Raining on the Columbia

6/28
Mountains
Ok, Since yesterday about noon, I've been surrounded by mountains.
Well, there was a brief respite coming from Waterton International
Peace Park to Calgary but its been mostly. I think mountains are
gorgeous, pretty, inspiring and confining. Yes, you heard me right.
Confining.
Waterton was gorgeous this morning again. I was up early but not the
first person and there were about 15 cars that left before I did. I
rode straight to Calgary and arrived there about noon.
At a Wendy's for lunch I met a couple (Darrell and Jane) from PA doing
a similar ride to mine. They're heading to AK (a different route) and
then taking a longer route home. When we left Calgary, we all went to
Banfffffffffffffffffff but were separated when we entered the park so
I wish them luck in their travels. Perhaps I'll see them again in
Homer, AK.
The day started sunny but it was clouding over as I approached the
Icefields Parkway. The first sign on the parkway was about no gas for
78 km so I had to turn around and fill up before getting on it. The
Columbia Glacier was about 158 km into the parkway and it started
raining almost as soon as I got on it. By the time I got to Columbia,
I'd seen tremendous scenery, literally tens of waterfalls (melting
glaciers) and at least three glaciers but now it was raining hard. I
recall a photo from Al Gore's Unfortunate Truth showing how the
glacier had shrunk. I could tell that from the historical photos
there had. I got back on the bike and headed toward Jasper. On the
way, I saw a bunch of cars stopped and that only means one thing;
ANIMALS!. It was a half-molted dall sheep coming down the road in the
other lane. It passed us all like we weren't even there.
I got out ahead of most of the cars and about another 15 km down the
road, I was the first to see a black bear on the side of the road. I
stopped, took photos and all stopped behind me. As I was entering
Jasper, there was another holdup for an elk on the side of the road.
Jasper itself is a very touristy town. I talked to a motorcyclist
there and he was staying in a private residence that was rented for
$75/night. He said he talked to another couple that had a motel room
for over $200/night. I decided my tent space wasn't quite as
expensive as previously thought.
Its also amazing that here in Canada, I've got more reliable cell
phone service than in the western US.

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Todd Ryan; Hudson, MA
Westborough HS Science Teacher
MSF RiderCoach