Another morning we woke up to the sound of rain, luckily it was a pretty light rain. We laid in our sleeping bags for a while before finally deciding to get up. By the time we had our sleeping bags and tent all packed up it had stopped raining. We got our food out of the bear box and got everything packed up. Since the bugs were pretty heavy in the campground, we decided to head to the picnic tables by the visitor center to make breakfast. The area was much more open and there was a bit of a breeze to help keep them away. We made some oatmeal and by the time we were finished eating, a group of mosquitoes had found us, but it still wasn't as bad as in the campground. It was nice to have a sink to wash out the bowls in too! Shortly after leaving Mount Robson (unfortunately we weren't able to see the actual mountain, which was the tallest in the Canadian Rockies, because it was so cloudy), we saw a couple touring cyclists heading our way! Right before exiting the park, Will Samson-Doel and Harrison Jones came riding over to say hello. They are from Toronto and have already ridden from there to St. Catherine's. From there, they flew to Vancouver and were on their way across CA back to Toronto. We didn't think that we were going to see any touring cyclists for a while, but it was definitely a nice surprise. About 10 miles later, we made the turn off to head towards Prince George. We climbed up a hill that we though was never going to end. Again, it had gotten pretty windy at that point. At the top, we ate the last of our cookies, in the rain. For the rest of today's ride (which wasn't a normal full day's ride because we planned to go to a Warm Shower's Host and take a lighter day today) it rained off and on. It would pour and then a little while later be nice and sunny. After 21 miles, we stopped at a rest area and since I was hungry we made some rice for lunch. We had another large hill to climb and only about 15 miles or so to get to Dunster, where our host lived. For a little while we thought that we might have missed their road, but then when we got to the top of a hill we saw the sign for the town. Unfortunately we had to go down a pretty long steep hill to get to the valley, which won't be very fun tomorrow morning. Since it has been harder for us to contact Warm Shower's hosts in CA we weren't 100% sure they would be able to host us. They are retired and live on a 180 acre farm on the edge of the Fraser River, so we figured they would at least be home. After the first e-mail we sent back in Radium, they said they would be able to take us and to send them an e-mail when we got to Jasper, which we did. We didn't have internet again until we got to their house, so we didn't know if they had e-mailed back or not. When we found their driveway (which was REALLY long, we weren't positive we had the right house even though there were only 3 houses that we had seen on their road). As we were entering the farm, there was a cute dog lounging by the side of the driveway in the sunshine. He kind of lifted his head, but just laid it back down after we had passed. Later we found out his name was Dakota and that he spent a good portion of yesterday chasing a bear. When we got to the house, Curt came out and we were relieved that we had the right place. Curt showed us around the farm a little bit and showed us where we would be sleeping, which was in a wagon! It was so neat because the wagon had a mattress in it and looked just like something similar to what they used on the Oregon Trail. It was really nice and we were both pretty excited that we would get to sleep in there. Total, they had 3 wagons that were used as guest houses. One of the other wagons was already being used by another couple. They were here at the farm through a program called Work Exchange (workx.com). What the program involves is people working for 4 hours a day in exchange for room and board. It sounds like a wonderful way to travel, see the world, and meet new people. Gina who is from Germany and her boyfriend Paul who is from New Zealand will be here working and exploring the area for about 2 weeks. Curt also told us about an ice cream social that they put on every year in the beginning of July, too bad we weren't here for that because it sounds like it is a lot of fun. For a little while we talked with Bonnie while enjoying a can of pop. She told us about some of the other touring cyclists who had come through (apparently they host quite a bit!). To our surprise, Lorenzo, the guy touring for 15 years, stayed here too (that's the 2nd Host we have stayed with that also hosted him!). It looks like he is moving pretty slow, so we may just catch up to him at some point! Joe and I each got to take a nice shower just in time to enjoy a wonderful dinner that Bonnie made. We had salad, red potatoes, corn, rolls, meat, rice, and chocolate cake for dessert! It was so yummy and we really enjoyed hearing a little about how things were in New Zealand and Germany. What a great day; for the first time in a few days I felt like I had almost full energy and didn't feel sleepy (but Joey said he was still pretty tired), which could be because we only road 34.01 miles (but it was the perfect day to take it easy and rest up a bit).
