September 11, 2007
To Kananskis Lake: One year on the road
It's another cold morning, but blue sky promises a good day.
We take a hot shower, pack up and talk some with our neighbors. When they came in last night, a father and his daughter, camping in a tent they did not say too much. This morning the guy explains how he rode his bike from Edmonton to Cancun and had to give up his ride to South America because of an onset of MS (multiple sclerosis). He has to walk with a cane now and cannot ride bikes anymore. It's obviously an emotional thing for him to meet other cyclists.
We are on the road exactly one year today, makes us realize how lucky we are.
We ride across the road have breakfast in a "family restaurant". The waitress has piercings and shows off her bare belly. Seems like it is very hard in this town to fill low paying jobs. Just too expensive to live here, another Sun Valley. We ride our way through downtown and start up the grade to Kananaskin country. Soon the road turns to gravel and climbs steeply to the first of a series of reservoirs in the mountains. The road is very dusty, but just about all passing cars are very nice and slow way down. It takes us awhile to get up to the first dam, then the road flattens out. A few small downhills and rises, brings us to Spray Lakes.
Then we start climbing again to a summit.
We see three moose, a black bear and a coyote today. The weather is fantastic, but we are warned a storm is blowing in tonight and the forecast for Calgary tomorrow is 9C and rain. We'll see about that we think.
We have to stop to filter water and fill our bottles then a nice downhill to Kananaskis Lake, right at the junction with the paved road leading from Highway 40 into this recreation area is an overflow camping area. There are tables, toilets and even drinking water. All for free if we don't get discovered...
We set up the tent, uncork a bottle of wine to celebrate one year anniversary on the road. Rachel cooks the pork chops, mashed potatoes and green beans, Patrick does the dishes. Clouds have started to drift in this afternoon, but more look very threatening when we go to bed.
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Today's ride: 67 km (42 miles)
Total: 14,362 km (8,919 miles)
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