Friday July 31st, 51 miles and 4700 accumulated vertical feet up. 296 Route Miles to date and this is the first week complete👍
Try the link created below by my friend John C. and you may be able to follow with a map. You may need to at least sign up for a free subscription of Ride with GPS, and it will take a few minutes to download. You may need to copy the link into your browser.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/56442173
I’ve spent 5 of these 7 nights in Provincial Recreation Parks and all of them are identical, very nice & always clean. The pit toilets (no odors) are standardized and excellent. This is the first time they’ve had toilet paper. This campground is also the largest with about 50 sites, the others only had around 10+/-. There’s plenty of room for larger RV’s, the sites are all big and private, these campgrounds have all been adjacent to a nice stream.
Just so you know — this ain’t easy. These days when I am climbing more than 4000 feet, I am SPENT! Slept 11 hours last night.
24 second video Wild Horses, beautiful, the video doesn’t do justice
Tomorrow I will be done with “The Forestry Trunk Road”. 251 miles of beautiful vast uninhabited wilderness with a few quarries, gas wells, logging operations, rivers, creeks & suffocating dust…. Only two small towns with cell service the entire way.
Saturday August 1st, 48 miles and 1400 accumulated vertical feet up.
Left Waiparous Creek Campground around 8:00. As is now a habit, just before pulling out I walk down to the edge of the stream and make water. As I’m walking towards my cleaned site I notice about 6 people standing at the end of the driveway. The woman in charge immediately asked me if I was leaving, all of these campsites are non reservable. I handed it off and showed the man how to resister and pay…Glad they got their site but I wonder where they slept last night?
Thank the Lord for only 5 miles of dusty gravel road today—What a shock it was to see electric poles and pavement— my spirits were immediately lifted 10 feet!!😄😀😀
And to top it off most of today was down hill. Highway 1a was a bit busy but finding a gas station with Gatorade and Coke and a Snickers bar was incredible!
Earlier in the afternoon I found a bench in the shade just outside the main restroom entrance. This older couple walked up and separated to go into their proper door, I notice the woman has “KEN” tattooed on her shoulder and I ask — who’s Ken? She stops and explains that it’s her husband, the guy that approached the restroom with her but went immediately in not paying attention to our talk. I explained that my name was Ken and when he comes out I’m going to say hi…. I don’t think she was amused but it’s me! Few minutes go by he comes out: I say “hi Ken!” like we’re best friends. Leans over and says how do I know you? I cleared the air and we had a great chat! His wife Joan isn’t to amused but far from offended. Later (remember I got here early today and had lots of time to goof off) I was out for a walk and passed their site and said hi — again later (I was sitting in my tent eating my dehydrated beef & rice with a beef stick, Aussie Style Licorice & Pistachios) I hear “Hey Ken is this your site” he knew cause there were no other sites with a bike with bags on it. They walked over and asked me to go for a walk with them— Joan was attempting to get 11,000 steps in today. We had a very enjoyable walk/talk, they are from Calgary, he’s retired and she still works because she enjoys it. They have a nice RV and camp most summer weekends when they can. Lovely people, I very much enjoyed our time chatting.
Tomorrow I Juke over to Banff…
Sunday August 2nd 35.7 miles and 1284 accumulated vertical feet up.
Words for today, smoke, vicious head winds, lots of bike riders on the route, rest day tomorrow (in hotel in Banff), thankful for Jenny’s help, pictures:
Tuesday morning when I leave Banff I climb 1600 feet in the first 40 miles, I better get some rest 🚴♂️🚴♂️
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