1 Down, 9 To Go

So we made it to Calgary - our first major city stop along the way!

Some things that happened on our trip since we saw the bear at Hidden Valley near Salmon Arm...

We biked to Revelstoke that day - Leah got two flat tires...not too impressed. Katie got one flat tire but changed it twice because she tried to use a tire that was patched up and didn't work...again, not impressed - especially because we were only 10km from Revelstoke!! That night, Leah made her classic linguine with cream of mushroom and broccolli sauce. It is quite amazing how much food we are eating...not surprised, really, I suppose considering the biking we're doing.

The next day was probably one of the hardest days we've had. We biked from Revelstoke to Golden which was the longest day by far (~150km) and it was through Roger's Pass. Roger's Pass kept going up and up and up and up and needless to say we were pretty excited to be at the top. We then had a wondrous (although scary!) 13km downhill after that. It was a gorgeous biking day though and we were very excited to get to Golden, treated ourselves to Subway that night and...we actually camped out behind Subway....probably not the quietest choice but it was the choice by tired bikers.

The next day - from Golden to Lake Louise - was a shorter day (~90km) - but we went through Kicking Horse Pass (~1600m). The bike out of Golden was on the narrowest, windiest part of the Trans-Canada and it was a looonnnnggg uphill that we thought never ended. We didn't realize that was the toughest part of the day though because we had been warned that the hill from Field up to Lake Louise was an 15km uphill climb so we were more apprehensive about that. The Visitor's Centre in Field also made it sound extremely difficult...and while it was difficult, so much emphasis was placed on the climb that we actually didn't find it as bad. But I suppose that's a good thing!

We went and saw Lake Louise in the morning the next day - it was the perfect day for it - blue skies, some clouds...we were lucky to have a day like that on the only day that we go up there. It was quite the climb to get up to the lake though - a little morning 4km steep uphill surprise that we weren't quite prepared for! It was worth it though. We then headed to Banff and camped there. We saw deer, moose and mountain goats along the way through Banff...yay wildlife!

Yesterday we biked from Banff into Calgary which we thought was going to be an long but easy day as we were heading out (i.e. downhill, so we thought) of the mountains but unfortunately the foothills made the day slightly more difficult than we expected. As well the 20 minutes of extremely hard rain didn't help! Once we got into Calgary, Leah and I had another steep uphill bike to Cam's house where we stayed. Needless to say, it was wonderful to sleep on a mattress in the warmth! Beauty.

Today we're going to enjoy our day off. We've started out with an early morning wakeup to get to the Fanning Centre where there is a meet'n'greet with five people with Huntington's. The Huntington's Chapter here has been very supportive and helpful and we appreciate everything they've done.

Until next time!!