Day 1, Jasper to Sunwapta Falls

After yesterday's shake down ride to Mt. Edith Cavell we were ready to head out for our first leg, which is a short trip along the Ice Fields Parkway to Sunwapta Falls.  Here's the route for the day.

A few lumps but nothing serious.  The morning weather looked pretty good, so after a pretty mediocre breakfast we hit the road.  It took a while to get used to riding with full panniers and trunks. It is a lot of weight.  A lot.  So peddling is akin to something like walking up a sand hill or peddling in a dream; you work so hard but get so little.  But we got used to it quickly enough. 

Our route follows the Athabaska River, which flows northward from the Sunwapta Pass (tomorrow's challenge) to the Arctic.  It was all uphill today with an inconsiderate headwind the entire day -- isn't that the way it always is?

We do have our bear spray, held close to Lorie's reach in my back pocket.  Hope she's a good shot. 

We were not that far out of Jasper at about 8 a.m. when a big black bear lumbered across the road in front of us.  We maintained a courteous, and what we deemed safe, distance of about 100 m from him but Lorie got a decent shot from a distance.

He stopped just off the road and lingered.  We waited.  Several cars and a bus came along and wondered why we were stopped with our camera out.  They stopped and we formulated our bypass strategy: we ride along side the cars as they creep past the bear, keeping the cars between us and the animal.  Worked pretty well, but the eyes of the drivers are looking right so we have to be a bit careful as we pass.  The bear didn't seem to interested in moving along, nor was he concerned about the cars (or us).  He probably smelled the food emanating from the bus and thought that it held possibilities.  Yogi!

Onward and upward.  Even though we only rode 60 km or so today, we climbed quite a bit, about 1000 m.  The hills were manageable, about 8 percent, a fewer more significant, but the headwind was awful.  Training aid!

The scenery is beautiful and far better seen at 20 to 30 kph on a bike than at 90 in a car.

We had the road to ourselves for most of the day.  Every now and then a car passed, but not so often that we noticed.

We stopped at Athabaska Falls, where the river cascades through a large drop with a narrow gorge.  The power of the river is an amazing thing.

The last 20 km were a slog of about 12 percent grade.  We were toasted by the time we reached the top at Honeymoon Lake, which has a great campground.

The escarpment on the left is a range of mountains that was formed in a huge plate shift many years ago -- Shackel NW 2 is the nearest and it apparently is good climbing on the far side.  We took a short break at the lake next to some nice folks from Quebec, who were traveling in their camper.

The ride from Honeymoon Lake to our stop was only a few km so we made it fast and checked into our "lodge."  Rustic, but great.  We hiked about 5 km to Sunwapta Falls, and lower Sunwapta Falls, which are amazing in their power.

We are heading to the bar for dinner and a beer.  But first, here's one more comparisons between Canada and Europe:

Europe:

Canada:

(Don't look directly at him.)

And a last comparison:

Canada's rockies pricing and Switzerland pricing: the same.

A demain.