Quick Summary and a (Potentially Empty) Promise
Okay, here’s the scoop: We left Grande Prairie on a hot sunny day, headed south on Route 40. It was a lovely road, if you enjoy long empty stretches of hot pavement, being passed by logging truck after logging truck, and slogging up five mile climb after five mile climb. If that sort of thing isn’t your gig, I’d recommend avoiding Route 40. We climbed a long hill into scenic Grand Cache, a lovely small town perched high among the mountains. Then we waited out a rain storm in a gas station before descending down into a valley and losing all the elevation we’d worked hard to gain. After three days we were done with Route 40 and ready to head west into Jasper National Park. Our bad luck with wind continued and we fought a nasty headwind for the first 30 miles. After a quick stop in town to buy food and eat some lunch we headed south. The wind had shifted ninety degrees and was again in our face. Great. There is a lovely hostel system in the park, but we refused to pay $24 each and so we biked down the road a ways and found a campsite to crash in. The next morning was rainy and cold and, after a miserable 6 miles, we huddled in an outhouse for an hour to wait out the storm. To our credit, it was a lovely outhouse: good cement floor, nice cedar walls, no graffiti. The rest of the day was quite pleasant and we cruised along the Icefields Parkway, crossing from Jasper into Banff National Park. Another day of rolling through beautiful mountains found us leaving the park and rolling into Lake Louise just before dinner. The day after that found us in the city of Banff and the city of Canmore and halfway to the city of Calgary. It’s wonderful, after 6 weeks of getting excited about every small gas station we rode past, to be passing through multiple cities every day.
If you ever find yourself between Banff and Calgary with an afternoon to kill, take a ride on Route 40 (a different Route 40) which rolls south through Peter Lougheed Park. It’s a lovely are and contains the highest paved pass in Canada. We learned this fact after climbing for miles and miles. Had we known beforehand we would have avoided the route and missed a gorgeous area. We’ve been told that it is Lance Armstrong’s favorite ride in North America, but he doesn’t ride it with a loaded touring bike, so we feel a but superior. One the other hand, neither of us have won the Tour de France, so he has that going for him.
After finishing the better Route 40, we rolled south, slept in the dugouts of a unmaintained baseball field, watched a parade, and headed for the border. We climbed over Chief Mountain and crossed back into the United States. It’s nice to be back home, even if we’re thousands of miles from home. A few miles down the hill we ducked into the woods and camped for the night. The next day we decided to take off, so we found a campground, set up tents, and sat in the hot tub for most of the afternoon.
Yesterday morning, we woke up early and climbed up to Logan Pass in Glacier National Park. Due to inane traffic rules, bicycles are not allowed to descend west on the Going-to-the-Sun road between 11 and 4. We met up with a great group of riders from Seattle and hiked down to Hidden Lake. It was odd to be active in a non-cycling capacity. Last night we camped with them and had a great time hanging around the campfire, our first fire of the trip.
Today we rode out of the park and headed to Whitefish to visit the bike shop and get some minor (and some major) work done to our cycles. In the next few days we’ll work our way down to Bozeman and then rest for a bit before heading into Yellowstone and Wyoming.
And now we reach the promise. As you’ve been reading this, I sure you’ve thought “I want to see pictures of Banff” or “Let’s see that Highwood Pass” or “What did that lake look like?” Sure we could have put pictures in, but that would have required us remembering to bring the camera to the coffee shop. We didn’t. Sorry. I promise, really, to post all sorts of pictures. Soon. Really. The part you need to know is that we’re alive, the bears haven’t won (though there was a close night-time encounter), and, on top of that, we’re back in the United States.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Great to hear how you’re doing since our brief meeting at the top of Highwood Pass. I’ve enjoyed catching up on your website. Hope you liked the coasting down the Longview side of the Pass. It was such a great day for riding. I’ll check back in to see your progress so keep on “trekking”.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Welcome back! We’re really enjoying reading about your ride, and glad things seem to be going well.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
So how many miles is it now? And what happened to the bear?
Don’t forget the pictures next time, do the bears of the lower 48 will get you!
August 19th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Great to meet you two! Best of luck on the rest of your journey and may ever stop bring you 4 square tournaments and campfire stories!
Seattle is rooting for you!
August 20th, 2008 at 4:49 am
Gentlemen: I just did a Google map review of your progress so far, including Tim’s solo adventure. If I got on a bike at City Hall in New York and rode to City Hall in San Francisco, I would have covered 62 miles less than you have (as of Whitefish, Montana). Very impressive. Welcome back to the States, guys, and keep going strong.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Hey Noah and Tim,
It was great to meet you guys and we had a lot of fun hiking and hanging out. Keep up the good work and if you end up in the Northwest drop a line! Take care of yourselves and each other!
Liz
August 20th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Jamie’s comment got me curious, so I tried to guesstimate your route in Google maps myself. It’s here (or http://tinyurl.com/59yem3). It puts the distance at just over 3000 mi, including Tim’s side trip. Congrats on that milestone, and on getting through one whole country. Best of luck!
August 21st, 2008 at 3:24 pm
dudes!
welcome back to the US. Sometimes while I’m at work rolling a slab or loading a kiln I think, “Damn, those guys are still on that crazy bike journey.”
Congrats to you for keeping at it.
Quinn and I saw Pete the other week at (if you can believe this) a craft fair in Manchester, VT. He told us Sam lost 15 lbs during his two weeks with y’all.
Anyhow, take care,
Cousin Rob
August 21st, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Rock on guys! One country down! if you decide to come through Boulder, there is a big comfy basement at my house where you are welcome to crash and it is really a nice town, super beautiful and somewhat on the way. my home number is 303 545 0208 and cell is still 505 980 1605.
BEST BEST BEST of luck to you 2!
k
August 24th, 2008 at 7:58 am
A late-night close encounter with a bear? Do tell….
August 25th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Tim and Noah (or Noah and Tim): Though one of your key sponsors, and infrequent but interested readers, this is my first post. I am very impressed in your progress, and by the sounds of it, you avoided catastrophic bike repairs.
I suppose you encountered lots of snow in the mountains of Canada and Glacier National Park. I’ve read that Glacier had the latest opening in many years due to a huge winter snow pack topped with late spring storms.
I won’t hold you to your promise of pictures, but if they come through they will be icing on your cake.
All sounds good thus far. Keep it up !!!.
The West Hill Crew.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:29 am
So, here we sit in beautiful Vermont surrounded by wildly unruly August gardens, breathing in the clean, crisp almost autumn air, waiting for the leaves to turn and the snows to fall, and wondering when, oh when, will we see the photos of Tim and Noah’s astounding adventure. Can it be that they have found a peaceful and relaxing hide-away and are not really cycling anymore? Surely there is an Internet Cafe (now that you are back in the good old USA) where you can bring your camera with all the wondrous photographic depictions of the sights we mere non-adventurous types can only imagine; buy yourselves a veggie burger and a mug of carrot juice, and DOWNLOAD THE PHOTOS!!!
Please?
August 28th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Hey Tim and Noah,
I was in Putney two weeks ago where I first heard about your trip and I just stumbled upon the link to your site… looks like you guys are doing awesome! Glad to see you still have that sense of humor, Tim. Good luck to you both!!
Katie R