FLASK June 27 - July 9

FLASK June 27-July 9
June 27:
86 miles to Eureka, MT. 830-630. Perfect day all around. Up early to egg & fruit breakfast from Rafael then loaded gear in the pick-up for the drive down to Lakeside park & a warm goodbye. Rolling hills through Flathead Valley into Kalispell for a lovely chat with Rae, cinnamon roll, coffee, veggies, & a buzzcut at the local barber. Easy riding then into Happy Valley & Whitefish where I made the big score: repaired Chaco sandals at the post office (finally!) plus new passport & Smith Optics sunglass frames waiting at Glacier Cyclery & Nordic! OMG! Whew! After a tuna sandwich & apple in the park it was easy but bad shoulder riding out of town through Potter's Field along the treed Dalish Mountains, which are noticeably losing their snow in the 1st warm, windless riding I've had in awhile. Mmmm ... Into Olney for a snack where toothless Ben suggested nice free camping 15 miles up the road at Murphy Lake, but I saw a touron right as I got back on Hwy 93 & this Ben (funny!) said to ride on to Eureka for $10 tenting with showers & restaurants. A gentle tailwind had developed so it felt reasonable to exceed the meager mileage I'd planned for my 1st day back on the bike in a week, even though I'd had some leg quivering at a brief rest around mile 60. It was pretty going through the Grave Creek watershed past Dickey & Murphy lakes & into the Kootenai NF & I arrived at the RV park feeling just a little tired under threatening skies. I had sharp but manageable hip pain all day (too much walking with a heavy pack & not enough stretching recently) so I had a nice long effective stretch after setting up the tent & changing clothes (I got to wear shorts all evening for the 1st time since ... Texas?). Christian arrived on a BMW GS1200 - he was dumped from a 13 year relationship so told work to find someone else while he did a long tour. A Swiss-German program manager living in Switzerland he was great company so we decided to have dinner & beers together at the lounge, where he gleefully consumed 3 Sierra Nevadas in his 1st introduction to the US's best commercial beer. He described the 26 cantons & smaller communities within them & their intricate voting & tax system, in which everyone votes on where the money is spent for the country, canton, & community - saying it was simple because people knew its efficiencies & the need for the common good. Sigh ... His insights into touring solo - fighting off bad headspace, finding joy in being alone, being outside, meeting interesting people everywhere, freedom of daily choice - matched mine & we shared a great evening rambling before turning in under still bright skies struggling to close down the long, beautiful sunset. He handed over a Canadian NP pass - hell, yes! - & I gifted him my remaining bud. Pretty good exchange at the border, eh? 8 miles to Canada tomorrow ... exciting. I cooed at Rae til she purred then went to sleep, my cold sufficiently abated to skip the Robitussin.
June 28:
82 miles to Wasa Lake, BC. 900-600. I rolled 2 miles downhill to town for breakfast at Cafe Jax, exchanging a quick hello-goodbye with Christian, who came in as I was leaving. 11 miles to the border where I took pics in the bike jersies then waited while they checked the record on my 1995 Destruction of Property arrest. Why do they say the record is expunged when I took the anger management class but Canadian authorities can look it up? BS, if you ask me ... Lovely, strong 32K (20 miles) ride to Elko where I stopped at the Dairy Bar for a cheeseburger & oreo twist (like a DQ Blizzard). Jane, Jess, & Claire asked me to sit at their picnic table ("You've probably been alone too long."). Jess had been Claire's 1st babysitter & Jess said, "Now she's mine." Claire was a professional quilter & Jane was a minister. Claire gave good beta on a scenic cut-off road to Ft. Simpson so I rode along the Kootenai & Bull rivers next to a stunning knife ridge. Ft. Simpson wanted $26 for a tentsite & $6 for WiFi access! Thanks but "F#@* off!" It was an easy 18K (do you like how easily I've adapted to the metric system?) roll to Wassa Lake where there's a provincial CG but locals said it was $21! Murray was a junk bike dealer & offered me his camper but implied he wanted $20 for it. No, thanks - $10 camping next door. The diner doesn't open til 10AM so I kindly asked if she'd cook me a scramble to box up for the morning - yea! Then picked up a Kootenay 6-pack, stretched, made dinner (quinua, green pepper, onion, garlic, & spicy sauce), washed up in a cold water outside sink to wipe off the grime from a wonderfully warm, sunny day of riding - also, yea! - & turned in. Rae's changed me (us?) to a Canada phone plan but I'm roaming so reluctant to call ... I really miss her.
