Canada the beautiful

From my last post I've been biking south through Jasper Park, then Banff Park and finally Kootenay Park. They were fantastic. One of the most spectacular roads I have ever biked on. The mountains were soaring and the lakes were mirrors of crystal clear water, the streams were ice cold, and every mountain seemed to have a glacier. The camping continued to be great. I slept in the shadows of mountains, at the foot of glacier and next to little blue streams. It has been getting hot and I've been jumping into some of those cold streams, fed by the snow fields above. 

A nice thing about biking through parks are the information signs at road side pull-offs. I learned that the magnificent blue color of the water is the result of glaciers grinding rock into a fine powder that does not precipitate out. The glaciers were always so cool to see and I saw one break off a section that fell over a cliff. I could hear it crash from miles away. The historic photos on display show that nearly all of the glaciers have shrunk by more than a kilometer over the past 100 years. I met a lot of other cyclists on the road too. Including an 81 year old biking from Vancouver to New Jersey. 

South of the parks, I stopped at a convenience store to fill my water when two men approached, Pete and Jeff. I told them my story and they were so impressed that they offered to buy me ice cream and chips and to spend the afternoon swimming at their Lake house and a hot shower and a bed to sleep in if I wanted to stay for dinner. Really they had me at ice cream. The cabin was on Premier Lake. I had passed the turn off for it earlier in the day and wondered if it would live up to the name, it surely did. A beautiful clear Lake tucked into the mountains and warm enough to swim in. I met the neighbors at a party that night and ate steak, wonderful salads, pie and of course, ice cream. It was such a wonderful and relaxing afternoon. I mean, even more relaxing than not working and just biking slowly through pleasant mountain scenery. 

Currently I am in Whitefish Montana. Back in the USA! Canada was great and big. I feel like I was there a long time. The stereotype is true, Canadians are super nice. I'll be back some day. I feel like there is still a lot to explore up there. 

 Flowers for you

 My hosts, Jeff and Pete, at Premier Lake.

 Premier Lake.

 View from my camp site, love those rainbows.

 Still love those rainbows (waterfallbows?).


 I hitchhiked on a train to Edmonton.

 Camping with the Athabasca glacier.

 A waterfall in miniature.

 There were a lot of waterfalls.

 Still more waterfalls.

 Look closely, you'll see a waterfall. Banff National Park.

 Glacier stream.

 Another pass over the continental divide.

 It seemed like every mountain had its own mirror.

 Does this look appetizing to anyone else but me? It was so good.

 I love biking along rivers.

 Moraine Lake, go there if ever you can.

 The bluest lake in the Rockies. Glacier on the left and the road I biked up on the right.

 Reflected mountains are good every time.

 Plenty of cold water for the hot days.

 So nice.

 A fantastic downhill exited through this slot in the canyon.

Back in my America. Barely worse for wear. 

To the Rockies!

What a great ride it has been. From my last post written in Whitehorse I've made my way along the Alaskan Highway, then south along the quiet and remote Cassiar Highway and for the past few days now I've followed the Yellowhead Highway into the Rockies.

A short detour on the Alaskan Highway for groceries brought me to Watson Lake where sign post city lives. A Wonderland of stolen signs of all sorts. The 10000th sign went up in the 90s and I think maybe they stopped counting after that. It was really colorful and fun to wander through.

Heading down the Cassiar I rode through large burn areas. The rest stop information signs made it clear that it was very healthy for the forests to burn. I must say the living sections seemed very healthy. The forest floor was thick with moss and lichen. The trees were diverse. All day and night birds were singing about how neat it is to fly. I saw multiple bears every day. I walked down a dirt road to look for camping one evening and two black bears along with two elk were in a field eating dandelions. The bears are always eating dandelions. I spent time with a father and son who are biking south and fishing for dinner along the way. They had fish with dinner two out of the three nights I camped with them.

Once I got onto the Yellowhead Highway I was back to civilization and glad to have grocery stores at frequent intervals. The forests changed a little. Very large birch and cedar trees began to appear. I biked past a section of old growth forest with trees more than 1000 years old, it was in a section of rare inland rainforest. The Yellowhead Highway follows the lowest pass through the Canadian Rockies which made for mostly gentle climbing up into the mountains. They remind me of Colorado. Mount Robson, the highest Canadian Rockies peak appeared around a bend. It rose enormous and snow covered directly down the road in front of me. There were many majestic peaks to pass on the way to the pass.

Now I am in the town of Jasper in Jasper National Park. It is a pretty and small mountain town with good pizza. A 15 month old little boy was dancing to my guitar in the park, I must be getting better. I hear that hot springs are to the south. That sounds good to me so I'm heading that way next.

 I saw a lot of mirror lakes.

 Mountains every day.

 Lunch break.

 Sign post city!

 More signs!

 I really like clouds.

 A burned forest.

 I never pass up a swing set with a view.

 The Cassiar Highway, it is great not to have road lines.

 Arctic/Pacific water divide. My first time in the Arctic basin.

 New friends to camp with.

 More of the Cassiar Highway.

 A typical evening view.

 Flowers for you

 A visitor center sculpture.

 Yes, that is the world's largest fly rod.

 It is a bit rustic here.

 View from my hammock.

 So many nice sunsets!

 The tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies.

 Glacier blue river.

A really nice day. 

Yukon do it!

I'm in Canada now. It has been beautiful. I've been biking in broad valleys with the tallest mountains in Canada to the south. They are snow capped and huge and impressive and I cannot even see the heart of them. The foothills block my view, and according to one museum I stopped at there are actually no roads that go far enough into the mountains to give views of the tallest peaks. Where there are roads the towns are few and very far between. Keeping enough food to get to the next bit of civilization continues to be tricky.

The wildlife fills in where the people are not. Camping next to the road one morning I was woken up by a woman yelling from her car that a bear was coming my way and to be careful. A few minutes later the bear strolled past only 30 yards away. It must have smelled me considering it's been 10 days since I washed my shirt but it wasn't interested and continued down the road. Caribou have started showing up along side the road too. We stare at each other briefly and then one of us scampers off. I saw little horn sheep high up in the hills from an observation center. They were white as snow roaming through the green pastures.

Besides the bears wandering by camping has been great. Gerry and I found a  traditional log house to sleep in one night. It was a display outside of the Yukon First Nation's cultural center. In the cultural center the next morning I met some of the natives from the local tribes.

The weather has been great so far. Warm days, sometimes tailwind. The night are cool and comfortable. It rains just enough to rinse me off when I need it but never soak me.

I met a northbound cyclist coming from Argentina. He was French and only spoke French. His odometer read 21000 kilometers. He had been going only since December, faster than me so far. For all those wondering how my legs can handle all this biking, he was 62!