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The lights in the dorms at the hostel came on at 8am, so we were both up around then. My dorm bed was right in the middle of the room and there was a little dresser right at my headboard. Unfortunately I didn't get to sleep right until 8 because someone decided they were going to use that dresser to pack up their stuff around 7:15. She was clunking her hair spray bottle and rustling bags about 5 inches from my head. I don't know why she didn't pack up at her own bed, but I wouldn't have packed up right next to someone's head who was trying to sleep. Since we had leftover cheeseburgers from last night, we had cheeseburgers for breakfast. Not the best breakfast, but we didn't care. There was a microwave we could use to heat them up and we had full bellies afterwards, and that's all that mattered. Joe left the hostel a little earlier than I did since he had to be to the bike shop when it opened to get the broken spoke fixed. Once I was all packed up, I headed down the mountain to town and went back to the little convenience store that had free wi-fi while I waited for Joe. I continued to work on blogs and after Joe's wheel was all fixed, he went to the grocery store to re-stock on a few things. Today is my Mommy's birthday, which I thought was pretty neat since it happened to be day 100 of the trip! Before leaving town, we stopped at the picnic tables by the public "washroom" and snacked on our left over salad mix and had some cookies. We rode for about 12 miles outside of Jasper, which was mostly uphill, before we got to the top of Yellowhead pass (and the Continental Divide again). There we crossed back into British Columbia and shortly after crossed right into Mount Robson Provincial Park. When we crossed the pass we also crossed into the Pacific Time zone! We are now 3 hours behind the time at home which is kind of crazy to me since I've never been this far west. Once we started the descent, we went right into a strong headwind. As we were descending, we weren't going very fast at all as a result. I think my top speed was only 9mph going down. Around our 30 mile mark we stopped at a campground to use a picnic table for lunch. We had extra buns left over from hamburgers and a little peanut butter left, so we snacked on that along with the rest of our salad mix and cookies. I think Fuggee-O cookies are my new favorite kind of store bought cookies, too bad I've never seen them in the states! The ride was a bit hilly for the rest of the day. A little later on, we stopped at a rest area by a lake and had another cookie break. We rode over Red Pass, which wasn't much of a pass, just a really long hill. Shortly after, we made it to Mount Robson where there was a gift shop, visitor center, cafe, and campgrounds. The visitor center was surprisingly still open, but since we were an hour earlier because of the time change it was understandable. We walked around the visitor center and found out it was only $21 to camp at the campground, and there was a shower there! So, we headed to the campground, found our site near the showers, and got our tent all set up. For the first time on the trip, the mosquitoes were pretty bad, so we figured we would try out our bug jackets/hoods to see how they worked. Luckily they worked like a charm, so now we don't have to worry about being up in the Yukon where I'm sure the bugs are really thick. We made some mac and cheese for dinner and while we were doing so, a chipmunk climbed up my bike and tried to get on the picnic table. We had to chase him away quite a few times because I'm sure that if we didn't he would have walked right up to our bowls and eaten right out of them, even though we were sitting right there. The guy who worked at the park came around and collected the money, which I kind of preferred (it was better than just putting your money in an envelop and sticking it in a box). I asked him how the bears were in the area and if there were any bear boxes in the park (we didn't see any when we came in), but to my surprise there were some right on the other side of the bathouse! So, we had a nice place to put all of our food where we didn't have to worry (and were happy that there weren't just sings saying to leave our food in our cars/RV!). After dinner we each had a nice hot shower, which was kind of fun because the park had a shower that you had to push a button to turn the water on. It stayed on for 30 seconds and then you had to push it again. I thought it was a great idea, and probably saved on water in the long run. The shower was wonderful and was nice and hot. After that we went straight to bed. We rode 60.06 miles today.
We both had an amazing nights sleep last night and were so glad to be in a bed. We slept in a little and woke up feeling rested, unlike yesterday morning. Once we were all packed up, we heated some water in a tea kettle on the stove in the cook cabin for our oatmeal. Shortly after, we said goodbye to Julien and Maryse as well as the other couple that came later last night. Although it was raining for part of the morning, by the time we got ready to go the sun came out! We were pretty excited that the majority of our ride today would be downhill and that we didn't have to climb any passes. I had a lot more energy today than yesterday, but still didn't feel 100%. This mornings ride had a was a little more hilly than later in the day. We rode for about 35 miles before stopping at Athabasca falls to make lunch. We were really hungry so we opted for our most filling meal choice: mac and cheese. After lunch, we went to see the waterfall, and it sure was beautiful! From where we were, there were only 20 miles left until we got into town. When we got within about 10 miles of town, a huge group of 26 cyclists came riding out of a rest stop; it must have been a club or some sort of organized group ride. Shortly after, we met a guy from the Netherlands who was also touring, except it was a rest day so he didn't have a loaded bike at the time. He is part of a group of about 14 that are riding from Banff to Jasper and back (2 week trip). He said that the group goes on a 2 week tour every year to a different country which we thought was pretty cool. Once we got into town we looked for a bike shop to try to get Joe's broken spoke fixed. The first one we went to said that it would be a while before they could get to it and suggested going to find a campground set up everything and then come back in a couple hours (which didn't make sense because they were going to be closed in an hour and a half). We didn't really know what we were doing at that point for the night so we opted not to do as they suggested. Instead, we rode around town for a bit. I found a spot that had free wi-fi and Joey went to find another bike shop. We attempted to contact the Warm Shower's Host in town but didn't have any luck. Unfortunately we hadn't had internet in a while so we didn't contact them earlier. Guess that's our fault for not planning that far ahead. When Joe got back from the bike shop he said the guy could fix it first thing in the morning, so we will try to be in town tomorrow at 9am. Despite everything in this area being ridiculously expensive, we figured our best bet would be to try the hostel. If we went to the campground, it would be $27 and they probably would have charged us another 25 for a park pass (since we didn't have one because the lady at the gate let us in for free). After we figured out what we were going to do for the night, we headed to the grocery store to get some stuff to make bacon cheeseburgers for dinner (and get more cookies too!). We weren't too impressed with Jasper. It is a nice little town, but is pretty much just for tourists and is extremely expensive. The hostel was about 3.5 miles out of town and a good 1.5 miles of it was up a pretty steep hill, (just when we thought we were done climbing for the day!). The hill seemed to never end. We were passed by a guy on a mtn. bike heading towards the hostel, but soon I passed him because he decided he needed to walk. It made me feel good that I was able to ride all the way to the top of that really long steep hill with a 100 lb bike without stopping or walking (and that I passed a guy on a light mtn bike!). When I got to the top, Joe came out of the hostel and said that there was still room and that we would definitely get a bed. After climbing that hill I couldn't be happier; it would have been horrible to climb all the way up there and find out it was full! There weren't enough beds left in the Co-Ed dorm, so Joe was there and I was in the female dorm. Joe found out that one of us (or both if we wanted) could get a free nights stay if we help fold sheets for 3 hours each. Since I had to make dinner and catch up on blogs, Joey decided it would work just fine if he folded so at least one of us could get in free. That saved us $30 so it was definitely worth it! After we got all settled, took showers and I got our bikes put away in the storage place, Joe began to help fold and I started making dinner. There was even a nice grill outside that I could use to cook our burgers! By the time we were done with dinner, we were stuffed. Joe went back to finish folding and I worked on blogs (I was really far behind from being so tired and then having too much fun last night to worry about blogs). Another night with a bed, except this dorm was a lot different from the one last night. There were about 30 bunks and a good majority of them were full. Tonight's hostel was not nearly as fun as last night because there was just too many people and they were all doing their own thing. Last night, it was just the 6 of us, well 7 if you count the manager, so we really got the chance to have a lot of great conversation. By the time we went to bed it was pretty late again. With the sun going down around 10:30 it makes it hard to got to bed much earlier. We rode 60.57 miles today and it was much easier than the last few days, that' for sure!
