Day One

Finally!

On Tuesday we left Banff and headed to Canmore on the paved bike trail. The normal GDMBR route is on a dirt trail, but the bridges have been washed away by the earlier floods. Oh well, it was a great way to warm up the legs.

Once we turned off the bike trail we hit the first huge climb of the trip, behind the Three Sisters and up to Spray Lakes. From there, a long slog through lots of loose gravel where they were re-grading a long stretch of the road. Also a lot of cars and dust, with the occasional road damage from those recent floods.

We had some wildlife along the way today - bighorn sheep and deer mostly. Still no dang bears.

We camped in Boulton Creek campground, in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park (I lived in Alberta when he was Premier :-). A great little campground, even if the showers were about ten miles from the campsite, uphill both ways. Luckily the caretakers took a liking to us, and delivered us some firewood so we didn't have to slog it on our bikes.

The makeshift gear that we smuggled in from the US is working fine, even if I had to eat my yogurt with a fork. It seems that the Dutch have a custom of eating soup after a long ride... something new for me... but it does hit the spot after a long day in the saddle, and gets you through to mealtime.

I tried to sleep in my hammock. I was fine for a while but it got COLD that night (33 degrees). I had my 3 season bag, a liner, and a bivy sack. But when it got real cold, my bottom side (the side against the bottom of the hammock, not my butt) was freezing. I gave up around 3AM and crawled into the tent. Oh well - maybe on a future night I will add my ThermaRest to the mix and see if that insulates me.

Sleep will be n-o-o-o problem tonight!