 |
||
| CRoCHET - Canadian Rockies Cycling and Hiking Expeditionary Tour, July 1-16, 2006 by Dennis T. Miller |
||
|
|
|
We cycled the bike trail along the Saskatchewan River in Edmonton, before going to the West Edmonton Mall to shop till we dropped. Then it was off to Miette Hot Springs for a soak in a mineral springs pool surrounded by mountains. Just outside of Pocahontas we mounted our bikes for the scenic ride into Jasper, getting good looks at bighorn sheep and elk. We got down to business right away on the fourth day of our adventure. July 4th I presented The Fourth of July Century. It was firecracker hot as the temperature reached 98 degrees. We cycled from Jasper, west over Yellowhead Pass, to Mt. Robson Provincial Park and back. Imagine cycling 111 miles and only seeing two traffic signals... the one when you're leaving town and the same one when you return to town. Our second day in Jasper found us tackling the long 30-mile climb, mostly along the tumbling Maligne River to Maligne Lake and a scenic boat ride to Spirit Island. The second half of the day was much nicer with 30 miles of good downhill. Our trip south down the Icefields Parkway began in Jasper and we cycled past Athabasca Falls to Sunwapta Falls. The next day we ascended to the Columbia Icefield Chalet and the Athabasca Glacier. The final climb from the quiet valley floor, past Beauty Creek and to the Chalet is a challenge. It was even more so that day as we encountered a wind-driven rainstorm along the way. Up to that point I was being questioned as to why we brought along so much cold/wet weather gear. Question answered! Our warm weather had turned to cold, windy, and wet. We were lucky the next day, blessed with gorgeous weather for a private icewalk on the Athabasca Glacier. Back in 1986, my first foray on a bicycle in the Canadian Rockies, I befriended a mountaineering guide named Peter and this was my fifth icewalk with him or one of his other guides. He offered to take my group on an exclusive hike at a discounted price. While the average tourist boarded a snowbus to take them to a groomed area on the glacier, we hiked about four miles and saw one of the biggest millwells Peter had seen in his 22 years of guiding! The icewalk was only the first part of the day's activities, as I led a three-mile hike to the top of Parker Ridge later that afternoon. The wildflowers were in all of their glory on the trail to the Ridge. I showed my fellow hikers fossils of marine life from thousands of years ago when the 7,000-foot Ridge was part of an ocean floor.
|
The great weather for our two hikes disappeared and we were greeted with cold, wet, rainy conditions the next morning. Dropping off of Sunwapta Pass at 6,000+ feet in the rain was not as much fun as I remembered under dry conditions. We arrived at Saskatchewan River Crossing for lunch under big, white, fluffy clouds though. Ron scared the bleep out of me with his antics on the slippery rocks above the Mistaya River. The temperature turned very warm, just in time for our assault on Bow Summit and a side trip to Peyto Lake. I'm sure the short, fast downhill into Bow Lake and the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge will be remembered by everyone for a long, long time. Our layover day at the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge included a new five-mile hike that I'd never been on. After thrashing the group for a solid five days in a row, today was a relatively easy day at the remote Lodge. All of the trip's tough climbs were over and it was kind of like a rest day on a grand tour. We ate gourmet food at gourmet food prices and never did see a live Num-Ti-Jah, although there is a stuffed one menacingly poised above the registration counter. The layover at Bow Lake was followed by the easiest cycling day of the tour. We cycled 25 miles and dropped over 1,300 feet into Lake Louise Village. Wow! We were all the way down to a mile above sea level. Okay, okay... there were three climbs in the 25 miles that dispelled my notion of "all downhill to Lake Louise". After two nights of surviving on gourmet food, Wayne didn't have to drag us over to his favorite eatery, the restaurant at the hostel (Bill Peyto's), where we gorged on real and filling food at reasonable prices.
On our first of two layover days in Lake Louise I led my favorite hike in the whole world... The Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse/Lake Agnes Teahouse loop. On this eleven-mile circuit we gained thousands of feet and a few pounds, thanks to the location and food offerings of the two teahouses, respectively. A hoary marmot came out to pose for us, we found an ice/snow cave, witnessed the destructiveness of Mother Nature, got a clear view of the Abbot Pass Hut above the Death Trap, and fended off aggressive golden mantled ground squirrels trying to steal our food. On our second layover day we cycled up the steep grade to Lake Louise, rode the closed-to-motor-vehicles Highway 1A to the Great Divide and then back and up Moraine Lake Road to scintillating Moraine Lake and Lodge for lunch. We came across a bear jam, but not in time to see the sow and her cubs on an upper slope. The final ride was a journey along the scenic Bow Valley Parkway into Banff and a "welcome back to civilization", including traffic signals. We couldn't just do a ride though. After lunch at the Johnston Creek Resort we took a three-mile, mid-ride hike to view upper and lower Johnston Creek falls. After exiting the Bow Valley Parkway I encountered the scary cattle, or in this case "wild animal", guard that greets you upon entering the Trans-Canada Highway just outside of Banff. I saw Ron down on the cattle guard and he appeared to be cut in half at the waist! Since Suzanne was standing there and not screaming, I assumed he was being funny. He was straddling one of the cattle guard poles with his legs! I can't wait to see that photo! After sixteen days we were all ready to do it again! I ended up with 432 miles of cycling and 32 miles of hiking over an active stretch of fourteen straight days. I considered CRoCHET an overall success, based on my standard measurement... nobody crashed their bicycle, nobody fell off a mountain while hiking, and nobody got eaten by a grizzly bear! |
|
The Canadian Rockies is my absolute favorite place in the world to ride a bicycle. The serenity, the beauty, the wide bicycle shoulder, the wild animals... I could go on and on. The last time I organized and led a tour there was in 1993. Although I've been there without a bike since then, it was time to once again experience those glorious stretches of road on my bicycle. At first it looked like our group would be 28 strong, but dropouts and non-commits brought us down to a comfortable fourteen. As usual with my tours, I did all of the planning and created a customized route/activity booklet for all of the participants. All of the participants made their own room reservations and air travel arrangements. We had two support vehicles, one 15-passenger van and one cargo van, mainly used to make the long trek from Calgary to Edmonton to just outside of Jasper and back to Calgary out of Banff. All costs were split evenly, making for a very inexpensive sixteen-day adventure. Six of the fourteen participants were BCI members Suzanne Ackley and Ron Hata, Nancy and Wayne Broadhag, my wife Mary and myself.
