What AM I doing here? What was I thinking? Wasn't it just a little over a year ago that I emphatically swore off of highway riding? And here I am, just finished the "warm up" day of the ride from Jasper to Banff on the Icefields Parkway.
Maybe Brent is right. Maybe I'm a bicycle fanatic. Or maybe I'm just too cheap to work at a bridal show for free. What?
See, the thing is, I know this guy who runs a shuttle bus service from Edmonton out to the mountains. And this guy, we will call him Ben Johnson, booked himself to be at the Edmonton Bridal Show for the second year in a row for 2012. Which begs the question of why does a guy who runs a shuttle bus service from Edmonton out to the mountains bother booking himself into a bridal show, but that is a story that only Ben himself can tell. Suffice it to say, Ben booked himself into the Edmonton Bridal Show, and then my guess is that Ben himself wondered why on earth he booked himself in to a bridal show because... ooops... he "accidentally" double-booked himself and was scheduled to do an awesome tour of mountain madness on the exact same weekend of the bridal show.
So, Ben sent out a plea to folks he knows asking for volunteers to work the bridal show for him (I didn't fail to notice that he didn't send out any pleas for someone to take over his tour of mountain madness instead) in exchange for some kind of a deal on a future trip. Well, to know Ben is to know that you can't receive a plea from Ben without stepping up to whatever you're being asked for. That's just how it works. To know Ben is to love Ben. That is not negotiable. So, my hand shot up in the air to work the bridal show. A bridal show. Is there any WORSE possible way to spend a Saturday? I can't think of what it might be. And then I had to think of what I might ask Ben in return, and after careful consideration, I asked him for a deal on a cycle tour... the Icefields Parkway. Largely because Brent wants to do cycle touring and I want Brent to have what Brent wants.
So, back into the saddle I get... not that I ever left, because I love cycling... I just don't love being out there on the highways with the (fast) motorized vehicles. It is unlikely that we'll encounter a lot of transport trucks or logging trucks on the Icefields Parkway... my two least favorite things. The biggest terror of the Icefields Parkway is retirement-aged tourists who have rented their first-ever Canadream land-yacht motorhome.
Like with the Golden Triangle, I did a fair amount of training for this one. We rode from Edmonton to Devon and back a couple of times, but my best training was my "Six Killer Hills" events with the Edmonton Outdoor Club (if you think Edmonton is flat, you just haven't looked hard enough). The day to start the trip arrived, and oddly enough, I wasn't filled with dread; I was actually rather excited and happy.
Along with six other riders from the Edmonton Outdoor Club, Brent and I set out with Ben on a Friday morning at 7:00. We loaded our bikes, gear and luggage into his van and trailer and headed out of town. I made everyone watch "Letters to Mark" (which I call "the Doug and Brent movie") to "inspire" us. Everyone was inspired. We stopped in Hinton for lunch. Everyone was lunched. Ben dropped us off just east of the Jasper Park Lodge and we started riding. Day 1 was a relatively easy 40km from Jasper Park Lodge to Athabasca Falls Hostel. Really only one hill to speak of. My training buddy Colleen didn't even start hating me at that hill... maybe a mild dislike, but certainly not a hate. The traffic was very considerate (even the Canadream motorhomes) and the shoulders were wide and clear. The weather was warm... maybe a little too warm, but I'm too smart to complain about that.
We reached the hostel more than a full hour before it even opened, so we walked across the highway and went to check out the Athabasca Falls. We had a marvelous potluck dinner with Colleen's award-winning lasagna and Brent's home made strawberry pie and Bear Flag wine (which I bought because it had a picture of a bear and a picture on a bus on the label). Day one did not suck. But Day 2 is niggling a little in my brain... 109km with the biggest climb of the trip... Sunwapta Pass.
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