Days 26 & 27: Longview to Canmore, AB- 68 & 63 miles

Yesterday started out great! Desiree cooked a big breakfast for the whole family – pancakes with strawberries, scrambled eggs, and sausage. They sent me on my way with many prayers, chocolate chip cookies, and George’s homemade deer jerky.

The scenery started out good (ranch land along the Highwood river) and kept getting better   

 and better.  

  I took a dip in the river after lunch, and kept churning up the pass.   

 I finally reached the top of the highest paved road in Canada (only 7239ft) at 3:30 and chatted with a park ranger about the mating pair of grizzlies he was tracking. I decided to ride a short way down the pass and spend the night in a designated campsite(required in the provincial park) instead of poaching a “backcountry” site. 

 Today started with a steep 4 mile climb out of the campground (it didn’t seem so downhill going in last night!) and then cruised down to the Trans-Canadian highway.  

 avoiding the interstate, I got on the frontage road for the last 20k into Canmore, which goes past several aggregate plants.  

 Not only was I fighting a very heavy headwind, I was also sharing the road with lots of sand and gravel trucks which spewed their cargo all over the road, and me. I got to Canmore exhausted and cranky.

My rear brakes stopped doing their job properly on the way down the pass, but the first two bike shops I stopped at said they were exceptionally busy and they wouldn’t be able to get to it until tomorrow afternoon. Third try was the charm – the guys at Rebound cycles happily replaced my brake pads and adjusted my bike with no additional labor charge, and let me leave my bike in the shop while I did touristy things like find ice cream. 

 I came back and was chatting with the guys at the bike shop when there was a MASSIVE boom that shook the whole store! Everyone (stupidly) ran outside to see a big plume of smoke and debris rising a few blocks over – it turned out to be a gas explosion that took out half a house (nobody was seriously injured). (Google news for more info)

Instead of joining the curious masses, I chose to stay out of the chaos and head the other direction to the campground. It turned out to be much less beautiful and much more expensive than the previous ones, so for only $5 more I checked in at the youth hostel (which has things like beds, showers, a kitchen and refrigerator, wifi, and free coffee!) . Finished up my day with a trip to the grocery store and chatting with my roommates.