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!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
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.
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.
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