A Wayward Journey

“OK guys, it’s time for a Pow-Wow.” 

I gathered the boys around and explained the situation.

“We can turn right here and go up and over Crowsnest Pass, which isn’t all that bad.  That way we skirt Glacier National Park.  If we turn left, we’re commited to going through Glacier and over a 6600-foot pass.  It’ll be a long, cold, steep climb - and it might be raining.  What do you think?”

“Glacier!” Daryl shouted.  “Glacier!  Glacier!  Glacier!”

“Davy - what do you say?” I asked.

Davy chimed in with Daryl, “Glacier! Glacier! Glacier!”

We turned left.

We were well on our way to crossing the border today (or, at the very least, tomorrow morning).  But then we saw the storm forming off in the distance and decided we’d better call it a day.

The forecast is calling for heavy rain starting this afternoon and all night, so we called it quits for the day and headed to the campground here in Pincher Creek.  With any luck, we’ll cross the border tomorrow.

We’re now in Black Diamond - heading south toward the USA on Highway 22.  Another cold, blustery day, but we have clear blue skies so we aren’t complaining.  We can bundle up against the cold, but there’s not much we can do against rain.

 We’re hoping to be in the USA by the 6th or 7th - WOO HOO!!!

We’ve now got all the pictures up from Jasper and Banff National Parks - but I don’t have time to go back and attach them to the individual blog entries right now.  If you want to see them - click on the “gallery” button above, and they are in the Alberta section.  There are some decent pics in there even though it was cold and rainy most of the time.

Also - we have put up some more pages in our education section, and we created a shortcut to the map.  On the left sidebar, right between where we introduce ourselves and the Donne Tempo banner you will see a link “Learn With Us as we Travel” - click on that and it’ll take you directly to the map with all the essays marked.

Talk about heartbreak.

We awoke to bright blue, crystal clear skies this morning.  As we made our way toward Calgary, we had spectacular views of the Canadian Rockies – in our rearview mirrors.

The entire range spread out behind us – peak after peak rose to the heavens in all their glory.  And to think we spent a whole week up there and didn’t see that glory at all…

We are now hanging out in the small town of Bragg Creek outside Calgary – comfortably nestled in a chalet behind the Steak Pit Restaurant.  I’ve got our sleeping bags out in the sun drying out and all our dry bags are open so they can air out.  It’ll be sooo nice to leave here with everything dry!

Kilometers today:  36

Kilometers to date:  4331

Winter?  Already?

Today was a classic winter day – bitter cold in the morning, warming up to tolerable in the afternoon, then the temps plummeted again as nightfall approached.

The only problem is that it’s only the first of September – it’s not supposed to be winter yet.

We bundled up with every layer we owned this morning (including our brand new wool socks) and headed down to town.  After buying a new sleeping bag and replacing my brake pads, we hit the road.

Talk about culture shock!  For thousands  of miles now we’ve been riding quaint country roads with very little traffic.  Most of the time we could probably count the number of cars who passed in an hour on one hand.

And today?  Anything but.  Cars zipping past at a bajillion kph – one after another after another.  Casual conversation was impossible and we saved our vocal chords for yelling important info back and forth.  In short?  It was nuts.

At least I won’t be cold tonight…

Kilometers today:  86

Kilometers to date:  4295