July 27, 2008
Day 76: Cut Bank, MT to Cardston, Alberta, Canada
76.47 Miles, 6:55:22 Ride Time, 11.04 Average Speed, 27.89 Maximum Speed
Yesterday evening at dusk, a Canadian couple on a motorcycle checked into the campground (this was what had prompted the campground owner to tell us to pick out spots for our tents - the couple wanted to tent-camp too). It was somehow appropriate that the Canadians showed up, since today I would be leaving Montana briefly for a day or so jaunt into Canada. This would be my first trip outside the USA; I hoped I could adjust to the unusual food, customs, and language of the exotic foreign land.
Jordan and I quickly got our tents and everything else packed up, and rode out of the bleak campground into downtown Cut Bank, which was practically deserted so early on Sunday. The sky was beautiful this morning - pinkish, with a few oddly dense-looking clouds that didn't seem to block the sun. So nice that it made up for the slight headwind.
Several miles out of Cut Bank, we entered the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, where we saw very few signs of human habitation for the next few hours - just the occasional ranch, with its house and barn far from the road. I had heard from several people that I would first see the Rockies in Cut Bank (a few had even said they could be seen from Shelby), but it wasn't until the Reservation that I got a real look at them. All day they would be an increasingly less distant presence as I seemed to inch toward them.
After about forty miles we reached the Canadian border, where the bureaucratic process went smoothly; I was on my best behavior with the strictly-by-the-book Canadian official, while Jordan couldn't resist cracking a joke when the guy asked if he was carrying more than $10,000 in cash. He also didn't mention the cheese knife he was carrying. (And, I just remembered - I didn't mention the pepper spray I was carrying). In any case, we must haved seemed too unthreatening for the guy to bother searching us.
The first difference I noticed in Canada was that the distances on the road signs were expressed in kilometers, a unit of measurement in the "Metric System", which they tried to make us learn when I was in elementary school back in the 1970's. This instruction never took, and today the only unit of measurement in this "Metric System" that I am familiar with is the liter - because that's my favorite size of Diet Pepsi.
It continued to be nice riding the rest of the day - the fields in Canada seemed greener than Montana somehow, and it was exciting seeing the mountains getting closer.
We ended the day in Cardston (pop. 3,745), where I first stopped at a store which stocked an extremely unfamiliar selection of candy bars. I bought several different brands, but thoughtlessly ate them all before I remembered to photograph them for this journal. For what it's worth, they were as good as American candy bars.
After dinner at Dairy Queen, where the only things different were the higher prices and the presence of "Poutine" on the menu, I made a few calls to motels in town, was shocked at the prices, and decided to camp in the Lee Creek Campground. I split a campsite with Jordan, thus halving the $20 tent camping fee.
There were four cyclists already camping in the park - Rick, Christine, Bob and Julie. The group was splitting up tomorrow, with Rick and Bob riding to Calgary, and Christine and Julie heading east on the Northern Tier. Jordan and I gave the two women our hard-won advice about Eastern Montana, and I resisted the urge to suggest that they avoid much heartache by just taking a train to North Dakota.
Later, near dusk, I walked downtown in search of an evening snack. Shockingly, the convenience store stocked no Little Debbie products, and the girl professed never to have heard of them. I was a stranger in a strange land.
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Today's ride: 76 miles (122 km)
Total: 5,551 miles (8,933 km)
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