I Thought I Was in Great Shape!

I was wrong.

Both myself and Isobel had 5000km+ In our legs, but the first few days on the divide showed us we had a long way to go.

After running errands in Banff we left town at 4:30pm. The great weather all day ended as well, but the worst was still to come. I was expecting the trail right out of town to be easy going, but short sharp undulations only a few metres vertical but at high percentage made for extremely tough riding, not to mention the rough surface.

Very early in the ride we met a northbound cyclist. Turned out to be a fortuitous meeting as he reassured us that the coming days were going to be some of the toughest of the entire route.

26km after leaving we called it a day, and not too soon either. We picked a spot in dense trees at the bottom of a dam, which turned out to be a great choice. A storm rolled through and whilst we could here the wind we were completely sheltered.

Todays riding was easy, in comparison anyway. A car less trail along the lake was a great start to the day, the easy riding ended once we got onto an old forestry road which included a nice steep, muddy climb. Walking a few sections was a smart thing to do.

The views of Peter Lougheed Provincial Park made it all worth it. After an early dinner I had my first Grizzly sighting, before camping 2km down the road.

Before a big climb its worth having a warmup, having camped at the Elk Pass trailhead our warmup was a double digit grade. Halfway up I was spent and walked the rest. We'd known about that climb. The maps had neglected to mention the steep descent and equally steep climb back up the other side of a creek. That included much more walking.

Rough roads turned very nice, allowing us open it up on the descents, although a couple of loose sections had me snaking.

Later in the day we met another northbounder. More info of the coming trail was great, I wish there were more of them.

With a message from a warmshowers host in Elkford we pushed on into town. Turns out we were her first guests. Alison had raced northbound previously.

Having only met Alison briefly the night before, the morning turned to afternoon before we finally got rolling.

The first of several detours off route started in Sparwood, after Isobel dragged me to see the big truck :p.

We had our first meeting of one of the 2 B's, either Brad or Bruce. They were doing the divide by the book, generally short days, dragging bob trailers. The one we talked to had 35lbs of dehydrated food his wife had prepared!

Wanting to see Glacier national park, and disliking backtracking we headed over Crowsnest pass. The pass was just sooo difficult that we decided to camp just before the top.

The morning had an amazing start. Stumbling out of the woods to a rest area we met some travelers. The conversation went like this: "Hi, did you camp in there? do you want breakfast?". Being cyclists we of course said yes, and it was amazing! That was only the first of an amazing streak of hospitality.

This detour brought Isobel onto her planned route. Thankfully I had already turned her into a mountain goat and the prairies held no interest. 

A cruisy lunch in Pincher Creek allowed the weather to catch up. It was fine to begin with. The rain started. Torrential rain had us scrambling to the shelter of a outdoor dining area at a closed cafe.

One couple checked on us twice, and whilst cooking the owner came by and said we could just camp there. The rain eased, but never stopped so we were very thankful and didn't think twice.

Awaking to a dry, albeit gray day we started climbing. Skirting Waterton national park we got to see the contrast between the prairies and the mountains. Mountains win. 

Today was my last day in Canada. The climb up to the border crossing included some of the best road surface I'd been on. After another painless border crossing I was in Montana! The US pavement was shocking, in comparison anyway.

I fell asleep at lunch, Isobel then had an amusing fall after riding through a cow patty. The sleep hadn't done me any good either as I felt terrible until much later. 

All day we'd been hearing about a storm that was coming, but it seemed like the mountains were holding it back nicely. Just before the entry to the park we met some cross America cyclists, they suggested doing the ride at sunrise.

As we entered the park it started to rain, but only enough to make the views amazing. In Rising Sun we met a Northern Tier cyclist traveling with Sag support.

Whilst cooking dinner we got chatting to 2 couples staying at the lodge. As we were finishing we looked over and saw black clouds approaching. 

The 2nd act of timely hospitality occered when the couples decided to squish into one room and offered us the 2nd one. We couldn't believe it, but with the wind blowing things away we were inside very quick. A warm shower and a comfy bed was amazing!

Having everything pre packed also made it easy to be up early, so we set an alarm for 5. The real bed made it hard, but we got up and where on the road at 6am, before sunrise. 

The sun on the mountain faces was definitely worth the early start, not to mention the lack of cars. The climb up the pass was extremely slow, as we kept stopping for photos. 

Up the top a cloud had just come over the top, reducing visibility to almost nothing. Half an hour later cleared. We met another cyclists Dave from Melbourne. 

The descent was great fun, when there weren't cars blocking the way. I'm sure others stop on the descent, but the sensation of cruising down the narrow road, passing cars when able to was more than enough. 

There is a cyclists curfew on some sections of the roaf, so we waited till we were off before stopping for lunch. After lunch we were just cruising along when a park ranger pulled us over. He was adamant that we were not supposed to be riding this section and said he knew the rules. After radioing through our details for a warning he was presumably told that we were already passed the section. No apology, but he did get very awkward.

We'd organised a warmshowers host in Whitefish, but that had fallen through the night before. We tried organising another place, but no good so we paid for camping for the first time since Meziadin Junction.

One rest day turned to two when we awoke to 12 hours of rain. During this time we met plenty of other cyclists, including Jerry and Alan who we'd keep running into over the next week.