All of us are now carrying around what appears to be monopoly money, we’re talking with a funny accent, and we’re converting kilometers to miles and Celsius to Fahrenheit with ease. What a wonderful country Canada is. We’re just waiting for one of us to get sick so we can take advantage of some of that fine, free medical care. A couple of us could use butt transplants right now.
The sights we have seen since entering this country have been remarkable. The mountain peaks, the snow, the rivers, and the clear, greenish-blue lake water are all spectacular. Tom has been this route before and he is being a very good tour guide for the rest of us.
We started the morning in Cranbrook, British Columbia, and headed toward Banff, Alberta. Tom knew of an Old Irish Pub in downtown Banff, and we ate a late lunch there. We all had shepherd’s pie and it was excellent. It was bread pudding for dessert, and it was good, but all thought it could have been better. After lunch, we headed to Lake Louise. That area, the lake with its clear water and the snow-covered mountains in the background was a sight to behold. It was during this stop, that we were humbled. As what often happens, our two BMW guys somehow find other BMW folks. Well, this time it was a couple, Graham and Sue, from the UK. (That’s the United Kingdom, not the University of Kentucky.) They had flown to Fairbanks, Alaska, ridden to Prudhoe Bay, and were now on a southern route that will take them all the way to the southern tip of South America. They had had a wreck on that nasty stretch of road between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay and done minor damage to them and major damage to the bike, but it did not dissuade them from the goal. They had the bike repaired and kept on motoring.
And we thought we were doing a big thing, making a 10,000 mile trip. (That’s over 16,000 kilometers, for those of you playing along.)
We then got on the Icefield Parkway, and rode it to Jasper, Alberta. Not far from the entrance to the parkway, we rode through an opening in the rock formation that was pretty cool. Tall, vertical walls of rock on each side of us, with barely enough room for the road. On the way to Jasper, we saw several deer, an elk, and dozens of bicyclist. We just can’t get over how many people – of all ages, sexes, and group sizes – are riding around in this country. We also saw the Columbia Glacier, stopping there for a break and some pictures. We tanked up in Jasper and headed for Hinton, our final destination today.
We actually had a chance to visit with a couple of bicyclists yesterday. We met these two young men at the place where we had lunch in Missoula, Montana, and both had high miles behind them and high miles ahead. One guy was going to Whitefish, about 125 miles north, and then return to Portland. This guy was quite the reclaimer/recycler. His “hood ornament” was the wooden head of a brown duck he’d found. He was also wearing sunglasses and a bandana he had found on the road. The other guy was headed to St. Louis, following the Lewis and Clark trail, and anticipating getting there mid-August. They had both traveled about 700 miles so far and the guy going to St. Louis had about 2,000 miles ahead of him. That’s a lot of pedaling.
This morning for breakfast, Mark traveled about a ¼ mile down the road from our hotel to a McDonald’s. Once inside, he ordered a sausage biscuit with cheese. The lady behind the counter quickly responded that “You must be from the States. We don’t have biscuits; we have muffins. I can get you a muffin and sausage.” It has been a learning experience for us all.
Ed wanted to mention one last thing. You may have noticed that you might see us in what appears to be the same clothes repeatedly. Well, Ed says it's not what you see that's important; it's what's underneath. We'll just leave it at that...
We rode about 430 miles today, and after seven days, we’ve travel a little over 2,900 miles.