Another day where we woke up to the sound of rain on our tent. Neither of us wanted to get up, partly because of the rain, but mostly because we were just completely exhausted. I woke up feeling like we had barely slept at all. Neither of us have been sleeping very well since it stays light out for so long. Once we finally got everything packed up and put away, we headed to the picnic shelter so we didn't have to eat in the rain. We made a little extra oatmeal since we knew we had a lot of climbing ahead of us again. By the time we were on the road it was a little after 10. Luckily, about a half hour into the ride it stopped raining and got a little sunny. On the other hand, there was a bit of a head wind which slowed us down quite a bit. The small hills that we had in the early part of the ride made us very wary of the rest of the day. I don't think we have felt this tired so early in the day while riding thus far on the trip. We saw another bear this morning! It was a pretty big black bear right on the side of the road. When we finally reached the start of the climb up Sunwapta Pass (6,676 ft)we knew we were in trouble. We made it a tiny bit up the first section of the climb, but had to stop at the pull off for a rest. As we inched our way up the climb, we continued to need to stop, the wind was definitely not helping at all. I was beginning to think that we just didn't have enough energy to get us and our bikes up and over the pass. A couple times, Joe said that he was "done" and began to walk, which is VERY unlike him. An hour or so later, we were still climbing. I reached a point where I just felt like I couldn't peddle anymore or even hold my bike up anymore. So just before another pull off I began to walk for the second time. I barely made it to the pull off and when I was almost there my bike hit a big rock and I just couldn't push my bike over it. I began to tear up from pure exhaustion and Joe had to come help me get my bike the last few feet. We sat at the rest stop for about 10 minutes wondering if we would be able to make it to the top. Since we had started the climb the wind had only gotten worse and we could feel that every last ounce of energy was being used up. Miraculously, after riding and walking for a little bit, we finally made it to the top after 4 hours of riding (crossing into Jasper National Park). The wind was unbelievable up there and was blowing us almost off the road, not to mention it was bitterly cold. My whole body felt like it could just collapse at any moment and I was surprised I was able to keep my bike on the road at all. As we began going down the first part of the pass, it began to rain. Luckily, we had an uplifting moment because we saw a couple that were riding up the mountain. They were touring from Vancouver to Banff and were then going to take the Continental Divide route down to NM. We were so glad to see other touring cyclists, especially after such a hard day we were having. A little while later, we made it to the Ice field's center. By the time we got inside, we were shivering and were really hungry. The center was pretty amazing though. It reminded us of a cross between an airport and a ski lodge. There were quite a lot of tour buses outside, so there were a ton of people walking around inside. It was really crowded. We walked around the "museum" portion of the center and then decided to go see what the cafeteria was like. Originally we planned to make mac and cheese on our stove when we got there, but it was really cold, raining and too windy for our stove to work. The prices were ridiculous, but we were so hungry and miserable we figured we might as well just get food because otherwise it might have been even longer before we got to eat (it was already around 3:30). We both got a cheeseburger, fries and a soda and were so glad that we did. Surprisingly the portion sizes were actually pretty good and we both left with full, happy tummies. We bundled up to try to stay warm for the remainder of the descent and then headed out. It was still raining and really windy. Amazingly after we had dropped about 1,000 feet, the sun came out and it was actually a comfortable temperature! We couldn't believe it. Our plan was to go to the next closest campground, but since it was only dinner time, we decided to take a little break in the pull off for a hostel. We relaxed a little bit in the sunshine and looked at our maps for a while. As we were sitting there, we met a really nice guy and his mom, whose names we later found out to be Julien and Maryse. Just as we were about to leave, Julien and his mom came walking back to where we were sitting and asked if we wanted to stay in the hostel too (they knew we would be camping otherwise). We mentioned that it wasn't really in our price range, but Julien said that he was planning on paying for us to stay!!! I couldn't believe it, we were going to get to sleep in a bed tonight! Our day went from bad, to worse, to horrible, to AWESOME! So, we got all settled in the hostel and then enjoyed some wine by the Sunwapta River with Julien and Maryse. It was a lot of fun because they are from France, Julien now lives in Montreal, but his mother was here visiting for a month. She didn't speak any English, so Julien was her translator. After relaxing by the river, they invited us to join them for dinner in the Cook Cabin. Maryse made some eggs and sausage and we snacked on bread with cheese. It sure was wonderful! To top the night off, we got to sit by the campfire for a bit, mostly in the daylight of course since it doesn't get dark til really late. While we were sitting there, we noticed another building that looked like it had a shower in it. We asked the hostel manager, Ben if it was and if we could use it. So, we got a big pot, filled it with water from the river, and heated it over the campground (repeatedly so we could each take a shower). Once the water was heated, we dumped it into a bucket and then you turned the nozzle when you were ready for the water to come out. The shower was wonderful, and pretty neat overall. We definitely did not expect to be getting a nice hot shower today either! After we had all finished with our showers, it was after 9 and to our surprise another couple showed up to stay in the hostel. So the 6 of us, plus Ben, sat around the campfire for quite a while. It was pretty fun because there were quite the range of nationalities there. French, Canadian, American, and Ben was German (in CA on a 1yr work visa); so we talked a lot about differences in countries. Although I never found out their names, the other couple were both in the Military; the girl in the Canadian and the guy from the US (Massachusetts). They had both served in Afghanistan for a year, so it was pretty neat to hear tid bits of their experience over there. We went to bed pretty late because we were having so much fun even though I'm surprised that we were able to stay awake that long. What an interesting day! We rode a very tough 34.87miles today.