June 29:
108K (66 miles) to Invernese, BC. 900-700. Slept poorly last night - no bud for the 1st time in awhile, plus it decided to sprinkle around midnight so I had to put on clothes to avoid the mosquito swarm outside to slap up the rainfly, then I had to pee & let that swarm in the tent to pester me the rest of the night. So I slept in with a shirt over my eyes before rallying to face that swarm for my cold egg breakfast & packing up. The caretaker came by in a rain slicker, pants, & rubber boots to tell me this was the worst it's ever been & that lingering snow on this side of the Rockies in June hadn't happened in 60 years. The whole time he's talking I'm just being bitten all to hell & the swarm seemed to follow me for about 9K, in part due to a consistent tailwind (yea!). I stopped at a small store run by a gal & her daughter from Amsterdam & meditated by a great little pond out front, which removed the tension from the morning's bites & the impluse to ride too hard that often results when I feel a tailwind (I know - wierd, huh?). I chatted with a tree surveyer of 30 years & got good beta on some free hotsprings in Fairmont. From there I used the tailwind to do a 48K continuous pull with the Rockies to my right, the Selkirks to my left, & stunning valley scenery all around. Into a rest area over the Columbia Lake - the source of the Columbia River that hits the Pacific in Astoria, OR - where I met Orecht, an 80-year-old mechanical engineer & former climber who got his PhD at Iowa State. Then I got to talk to Bob & Shari. It was their 48th anniversary & she'd just been released from the hospital after an abdominal emergency. She was wearing hospital bottoms & Bob's shirt & she giggled like mad when I said it was an anniversary she'd never forget. At the bottom of the hill I stopped to chat with Devina, a 22-year-old Aussie riding with all her possessions - including a ukelele hanging in a bag from her shoulder! - from Montreal to Vancouver. Adorable gal, wearing a cute, tattered dress, leather flat-soled boots, & a knit cap under her helmet. Soon I hit Fairmont & got groceries, mailed postcards, & called Rae. When we hung up, Jon & Gabriella - Romanian immigrants living in Windsor, vacationing in Fairmont, & with a place in Navarre Beach (just down the road from Panama City, FL, where I started!) - had circled back after an initial round of friendly chatter to insist I come to their timeshare to meet their family & have soup. Typical Europeans with big hearts they kept putting food in front of me & I felt like Kris Kringle in Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: "Eat, Papa, eat! Nobody likes a skinny Santa," insisted Mrs. Claus! Bill, Mariella, & another grandparent (whose name escaped me), plus their adorable 6-year-old, Jonathon (building his own paper pinwheel) were sweet as could be & I left reluctantly after an hour. Jon & Bill drove me back to the store where my bike - & abandoned-by-the-A/C-outlet-in-haste glasses case - were waiting undisturbed. The wind had changed & rain developed so I pulled over for Skookum pie (a local 6 berry concoction) & coffee in Windermere, where I got to see 6 antlered deer wander over the road! The rain intensified so I waited ... & waited to get back on the road so I have a better chance of making Lake Louise tomorrow night & maximizing potential climbing days. It finally let up around 6pm & the wind had died down so it was an easy 16K along the scenic Stanford Range to Dry Gulch Provincial Park (PP) CG near Invermere. I put up the tent after spraying (bug juice), stretched, did some strength, & ate rice, peppers, onion, garlic, & Tasty Bite with poptarts for dessert. While washing dishes I met Steve, a Czech immigrant cab-driver from Toronto, & he brought over some Bud Lights. His wife, Nadia, was a worrier who never came out of the rented RV & made him put duct tape & a hose clamp I had over the fresh water overflow pipe. No amount of reason worked to allay her unfounded fears that water dripping on the ground was somehow bad. Anyway, Steve peppered me with questions about touring, the bike, & my life & I was able to tease a few nuggets from him. He left Czeckoslovakia in 1988 while it was still communist & before it splintered into the Czech Republic & Slovakia, & related a story that motivated his departure. As a kid he often visited family that lived near the Iron Curtain & would play at a nearby creek. He could see a river from there but couldn't get to it without being shot & he said he felt like he was "living in a cage & wanted freedom." We talked til he noticed Nadia preparing for bed & gave me a bear hug along with warm wishes.
