My Flickr site for more pictures - 
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| Our route |
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| Facing the wrong way for the picture |
The morning started chilly but we both just used shorts and cotton T shirts. It was flat to Tete Juane Cache and then we had some moderate hills up to the Mt. Robson viewpoint. What a view and sense of accomplishment! It was a short run from there to the Mount Robson Provincial Park visitor center and adjoining campsite. Robson was cloudless all day. A real treat. It felt good to just sit around and recharge. The day's 35 km was very easy. We spent the whole afternoon sitting at a picnic table at the visitor center reading and eating. The last five days, especially the last two had been very full.
Day Six - Mount Robson to Jasper
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| Must be getting close to Jasper. :-) |
The 90 km to Jasper and Jasper National Park started out with a hill which was not that demanding with low gears, but enough to get the heart pumping. I was very glad to have a low set of gears. The number of gears a bike has is not nearly so important in this situation as what your lowest gear ratio is. I had a 24 tooth granny gear on the front with a 32 tooth gear on the back, giving me a very low first gear. I was to appreciate my low gearing even more on the Icefield Parkway.
After the hills, we came to Moose Lake. It was idyllic. A clear chilly morning, an alpine lake, and a good shoulder. Perfect cycling! It was mainly rolling to the Alberta border, then became downhill to Jasper.
In Jasper we checked out our bikes at a shop in town. We also checked out accommodations but found that the hostels were full. We got Ken's front hub loosened a bit, and a developing "click" on my bike eliminated by tightening my pedals and crank arms. I also asked about lubricating the free wheel with oil. I had worried before that I might have been doing something wrong by oiling it, but the mechanic said no. In fact, he occasionally used a variety of oils on his free wheel to keep the inner workings of it well lubricated and clean.
Jasper was hot. We got a campsite at "The Whistlers" government campground and did what was becoming our afternoon routine - put the tent up and take the panniers off our bikes, shower, do the laundry, and then go find a restaurant for supper. It was a Petro-Can restaurant this day, on the way to which we watched a black bear eating something near the railway tracks in almost downtown Jasper!
At the end of each day I became more tired about an hour after I had got off the bike. Strange. I was also very hungry at supper time. I forgot to wear sunscreen this day, and almost immediately regretted it. Of course a sunburn makes a person feel lethargic, as if I wasn't tired enough. I didn't let this situation happen again on the trip.
Day Seven - Jasper to Jonas Creek
Even though it wasn't the longest day at 78 km, it was one of the most physically demanding to date. We were up at 6:00 am, cycled 3 km back to Jasper for breakfast and were one the Ice Fields Parkway by 8:15. From Jasper we gained 600 m over rolling highway so we could have climbed a total close to 800 or 900 m.
The scenery was spectacular. The sky was almost cloudless. We saw elk off in the woods during the first half hour. We met and talked with a couple of guys from Montana who were part of a large group. The shoulder was wide enough so you could ride side by side talking the early morning away.
At 53 km out from Jasper we had a large lunch at the Sunwapta Falls Lodge. It is a large operation and offered a wide variety of eats.
The road soon developed cracks in it, so every 10 or 15 meters there would be a pronounced dropping of the wheels into this little crack running across the highway. Well of course this translated right up into the bum. :-( God, but that was painful and annoying. There was a remedy however. Running along the road and roughly in the middle of the paved shoulder was the 30 cm wide paved covering of some construction work. It looked like they may have put in phone or power lines and buried them in the shoulder. The paved covering didn't have cracks, as I suppose it was done recently.
About 23 km after Sunwapta Falls lodge, we arrived at Jonas Creek campground. Oh yes. There were bugs. Ken and I started a collection of blackflies we managed to kill and began to arrange them on the picnic table where we were sitting until the wind blew them away, or until they miraculously came back to life and started escaping. (They ultimately failed.) Supper at Jonas Creek consisted of Power Bars smothered in peanut butter followed by a Gatorade chaser, or, as Ken did, granola bars smothered in peanut butter. This was followed by a stroll out onto the highway to enjoy the view south to the icefields. We could see Mt. Andromeda in the distance.
