Day 15 - Bassano to Medicine Hat

Hello Again,

This morning we kind of slept in and slowly packed up and were on the road around 9. Our room was on the second floor so it was kind of a pain carrying the bike and trailer down ... it was worth it to have the bike and all of our stuff in the room though(we always sleep much better when its close by). Anyways, we only saw one or two cars go by while we were getting ready. There really isn't too much in downtown Bassano. Below you can see a shot down the main drag - the restaurant we ate at last night is on the right. It was a neat little town though and everyone we met was friendly - one lady even offered us a place to stay when she overheard us telling the waiter about our trip(we had already checked into the hotel though).

Downtown Bassano.

Downtown the other way.

The weather forecast for today predicted rain most of the day in Medicine Hat and even thunderstorms in the afternoon. So, we were on high alert expecting rain. The skies around us definitely looked like rain at several points during the day but we got lucky and remained dry for the entire day.

Patricia is on the left.

A shot of the bad skies

We stopped for a rest break and the odometer stopped at exactly 100.00. This is really exciting for two reasons. First, its the praries so we don't see too many exciting things during the day. And two, we stop for rest breaks whenever there is a sign pole or something to lean our bike against and these are few and far between on a flat straight highway.

A highlight of our day

More crazy looking skies

Good shoulders!

Theres an entire train in this picture on the horizon.

For most of the time today we had the coveted prairie tail wind which was awesome. At some points during the day we were cruising along at nearly 40km/h. The highway was also pretty flat today and we can count on one hand the number of times we had to go up a hill. Also, the mosquitoes were pretty bad a few times when we stopped but, near the end of the day they were even getting us while we riding. Because we had a tailwind the mosquitoes just had to float in the wind and they'd be going at the same speed as us so it wasn't too hard for them to get us. These clever mosquitos only lasted about half an hour which we were thankful for.

Eventually we made it to Medicine Hat!

Made it!

We read in our Alberta guide book that there was a campground right off the highway in Medicine Hat. We took the wrong cut off for it but thats OK since it brought us right by a Subway so we grabbed subs for supper. We eventually found the campground and got a site. Getting the site consisted of talking to a guy on his porch.

Our campsite.

We were really roughing it at this campground - we had to walk about two minutes to get a Mc Flurry from McDonalds. And our site faces a giant water slide in a hotel next to the campground - we could hear the excited screams from our tent. We checked the forecast for tomorrow and it looks like rain and thunder showers so fingers crossed they are wrong.

Our progress thus far.

Well thats all for now folks,

C&P

Day 14 - Calgary to Bassano

Well sorry folks, we forgot to take a picture of our campsite last night... don't worry though, it was basically a patch of grass with a picnic table and our little tent.. not too thrilling. Neither Chris nor I had showers last night, because they cost $1.00 per 5 minutes and instead we went to bed nice and early. I have some No Rinse Shampoo from Chris's mum and dad, so I used that this morning - I was surprised by how well it worked! Anyway, we got a late start this morning, I have a nasty cold so Chris let me sleep in until 7:30, and we were on the road by 9ish. Our morning went pretty quickly, we didn't stop too frequently since we had a pretty big day today, and we wanted to put in some serious mileage before it got too hot. The sun was out all morning, and it was really hot - so we figured the more kms we could pump out before lunch, the better.

After about 30km we stopped in Strathmore for lunch, and to get some groceries. Chris went into Sobeys while I waited for the bike, and when he came back we had a delicious lunch consisting of turkey and havarti cheese sandwiches, fruitopia, and some fruit. We also chatted with a Sobeys employee who was taking a smoke break, and was quite excited by our trip.

The bike propped up for lunch.

The view today was pretty much consistent throughout the day - there were tons of rolling hills that just looked on to more rolling hills. The trip was supposed to be all down hill after Calgary, but we're still waiting for that to happen. Most of the hills were pretty small and not the least bit intimidating to pros like Chris and I, but there were a few that were pretty big, and overall it made for an exhausting day.