June 30:
96K (58 miles) to Marble Canyon CG in Kootenay NP, BC. I slept well so awoke early & easily dismantled camp (bug-free), left a note for Steve asking him to text an address for a postcard from Alaska, then rolled down into Radium. It was somehow too early at 730 for breakfast anywhere so I meditated, then went into the Husky gas station restaurant, which had been recommended by the Skookum pie folks. Dan & Dawn chatted me up immediately & invited me to their table. Dan was a bad-ass, shaved head motorbiker with goth clothing & Dawn was a petite blond. We swapped stories of divorces, unruly children, & bar fights - okay, mostly Dan's because he bounces at a biker blues bar in Edmunton. His custom motorbike had all kinds of handmade, re-purposed stuff, including goth image tank & fenders, chainmail, armor gloves with the middle finger extended on the forks, & a cayman leather seat & arched backrest. They were nice enough to buy my breakfast & gave big, hearty hugs as we parted. The 11K 11% climb to Kootenay NP's Sinclair Pass took 2 hours but it was such a wonderfully scenic canyon that it went by quickly. Then a screaming 7% descent into the glorious Rocky Mountain Trench (so big, you can see it from space) with the Kootenay River roaring full along its length & peaks shrouded in clouds. Stunning. Jaw-droppingly beautiful. Just why I came this way & not even a moment of disappointment, even during a brief bout of rain. As I was leaving Kootenay Lodge & saying bye to some Toronto tourists, I heard, "Craig!" It was Jon, Gabriella, & Bill - my Windsor Romanians. Smiles, hugs, pictures ... just like yesterday. Too, too sweet. They're on their way to Canmore to round out their vacation & honked merrily as they drove past me 5 minutes later. Still wonderful scenery kept coming but I was feeling gassed today & stopped again to eat, then when I saw the Marble Canyon CG sign, turned in & saw that to get to Lake Louise I'd have to do another Continental Divide crossing in the 45K remaining - not happening. I saw some bikes in one campsite so turned in to say "Hi" but, honestly, they looked at me like I had some visible virus & turned away! Really?! Maybe foreign ...? Who knows but, still ... really?! After a few minutes I saw Travis pull in on a nice BMW F800ST & we agreed to share the $21 site. He's a University of Wisonsin Green Bay sophomore studying human biology & planning to go to chiropracty school. Raised cattlw as a 4Her, bought a sailboat, sailed every summer solo, sold it, & bought that motorbike witg the $6000. OK, as soon as I finished writing that ... the "rude" touron came over. Simple language problem ... Klaus is German &, well, amazing. A ski jumper & hockey player as a youth, he studied civil engineering, built bridges, had a family, then, at 50, asked, "Is this all?" So he talked his new wife, Doris, into touring. They were touring the Hawiian islands when he saw Ironman. A year later he does one in Germany, takes 3rd in his age group at age 64 & qualifies for Kona! He does this qualify-Kona for a few years then decides to tour the world - with Doris - & do Ironman in different places & ends up with the 32 best Ironman times in the 60-69 age group. & they were the oldest couple ever to tour the world! Now 72 he & Doris (63) were to fly into Anchorage in May to start a 10,000K tour up to Prudhoe Bay, down to Montana & up to Boston but she broke her arm mountain biking so they had to wait to start & are "only" doing 6,000K from Vancouver ...! & here I thought they were rude! Ha! They're so nice, humble, & interesting. His blog's www.hoehles-challenge.de - check it out (even though it's in German, the homepage photo is amazing)! Met Anne from Creston at the bathroom & she'd toured Australia & both islands of New Zealand with her girlfriend, "a Swedish bombshell, being harassed the entire time!" Ha! Unfortunately, she had no bud with her but was kind enough to offer her home when I'm next in BC. After stretching, I joined Travis, Klaus, & Doris at the campfire of Kathy & Don, who tried to explain how environmentally concientious his tar sands industry was ... I listened politely, then excused myself when a light patter of rain began. The tent has become comfortably familiar ...
