a good day of riding in. 

I love bikes, I love every style of biking, but today was my first time on a bike that wasn’t my touring bike. The bikes we rode today have shocks in the front to help soften the blows. This was a new concept to me, but on I decided I really enjoy. We rode up to the Calgary Olympic Park and spent an hour or two riding around the trails up in the park. It was an incredible time and it only served to make me that much more excited to go to Whistler Bike Park and ride some more trails!

ragebikeathon:

HELLO MOUNTAINS! Our very first day out of Calgary, June 8th, we could already see a line of peaks off in the distance. They were every bit the mountains we had imagined, even from 100 kilometers away. As we got closer we could see that these mountains were unlike anything we had seen before. It was a nice ride on Highway 1 into Banff Provincial Park and we started to see why we had always heard about Banff as one of the most beautiful places on earth. If you look in the pictures above you can see why too. Sheer cliff faces, heavily wooded pine forests, crystal blue streams. Our hosts of the previous nights had invited us to attend a mountain bike race they were part of in the Nordic Center in Canmore (where many of the ‘88 winter olympic events took place). This was about 100 kilometers away and the perfect days ride. We arrived as the Elite events were just starting and decided to raid the BBQ and watch the race, big thanks to the Spin Sisters. While we where there we chatted with a bicycle mechanic who worked for Giant by driving his van around and doing promos and fixing bikes for free and he told us about a great camping spot close by on a secluded lake. It was a terrific first night in the mountains. The next day, June 9th, we took our first real bike path from Canmore to Banff. Banff is a very nice place, very touristy, but still really puts off a mountain ski village vibe as well. We ate lunch in Banff and tried to do an update but the internet at many places just isn’t fast enough. We ran into the bikes of another couple of cycle tourists but they were nowhere to be found. After viewing the waterfall and trails around the village we headed across the 1 to the 1A. Highway 1A was the original road through the park and puts you far enough away from the motor madness of highway 1 you really forgot it was there. It was hard to focus on the road because the mountains were so incredible. Snowy cliff faces towered in all directions, peaks rose to 12,000’, and the heavily wooded forest was a haven for black bears. We encountered our second bear on the 1A. We were nearing the top of a small climb and noticed that there was about 6 or 7 cars waiting at the top of a hill and people were standing out of their sunroofs getting pictures of something. I yelled up ahead and asked if it was a bear because no cyclist wants to have to bike next to a bear. It was a solitary juvenile bear who wanted nothing more than to munch of the grass on the side of the road and we passed with no problems. We had been seeing loads of old British cars recently and we finally figured out why. The Bentley Motors Club was having a huge North American tour and we had crossed their path in Banff. They had cars from the ’30s up to some of the newest models. Check the pictures to see a couple of the old ones. We were expecting to make it to Lake Louise that night but the distance sign said at least 10 kilometers off and when you keep expecting the town to be around the next corner and it isn’t it is pretty disheartening. We camped on the side of the road (don’t tell the rangers!). We followed all the safety guidelines for camping in bear country; we hung our food, made and ate dinner 100 meters from camp, and had readily accessible bear mace outside between our tents. The next morning, the 10th, we woke up, packed up camp as usual and headed the last couple kilometers into Lake Louise. We decided that not seeing the lake was not an option and the 5 kilometer climb first thing in the morning would do us good and wake us up. It did. We were rewarded at the top with a crystal clear turquoise blue lake, stunning mountains behind it, and quite a few Japanese tourists to share the view with. After asking a couple locals about continuing along the 1A they told us it wouldn’t be feasible and so we headed back down the mountain to the 1 to continue our journey through the park. We headed into the market square of Lake Louise and ate lunch at a picnic table right in the middle of everything. We saw a lone bicycle tourist pull into the parking lot and I approached him and invited him to eat lunch with us. His name was Paul and he was from Manchester, England. He told us about the start of his journey and cycling from the north through the ice fields. We shared cycling stories and parted ways after wishing each other the best. That afternoon after biking through some pretty gnarly construction (Richard hit some cones and took a fall) we headed down what was easily the longest decent of the trip so far, Kicking Horse Pass. The pass is so steep that historically trains had a pretty decent chance to derail and fall into the river below. Luckily the steeper the better for us on road bikes. We decided to take an easy 60 kilometer day and rest in the very tiny town of Field. There we met another cyclist named Joshua who flew from his home in Toronto to Vancouver and was cycling back. As we got to talking Joshua asked if he might camp with us because he had been on the road for a couple weeks by himself and could use the company. We agreed and set out to find camp. We biked around the town of Field for a bit looking for a spot but the town was too small and compact. We did head up what looked to be an abandoned road only to see 2 black bear cubs scramble up a tree and a mean momma bear glaring from behind the trees. We decided that maybe a government sanctioned campground would be a good bet for that night. We backtracked a couple kilometers and found a campground with warm showers! After a warm shower and a hot meal it is pretty much impossible to stay awake and we were soon snoring away to the sound of a nearby river. 

The next day we cycled over what was one of our favorite stretches of road. We continued more or less downhill for most of the day as we cycled on roads build into the side of mountains through the Kicking Horse Valley. The speed limit was about 40KPH which allowed us to pass most of the traffic, it helped that our bikes can take corners far more sharply than a car. We had a quick stop in the town of Golden where we spent some gift cards (Thanks Josée and Anna!) and got lunch. We also headed into town to do some shopping and were struck by the amount of attractive women in Golden (we would soon learn that all mountain towns are filled with gorgeous women). We cycled another 30 kilometers still in awe of every new mountain peak and made camp in a clearing in the woods by a large river. It was a nice spot but the mosquitoes made it hard to be still for more than a couple minutes. After an amazing dinner of fettuccine alfredo we watched a couple episodes of Parks and Rec and drifted off into sleep. 

We had always known that by taking the scenic route through Banff we would have to also deal with a couple mountain passes. Today, June 12th, was going to be our first real encounter with climbing for more than 30 minutes. Rogers pass stands at a respectable 1,330 meters or 4,360 feet and was our only obstacle to get into the town of Revelstoke. Our plan was to go 100 kilometers for the day and hit Revelstoke for lunch, but our minds were changed by a very friendly park employee named Kirk. As we headed up into the pass we were surprised to find a long line of cars waiting, not just a long line but hundreds and hundreds of cars waiting for their turn to use the tunnels to cross the pass. One side of the tunnels was being repaved and the wait to cross the pass was almost an hour but one of the advantages of being on a bicycle is the freedom you get over construction zones. Many flaggers will let you go first as long as you mind the equipment. We made our way through the dark tunnels with little ceremony and before we knew it we were at the top of Rogers Pass. It was far easier than everybody had made it out to be and none of us even used our granny gears (the easiest gear to climb in). We visited the visitor center to get some water and that is where we met Kirk. Kirk had lived all over Western Canada and had been “chasing snow since [he] was 18.” He let us know that if we could make it into town there was an awesome restaurant where we could have a beer on the patio and look over the mountain and that he had a backyard we could sleep in. With the promise of a beer and backyard we decided to do the full 120 kilometers that day. It was mostly down hill from to top of the pass into the city of Revelstoke. Revelstoke won us over immediately. It was filled with cute girls on bikes and that is all we needed to know to fall in love with the town. We ate a monstrous meal and headed over to Kirks bed and breakfast (Adventurer’s Guest House, beautiful place) to camp in the backyard. We shared a few beers and he told us all about the town and its recent history. After that a dip in the hot tub was all we needed to put us to sleep. 

Today, the 13th, we’re getting a late start and planning to visit the bike shop in town before we head off toward the city of Kamloops.