Day Nine to Banff

Today is the ninth day of my trip. It's really hard to believe that I have been on the road for over a week now. I hit a turning point in the trip this morning. Evan and I are ending our trip together. We are in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This morning he was up and attem at 6:00 am. I was also up, but by no means awake. I spent the night before blogging and doing laundry. I figured Calgary was going to be one of the last big towns I would be in for awhile, so I’d better make the most of provisions of the hotel. While doing laundry, I was able to Skype with my parents. Our chat was good and didn’t end till 2:30. So needless to say, I was not bright eyed in the morning. So with a “Thanks for letting me come a long” and a “yeah see you later”, I was back to sleep for an hour. Evan was off to Wisconsin for 2 weeks of summer camp.

I was packed and in the lobby and by 9:30 which is the exact moment in time that the free breakfast ended. Thinking about how much my wife cherishes a free morning breakfast, I smiled when informed of this fact by the maid. My odd reaction must have been unexpected because she quickly said, “Just a minute, come with me.“ The next thing I know I was led into a secret buffet feeding frenzy. The hotel employees get to have breakfast after 9:30. So I was a real V.I.P.. Remember, always be nice to the little people, and you’ll never get too hungry or get locked out of your office. After breakfast, I thought about checking out the Calgary Stampede. This is the super bowl of Rodeos. I know very little about Rodeos and felt the need to get the second leg of my trip started. So I decided to head on. Calgary is a really big city, so it would take me a while to get out of town.

I finished loading the bike and dialed my GPS in for Jasper. Jasper is roughly a 300-mile trip. I buzzed out of town and discovered that that only road was Route 1. This road is a four-lane road which was nice, but totally boring. After 100 miles I pulled over at a Banff rest area to stretch my legs. I ended up on a three-hour hike to an Alpine meadow. It was a great hike! The only problem was I didn’t realize how long and tough the trail was. I started the hike with the idea of a 15 to 20 minute walk, a few nature photos and back on the road. I grabbed my camera and tripod and decided to keep all of my riding clothes on except for my jacket. Turns out, this was a really bad idea. This put me on the trail wearing three pairs of pants and shirts. The outer pair of pants are motorcycle pants that breathe about as well as Saran wrap. Fifteen minutes on the trail and I was really warming up and ready to get back to the road. Just about that time an old friend Scott Fisher called me to find out if I was still a live. I talked to Scott long enough to cool down and catch my breath. As my chat with Scott ended, a Canadian family came up the trail and started talking with me. The fear of looking like an American wussy forced me to tag along. This is peer pressure at it finest. After about an hour, I was on the verge of heat stroke. I told the family that I needed a break and to go on without me. I took off two layers and cooled off in about 10 minutes. It was too damn late to turn around so I fashioned a sling out of my shirt and shoved all my extra clothes in it. I caught up with the family and was able to shoot the summit.

The walk back down to the bike seemed just as long. When I finally got to the bike, I was exhausted. I jumped on the bike and after 40 miles I knew I was done. All of the activity and lack of sleep had caught up with me. It was 4:00 pm as I pulled over at the closest campground. This camp was totally full. I got back on the road and turned on to Route 93 heading to Jasper. Luckily, after 20 miles I found Mosquito Camp Ground. This is an great self-serve campground with a beautiful mountain range surrounding it and a clear stream running through it. What a welcome end to a great day. I set up camp, had a bite to eat and called it an early night.