July 1:
Happy Canada Day! 50K to Lake Louise. 830-1130. Awoke early to try to ensure I'd get a campsite on Canada Day. Quick oatmeal breakfast & byes to Travis, Klaus, & Doris, then on the bike for the 10K over Vermillion Pass (my 7th Continental Divide crossing). Much, much greater effort than the relatively easy grade would have suggested as I was just gassed for some reason. At the end of the downhill & as I turned onto Hwy 1 I saw Ricardo & Jen, who were just a few km into their 3-day Golden Triangle tour (Banff, Golden, Radium). They had recent MBAs & worked as investment bankers & oil business consultants ... hmm. They rode really too hard for me so after 15K I excused myself for an eating break & rode the last 12K into a cold headwind with intermittent snow on my own. Thr CG queue took awhile to get through but I got a site inside the tent area - surrounded by an electrified bear fence. Tent up quickly before a nice hot soup, coffee, & sandwich in the village amongst a crush of tourists - feeling as alone as I've felt on the trip. Melancholy & tired I called Rae & commenced sobbing. Being here without her after such a wonderful, memorable trip with her in 2007 was just too much in my state ... After the call, I fired off a dozen texts in an effort to connect with friends & family. In a fantastic surprise, Brett & Laura responded & met me at a village coffee shop! I've seen them so often since Yellowstone that they feel like family to me now, so we made plans for dinner. I rode on up toward Louise Lake to sightsee & stopped at a little trailhead parking lot for a look around: a huge silvertip grizzly sow & 2 cubs were eating in a meadow within 150m & I had them more or less to myself for 45 minutes until they wandered out of sight! Wow! On to Deer Lodge for more coffee (stupid), email, facebook, & a nice but emotional call to Hogan. I zoomed downhill, ditched the bike at the tent, & walked along the river to dinner. Brett & Laura are really a wonderful, caring, intelligent, fun couple & we talked all evening over some delicious appetizers, pizza, 2 pitchers of beer - love, religion, energy, kids ... Nothing was skipped & I so enjoyed listening to them, watching them interact so caringly, & sharing. They leave for North Carolina tomorrow so the evening ended with tight embraces & a promise that when we saw each other next - & I don't doubt I will - I'd have Rae with me. It was a lovely moonlit walk back to camp along the river under snowy, staggered peaks. I met a young Asian guy from Ohio taking long exposure pictures - check out his website: www.yiminghu.com - good stuff. Into the familiar tent feeling better.
July 2:
Slept poorly. Meditated, walked to the village for postcards & breakfast (horrible service), & some beers to stash in the river for tonight. Stretched, lunch of PBJ & bananas, then a powerful (no trailer! & rested) ride to the lodge where I immediately spotted Nicholas & Jen with climbing packs & they happily invited me along - yea! I got my ass handed to me trying to follow a sporty 11+ but otherwise climbed well enough & thoroughly enjoyed the day. We talked politics on the easy trail out - sensible Canadians both working non-profits (please visit www.friendsofkananaskis.org to see what Nicholas is doing with park environmental work & volunteers - it's quite inspiring). Again, a rip-roaring descent to drop off the bike then a pleasant walk along the river to the grill/pub to see if I can find some bud. No luck until a former inmate, Travis, plops next to me & lets fly a torrent of f-bombs about anything & everything: his stripper ex-wife, pistol-whipping the dude she was cheating with, the CG warden "pissing on my f%#*ing parade" about his illegal fire! Too funny! Talked to Rae on the still-light-at-11 walk to the tent & it was not a sobbing mess this time. Late, cold dinner of rice & Tasty Bite - pretty decent, actually - then bed.
July 3:
64K to Waterfall CG in Jasper NP. 130-630. Awoke early, peed, & crawled back into the bag as it was too early for anything. Up again around 8, meditated til the bugs coerced me to get out of camp, walked to the village for coffee & a yummy breakfast burrito at the Trailhead Cafe. A lovely gal walked in: fine & fit & about my age - fantastic legs. She & her handsome partner sat next to me outside as the rain started & easily engaged me in conversation. Debra & Vern were in their 50s, climbed, tramped, mountaineered, & loved outdoors so we enthusiastically shared & they were enthralled with my adventure & asked for the blog. Hugs at parting - isn't it grand how energy & shared interest can create immediately deep connections like