Back in the USA!

After leaving Vancouver Island, we drove south to Seattle, and stayed with friends over night. It was nice to be back on US soil, and now our money could go farther! The next morning we drove into the city and went to the famous “Pike’s Fish Market” we also got coffee at the original Starbucks. The city was crowded, and we were anxious to get to our next destination, Portland, Oregon.

We drove for about half of the day and made it into the city just in time to meet friends at the Oregon Brewer’s Festival. It was fun to be with friends and try out new brews. The next day we went into the city for the Saturday market, and went shopping. The market is full of local artists, food vendors, and craftsman, a fun way to see the city of Portland.

Our next stop was up the hill from downtown to the Rose Garden, from this high up you have a beautiful view of the city of Portland. On a clear day, you can also see Mount Hood beyond the city skyline. It looks like a satellite or moon hovering over the city. That night we treated our hosts to a Thai dinner at one of the best Thai restaurants in town, “Pok Pok”. The next morning we packed up and headed to Bend Oregon.

Bend is on the eastern slope of the Cascade Range and has a much drier climate than Portland. We stayed with friend’s of Andy’s here and got a taste of parenthood. Our hosts were great and helped us with planning out a mountain bike ride for the next day. We rode from their house west of town and got on Phil and Steve’s loops and rode smooth dry single track for almost 3 hours. There was a downhill section with gap jumps, burmed turns and rollers that broke up the rest of the ride which was completely smooth save for a couple of tree roots. We agreed that it was a fun ride, and it was nice to be able to ride for that long without getting beaten up by bumps and rocks.

The next morning we picked up breakfast at a local bakery and hit the road. Our plan was to make it as far as possible east, towards Boulder. We were anxious to finally get back home.

Surfing in Tofino BC

We left Whistler and drove south west to the town of Nanimo where we boarded the ferry with our car and dog to Vancouver Island. It was a beautiful view of the skyline of the city of Vancouver as we left. There was an upper deck with seats for passengers that we checked out eventually. The trip was about an hour and a half. We landed in departure bay and took highway 4 west to the coast. We arrived at our campsite which was located in the Pacific Rim National Park. We set up camp and walked a short distance through the woods to the beach. It was a little chilly, but the beach was beautiful. We checked the water and then decided to go into the town of Tofino to get some dinner. The restaurant "Shelter" was outstanding and we loved the food so much that we wanted to go back the next night again.

The next morning at 10am we had booked a 2 hour surf lesson with a company called surf sisters. We met at the shop, and then drove to the beach. The lesson includes a surfboard rental plus wet suit. We learned about balance, foot and hand positions and how to "pop up". The boards we would be riding on were called soft tops, they are soft on top and float well. Also they are of the long board type and are much easier to learn on. After about an hour of practicing, we hit the water.

It was ice cold and took my breath away. It took a good 10 minutes of swimming around and getting dunked by waves before you got used to it. The instructors helped to stabilize us on the board then gave us a tug toward the shore for some momentum in order to "pop up" on the board. It was very helpful! Before we knew it we were out farther and in the larger surf. Andy was up on about every other wave. I could pop up but fell off right away. Towards the end of the session I was able to stand for most of the ride in. It was awesome. We agreed that it wasn't that cold once you were moving around.

We later found out that these Canadian surfers ride in the winter, they told us that that is when the waves are the best! We went back to the shop to warm up with some espresso and thanked our instructors. We would definitely recommend this company, "Surf Sisters" to anyone who is interested in learning how to surf!

Mountain Biking in Whistler

Mountain Biking in Whistler Day 1

So, we stopped along our traverse of British Columbia in a small mountain town called Revelstoke hoping to find an outdoor enthusiast community like Boulder, but were not impressed. The town was dead, and we figured it was more of a ski or winter time recreational area. Or maybe the biking was up closer to the ski area. So we decided to continue on eager to get to Whistler for the legendary mountain biking.
We picked up a map from a local mountain bike guide shop and drove out to the trailhead. The ride was called “A River Runs Through It” on the map it was marked black diamond with double black diamond sections throughout. Of course Andy chose probably the most difficult trail on the map. It turns out that a black diamond marking in Canada (Whistler) is quite a bit more challenging than a black diamond marking in Colorado. We also started out riding the trail in the wrong direction. So as you can imagine, when we hit the double black diamond section which had many features including bridges and planks only 12inches wide and 6 plus feet off the ground…I was freaked. With this being our first official encounter with such features, we needed a little practice.
In the end, Andy figured out the right direction to ride the trail, and kept practicing, I rode back to the car and took Payton for a trail run, equip with my camera. I got some great action shots of Andy riding the bridges.