After yesterday, it wasn't a real good morning. We both woke up feeling just as tired if not more tired than when we went to bed and both had headaches. The only thing that got me out of bed was knowing that I would get a nice hot shower. It was definitely a struggle to get out of our sleeping bags this morning! While I was in the shower (I took a really long shower; it was really wonderful!),Joe packed up the tent so we were all ready to go. We rode to the little town center to possibly get cereal and milk for breakfast. Joe's bike was ready for a new chain, so he replaced that (luckily he didn't need to change the cassette too!). I went to the little grocery store and got us some cereal. They were selling some slightly bruised bananas for 19c each so I bought a bunch of those too. While we were eating, we learned that there was a 5 day bike race going on in the area; today's race was in Lake Louise. By the time we got on the road it was after 11. The weather was nice and sunny which was much appreciated. When we got to the gate at the entrance to Banff National Park, the girl was really nice and we got into another park without having to pay an entrance fee (although there was a chance we would be charged it if we went to a campground). For the majority of the day, the ride was uphill. As we were riding, we passed a couple beautiful lakes that were an unbelievable color and absolutely gorgeous. It looked like it was water in the Caribbean. I guess because it is glacier melt water that gives it it's amazing turquoise green color. We rode about 30 miles or so before stopping for lunch. There was a picnic area next to one of the lakes where we made the rest of our rice, which was about half the amount we normally make. We seasoned it with some of the Italian Dressing mix that we had bought so that it wasn't plain. Since we were still hungry, we made some Oatmeal so that we would be full. After enjoying the sunshine and breathtaking view of Bow Lake with the mountains and glacier in the background we got back on the road. Shortly after, we made it to the top of Bow pass (6,785 ft). Luckily the climb up to the pass was very gradual (we had been climbing pretty much since we entered the park), so it didn't seem as hard. Just as we began to go down, there was a large bunch of cars along the side of the road. More bears! Another mother and her cubs, this time they were grizzles. For some reason, the bears we have seen haven't been as big as we pictured them to be. A little while later as we were going downhill at 35mph, there was a huge bump that was one of those that you couldn't see until it was too late and you had to hit it. Shortly after that, Joe got a broken spoke on the new back wheel, probably because of that bump. We were so frustrated because it is a brand new wheel and things just keep going wrong with the bike. Luckily it wasn't too bad out of true despite the broken spoke. The remainder of the day we felt really tired. We decided to stop at a rest area that overlooked a river valley to make some dinner. We made a couple things of ramen noodles real quick and then set out down the road to find the campground that we were planning to go to. After climbing for a bit longer, we made it to the campground and set up our tent as quick as we could. Although we were planning on hanging our food, we thought it was pretty funny that there was a sing that said "leave all food and food related items in a vehicle, trailer or RV; this is bear area." Apparently no one ever comes to the campgrounds without a vehicle. Since it is bear area, we were a little surprised that they didn't have bear boxes. Once we got our food hung, we went right to bed right away because we were still super tired. We rode 60.03 miles today.
Despite going to bed pretty late, we woke up at normal time. By the time we got the tent all packed up, it was only 8:30. We really wanted to have cereal and milk again this morning, so we decided to wait until the store opened at 9. We headed back to the tables out front of the little restaurant we sat at for a while yesterday. It was definitely worth the wait. Cereal and milk always fills us up so much more than oatmeal (probably because we eat the whole box and drink a ton of milk to try to use up the half gallon). The entrance to Kootenay National Park was only a mile or so away from where we camped. We got there right around 10am. The lady at the booth was super nice and said "oh, you guys are working so hard, you can just go ahead through." So we didn't have to pay an entrance fee to get into the park! We were so excited because that definitely saves us a good amount of money. For the first 20 miles or so of today's ride, we were going uphill. During that ride, we saw a mountain goat standing on the side of the road munching on some grass. The first pass that we had to climb was Sinclair Pass (4,875 ft). It felt like it took us forever to get to the top, but surprisingly 90% of the climb was very gradual. Only the last mile or so was steep. When I reached the top, Joe was there waiting as usual. He mentioned that one of the park workers (who had stopped to ask us about our trip while we were having breakfast) stopped when he saw him and told Joey that there was a bear in the area. Just past the top of the pass was a pull off for a hiking trail. There was a car sitting there and the people were taking pictures. So, we went over to investigate. Sure enough, there was the bear he was talking about! He looked pretty big and we were pretty sure that he was a Grizzly. After that, we started descending down the mountain. Joe always is a bit faster than me and at one point, I came around a curve and I saw Joe stopped, which is unusual for him when he is on a descent. As he was riding along a cement barrier he saw a black bear peaking over the cement! Joe saw him in time, so he was able to move over a little bit, but he still was pretty close to him. He had stopped so that he could motion at me to stop so I didn't get too close. It was really funny because Otto, the man who invited us over yesterday, showed us a picture in the newspaper of a black bear standing with his back legs on a cement wall like that one, with his front feet on the edge of someone's car who had stopped to take pictures. In the picture, the bear was looking right in the window, probably hoping for some food. Whatever the case, that was all that I could think of when I saw the bear on the other side of the cement like that. After descending for a while, the road flattened out a bit and we had just small hills to climb. At one point, Joe was a bit ahead of me, which is normal. However, off in the distance I could see that some animal had poked itself out from the trees, but had gone away relatively quick once a car came by. Dumb cars, they always ruin that kind of thing. When Joe saw the animal he stopped and whipped out his camera (this is why I make him carry a camera too, just in case I'm not there to take the pic). I wasn't quite sure what the animal was since I was kinda far away; but when I got to where Joey was stopped, I found out it was a Moose!! I knew that it couldn't have been a deer because it seemed too dark, but whatever the case, I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get to see it up close. Joey on the other hand couldn't stop talking about it and how big it