The rolling hills of Western/ Central Alberta

We were both feeling pretty sore today in the bottom region, and so by mid-day we were taking fairly frequent breaks. We stopped in this rest area for a quick bathroom break and nap, as pictured below. Unfortunately, Chris is a party pooper and wouldn't allow me to nap for more then a second, as we had to hit the road once more.

Patricia attempting to nap at a rest stop

Sitting/ lying on the ground was a habit that was quickly broken for me today when, during a water break, I accidentally sat on a red ant colony, and before I knew it I was absolutely covered in red ants. There were literally hundreds of ants crawling all over me, but with some screaming, and frantic brushing off by myself and Chris they were soon all gone - although every once in a while for the rest of the day I'd find a lone ant walking on me somewhere. Overall, not a fun break.

After the ant invasion

Ants aside, the bugs today have been really bad. Every time we stopped for a drink or to stretch, we would soon be overwhelmed by mosquitoes and have to start peddling again. Thais made for much fewer pictures taken then normal. This was also due to the fact that there wasn't much to take pictures of. Where there have been mountains and waterfalls previously, there is now grass. This is shown below.

The view today.

We planned on making it to Brooks today, but that was almost 200km away, and we just didn't have it in us so when we got to Bassano, we decided to stop for the day. We knew there was a campsite just west of the city, but we found a hotel that cost almost the exact same as the camp ground we stayed in last night so we went for it, and checked in. We got some groceries and ate some dinner, did some laundry in the sink of the hotel room, and that's pretty much the extent of our day! Tomorrow is supposed to thunder storm so we may just try to make the 52km into Brooks and try to keep warm and dry, for the big day into Medicine Hat!

We'll keep you updated!!

C&P

Day 13 - Stoney Nakoda Resort to Just east of Calgary

Hey Everyone,

Today we got up fairly early and had all our stuff packed and ready to load on the bike by 7. We went to the continental breakfast then headed out. The ground was still a little wet from all of the rain and it was still overcast. It cleared up pretty quickly and was sunny before we knew it.

We are now pretty much out of the mountains and this was one of the last pictures we got of them. It was a bitter sweet goodbye - we're going to miss the scenery but certainly not the hills.Also, the clouds today were really neat - they were getting trapped by the hills and were really low.

One of our last mountain sightings.

With the mountains at our back we kept biking. We climbed Scott Lake Hill a later on and it is the highest point in elevation on the Trans Canada highway. This confused us a little bit since we assumed Rogers Pass or Kicking Horse Pass would be the highest point.

A little later on we were going down a hill and the steering became really wobbly and the whole bike was handling really strange. We stopped right away and sure enough the front tire was going flat. Our first flat! Luckily it was the front tire so it was real easy to pop it off. We though the metal burr below was the problem but it was just stuck in the tire and didn't puncture the tube. We found a small hole near the valve - if it was any closer we probably wouldn't have been to patch it.

Suspected flat culprit.

Bike propped up on our water jug.

We got it all patched up and made it to Calgary. We knew were getting close since we could see all of the sprawling suburbs. We decided to take the highway straight through Calgary since it was the fastest route. We somewhat regreted this decision since the traffic through the city was quite heavy which doesn't make for fun biking. It was the worst traffic we have biked in so far. We stopped at 7-11 for a bathroom break and a slurpee. Before we knew it we were thorough the city.

Just after we were through Calgary we noticed a really wierd wobble in the bike. We pulled over and inspected the bike - eventually we found the problem. The rear tire had a few 3 or 4 inch bulges in it right near the rim. They looked pretty bad so we decided to walk the bike to the nearest bike store which was about 9km away. After about thirty minutes of walking and getting eaten alive by mosquitos we decided to take our chances and ride the bike to the store. The tire held up and we bought two new tires and 2 sets of brake pads. We then walked across the street to Sobeys and picked up dinner.

Now that we had a spare tire we were much more confident riding the bike with the messed up tire. We made it to the campsite we were staying at for the night and ate a delicious dinner: salad, cabbage rolls, and sweet and sour pork...and a few bud light limes. After dinner we replaced the rear tire. We discovered that because of the rear fender we never noticed how much the rear tire had worn down. A guy who worked at the campground chatted us up quite a bit and even looked up some maps and the weather for us.