Mountain Biking in Whistler Day 2
Shortly after our intense zip line tour, we got changed into our biking gear, and headed out on some trails near the base of the ski mountain. This time we had a more detailed map, and did some research before riding. We asked around at a couple of the local bike shops and got the unanimous, “Ride the trails at the base of the mountain” report, and decided to check it out. I was planning on only checking out the blue or intermediate trails today and was still met with some challenging features. Andy was now an expert, but waited for me and encouraged me to try some of the smaller bridges that weren’t as high off the ground. After some time practicing I began to feel comfortable. We rode through a spaghetti plate of intersecting single track, which included, burmed turns, rollers, bridges, and planks. There were a number of challenging uphills and downhills. We rode for a couple of hours and then took some time practicing some of the features that they had in a mini practice park. All in all today was a much better ride than yesterday for me.

Ziplining Whistler BC

So, we stopped along our traverse of British Columbia in a small mountain town called Revelstoke, but decided to continue on eager to get to Whistler for the legendary mountain biking. I had called a couple of days earlier to book a rain forest zip line tour for Monday. This was something that my Uncle Richard & Aunt Bridget had done on their trip to Whistler and it sounded awesome. We booked the extreme tour which lasted over three hours.

We arrived at the Whistler adventure center early to fill out a waiver. We then met our guide. He was originally from Germany and working in Canada on a visa. We walked a short distance to the area where you hop into your harness. Here, we met our other guide who was originally from New Zealand. The helped us into our harnesses and then we all loaded into a van which took us up to the top of the mountain. We got a safety talk along the way and learned about the coastal temperate rain forest which we would be flying through shortly.

The first line looked sick! One of the guides went first to the end of the line and prepared the breaking ropes for us. We all climbed on to a platform that had a small gate with a stair case below it. The stairs were about 6 steps long and then beyond the 6th stair there was a 50 or so foot drop through the trees to the ground. So, one by one we strapped our zip devices onto the line, the guide checks to make sure you are secure before you launch. When it was my turn, I was most concerned about how fast I would end up going. Andy filmed my first launch. I had my camera strapped on and had planned to take photos while zipping. I carefully walked down about 3 steps and could not reach the 4th before I knew it I was going...and picking up speed, I spun around and was then zipping backwards, probably going around 35 or 40 miles per hour. I got it together and was able to take some one handed photos before I reached the next tree top platform.

The breaking motion was unexpected and sort of gave me a jolt, I slowed down and arrived softly at the next platform. The breaking guide unhooked me and I climbed over the platform to get a couple good shots of Andy as he zipped into the landing. We agreed that this was better than we had both expected. As we zipped along the tree tops, the guides explained about the rainforest and how it is different from the rainforest in the amazon. They educated us on conservation of the land, and pointed out the different types of trees around us. The told us about the lichen that grows on the tree branches.

The second and third lines we dropped were over a roaring river. The fifth line was the big 2,000 vertical foot drop. We hit speeds of over 50 miles per hour on this line. It was the longest, longer than all of the others combined. The last line we walked down the stairs backward, and then did a head first back dive off the step. At first I didn't want to, and I was the Na person to go this time. I got it together and jumped head first and started to zip upside down feet in the air head down. I eventually went upright and enjoyed the view of the last zip line.

The cost was over $100 per person, but I think it was well worth it. I highly recommend this activity to anyone who visits the area.

Tomorrow morning we leave for the coast. We plan to drive onto a ferry that will take us from Vancouver out to Vancouver Island. From there we will drive north west to a small surfing & beach community called Tofino. We will be camping for two nights in long beach in the Pacific Rim National Park. We will post after this leg of the trip!

Banff, Lake Louise & The Columbia Icefield

We finally made it to Banff!
We checked in for 2 nights at the Tunnel Mountain Campground. Again, we were in grizzly country. Our first afternoon we went for a mountain bike ride on some fun trails that wound down to the town main street. We checked with the local information hosts and got a trail map for some of the best rides around. The favorite was the Lake Minnewanka trail just outside of town.

We started the ride around 12pm because we were told to only be on the trail during the middle of the day in order to lessen the chance of running into a grizzly bear. We rode equip with bear spray and bear bells attached to our camelbacks.

The ride was a rolling out and back that followed the shoreline of the lake. It was a beautiful view of the lake which reminded us of the blue waters of Lake Tahoe. For the first 20 - 30 minutes of the ride we saw only two people. We even started to get nervous that maybe we had gone out the farthest on the trail for the day, and would certainly startle a bear. Eventually we ran in to a number of hiking groups, so we became more comfortable with the trail.