that?! I wandered the village delaying decisions about what to do as rain fell on this forecasted sunny day ... then bought a detailed roadmap, discussed my route with the shop owner, popped into the sports store for a mosquito hat, replacement poop trowel, climbing chalk, & a decent set of binoculoars. Another gal I'd noticed twice in the last few days came up to say Hi. Mary's an Aussie who sold her computer business because 1 week vacations were "spent in fancy hotels, watching TV, doing silly guided tours, & fussing over the neglected work piling up at home." On a trip to Hawaii she met folks who encouraged her to see the Canadian Rockies, so she bought tickets & talked herself into staying at hostels rather than hotels, &, of course, the people & conversations began to expand & change her in ways she "hadn't imagined." How glorious! She was hopping on a bus to Vancouver intending then to fly to San Francisco because she thought that sounded wonderfully adventurous, & eagerly changed her plans so as to experience train travel when I assured her it was a more liesurely, friendly, & beautiful way to get there. At 57, she looked absolutely bouyant heading for the bus. The rain finally eased enough for me to decide that riding would be better than a muddy tramp up Fairview Mountain or a vain attempt to find climbing partners on wet rock, so I broke camp, ate, washed & bandaged the returned & unwelcome scrotum sore, & called Rae - which became stimulating way too quickly - before setting out. Intent on not riding hard since I was creating an extra day that would make the 1750K to Watson Lake easier, I dawdled up long, gradual climbs into the Banff NP ice fields. OMG! I apologize in advance for my language but - Oh My Fucking God! Fan-fucking-tastically unbelievable, indescribable scenerey ... the peaks, hanging blue glaciers, ridges, snowfields, & ice blue lakes unfolded as if out of my mind, though in such profusion & with such granduer that I could never have conjured it because it was just so fucking improbable. Utterly, swimmingly, stunningly, mind-blowing! Bow Glacier ... ungodly. Peaks as triangular & steep as the Eiger. Hanging glaciers clustered between & below majestic, forever ridges, low clouds, high clouds, beams of sunlight picking a feature to irridesce as though to single out stunning feature after feature ... I cannot describe how many times I saw something so resonant with the core of my being & uttered, "No way ..." Speechless. Breathless. Awe-struck. Filled with wonder, delight, energy, desire, & feeling for once that I was in my ideal playland & the most magnificent art gallery simultaneously. Literally, the most beautiful stretch of riding I could possibly imagine, much less experience. Unbelievable. ... Midway through I pull over to chat with another touron & then get to share the wonder & glory of it all with an equally stricken soon-to-be friend, Mike. He left Denver 4 weeks ago, following a similar, though not identical route to Lake Louise, which he also left in early afternoon today. A 49-year-old literature prof at University of Colorado Denver, he's riding to Jasper, taking a train to Vancouver, then touring down the coast until late July. Great guy, easy to talk with (though, by his admission after a few tourist encounters at scenic pullouts, not as gregarious as am I! Ha!), & a similar rider, we enjoyed & discussed the beauty & feeling of every vista. We saw what Mike had heard a Yellowstone ranger call a "bearjam" for a black bear sow & 2 small cubs but decided not to melieu. I liked what Mike related about his exchange at the park entrance: when he said he owed also for Kootenay NP, the guy wanted to waive it but Mike replied, "No, you guys haven't cheated me with all this beauty so I won't cheat you." We stopped at Waterfowl Lake CG, chatted with the neighboring camphosts (they'd seen, talked to, & thoroughly enjoyed Klaus & Doris only a few days ago!), made camp, met Mathius (a German taking a 1 1/2 year tour from Anchorage to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina!), stretched, cooked, ate, built a fire in the covered picnic's stove, & chatted til late. I sit now before a tumbling, melodic tributary creek under a clear light-blue night sky under soaring peaks laden with early summer snow & hanging glaciers, as happy as I've yet been with the adventure, unwilling to crawl into the tent despite the late hour because the scene before me holds me captive ... I want Rae to share it with but don't lament her absence because I know that she wants me to experience this beauty deeply & fully & completely while I'm in it. And so ... I do ...