Day Eight - Jonas Creek to Saskatchewan River Crossing
The following morning was going to bring us the toughest climb of the trip and a motel after 78 km of cycling. I looked forward to it in a strange way. I think I looked forward to how I was going to manage it, heavily laden as we were. In the back of it all though, was the knowledge that our low gears had made all the hills so far quite pleasant as all we had to do is gear down, settle back in the saddle, and spin the peddles quite comfortably.
The morning was very cold and clear. We were up at 6:00 again and on the road without breakfast in just over 30 minutes. It was so cold I put on my goretex over mitts to keep my fingers warm. We dumped about half a litre of white gas and the rest of the peanut butter that morning as we were not using the stove at all (thank you VISA) and restaurants were going to be handy from then on.
At 21 km from Jonas Creek the BIG HILL started. The grade up to Wilcox Pass was a good 8% and evidently included a short section that was a bit steeper. I used my first gear and didn't have to get off the saddle, but I did have to crank hard, especially during the first 2 km. At the top was Wilcox Pass which gave you a tempting view of Mt. Athabasca and part of the icefields. We flew down the subsequent hill and on the last few km to the new visitor center at the icefields were met with cold strong headwinds. Bummer! We really did work for our breakfast. The new icefield center where we had breakfast is very, nice and big, if you like large buildings in the mountains with hundreds of tourists milling about.
After breakfast and cycling south over Sunwapta Pass we locked up the bikes and walked the trail up to the top of Parker Ridge for the view of the Saskatchewan glacier. The view brought back memories of the different ski trips we have made up it and on to the Columbia Icefields during the early spring. The walk was very worthwhile.
Our next leg of the trip started with with a BIG run down to the Saskatchewan River. At this point we entered Banff National Park. The grade consisted of a lot of 8% but the mountain bike brakes and my Kool Stops did their job very nicely. We usually held our speed to about 30 km/h until we saw the runout. At that speed we found we could avoid holes or debris on the shoulder, but much faster, it became much more challenging, especially with a fair amount on the lowriders and in the rear panniers.
Following the big hill, the highway was rolling and downhill. We soon came upon an elderly man struggling to change a flat tire on his motor home. Ken was there first and I caught up with him only to see him on his back starting to change the tire. I think our helpful response kind of overwhelmed the man. At one point he said that he didn't know how to thank us, only a few minutes later to give us samples of turquoise he had with him. He was from Arizona and he said that they came from the Sleeping Beauty Mine. We thanked him very much and said we were glad to help.
Another 20 or so kilometers brought us to Saskatchewan River Crossing and a motel. Showers! Beer! Buffalo Burgers! and of course, The Buffet!
... on to part 3
In Jasper we checked out our bikes at a shop in town. We also checked out accommodations but found that the hostels were full. We got Ken's front hub loosened a bit, and a developing "click" on my bike eliminated by tightening my pedals and crank arms. I also asked about lubricating the free wheel with oil. I had worried before that I might have been doing something wrong by oiling it, but the mechanic said no. In fact, he occasionally used a variety of oils on his free wheel to keep the inner workings of it well lubricated and clean.
Jasper was hot. We got a campsite at "The Whistlers" government campground and did what was becoming our afternoon routine - put the tent up and take the panniers off our bikes, shower, do the laundry, and then go find a restaurant for supper. It was a Petro-Can restaurant this day, on the way to which we watched a black bear eating something near the railway tracks in almost downtown Jasper!
At the end of each day I became more tired about an hour after I had got off the bike. Strange. I was also very hungry at supper time. I forgot to wear sunscreen this day, and almost immediately regretted it. Of course a sunburn makes a person feel lethargic, as if I wasn't tired enough. I didn't let this situation happen again on the trip.