Just before we had planned to turn back on the trail, we came across an intersection to another trail that ran up the mountainside away from the lake. There was a large sign posted with the symbol of a bike with a line running through it. This trail had been closed for the time to cyclists due to grizzly bear activity. We wish we had brought a camera so that we could have snapped a photo of what this sign looked like. It was a drawing of a large grizzly bear face with blood coming out of its mouth...needless to say this was enough for us to decide to turn back shortly after seeing the sign.

All in all it was one of My (Becca) favorite rides so far.

Lake Louise

We packed up and left Tunnel Mountain early. Stopped in Banff for a coffee, and hit the road heading up about 45 minutes to Lake Louise. This is the home of one of Alberta's best ski hills. Although the snow had melted from the trails for the season, the sight of the lake was spectacular. Across from the ski mountain sits Lake Louise, just beyond the lake you get a glimpse of the Victoria Glacier. In my opinion, this was the first actual "Glacier" that we saw. It was obviously ice covered with snow and appeared to be 300 or more feet thick. With the lake as smooth as glass that early in the morning the photo taking was spectacular.

We didn't stay too long and on our way out of town we stopped up for some more photo taking at Morraine Lake which sits up above Lake Louise at about 6,000 feet. This morning was a chilly one and overcast. The clouds sat very low and you could tell that at the top of the mountain there was a sprinkling of fresh snow. We left morraine lake about mid day and headed north along the icefields parkway toward the columbia ice field.

The Athabasca Glacier
We arrived at the Columbia Icefields Campground just after 3pm and set up camp. The temperature was the coldest we had experienced yet. Next, we headed over to the visitor center to inquire about booking a hiking tour out on the glacier for the next morning. All of the guided trips had been booked, so we decided to go check it out on our own. We layered up with pants and jackets and took the trail up to the "toe" of the glacier. At this part there is a large river gushing out from underneath the ice. You can see crevasses running up the toe. There are signs posted everywhere warning you not to walk on the ice and that it is very possible to fall into one of the crevasses.

So...of course, we had to check it out. Andy and Payton went first, and next I tryed it out. It was surprisingly not slippery. It was pretty easy to walk on. We traveled up the toe approximately 100 yards took some photographs, then walked back down. We felt like we were on a different planet. Nothing was growing in the area, and all of the rocks looked very strange. They were very smooth and had scratch marks all over them in the direction of which the glacier had moved years before they were revealed. It was windy and freezing at this point with the cold air from the glacier sinking down past us into the valley. We took off back to the campsite and cooked cheese burgers for dinner!

Next stop Revelstoke?

Border Patrol

We left Glacier National Park out of the North East exit through the town called St. Mary. After traveling about 45minutes north of St. Mary, we reached the border of the US and Canada. We were stopped at customs by a female guard. I was surprised to see her standing there all alone. She asked us a number of questions including, “ What is your purpose of travel, are you carrying any bear or pepper sprays, how long do you plan on visiting, and are you planning on selling anything in Canada?” The main concern I had had was whether or not our dog Payton would be allowed in the country. We had taken care of getting all of his shots and paperwork up to date before departing. She did not even ask to see a single document! After observing our passports and requesting that we remove our sunglasses, she said, “ Enjoy your trip”.


We stayed the night in Waterton National Park, which is on the Canadian side of the Glacier National Peace Park. We had hoped that our US annual parks pass might work here, but discovered that it did not. Park entry was $7.50 CA dollars per person. This was not bad considering the US parks we had traveled to were each a $25 entry fee if you did not have the Annual Parks Pass. The site was along Waterton Lake with a beautiful view of a street corner on one side with the lake on the other. We were camping in the town site, and it felt like we were camping across the street from someone’s house. The main difference here was that there was actually a town, with local residents inside of the park. In the US, you would have had to have owned the property before it became a National Park, in order to “live” in the park.


After setting up camp, around 7pm Andy went for a short mountain bike ride while I took a SHOWER! It is a good thing that he attached a bear bell to his mountain bike (they suggest doing so anywhere in bear country, as stated in all guide books and publications we have read) because on the descent, he ran into two bears! One was a very large black bear that may have been with its cub a smaller cinnamon colored bear. The bears were 10 yards off the trail. He stopped for a minute, noticed that the road was just ahead, and he decided to go for it. The scary thing is that this part of the trail was only about a quarter mile away from where we would be camping that night.