July 4:
Happy Independence Day! 70K to Columbia Icefield CG in Jasper NP. 830-530. I know I tried to describe yesterday in such a way as to relate the beauty as meaningfully as I experienced it. Today I am as likely to fail in describing the wonder of this day. Mike's an early riser do I matched him & was up before 7. He suggested I take my camera to the picnic area & I got some wonderful shots of the morning sun on dramatic snowy peaks & their reflections in the still pond. Oatmeal & hot chocolate, cleaned & bandaged scrotum, packed up, we were rolling by 830 but stopped immediately outside the CG - floored by the scene to the west. Dramatic peaks, couliours, cornices, & connecting ridges, long scree fields at the base of rocky spires to the east offering contrast. Rolling downhill, bundled against the cold morning chill, ooh-ing & aah-ing for 12 gloriously scenic miles (20K) to a mediocre but expensive buffet 2nd breakfast at a lodge cum filling station. On the way, a black bear popped onto the opposite shoulder not 20m ahead but loud popping made it turn back into the brush. Fed we rolled another 22K downhill in bright sunshine - warmer now. Many supported tourons smiled & waved as the pushed up the long climb to Bow Pass. We picniced just below our one long climb, embarassed to see a half dozen huge RVs dispatch a gaggle of Americans who immediately planted US flags & star-spangled picnic paraphenalia everywhere. Time to move on. The climb offered more dramatic hanging glaciers, a spectacular plunging waterfall under a high bridge that couldn't be seen by motorists, & a tailwind push us up the steepest section to a pullout. Eric from near Montreal came over with goblets of orange juice, 2 Irishmen from Dingle & Cork celebrated our adventure & we re-commenced the push to Sunwapta Pass with joyous hearts. Near the top we shared southbound Glacier NP beta with Quebec tourons who'd recently left St. George. The easy final 3K was followed by a photo stop at the Banff-Jasper park line, though I had to goad Mike into the pictures since he appears to like only photos of his Surly Long Haul steed. The Columbia Icefield CG (tents only) sits below the stunning Athebasca summit & its attendant glacier. Up with the tent, stretch, then a nice, warm roll 2K down to the lodge for an expensive dinner with an expansive view of summit & glacier in bright late evening sun. An easy & still warm ride back up to camp as the sun dipped below the ridgeline, with spindrift off the snowy corniced ridhes visible in its last rays. Mike & I really enjoy each other's company so we'll do a glacier tour in the morning & ride 75K to the Athebasca Lake hostel tomorrow. With a full day of sunshine & stunning scenery, this may have displaced yesterday as the best riding day thus far, & the CG exceeds the wonders of last night's spot because the peaks are less obscured by trees. This adventure got many returns today for the effort & poor weather of the last month.
July 5:
76K (46 miles) to Athebasca Falls hostel in Jasper NP. 1200-530. Happy Birthday, Dad! Again, a nearly indescribably beautiful, scenic day in the sunshine riding in this amazing terrain. We did the $50 glacier tour & it was worth it just for the fun facts: cellular damage to trees from windwhipped ice & dirt preventing limb growth, Columbia Icefield is the only hydrological apex feeding 3 oceans (Pacific, Atlantic, & Arctic), & alpine & sub-alpine plants - including a 700-year-old ancient forest tucked into a protected moraine feature. We left at noon after an expensive lodge lunch then stopped so often for pictures that it felt like a series of very short stretches on the bike with bewitching scenery begging us to slow down more to immerse ourselves in it & contemplate the magnitude. I failed to stop at Tangle Falls because the car scene looked so chaotic but Mike showed me his pictures of it last night & all I can say is that I hope I learned my lesson. At Sumwapta Falls I approached a fellow to shoot a picture of me & asked where he was from. "Why?," he said. "Oh sorry. Just curious ... Would you snap a pic of me doing something crazy?" "Like what?" I told him & he said he'd throw the camera into the rapids if I fell, so I clambered over the railing & hung 20m (60ft) over the plunging falls. Yeehaw! When his 2nd son arrived there were whispers amongst them & pointing at me. Soon he shyly asked if I'd do it again. Sure! The hostel was more rustic than Mike anticipated - no showers - but cool & pretty. Michele & his wife & 1 1/2 year old boy live here - nice folks & it was fun to play grandpa again. Kristin is going climbing tomorrow - I'll go along, I think. Doug & his wife, Barb - old hippies from Florida - rolled in & were fun to talk with over dinner. He'd graduated from ISU in 72 & was recently retired from the post office. Barb & I shared a bowl of good bud, though I found it to be a little offputting, actually, since they both nearly immediately seemed tedious to me when just an hour before we were really connecting. Andy, a young German on a work visa, showed up, towing the oddest looking trailer behind his bike, having left Jasper earlier in the day. It was his 1st tour & I shouldn't have made as much fun as I did of the 2.5 gallon water container he was hauling. Or the overfilled backpack. Or the 2 spare tires. I slept well - high & in a big, soft bed - despite Doug's snoring & the late arrival of 3 UK girls. Did I mention how utterly gorgeous the ride was? Mmmmm ...
