The first significant snowfall of November is here and I've just now started to write something about my Epic ride in BC during last July. I didn't blog or write a journal at the time so I'm just going by what I can recall from memory after reviewing the few photographs I have. My idea was to go for ten days of riding, include the Epic 1000 route, and end up in Vancouver. In Vancouver I would reunite with my wife at the AirBnB we reserved in North Vancouver, visit family and attend a wedding.
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| El Mariachi ready to roll. |
D-day was July 1st. My Canada Day celebration was to fly to Calgary and ride from the airport to Canmore. I had reserved a motel room in Canmore and would get a good rest before heading south on the Alberta Rockies 700 route to Coleman at Crowsnest Hwy. There was a section of the 1-A around and just after Cochrane that was a bit sketchy for riding which was narrow, no shoulder and fast moving traffic. I would not recommend that section, but the riding got much better as I got closer to Canmore.
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| My ride to Calgary |
In retrospect it might have been better to start in Banff and take the GDMBR route south but in any case Canmore was expensive and touristy but a pleasant place to stop with everything I needed. At this point it was the weather forecast that concerned me. It was calling for two days of solid rain and cold temperatures which is not how I wanted to start my tour. I decided to spend July 2nd in Canmore and wait for the worst of it to pass.
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| View of Ha Ling Peak (right) from Canmore. |
The next day I put on the Arcteryx shell. I bought some bear spray and made sure I had a couple days supply of food. I hiked some local trails and found a nice place for coffee and snacks. The rain was still coming down in the evening and overnite but I had to get going so at 5am on the 3rd I was riding south in the rain. Apart from a sleep in Coleman the Arcteryx didn't come off until after Fernie.
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