Canada - BC and Alberta

Friday 7th August
Stewart to Prince George

This was a long day we had to simply ride, there was little time to stop and admire the scenery. I did notice the increase in traffic as we moved out of the wilderness areas into more populated areas. The woodland became occasionally dotted with small farms/ranches and horses appeared in fenced areas.

Miles
Today : 436
Total : 3279
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Saturday 8th August
Prince George to Jasper
This day we moved out of BC and into Albert also changing time zones, losing an hour, GMT -7.00 . This was a great ride moving out of the busy areas arround Prince Goerge into the Canadian rockies, each turn of the road brought more spectacular scenery. This included Mount Robson towering over the road, white tops apeared on the moutain as he weather got a little cooler. Moving into Jasper National Park we arrived in Jasper, a small but popular tourist town that feel strange when you have been in less well visited areas for a while.


Miles
Today : 259
Total : 3538
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Sunday 9th August
Jasper (Day Off)
A chance to catch up with washing clothes and bike maintenance, also to try and fix both the Still camera and the Video Camera. I managed to get the Video Camera working, and an adapter for the "Mini" SD card so I can now read the video files direct to my computer. I took the stills camera to a local Panasonic deals, they checked the computer and could not find the fault listed and told me to send it back to Panasonic. I will have to do that tomorrow as it's Sunday and the post office is closed. One of the other participants have loaned me a spare camera to keep me going till Tucson.

Miles
Today : 0
Total : 3538
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Monday 10th August
Jasper to Radium Hot Springs
This started off with me going to the post office to send the Camera back to the UK. After this I started on the road, briefly stopping to do some bouldering in an area suggested by the local climbing shop. This was excellent as the two very large boulders were surrounded by sand, meaning I didn't need a mat. I moved on after lunch to the Athabascar region, glaciers and such, when I had a problem, I had stopped in a lay-by to put a warm layer on, later down the road I realised I had not got my back pack on. Knowing where I had left it I turned around to ride back for it, I hadn't realised how far it was and when I got there the backpack had gone, probably picked up by some well meaning traveller. I turned around started the ride to radium Springs, this had all cost more than an hour and a half (50 miles each way) and i was now very late. Pressing on past lake Louise just stopping for fuel, it started to go dark, I had to use all my extra lights as deer are known to cause accidents frequently here. I had to dodge a few but made it to the Hot Springs late about 10.30, quick shower, coffee and bed putting an end to a bad day, I had lost some important stuff in the bag.


Miles
Today : 344
Total : 3882
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Tuesday 11 th August
Radium Hot Springs to Waterton
This ride moved us away from the big mountains into flat plains with mountains on the horizon, we stopped for lunch by the claimed Worlds largest Truck. It was huge one of those trucks used for open cast mining. Pressing on towards the end of the ride was a 30 mile side run to Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump. This is where the ancient native Indians would run herds of Buffalo off the cliff to use as food and materials. The museum was interesting in itself as it is partially buried in the cliff minimising the impact of the building. the whole area is a flat plain except these 20 meter high cliffs with a shallow dip at the top creating the perfect conditions for Buffalo jumps. At the end of the ride was Waterton, just inside a national park we had to pay to get in !



Miles
Today : 334
Total : 4216