July 6:
43K to Jasper, Alberta. 300-530. I decided to climb. Repaired a rear flat, had oatmeal, bought some snacks as I'm nearly out of food, filled water jugs for Michele, & pulled together gear for the 10am arrival of Jordan Wood, a young Aussie managing the Beauty Creek hostel & very pleasant fellow. We did a few 10a overhanging sport routes at Lost Boys wall in full view of the snow-covered, triangular peak of Edith Clavell with Kristin, who was very good company. We passed Mike on the way & I clambered out the open door as we drove past to encourage him. On the road at 3, I stopped immediately at the powerful Athebasca Falls for a leaning-off-the-railing pic, which so frightened the tourist whi took it that she couldn't talk when she handed back the camera. The remaining 32K into Jasper was easy & breathtakingly scenic, ensuring that there was not a single disappointing stretch of riding through the entirity of Banff & Jasper NPs. I met Texans Craig & Susan at camp - they're touring in the park in preparation for their wedding ceremony at Lake Louise. Then I saw Swiss-German's Chris & Horst riding in - incredible: touring for 2 years so far, meeting in South America & planning a Continental Divide excursion into the US to restart their 3 month Canada visa. Cool guys! At the Freewheel bike shop, they found a loose headset & broken spoke so we made plans to have them sort out the headset when the shop opens at 9 tomorrow. A not-so-good beer at Jasper Brewing was offset by some fantastic news from Rae - she's been accepted into Gonzaga's dictoral program in Spokane, WA!! I'm so excited & proud! She got into her 1st choice & starts September 4, which means I have a much shorter trip back to her when I return from the adventure in October. So, so stoked for her, for us ...! Wow! Okay back to storytelling ... Cheap, somewhat disappointing bar food with Mike, then ice cream, & a nice ride back to Whistler CG (Mike, on the other hand, had a very steep 4K to the hostel) for a warm goodbye. I showered, then ran back to the tent in a light rain for sleep interrupted by loud boys setting up a late camp. Ah well ...
July 7:
98K to Jasper Lake CG in the Switzer PP, 15K from Hinton, Alberta. 12-630. Up early to replace the broken rear spoke, with a quick goodbye to Craig, Susan, & Chris (Horst was still sleeping) before rolling into Jasper. Clothes into the washer before finding Mike at Coco's Cafe. Chris, the owner of Freewheel, was there so we talked to Derrik about repairing the headset & putting new cables & housings on the brakes & the rear shifter. Back to Coco's for a fantastic huevos rancheros breakfast, goodbye to Mike as he left for a day ride out to Maligne Lake for a purportedly spectacular boat tour, clothes into the dryer & some not-free WiFi email & Facebook, then back to Freewheel for a new trailer & rear tire plus bike shorts ($188!). Chris & Horst were there, too, & we got to share some laughs over a fun "No, YOU'RE crazy!" exchanges. Nice dudes whom I should have hit up for bud ... Ah well. A burrito at Coco's (yummy), restocked on food at the organic store, talked to my lovely wife, & finally out of town at noon but not before I spotted a cinnamon-colored caribou! Cool! Then I saw a cinnamon-colored black bear cub & I anxiously swept the other side of the road for his mom - whew, nothing. Beautiful, though not as dramatic as the last 4 days, riding past Jasper & Talbot Lakes, Stone & Folding mountains, & an easy climb toward Hinton. On the way, spotted a fellow working with a dirt shaker & asked what he was uo to. Dave works at Univ of Alberta & was looking through possible camp spots for shards from ancient toolmakers. I spotted another Dave coming the other way near Miette Hot Springs looking very hobo-like with a trailer stacked high with oodles of stuff (I think he had some recent dry cleaning bunjeed on - no kidding!). He taught in the Middle East & was circling around to Vancouver so I suggested he ship most of his "junk" - "Hey! Good idea!" I turned off Hwy 16 to Hwy 40 (Scenic Route to Alaska - I'm really on my way) & had a tough, long 9K climb with dropping temperatures & increasing wind after crossing the Athebasca River. As I crested I pulled off at the Switzer PP information sign, heard thunder, & got all the raingear on just before the skies opened up with a blinding torrent. It was only 3K downhill to Jasper Lake CG (how many Jasper Lakes are there?!), thank goodness, & I found the onky empty site at this popular ski lake. The super nice folks in the adjacent site immediately invited me to roll the bike under their RV tarp & warm myself at the fire. When the rain eased I quickly set up the tent, made rice & Tasty Bite dinner, stretched, did strength, & trued the rear wheel - I'd had to retighten loose spokes earlier in the afternoon & introduced a wee wobble. Another invite to the nice folks' fire & a beer with some fun & funny conversation plus decent beta on getting through the upcoming emptiness to compliment beta I got from Derrik at Freewheel. Into bed with rain pelting the tent. There's a little mileage to make up since 1500K in 12 days translates to 125K (78 miles) per day, but I'm not at all worried as there's tons of daylight or Wes & Quinn can retrieve me if I'm not at Watson Lake by July 18. Lots of rain forecast til Tuesday ... Ah well.