was. He was so excited and really amazed at it's size. Sometimes it takes a lot to really impress him, but I knew that he sure was this time! I'm glad that he was able to get a quick picture before it got chased away by the car. A little while later as I was riding, two deer, one after the other ran out between Joey and I (there was a pretty large gap so Joe didn't even know they ran through). I was amazed because by that time, we had already seen such a wide range of Wildlife all in one day! We stopped for lunch at a ranger station around our 35 mile make, where we made some Mac and Cheese at their picnic table. I was dreading the remainder of the days ride because I knew we had another pass to climb and that we wanted to try to make it to Lake Louise, which was another 20 miles from the top of the pass. Not to long after we started riding again after lunch, a guy driving by slowed down in the middle of the road to tell us that there were a few bears on the side of the road ahead of us. Sure enough, he was right, there was a mamma black bear and her two cubs (one was black and one was a lighter brown color). We observed from a distance, and new we were safe because we were down wind of them. Since there weren't any cars around, we crossed the road and rode along the left hand side of the road just to give some distance between them and us. It is funny the way people are in cars because they will just pull up right next to them, but we definitely can't do that because there isn't anything between us and the bears to protect us like there is in a car (and we aren't nearly as fast!). Once we got past where the bears were, we stopped again to observe. Now we were upwind of them and they knew we were there. All 3 of them stuck their noses in the air and started sniffing. The lighter brown baby even stood up on his back legs to get a better look/sniff. It was so cute, I wish I could have gotten a picture of it! They could definitely smell the food we had, so we decided we better get going just to be safe. After seeing the bears, our day went from great to not so great. I was getting really tired and to add to that it began to rain. It rained for quite a while, but was on and off from time to time. We stopped at a gift shop/gas station in the park to fill up on water before continuing on. Pretty much from there on out we were climbing until we reached the top of Vermillion Pass at an elevation of 5, 415 ft. This one, like the other one was a pretty gradual climb. When we reached the top, I actually didn't realize that's where we were until I saw the Continental Divide sign. It was weird because usually at the top of the pass it is very obvious that you are at the top, but not this time. Not only were we crossing the divide at the top, but we were also at the border for BC and AB (and from Kootenay National Park into Banff National Park)! Luckily it stopped raining long enough to get a picture by the continental divide sign, but was pouring by the time we got just a little down the road to the Welcome to Alberta sign. We figured we would just catch it on the way out. It continued to pour harder and harder, just in time for us to begin the descent. In comparison to the climb we had done, the other side was much steeper and shorter. It was a really cold descent and a little tricky because it was raining so hard. When we reached the bottom, I was already shivering and didn't really want to go any further. We had already done over 60 miles and climbed 2 passes, I was exhausted. But we decided that we would still try to make it to Lake Louise. Our adventure cycling map took us down more of a back road on the other side of the river, but we decided to just take the Trans Can rt. 1 because we figured it would be graded better and have less hills (we were ready to be done with any kind of climbing!). Luckily the road had a huge shoulder and even though it was two lanes both ways, the traffic wasn't heavy and most of the cars and trucks gave us a full lane on top of the huge shoulder. After riding for about 10 miles on that road it stopped pouring. I was so happy but at the same time still shivering because it was still really cold and I was soaked. About 4 miles outside of Lake Louise, we saw a man walking along the top of a cement barrier. We couldn't figure out what he was doing, and especially on a 2 lane divided highway that we were on. When we got closer, we figured out that he was a tour bus driver who had an empty bus on the way to Banff. He had seen a bear walking on the inside of the fence, stopped the bus, put on the flashers, and walked with video camera in hand across the road. We chit chatted with him for a few minutes while waiting for and watching the bear. It made us happy to see someone since we were both exhausted and a miserable. A short while later, we made it into Lake Louise. When we got there we got a little worried because it was clearly a tourist resort town, and didn't resemble a "normal" town at all. Our map didn't indicate this at all, otherwise we might have stayed back at Castle Junction which was right after we came down the second pass. Since there were no churches or places suitable to "camp anywhere" like we normally do, and we were so tired and cold, we figured we would check the 3 or 4 hotels in the area, just by chance they had a reasonable rate for a room. We knew it was probably not going to happen, but it didn't hurt to check. The hotel that might have had a room for a reasonable rate was almost completely full, except for executive suits, which are no where near where out budget would allow. All of the other hotels, including the hostel, were insanely priced. The one hotel had rooms starting at 275! We couldn't believe it. So we headed to the campground. By the time we found a site and stopped riding for the day it was already after 10 (which wasn't a big deal because it was still light out). We both had to pee so we started to look around a bit. It turns out the National Forest Campgrounds in Canada all have "community buildings" that are equipped with a stove in the middle to warm it up. After being invited into the shelter by a few Canadians, we were finally WARM! We talked with them for a little while, they inquired about our travels, I stood as close as I could get to the stove, and we also found out that there were HOT showers in the campground! Even though I was so tired I could barely move, I was super happy. We moved our bikes from our original camp site to one that was closer to the shelter and to the showers. After setting up our tent as quick as we could, we changed out of our wet cycling clothes and then headed to the shelter to make some ramen noodles for dinner. We almost skipped dinner because we were so tired, but we were almost just as hungry as tired and there was a warm spot to sit, so we decided to go ahead and eat. There were a ton of people in the shelter, as well as an older man who was playing the guitar, harmonica and singing! It was a very nice treat after riding for a little over 10 hours! By the time we went to bed it was probably after 12. We were too exhausted to take our shower's tonight so they would have to wait until morning. We rode 85.33 miles; although it wasn't the longest day miles wise, I think it felt like the longest day of the trip so far. But the good news is that we saw a ton of wildlife today!
