GDMBR Day 54

• Start: Clarence Creek Campground, Kootenai National Forest

• Finish: Snow Valley Lodge, Fernie, British Columbia

• Miles: 74.4 miles

• Odometer: 2,598.2 miles

• Ascent: 2,200 feet

• Descent: 2,800 feet

• Location: https://share.garmin.com/Judice

Today I crossed the border into Canada!

After a fun and fast descent out of the mountains I made my approach to the Canadian border. Coincidentally, just as I was arriving at the border crossing the Rocky theme song started playing on my iPhone. That was pretty awesome!

Although my goal was always to ride up through the Banff and Jasper National Parks to Jasper, Alberta, I could not help feel emotional about making it to the Canadian border and completing the route from Mexico to Canada. I was surprised by the onset of emotion since I still had another 300+ miles to cycle.

I started hearing the grinding coming out of my bottom bracket, yet again. Recall that I replaced my bottom bracket down in Colorado. Today my destination was Fernie, British Columbia where I was able to stop at a local bike shop where they replaced my bottom bracket. As usual, the bike mechanics were fascinated by my travels and anxious to put me in the front of the line so that I could get on my way.

I wanted to mention how I am getting tired of all of my favorite music. I have 2000+ songs on my five star playlist and I have listen to this playlist for so long on this trip, the songs are starting to irritate me. My first order of business when I get home is to find some new music. That’s not as easy as it sounds since I don’t care for much of the music that is being produced right now. I know this is kind of an old person thing to say, but don’t you think it’s true? I use the “discover new music” features on both Apple Music and Spotify and so many of the new songs sound the same as each other. It is no wonder that all of the “old” music that I grew up with is still so popular.

Now that I have arrived in Canada I need to start planning my return trip home. I had always intended on taking the Rocky Mountaineer train ride from Jasper to Vancouver and then hopping on an Amtrak down to Portland. However, up until now I was not able to nail down tickets because my arrival date in Jasper was undetermined. After crossing the border and looking at the train schedule I realized that the train leaves Jasper twice a week. The next train is in two days and there’s no way I can make that one. I booked a ticket leaving in four days recognizing that I would have to travel more than 85 miles on average a day to arrive in Jasper in time. This is doable but I will have to forgo some of the dirt road sections of the route in order to make time on paved roads.

So that I could travel lighter and get more miles daily I shipped my camping gear home in Eureka, Montana just before crossing the border. This will make for easier riding but I will have to carefully plan my stops without the option of camping.