Alberta

I set off earlier than had been my recent habit, and it was quite cold until the sun rose above the mountains. I cycled alongside Moose Lake, continuing east on the Yellowhead highway toward the Albertan border.

Around mid morning I made it to the border. Alberta is described as “Wild Rose Country,” a rather understated message compared to BC’s “Best place on Earth.”

Shortly afterwards I entered Jasper National Park and had to pay the park’s entrance fee. A couple hours later brought me to the town of Jasper where I stopped briefly for food and water. Then I headed off onto the Icefields Parkway.

The road climbed gradually for most of the afternoon, following the course of a river. There was a light haze which meant the more distant mountain landscapes turned into blurry silhouettes.

Once the haze cleared up the scenery was impressive and I stopped frequently for photos.

The climb was gradual up to about 1600m and then it got steep. Over the course of 4km I climbed 300m, before the gradient eased off as I rode alongside the river once more. I was now within sight of the Columbia Icefields.

A couple kilometres later I stopped at a campsite. The campsites were paid via self-registration but accepted credit card, which meant writing my card details down and leaving it in an envelope by the camp entrance. The campsite had bearproof storage containers which I used for the first time, leaving my food in there overnight.

In the morning I had a long descent down to a river and immediately after that a climb back up the other side to Bow Pass, the last pass on the Icefields Parkway.

The other side of the pass was much less of a descent than I expected. After a brief drop down to Bow Lake, the road undulated somewhat before eventually descending down into the village of Lake Louise.

I stopped at a gas station in Lake Louise to eat a lot of chocolate and crisps replenish my energy and electrolytes. Past Lake Louise I was no longer in the national park; instead I rode on the Trans-Canada-Highway. It was much less scenic but very flat and had a good shoulder.

The highway was very well fenced, with bridges over the road for animals to cross. It looked like finding somewhere to wild camp was going to be difficult.

Past Banff there was a bicycle path, which I joined. A few kilometres before Canmore it deviated slightly from the highway, and went through a forest. It was unfenced so I made my way off the path and set up camp.

My front tyre was flat again in the morning – again, from the hole I’d picked up on the Dalton. I carried the bike back to the path before fixing it. I was sitting, hunched over, with my black down jacket on. Twice I was mistaken for a bear, with approaching cyclists yelling out to make me aware of their presence, before sheepishly realising I was, in fact, human.

Once I’d fixed the puncture I rode into Canmore, stopped at a supermarket, then headed out towards Calgary on a secondary road that runs parallel to the main highway. There was a mine so there were quite a few trucks for a few kilometres, but then the road was much quieter for a while.

40 or so kilometres away from Calgary I got another puncture and stopped to repair that. Five minutes later came the hiss of air from another puncture. Clearly the tyre was on its last legs! I cut up an old inner tube and put that in between the compromised tyre and the inner tube; it held for the rest of the way into the city.

My aunt, uncle and cousins live in Calgary and I went to stay with them. Since they live so far away I rarely get to see them but when we did visit, we stayed for a long time. When I was ten I went to school in Calgary for three months.

I originally intended to stay for just a few days but, well, that didn’t happen! I really enjoyed spending time with my family and honestly wasn’t feeling all that excited about resuming cycling. In the end I stayed for almost a month.

My uncle’s father is a keen reader of my blog. He’s a member of a group of hikers and cyclists, many of whom he’d also sent my blog to. We had a few of them over while I was there and I spent a couple of hours talking about my trip and answering questions.

Eventually I managed to convince myself to get back to riding. I said goodbye to everyone and set off cycling through Calgary. I was able to follow bike paths the whole way through the city which made for much more pleasant cycling than staying on the roads would have been. At the far side of the city I stopped at a supermarket. When I went to load the food onto the bike I found that my aunt, uncle and cousins had snuck some chocolate into my frame bag, and had all written messages on it. It was very sweet.

From there I followed some quiet rural roads away from the city. When I went to make a turn, I saw signs saying that the road ahead was closed. The alternative would have been about 25 kilometres, rather than 8. I decided to take the short route regardless, on the basis that usually bikes can make it through closures. There was a ford where the water level was a bit higher than usual, and I thought that might have been the cause of the closure. Once I was through that I saw a vehicle coming the other way, and I asked the driver if the road ahead was clear. He confirmed it was.

The land around me was mostly farmland, fenced off from the road. I stopped at a campsite, but the office was closed. I rode in and asked someone if they knew how to contact the owners. As it happened she worked there, and unlocked the office and checked me in. The price quoted online was $15, but I was used to these being a bit out of date and prices having risen. I was pleasantly surprised, then, to be charged just $10 (£6)!

The following morning the cycling took the form of rolling hills through farmland. As I descended one of the hills, I went to shift to my biggest chainring but nothing happened. I stopped and soon discovered that the cable housing had split. I was a couple of days away from the next bike shop so I fixed the chain in the middle chainring and continued on.

For the rest of the day I continued cycling, and the landscape transitioned to generally flat grassland, with the Rocky mountains visible in the distance.

I passed through the town of Pincher Creek and stopped at Walmart to pick up some food, then went to 7-11 for a Slurpee, a frozen drink I’d hugely enjoyed since staying in Canada as a kid. Past the town the hills returned, and the road continued to be enclosed by fences.

Just past sunset I crossed into a national park and the fences ended abruptly. Very shortly afterwards I made my way away from the road and set up camp. I was about 30km away from the US border, which I planned to cross the next morning.

July 31: 185 km

Aug 1: 200 km

Aug 2: 106 km

Sept 1: 181 km