Day Seven - Jasper to Jonas Creek
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| Mt. Edith Cavell in the distance |
Even though it wasn't the longest day at 78 km, it was one of the most physically demanding to date. We were up at 6:00 am, cycled 3 km back to Jasper for breakfast and were one the Ice Fields Parkway by 8:15. From Jasper we gained 600 m over rolling highway so we could have climbed a total close to 800 or 900 m.
The scenery was spectacular. The sky was almost cloudless. We saw elk off in the woods during the first half hour. We met and talked with a couple of guys from Montana who were part of a large group. The shoulder was wide enough so you could ride side by side talking the early morning away.
At 53 km out from Jasper we had a large lunch at the Sunwapta Falls Lodge. It is a large operation and offered a wide variety of eats.
The road soon developed cracks in it, so every 10 or 15 meters there would be a pronounced dropping of the wheels into this little crack running across the highway. Well of course this translated right up into the bum. :-( God, but that was painful and annoying. There was a remedy however. Running along the road and roughly in the middle of the paved shoulder was the 30 cm wide paved covering of some construction work. It looked like they may have put in phone or power lines and buried them in the shoulder. The paved covering didn't have cracks, as I suppose it was done recently.
About 23 km after Sunwapta Falls lodge, we arrived at Jonas Creek campground. Oh yes. There were bugs. Ken and I started a collection of blackflies we managed to kill and began to arrange them on the picnic table where we were sitting until the wind blew them away, or until they miraculously came back to life and started escaping. (They ultimately failed.) Supper at Jonas Creek consisted of Power Bars smothered in peanut butter followed by a Gatorade chaser, or, as Ken did, granola bars smothered in peanut butter. This was followed by a stroll out onto the highway to enjoy the view south to the icefields. We could see Mt. Andromeda in the distance.
Day Eight - Jonas Creek to Saskatchewan River Crossing
The following morning was going to bring us the toughest climb of the trip and a motel after 78 km of cycling. I looked forward to it in a strange way. I think I looked forward to how I was going to manage it, heavily laden as we were. In the back of it all though, was the knowledge that our low gears had made all the hills so far quite pleasant as all we had to do is gear down, settle back in the saddle, and spin the peddles quite comfortably.
The morning was very cold and clear. We were up at 6:00 again and on the road without breakfast in just over 30 minutes. It was so cold I put on my goretex over mitts to keep my fingers warm. We dumped about half a litre of white gas and the rest of the peanut butter that morning as we were not using the stove at all (thank you VISA) and restaurants were going to be handy from then on.
At 21 km from Jonas Creek the BIG HILL started. The grade up to Wilcox Pass was a good 8% and evidently included a short section that was a bit steeper. I used my first gear and didn't have to get off the saddle, but I did have to crank hard, especially during the first 2 km. At the top was Wilcox Pass which gave you a tempting view of Mt. Athabasca and part of the icefields. We flew down the subsequent hill and on the last few km to the new visitor center at the icefields were met with cold strong headwinds. Bummer! We really did work for our breakfast. The new icefield center where we had breakfast is very, nice and big, if you like large buildings in the mountains with hundreds of tourists milling about.
After breakfast and cycling south over Sunwapta Pass we locked up the bikes and walked the trail up to the top of Parker Ridge for the view of the Saskatchewan glacier. The view brought back memories of the different ski trips we have made up it and on to the Columbia Icefields during the early spring. The walk was very worthwhile.
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| Parker Ridge with the Saskatchewan Glacier behind us. |
Following the big hill, the highway was rolling and downhill. We soon came upon an elderly man struggling to change a flat tire on his motor home. Ken was there first and I caught up with him only to see him on his back starting to change the tire. I think our helpful response kind of overwhelmed the man. At one point he said that he didn't know how to thank us, only a few minutes later to give us samples of turquoise he had with him. He was from Arizona and he said that they came from the Sleeping Beauty Mine. We thanked him very much and said we were glad to help.
Another 20 or so kilometers brought us to Saskatchewan River Crossing and a motel. Showers! Beer! Buffalo Burgers! and of course, The Buffet!
... on to part 3
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