Days 30 -32: Lake Louise to Jasper – 59, 58 & 35 Miles
Luke’s parents got home from their weekend getaway very late on Sunday night with a whole car load of fresh fruit and groceries. Megan insisted I take lots of cherries and blueberries with me 🙂
The day started out cloudy and the weather progressively got worse. I stopped for second breakfast at Mosquito Creek when it started drizzling, and when it became apparent that it wouldn’t let up for a while I kept riding. After cruising up Bow Pass (which, for the record, has NO business calling itself a pass compared to Montana’s hills), I took a short detour to see Peyto Lake – a “must-see” spot on the Icefields Parkway.
It began raining for real when I was rolling out of the parking lot, which made descending Bow Pass tricky: water spraying off the road makes it impossible to see through your glasses, and when you take your glasses off it’s like trying to stare into a shower head. Cars and especially tour buses weren’t particularly friendly, honking when I wasn’t in the shoulder (majorly potholed and crumbly) and passing too close giving me a good spray each time. I got very wet.
I was told I had to stop at Mistaya Canyon, a super cool gorge a half-mile off the road. It was cool, here are pictures.
I was so soggy when I got to Saskatchewan Crossing that I went in to the convenience store and dried myself and my clothes out in the bathroom hand dryer. Before leaving the last bit of civilization with a motel, I called the hostel 8 miles up the road to check on availability. It would have been miserable camping in such rain and the campground nearby was closed for bear activity anyway, and the hostels are very affordable compared to the campgrounds(this one had a sauna!) I got one of the last beds available, and the hostel was full within an hour of my arrival.
I made myself a cup of tea,and changed into dry clothes, and when I was about to start cooking dinner, a nice family from Winnipeg informed me they had cooked far too much and invited me to join them for dinner. Chili was followed by Anne’s homemade biscotti with tea, and brownies.
Day 31:
I got up early hoping to avoid the rain and made myself lovely blueberry pancakes with mix from the free-food cabinet and the blueberries Megan gave me in Lake Louise, and Anne (last night’s chef) insisted I use their pancake syrup. It was glorious, and I still managed to be on the road at 8.
The morning’s ride was all uphill and I finally arrived at the Icefields center at 11:30.
It was so full of foreigners standing in line for glacier tours that it looked like an airport terminal. I got out of there ASAP. I stopped at some waterfalls on the way down the north side of the pass,and saw a black bear.
Tangle Falls
At the Sunwapta Falls gift shop I met Helmut, an Austrian cyclist who had just come down much of my route from Anchorage in 3 weeks (his version involved a ferry from Haines to Prince Rupert instead of riding the northern half of the Cassiar highway.)He gave me lots of beta and emailed me the PDFs of the maps he’d bought.
After the big climb, I was tired early and pulled in to the next campground after meeting Helmut, Honeymoon Lakes. I went for the share-a-site strategy to keep costs down, and after a lap around the campground I decided to try the guys in their late 20s who were reading out loud to each other with two dogs sleeping by the campfire. Connor and Corbin, from NYC, commiserated the expense of Canadian campgrounds and welcomed me to join them. Both New England prep school/small liberal arts college educated, Conner is a high school history teacher, and Corbin recently quit his job at a hedge fund to pursue woodworking and building furniture. We got along great.
We walked down to the beautiful lake (they swam, I was too cold to go in past my knees), and when we got back they finished reading the Sherlock Holmes story I’d interrupted. They even shared their hot dogs and baked beans with me, but they weren’t much interested in the mashed potatoes I had to contribute.
As we finished cleaning up dinner it startedraining. The boys climbed into their rooftop tent (pictures on my other camera) and I into my normal tent. Between bouts of rain I was crooned to sleep by the dulcet tones of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book-on-tape emanating from their tent. These guys are clearly my favorites! (Too bad neither one is single).
Day 32:
It rained off and on all night, and it was still raining when I woke up. I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep: it’s a short day to Jasper and if it’s already raining there’s no rush to beat the weather. Packing up was tough- there were little slugs all over the inside of my rain fly, footprint, and outside of my tent.
The weather gradually cleared as I rode along the Athabasca river and stopped for photo ops regularly (but mostly on my oter camera).
Even with a late start and slow pace, I arrived in Jasper plenty early, and acted like a tourist on Canada Day while waiting for my warmshowers hosts to get off of work – ice cream, burgers, live music, grocery shopping, and a nap on the grass in the park.
Greg and Brittany got home from work around 8 and I went over to their apartment. They’re a great example of the warmshowers spectrum – happy to provide a shower and a couch, but they’re out celebrating Canada Day while I spent the evening in cleaning and organizing my gear. Fireworks aren’t till 11:30 because it doesn’t get dark until then, but other than that it’s like a tame 4th of July.