We slept in a little this morning because we were both pretty tired and also because we needed to go to the bike shop which didn't open until 10. Unfortunately it was a rainy morning and it looked like it would be that way for most of the day. There was another nice park right across the street from the church that had a really nice bathroom with a sink and flushable toilet, so much better than the vault toilets we have seen so many of. While we were packing up, the nice man we met last night who took Joey to try to find the priest came back over. His name was Otto and he invited us to his house for some coffee if we were interested. A short while later, the priest came over to say hello (one of his parishioners told him we were there). He too was really nice and was glad that we had a nice place to set up our tent behind the church. After we were all packed up, we walked around the corner to Otto's house where we had a cup of hot coffee and some amazing homemade bread (from a Swedish guy in town) with honey. Otto was originally from Germany and immigrated to Canada when he was in his 20s. He shared some amazing travel stories from trips he had been on as well as showed us around his beautiful house. He was a woodworker and it was definitely evident in the wood detail in the trim and molding around his home. We had a great time chatting with Otto and it really made our morning. After saying our goodbyes to Otto, I headed to the laundry mat to do a load of laundry (it has been really sunny and warm out so we were definitely in need of it) and Joe headed to the bike shop to get his new wheel trued. Even though it is a brand new wheel, Joey remembered another wheel that was hand built for his road bike going out of true pretty quick in the beginning and then being fine afterwards, so he didn't think it was a big problem that the wheel went out of true so fast. I met a nice guy in the laundry mat who told me all about the area and about some places we should stop and see in Glacier Park (Canadian, not US)when we go through there. When Joey got back from the bike shop, he said the guy there said that there are a lot of bears there and that we have a good chance of seeing some as we ride through. Once we got our laundry all finished, we headed over to the grocery store to get some food for lunch. Since our original plan was to get cereal and milk for breakfast, we decided we would do that for lunch. We got 2 boxes of chocolate mini-wheat's and milk (milk is really expensive here, well actually, everything is really expensive in CA!). Someone told us that there was a Tim Horton's in town, so we headed that direction to see if we could use the free coffee/latte that we won from Roll Up the Rim that we have been carrying since Michigan (we haven't seen a Tim Horton's in over 3,000 miles). Unfortunately we will have to wait until next April to use it because the promotion is over, which we had a feeling it might be. So, we found a good spot to eat our cereal and then headed out of town. It was still pretty rainy for most of the morning. As we were riding to the next town, I found an Alberta licence plate to add to the collection. Luckily the rain stopped and the sun came out, just as we were climbing a rather large hill (the sun always seems to come out when you are climbing a hill to heat you up more than you already are from climbing). When we made it to the next town, Radium Hot Springs it was already almost 3pm. We stopped at the Visitor Center for the National Park to check on the campgrounds in the park. Unfortunately all of the campgrounds within the first 65 miles or so were still closed for the season, so there would be no where we could stop to make camp. So, being a little disappointed, we decided to wait in Radium and then ride through the park tomorrow (it won't be an easy ride as we have 2 mountain passes to climb over, other wise we would have done it today). Since we had a lot of time to kill, we went to the library, which was pretty tiny, and I uploaded some pictures. We chit chatted with the ladies that worked at the library for quite a while while we waited out another rain storm. Again, we were lucky enough to have the sun come back out. When it got to be dinner time, we found a town park/baseball field where we made some Mac and Cheese for dinner. Just as we were finishing up our meal, a couple people arrived, apparently there was a little league game tonight. So, once we were done eating and had cleaned up, we rode around town to find another place to relax and possibly camp. There was a sub/ice cream restaurant with an overhang and benches/tables that was closed that we ended up sitting at for quite a while. While we were there, a huge group of mountain bikers came off the mountain and chit chatted with us for a quick second before continuing on their ride. By then it had started to rain again. The grocery store was just a quick walk away, so I went to get us some cookies to snack on. The big boxes of Oreo's were not only on sale, but when I got to the register I found out they were buy one get one free, so we had Oreo's up the wazoo (not necessarily a bad thing!). While we were eating some Oreo's, I made some more make shift business cards with our website on them since we were getting low on them. Also while we were sitting there, we saw another touring cyclist riding by so we yelled to him to see where he was going to. His name is Jeff and he is riding from Vancouver, BC to St. Johns, NF. Through his ride he is also working to raise money for water systems in Hatti which we thought was pretty cool. Jeff's very first tour was through Asia; he covered China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Thailand and Cambodia within about 5 and a half months. After chit chatting with him for a little bit, he went to see what the hostel in town was like. We had already looked into it and it wasn't really worth it for 2 people (pretty much the same as if we payed to go to get a hotel room). A little while later, while Joe and I were playing cards, Jeff came back to hang out for a bit. We ended up going to a restaurant/pub just down the road from the place we had been sitting at. Jeff was nice enough to buy us a round of drinks and it was wing night there so we had some wings too. Joe had a couple beers and I had a blueberry vodka with 7up which was really good. It was a lot of fun discussing bicycle touring and learning a little about what it was like touring in Asia. We also learned a little more about Canada that we didn't know (Jeff is from Vancouver). It was a very fun evening, and a nice change of pace to have another touring cyclist to talk with. Just 2 doors down from the restaurant/pub that we ate at was a church where we made camp. Jeff hung out with us for a little while before we parted ways and went to bed. There is a hot springs in town that we found out was very reasonably priced where Jeff is going to take a rest day tomorrow at so we won't get to ride with him at all. We have a mountain pass to climb first thing in the morning so we are hoping to get an early start. We only rode 13.28 miles today because of all the campgrounds still being closed (but I guess it was ok because we got to meet Jeff which wouldn't have happened otherwise).
