four male bighorn sheep! Lots of great pictures. Sunshine with glaciers in the background. Fantastic. Went back to the restaurant's gift shop for two more rolls of expensive ($7.95) film. Then to Hilda Creek Hostel. Very short day in terms of miles. Willows are beginning to turn yellow. Fireweed and other plants are vivid red. Many countries represent at the hostel: Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, and USA (me).
8/31/83. Got packed up and ready to go rather early, but discovered a broken spoke on the good side of my rear wheel. Fixed it and left. The first 25 minutes were basically down hill, then we gradually gained elevation. Then a steep three miles leading to Bow Pass. Stopped at all roadside information plaques, mostly geologic. Saw a young male moose along the road where tourists had stopped. Beautiful warm sunshine with variable wind direction. Stopped at Mosquito Creek Hostel. Although I'm getting a bit burned out on hostels, I think bears bother Rudi. $5.50. Went to the sauna. Three skydivers (two Australians and one Belgian) stayed there and many bikers, Blare and the German being familiar faces. Beautiful rocky mountains with many dirty glaciers.
9/1/83. My one month milestone. Not one of my better days. Got up early, was packed, had eaten, and was ready to go by 9 -- about the time Rudi got up. By the time he was ready it was too late to bike to Lake Louise AND do the hike we wanted to do. It would take another day. It started raining anyway. While we waited for the rain to stop everybody else left. When the rain ended (briefly) and we were ready to leave, I went to the dorm for my glasses (good glacier glasses). They weren't there. I looked everywhere. I was pissed but decided they could be replaced. Biked to Lake Louise. Called home to find out Dad may have cancer. He can't be replaced. Would find out the next day what test results say. Went to a tavern until the hostel opened, then pedaled in pouring rain to Coral Creek Hostel. Nice place. A German girl with a good voice played guitar. Rudi played recorder. A funny English chap kept us entertained with jokes and stories. Very crowded due to the weather. The house mother was a bit snitty. Seven different countries were represented at the table (Canada, US, Ireland (Pol), Japan, England, Germany and Switzerland).
9/2/83. Still rainy. A group of us decided to see Lake Louise (the lake, not the town). Rudi, Adrean (English), Eva (Nova Scotia), Pol (Ireland) and I went. It stopped raining. Very low clouds. Got to the Lake. There's a fancy old chateau there (took some pictures). On impulse we took another trail. Went to a place called something like "Valley of Six Peaks." Could occasionally see a glacier through a break in the clouds. Stopped at a very charming tea house at the top. Had apple pie, tea, and pleasant conversation. Went to Mirror Lake and Edna (?) Lake (another tea house, but we didn't stay long.) Drove (Adrean drove) to the city of Lake Louise for groceries and so I could make a phone call. Called home to find out that Dad's prognosis, although not great, is not as bad as it could have been. Apparently he does have a small tumor that he didn't have last year, in his left lung. It should be treatable with chemotherapy. I felt much better upon hearing this, but still wondered if I should go to Belleville by a faster means of transportation. Looked at a US map back at the hostel. Decided the quickest route that would not retrace my 1979 trip would be to go across the northern US states, over Lake Superior, then down the Mississippi. Will still take until the end of October (about 3000 miles). Blare was at the hostel with a new riding companion, a French Canadian from Montreal named Richard. We played a geography game about the US. I'd name a city or something famous, or a slogan, and they'd find the city or tell me in which state it is. Really stupid. Blare was very good. Rudy, Pol, Adrean and I pooled our resources for a fine spaghetti, garlic bread, and chocolate pudding dinner. With the news of Dad, the day ended better than it started.