With the town site so close, we couldn’t resist walking just about 2 blocks away to get a sample of the local ice cream. This was our first encounter with needing Canadian currency to make a purchase. Luckily there was an ATM a couple of shops away, and I was able to use my debit card to withdraw $20. There was of course one of those $2 surcharges, so the withdrawal totaled $22. (I checked my bank statement later and noticed that only $19.80 had been withdrawn American.) It was enough to cover two cones with some extra for coffee in the AM. Never the less, we recorded some outstanding sunset shots of the Rocky Mountains with Waterton Lake in the foreground. After sunset, as I was headed to the bathhouse to brush my teeth, the moon rose above the lake and mountains casting a beautiful reflection on the water. I set up my camera and tripod and bracketed about 10 shots of the scene. The best is posted on the online flickr slideshow!


We checked online and the Canadian dollar is just about equal to one US dollar. This is pretty bad. If you look at the cost of say a magazine or book on the cover it usually shows the price in US dollars and also CAN dollars…as you can see, we are getting ripped off here. Also, gas is sold by the liter, about one third of a gallon, so the price per liter appears to be a good deal at about a dollar fifty. Multiply that by three and there is your approximate price per gallon for gas.


We left Waterton around 10am, and decided to continue on heading north skirting the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Most of the drive was on highway 22 heading north west toward the city of Calgary. This part of Alberta was breathtaking. We drove through open plains, and rolling hills. The land is dotted with pine trees and groves of birch trees. The land is a deep green. I noticed that the local farmers do not appear to have the immense irrigation systems like they do in Colorado. It seems as if they must get enough rainfall to water the land. I also noticed that in this area, wind energy is a reality. We drove through a couple of large “wind farms” with wind turbines situated along the ridge line just below the foothill range. We passed the Lundbreck, Castle River Wind Farm, Sinnott Wind Farm, Weather Dancer 1 wind farm along this route. We arrived in a town just east of the Brittish Columbia border called Canmore. It is a small mountain town but just miuntes from Banff national park. We are headed to Banff today and will be camping for the next 3 days. We'll check back then!

Going to the Sun Road 7.14.08

Ever since I began biking, it has been a dream of mine to ride the Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park. I am not sure why. Maybe because this place is so far away from everywhere, or maybe it was just the name that caught my eye, but whatever it was I was about to find out.

Becca and I got up really early to do this ride. Bikes are not allowed on the road after 11 am, so we woke up at 6am and broke camp. We headed into Apgar Village for some mediocre coffee and then drove to the Avalanche picnic area which would be our starting point. On the way to Avalanche, we saw a huge male moose with giant antlers. I have never seen one of these before. Pretty cool!

The ride began around 8am. It was cool and shady as we began pedaling up the road. We had 16 miles and 3300 feet of climbing ahead of us to the top of Logan Pass.The beginning of the ride is relatively flat as it follows the McDonald River. The crystal blue water is amazing to look at as it flows over the rocks in the river to our right. It is hard not to stare at it, but we need to keep our eyes on the road. This “flat” part of the ride goes on for about 4 miles before the road starts to go up. When I say up, I do mean up!

This road was built in 1933 as part of a CCC project. I do not think they had today’s cars in mind when they built it. The road is narrow and is built on a shelf with really no guard rails at all. This road makes Trail Ridge road in Rocky Mountain National Park look like an interstate highway. After a huge switchback, the road hugs a huge cliff wall all the way to the summit.

As we rounded the first switchback, the auto traffic was held up due to some road construction. They allowed us to pedal on so we had the whole road to ourselves for the next 45 minutes. It was awesome. We both felt like we were in the Tour de France: narrow roads, big sweeping views of the valley ahead, and glaciers on the peaks above. Because of the road temporary closure, we had the road all to ourselves. We road through tunnels, over bridges, and past countless waterfalls. It was amazing. Now I know why it was a dream to ride this road. It really felt like a dream the whole time we were riding. As we reached the top of the pass, we were greeted by some mountain goats with a little baby. The baby might have been the cutest animal I have ever seen. This was a great way to end the hard part of the ride.

We filled up our bottles at the visitor’s center and headed back down. The long ride back to the bottom was great… until the construction traffic finally stopped us. About ½ way down we had to wait for 30 minutes for construction. The wait was not so bad because it was warm and beautiful views. After the wait we cruised down the same road we came up on. The descent seemed longer than I remembered going up, but we finally made it back to the car.

After a quick change into our swimsuits, we cruised up the road a bit and went to the coolest swimming hole I have ever seen. On the McDonald River, blue water pours over red rocks and it makes an awesome jumping off point for a quick swim. We both jumped of the rocks into the frigid blue water. We did this a few times and had so much fun even though the water was cold. This is a great way to feel refreshed after a ride. All in all this might have been the best road ride I have ever been on.