Despite making camp petty late last night, we still got up pretty early. We decided to ride to the next town in case they had a good size super market where we could get some cereal and milk for breakfast. When we got to town, we didn't see any sign of a grocery store, so we just made some oatmeal at a picnic table outside a diner. While riding out of town, we finally found the grocery store that was indicated on our map. Unfortunately, the store was really small and therefore everything was expensive so we wouldn't have gotten anything there anyway. Today was another really warm sunny day which I was glad for. Also, the wind was in our favor again today, which made me even happier. Although we had a lot of miles to do, they went pretty quick today. We had already ridden about 40 miles by the time we stopped in Canal Flats for lunch. There was the first decent size grocery store we had seen since entering BC. Since it was sunny, ice cream was sounding pretty good, as it always does. So we got a half gallon of tin roof sunday ice cream and a package of hot dogs to add to our mac and cheese. When we found a picnic table to cook lunch on, we ended up deciding to just eat the hot dogs and not bother with the mac and cheese. We ate the ice cream while we boiled up the hot dogs. at one point while we were cleaning up from lunch, it started to sprinkle ever so slightly, but was still sunny. We filled up on water again before leaving town. The next town, which we planned to stop in for the night was about 32 miles away from where we had lunch. For a good portion of that ride, we were on back roads that had virtually no traffic; it was wonderful to not have to hear the cars and trucks go by all the time-they are just so loud. When we made it to Invermere we looked for a place that had wireless internet to check if the Warm Shower's Host we emailed a couple days ago emailed us back; they didn't. Joey went into the little coffee/ ice cream shop that we were using the internet at, and next thing I know is he comes out with two amazing homemade cookies! He brought a double chocolate and a chocolate chip out to me and asked me to pick one. The cookie was so fluffy and fresh. What a great treat! After we were done using the internet, we went over to the grocery store to get some tuna and chicken noodle soup to add to our rice. There was a nice town park with picnic tables, really nice bathrooms with running water, and even a garbage can with a solar powered garbage compactor. We made dinner and relaxed a little before setting out to find a place to camp. We had looked to see where the churches were located while we were using the internet, so that was our first quest. The first church didn't have much yard space, so we continued on. We came across the Catholic church just down the road. Joe saw a man outside and asked if he was affiliated with the church and the man told him that the priest was right next door if he wanted to talk to him. The man was nice enough to take Joey right over to the priest's house to ask. They couldn't fine the priest, but they found another guy that worked closely with the church; he was super nice and had no problem with us camping in the back yard of the church. He showed us what section had the sprinklers and where a safe and dry place to set up our tent would be. We got our tent all set up and rounded up some clothes in case we decided to go to the laundry mat tomorrow. It is still amazing that it stays light out for so long, and I'm always tired by the end of the day, so I have no problem falling asleep even though it isn't dark. I don't think I've ever been anywhere where it stays this light out for so long. We are pretty close to the time zone change so that could have an influence too. I'm super exhausted today for some reason. My legs are a little sore, but the pain is more noticeable in my shoulders and the palms of my hands while I'm riding, but that will go away again once my body gets totally used to riding again. We rode 72.03 miles today.
We woke up nice and early so we could go out to eat for breakfast. We figured that since we hadn't gone out to eat for breakfast yet on the trip, we would do so before going into Canada where it would be more expensive. There was a great little cafe in town where we each got french toast, sausage, and eggs. While we were there we saw another one of the racers that was riding in the Great Divide race. After talking to him we found out that he is originally from Canandaguia, NY (he saw Joey's Geneva Bicycle shorts)! After our very tasty breakfast, we stopped at the post office to mail home the plates we had found thus far before riding into CA. Today was a gorgeous day, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. Compared to the 45-55 degree weather yesterday, the 75 degree weather was amazing! During the 10 mile ride to the border, we saw about 6-7 more racers. One of the guys was from Italy, one from Canada, and another from England. The leader of the race thus far is a guy from New Zealand. The Race the Great Divide had become a pretty popular thing, especially since there are people coming from all over the world to do it. Before we reached the border, we each called home one last time before Alaska. The border crossing wasn't as smooth as the other 2x we have crossed. The border crossing guy was a little bit of a jerk to us. He asked us the general questions, but got mad that all Joe had was a drivers license (but he didn't look at it all the way to see that it was an enhanced license- we had to tell him that). He also asked what we had for funding, and we told him. He made a big deal and said that we weren't giving him truthful answers. I don't know what his problem was, everything we said was the truth. Then we got "robbed" by the border guy. He took our dog spray =( . I guess because it was a small handy bottle perfect size for when you are being chased by a dog, it was considered to be a concealed weapon. But--- it was totally ok for us to keep our big bottle of bear mace, even though that can inflict maximum damage. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me! The lady said that if our dog spray was in a big bottle like the bear mace it would have been ok. I asked her what I was supposed to do if I got chased by a dog, just to see what she would say, and she said to use the bear mace because it had the same concentration of stuff as the dog spray. There is no way that can be the case because the dog spray doesn't even stop a dog sometimes, if the bear mace has the same concentration as that, it's definitely not going to stop a 600 lb bear. Based on what we read about bear mace before the trip, I feel like it would probably kill a dog or at least seriously injure them. We could be wrong, but I sure hope not. We did a fair amount of climbing during the first part of today's ride. We stopped for lunch in the small town of Baynes Lake where we got a package of really good Fuggie-O cookies and had some beans for lunch. The couple that owned the general store there were really nice and we ended up talking with them for a little bit. The next town was only about 10 miles away, and the ride there was wonderful. There were almost no cars on the road and it was really peaceful. I am excited for the serenity that the Yukon will offer that's for sure. When we arrived at that town, we stopped for a cookie break and to fill up some water bottles at the gas station. Our ride continued to be a little hilly. A few miles out of town we met, Truly. He is a Canadian who is riding across Canada from West to East. He said he had about 1,000km down and about 6,000km more to go. After chit-chatting for a few minutes we headed our separate ways. After another 15 miles we took another cookie break at a rest stop. By the time we got to our planned destination, Fort Steele, it was almost 8. There wasn't much to the town, just an old historic village that was pretty much like a museum, and a camping resort. It had a really nice campground, but it was a little more than we wanted to spend to set up our tent. We decided to just get some potato chips to snack on while we were cooking dinner and then ride a little further down the road to find a place to camp. The resort had Wi-Fi, but in order to get the password, you either had to be a registered camper, or pay 6 bucks to get it. Man, Canada is expensive; most places in the US it was either free, or at least only a dollar or two to use. While we were finishing dinner, there was a cute kitty that was walking around. I called it, and to my surprise it came running over for attention. Oh how I love kitties! Once we had cleaned up from dinner, we got back on the road. Luckily the sun doesn't go down until after 10, so it wasn't a problem at all to ride a little further. However, we didn't have to go too far before finding a nice rest area with picnic tables, and a vault toilet that we decided would work great. We asked a guy who was sitting in his truck if he thought we would have a problem camping here and he said that he was pretty sure they just ask that you limit your use of the rest area to 10 hours, so we figured we would be fine. We got the tent all set up and Joe got our food all hung in the tree. Aside from the border crossing being a pain this time, today was a great day. Hopefully it will be as sunny and warm tomorrow. We rode 76.01 miles today.
