Great Divide -Leaving Banff for points south (Ted)

Wednesday, July 12

Single track along west side of
Spray Lake

 It was a cool and gray start to my great divide ride from Banff.  After packing the bike and telling Beth and Nick goodbye, I headed for the trailhead. When I got there a pickup with at least 4 riders were unloading their bikes.  They were only going as far as Whitefish, MT,  but at least  I knew  I would have some company on the trail.

After about 10 miles I had a bad feeling I had forgotten something.  I stopped and checked my clothes pannier and didn't find my cold weather riding gear.  Gloves, balaclava, arm and leg warmers were all in a zip lock bag in a drawer in the RV.  Luckily I still had cell service and I texted Beth and we worked out a place to meet a few miles away on my route.  This was exactly why I left a day earlier than originally planned... So Beth would still be around Banff to bail me out.

There has been some concern that the route along the west side of Spray Lake would be closed and I would be forced to ride a busy, dusty gravel road.  Luckily it wasn't closed and the ride down that side of the lake was great with a lot of single track along the lake.  While riding this section I met a couple from Belgium who were riding as far as Yellowstone over the next 3 weeks.

Waterfall near Spray Lake

After finishing the section along the west side of Spray Lake it was back to the dusty, washboard gravel road for 20+ miles of up and down.  By the time I finally found a campground that wasn't full, I had ridden 64 miles on some pretty rough trail and roads. At least the campground had a shower (a mile down a big hill from my campsite) but the hot shower really felt good after a hard first day.

After a fairly good night sleep in Bolton campground, I packed up and headed for Elk Pass which is only accessible from a 2 track trail.  Once you have crossed Elk Pass, you are back in British Columbia and a 200 mile car drive to get to the the next town of Elkford.  Elk Pass is the only continental divide crossing in the Canadian portion of the Great Divide ride.  The ride was a mix of 2 track, jeep roads, power line maintenance road, logging roads and finally some decent gravel, but by that time the wind had picked up and made progress slow even though it was generally down hill with occasional climbs.  So it was a pretty tough 51 miles. 

View south from Elk Pass

If going by the guide book, Cycling the Great Divide, I have covered 4 days of riding in 2 days.  But now I have a pretty annoying clicking in my pedal crank.  I don't have the tools with me to pull the crank and the only bike shop near me is 37 miles away in Fernie, so tomorrow I plan to ride straight there down the highway to see if I can't get this fixed.  It will cut off some of the back country riding, but I really don't want to break down on the "Grizzly Highway" which is very remote and has some tough ground to cover due to washed out roads... And the highest density of inland grizzly bears in North America.