Day 23: Many Glacier, MT to Waterton, Alberta, Canada –   53 Miles

When I got back to my campsite last night I met a French family sharing the hiker/biker site. Their kids are 3 and 6, and they have been riding about 30 miles a day with a Chariot and a tag-along contraption for three months from Arizona. They’re riding to Whitefish, taking the Amtrak to Seattle, flying to Barcelona, and then spending the rest of the summer riding home from there before first grade starts in September.  And you think I’m nuts…

They invited me over to their fire to roast marshmallows, which was PERFECT because after my pie I was still craving sugar, and I had even looked at all the smores fixings in the campground shop and decided I didn’t need to buy a whole jumbo-bag of overpriced marshmallows when I only wanted about ten. I bought s’mores flavored pop tarts instead, but got my fix after all!

This morning I bid them farewell and set off towards Canada. The morning’s ride was pretty, uneventful, and hillier than expected. I made it through the border crossing with less interrogation than getting into the Denver Federal Center (all he asked was where I was going, how long I’d be in the country, and if I needed to refill my water bottles).

Coming into Waterton I hit a big headwind, and the last five miles of unnecessarily rolling and hilly bike path frustrated me. Camping the Waterton campsite seemed exorbitantly expensive, but much more reasonable when I discovered it included showers. I stink!

I set up camp and walked into town for ice cream and route advice– there are two options north from here to Lake Louise and nobody seems to have a confident opinion on them for better riding.

Food in Waterton is out of my budget, so it was back to camp to cook dinner and take a shower, via a short stroll to Cameron Falls.

  Then I went back into town and celebrated crossing the border (approximately 1/3 of the way to Anchorage) with a slice of Saskatoon Berry Pie from the local candy shop/bakery, and called it an early night.