We woke up around 8 to find out that it was still raining. We packed up our things a little bit and then went downstairs to find a nice fire going in the fireplace. Rita made us each a raspberry smoothie with some of the raspberries she had frozen from her garden. It was so yummy! Later on, chuck made us some homemade pancakes with blueberries on top and Rita made some oatmeal to go along with it. Breakfast was amazing! It was still raining by the time that we left the house, but we know we are probably going to hit a lot of rain for the next couple months, so we figured we might as well get used to it. After saying our goodbyes we headed out of town. The road wasn't in the greatest condition and had virtually no shoulder, but for the most part the traffic was respectful. After riding for a while the rain stopped and it was just cold. For me the first portion of today's ride seemed to drag on and it felt like we weren't getting very far, but I guess I didn't realize that we had gone uphill for so much of it. After leaving Missoula we decided to start picking up license plates to hang in the garage when we get home. So far we've found a motorcycle Montana plate, two other different Montana plates, and a British Columbia plate (3 of which were on the same road within the first 35-40 miles of riding today). I had thought about picking them up since the beginning so we could start a collection of plates from states we had ridden to and I kind of wish I had because I had seen MI, IL, SD, NE and I'm sure others that I have forgotten about. Rita gave us the rest of the corn bread to take with us this morning, so when we stopped for a little break we snacked on that. We weren't really hungry enough to have a full blown lunch because the pancakes were so filling and kept us full almost to the time we reached our destination today! A while later as we were riding, we saw anther touring cyclist coming towards us. When he got closer, we figured out that it was Shular , who we met on our very first day in Missoula before he started his tour across the Northern US route. It was so neat to get to see him again, especially now that he is on his trip! Guess it worked out ok that we were stuck in Missoula for so long. An hour or so later, we met another couple touring, and you'll never guess where they were coming from... ANCHORAGE! Their names were Laurie and Ethel and they are from England. They flew into Anchorage and are riding to Washington, DC. We were so excited that they had ridden on the route that we were about to ride. Surprisingly, they said that the bugs weren't bad up in the Yukon when they were there, but we aren't keeping our hopes up too high because I'm sure that could change. About 15 miles before getting to Eureka (our destination for the evening), we stopped at a gas station to fill up on water. They were having a bake sale to benefit families in need, so we each got a cupcake with some of the road money that I had found throughout the trip thus far. I haven't counted it yet, but we took out a dollars worth and there is still plenty left. During the next 15 miles, we met 3 cyclists who are currently riding in the Race the Great Divide (a self supported race from Bamff, CA to the border of Mexico along the continental divide). The race just started on the 8th and they said that over 100 people had started and that 30 had already dropped out. This is not just any race, it is extremely difficult. The first couple guys we met said they spent a lot of time pushing their bikes through the snow up in the mountains since the start. The other guy that we met a little later on was more laid back and wasn't as much in it for the race part of it. The funny thing is that after hearing where we were from, he told us that his mom was raised in Arcade, NY! Can you believe that, what a small world (for those of you who don't know, my Mom lived there for at least 20 years). He gave us his contact information because he lives in Olympia Washington in case we need a place to stay on the return trip. Once we got into Eureka, we checked to see if there were any Warm Shower's Hosts available and then went to the grocery store to get something for dinner (we figured we might as well have something besides mac and cheese because we are going to be eating a lot of that here shortly). We picked up some spaghettio's and a bag of salad because we had a leftover packet of dressing. We headed down the road to find a place to camp and ended up coming to a Luthern Church that looked like the perfect spot. There was an overhang by the back door to put our bikes/tent under , no sprinklers, a stone wall to block the wind a little, a garbage can, and even a picnic table, what more could we want. While cleaning up from dinner, we asked a lady we saw if she was affiliated with the church and she happened to be the pastor's daughter. When we asked if she thought it would be ok if we set up our tent there she said her dad wasn't home, but gave us a couple numbers to call to check. When we called, they were fine with us setting up our tent, so we had found a home for the night. We each spent some time talking to family because we are only 9 miles from the CA border and soon won't be able to call them. Like most of the day, tonight was really cold. We set up our tent and then huddled in our sleeping bags to stay warm. Luckily there was no snow though; we had spoken to some people and found out that Eureka had gotten 16 inches last week! When we went to bed it was already after 10 and was still not dark yet. It's going to be fun when it is light almost all the time! We rode 55.85 miles today.
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