July 8:
50K to between Hinton & Muskeg, Alberta. 830-130. Rain fell all night & morning so made oatmeal & hot chocolate & dressed in the tent. Rolled up everything wet. Karen - a cute mom from the fire - had left a bag of pizza, chocolate, orange, banana, granole bar, & water on my picnic table - too sweet. Up the dirt road with bike computer not working (grr), which gummed up the gears badly. On the road into a stiff, very cold headwind, & steady rain with lots of climbing, no shoulder, & a lot of big truck traffic. Feet & hands very, very cold as gloves & rainsocks filled with water & wind pulled all the heat out of them. Stuck thumb out to no avail so rode until I found a spot on the roadside to put up the tent. Very, very cold & worried but managed to set up tent in cold, windy rain, then get bags in, though it all took over an hour due to my poor condition. Getting undressed was difficult. Managed to keep sleeping bag dry, thank goodness, & put on dry clothes & got into the bag with my puffy jacket around my numb feet. Ate Karen's gifts & fell asleep completely exhausted. Mind numb from trying to avoid thinking about the situation I'm in. Worried. A little scared. 50K to Muskeg, 80K to Grand Cache - may try to make one of those tomorrow but dreading it. I miss my wife & just want to be curled up next to her. Crying again, wondering why I thought I could do this. This is now too hard by a lot & outside of laying in the road, I don't know how to get help. I have food for at least 4 days so may find myself sitting here til this passes as riding in it with the gear I have seems too daunting. Enough ... Enough. Buck up, man.
July 9:
80 km to Grand Cache, Alberta. 700-230. Happy Birthday, Mom! Rallied early when I heard a break in the rain. Packed in the tent (still very clumsily) & put wet tent away. On the road at 7 but it was still slow going as the uphill had not yet changed it's mind. By 8 (still no functioning odometer ... grr) the headwind added to the fun but the horizontal rain was very light so I didn't get as chilled. I had opted to put on the Frogg Toggs raingear bag on one foot & my reflective, rainproof vest wrapped around the other instead of the shitty Sealkins (no product endorsement for those f$#@&ers!) & it worked better, I think. No water accumulating in the gloves today either. I saw a beautiful caribou along the road & watched him bound gracefully into very dense forest. The pavement is the only thing human here - these forests & hills extend forever. No power lines. No guardrails. Oh, & no shoulder, which makes riding with a trailer unnerving. Many fewer trucks than yesterday & they were all intent on giving me room. Cars ... not so much. Grrr. The hills were as endless as the headwind & I spent nearly the entire day in the granny gear fighting, fighting, fighting. Early on I did 30 minutes riding, 5 resting. Then 20/5, then 20/10, then 15/15. Exhausted & legs capable of only minimal output I hoped to fuel up & rest in Muskeg but there was nothing there - I mean, nothing. Just a sign. So I ate a Clif Bar & tried to rally for the 27 km to Grand Cache. A few nice downhills, though impeded by wind, offered a wee bit of respite on ocassion but I gasped when I saw the hill into town. I made it halfway up before the legs quivered & quit. After 10 minutes rest, I pushed the bike 2 km up that steep hill (well, maybe not so steep but ... I was tired) & into the visitor center for water (I'd been out since Muskeg, drinking the last 1/2 bottle just before in anticipation of refilling, then too weary to contemplate breaking out the water filter). Found a nearby hotel, woo'd the cleaning gal into tossing a heap of wet clothes into the dryer, put on dry clothes, had a hot meatball sub at a sandwich shop, bought beer, bandaids (scrotum), Carmex (one jar down over
5600 km ... not bad), & a few groceries. Talked to Rae while soaking my aching legs in the tub. Hope to stretch before finding dinner, then beers, Nyquil (I've acquired a cold - yea!), & bed. Exhausting day. Leg failure is odd for me so I think I lost a lot of energy yesterday with my body trying to fight off that bad chill. Hoping they're back tomorrow as I'd like to make up some of the full day I've lost. But ... mostly just want to not get down about how hard this is. I seem to be the only one who thought this'd be easy so my anguish when it isn't is something I should shed. Maybe too many skipped meditations this last week ...?