New tire, old tire, and front tire.

We did our tire repairs and changed the front set of brake pads. Thats about all that happened today.

-Chris and Patricia

Day 12 - Canmore to Stoney Nakoda Resort

Hello All,

We awoke this morning to coffee brewing and a delicious breakfast. Patrick and Camille certainly spoiled us. It was drizzling outside so we took our time getting ready. We said our goodbyes and headed out. At this point it was raining pretty good. It was raining our entire ride today so unfortunately we don't have any pictures. The rain made us really cold and there were no rest stops to go into to warm up. The best we could do was stop under highway overpasses to get warm.

It was becoming clear we weren't prepared for rain and cold at the same time. Our fingers and toes were the worst and we just couldn't get them warm. We did see a wolf eating a carcass on the side of the highway so that was pretty cool...again, no picture though. We eventually decided to stop at a hotel(the first one we saw). We unthawed with a warm shower and a soak in the hotel's hottub. We were due for a rest due in a day or two anyways so we didn't feel too bad about such a short day.

Now we have to decide whether we need to invest in better rain gear or if we just hope it warms up soon. Anyways, tomorrow we hope to at least get through Calgary -hopefully the weather clears up.

Hope everyone has a good long weekend and don't forget to give cyclists lots of room in your travels,

Chris & Patricia

Day 11 Field to Canmore, AB

Hello Again,

We had a fairly slow morning since the beds were so comfy in the hostel. I(Chris) let Patricia sleep in a bit while I got a bunch of stuff ready for the day. We then both split a box of fruit loops for breakfast. We ate those, drank tea, and watched the news - it was a fairly slow morning. While we were eating Craig, one of the hostel owners, came to talk to us for a bit. He gave us some good advice on different routes to take(other than the trans Canada). Eventually, we had the biked all packed up and ready to go.

Front of the hostel

Shot down one of the streets in Field

 The road out of field was flat for about 5km which was good for a warm up. The road follows the kicking horse river(it followed it all day yesterday too). The river still had almost a foot of ice on it which was pretty neat. Field is surrounded by mountains on just about all sides so the sun doesn't hit in the morning - it was a pretty cool ride out of town but nothing too bad and we warmed up quite quickly on the climb out of town. The sky was really clear all day today - we couldn't have asked for better weather.

River near Field

 Part way up the climb out of field is an attraction called the spiral tunnels. Originally the railway went up the kicking horse pass at the same grade as the trans Canada highway does now. This meant four engine cars were needed per 15 cars going up the hill. Also, trains frequently derailed because they got too much speed down the hill. The solution was to carve two big spirals in to the mountain - one of which you can see from a lookout point. The spirals are neat because the engine of the train passes over top of some of the last cars on the train. While we were here we met a bike tourist from Belguim who had started in Montreal and made it here. He said he had some really cold nights(-10)...brrr. We waited for about 20 minutes but no trains showed up so we eventually had to leave.

Model of the spiral trains

A Christopher in the tunnel!

The sign.

 Today's ride was beautiful and there were so many clear views of beautiful mountains. We could only take so many pictures of mountains though.

Made it to Alberta!

Another mountain

 The ride after the Alberta border was alot flatter and slightly downhill. We got rolling pretty good a few times.

 Eventually we made it to Canmore. Our first stop here was the information center and the second stop was Wendys for a spicy chicken and frosty. In Canmore we went to Patrick and Camille's house. We met them at the campground in Salmon Arm a few days ago and they invited us to set up our tent in the backyard. Well, when we arrived they offered much more then some space for our tent in their backyard. We had a delicious home cooked meal, hot showers and a comfy bed for the night! We couldn't have asked for more and we really appreciated all of the hospitality. We also woke up to coffee brewing and a delicious breakfast. 

Made it to Canmore

Picture of a mountain in Canmore

Thats all for today folks,

C&P