9/3/83. Said good-bye to Rudi and followed the BikeCentennial trail. Pol was walking along my route so I talked with him for a bit, then said goodbye to him as well. Started raining. Benja, of all peple, passed me. It's funny how I got to know so many people. Climbed Vermillion Pass into a headwind. Scattered sunshine. Occasional showers. Then a tailwind brought a horrendous rain cloud. I stopped in a picnic shelter with two motorcyclers from Montana up for the holiday weekend. Heavy rain for about 15 minutes, then sunshine. Enjoyed the tailwind. Climbed Sinclair Pass, then enjoyed a long downhill (with run-away truck ramps!) into Radium Hot Spring. Went to the Aquacourt and sat in the luke warm water for a few minutes (boring). Showered and left. All nearby campgrounds were full due to Labor Day. Only Michelle Place had room. A real dump. The manager's son checked me in. He was about 15, his head recovering from a Mohawk haircut. He asked, with amazement, if I had slept on my journey from Fairbanks, thinking I'd done it in a day or something. Had no concept of how far it was. Spelled "bike," "bick." No brains. Put me in a small corner next to the office. The manager would yell "Troy, Troy, come here!" beside my tent, and he'd come running through my site. Cars would stop, slam their doors, etc. Right next to the busy highway. I had a headache so I went to bed early even though someone invited me over for a beer when they returned from the hot springs. Noisy Labor Day campers, but I slept well. Woke up around 5 to go to the bathroom and noticed how quiet it was. Only one person was up, sitting by a fire. No dogs barking, no trailers moving, no cars on the highway, no yelling. Almost pleasant. And the stars! Went back to bed.
9/4/83. Upset at getting up so late, I trudged the few miles to Invemere. Got enough groceries for the day (Sunday) and for Labor Day, in case the stores would be closed. At about 11, a headwind picked up and I noticed the sports store sign saying they'd open at noon. Windsurfing equipment seems big in this area. Since I was beginning to get another headache, I decided squinting in the headwind was causing it. Bought aspirin (but didn't take any). While waiting for the sports store to open I got caught up with this journal. Got a good pair of glasses ($67 Canadian). At Invemere, I left highway 95/93 for a while and took Westside Road. Enjoyable. Cattle grazing unfenced. Bluebirds. Headwind. Sad to have to get back on the highway. I only went about 35 miles this day, to Thunder Hill Provincial Campground ($4). My site had an excellent view of Columbia Lake. Ducks and wind surfers. Clouds rolled in. Very windy and rain at 8, so I went to bed. Woke up at 5 again. Crystal clear. Stars as bright as I've ever seen them. A sliver of moon slowly peeked over a hill. The few lights of Canal Flats were insignificant in comparison. Went back to sleep. Chilly.
8/29/83. Wakened at 4:30 by a loud snap. Rudi had been awake, heard some banging at the food locker, then footsteps around the tent, then saw a silhouette of a bear head on my side of the tent. Then the snap. The bear apparently tripped over my fly peg. The noise scared it. Surprisingly I had no trouble getting back to sleep. Got up around 8 and went to shower; there were four elk standing right behind the building. The sun wasn't out and is wasn't very scenic so I didn't bother with the camera. Had to go to the bathroom bad, too. Left the campground around 11:30. Headwind. Took the BikeCentennial route. Stopped at Athabaska Falls with all the other tourists. And took the same pictures everybody else did. Gained elevation throughout the day. Lane-wide shoulders most of the way. Stopped at all stops including where two rivers (don't know names) converged. At Athabaska Pass, fur traders from the West would meet with Easterners. From here one can travel by water to the Pacific (Fort Astoria) or to the Atlantic via Athabasca River, Saskathewan River, Lake Winnipeg, Grand Portage, Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan. (Sounds like an interesting canoe trip!) Another point of, er, interest, was Bubbling Creek. Water absorbed uphill is trapped under the rock sheets. The gravity of it forces water up, along with red pebbles, through this "hole" in the rocks. We stopped at Beauty Creek Hostel (about 54 miles). Very primitive. No houseparents, no lights, outhouses, no insulation, etc. Gary from Whistlers Campground was there. He rode with someone names Blare who couldn't believe how much we were carrying. He was only biking Jasper and Banff. Slept very well on a foam mattress in a bunk. No houseparents, thus no fee.