Riding Alberta

As I watched the "Welcome To Beautiful British Columbia" road sign fade away through the rearview mirror on my bike I was sad and worried. Sad because I knew it may be a very long time before I returned home and worried that with BC behind me the scenery and adventures may slow down especially while crossing the praires. But then I thought who cares I've got new and unfamiliar landscapes and adventures to pursue, besides I was entering Jasper National Park and it would still be another 400 km or so before I hit the true plains after Edmonton. I was then excited to be entering the second province of my trip full of possibilities. Also the fact that The Edmonton Oilers had made the Stanley Cup Finals and we had a unique oppurtunity to party in a City in their happiest of times.

We decided that we would spend a couple of nights in Jasper either in a hostel or in a camp site. Our primary goal was to do our laundary which was in a dire situation, travelling with two pairs of shorts, two pairs of socks, one pair of pants, and three shirts you can imagine after 2 weeks of working hard and camping in the rain and mud what the situation was like. Our second goal or atleast mine was to climb a mountain and gain a vantage point to view the surrounding mountains and pristine valleys.

We established ourselves in Whistlers camp site, a gigantic camp with over 700 sites, conveniently three kilometers from downtown(convenient with a bike not on foot) and right at the foot of Whistlers Peaks the popular tourist attraction with a gondola going up near the summit. On our first day we did our laundary and not much else except eat a lot of food and drink some beers around the camp fire in accompany with some fellow campers from Quebec and Germany. The second day almost went the same way but around 3 pm I decided to go for a hike. It was a little late to start climbing a mountain but while looking up at Whistlers peak 1600 m above me I couldn't resist. I told Cam "Ill be standing on the top of that mountain in less than two hours," I grabbed my day pack and a water bottle jumped on my bike and off I was. In 20 minutes I ripped up the steep road to the trail head to read "estimated hiking time 3-5 hours, 1500 m elevation gain over 8 kilometers." Sounds like my kind of trail I thought, I stashed my bike in the woods and off I was in a steadily ascending jog. As I began up I realized that I hadnt grabbed my bear spray in my hurried departure which is nice to have especially when your running solo because thats so often when people surprise bears and get attacked. Oh well I figured, after seeing 14 Black bears in the last month I was feeling very comfortable around them.

Before long at all I was up at the gondola and then past it straight to the summit reaching it 1:50 minutes after leaving camp, making short work of the 3-5 hour hike in 1:30. The weather was dreary and the views were limited but off 78km in the distance I could clearly see Mount Robson standing out obviously higher than the other peaks and of course with a dark cloud hiding its summit. I spent 45 min. or so rambling around in the alpine summit area and in that time things cleared up nicely offering me some excelent views of the surrounding peaks. On my way down I decided to check out the view from the gondola platform hanging over the cliffs, I walked into the station and got ushured onto the waiting gondola giving me a free ride which usually cost I think 30 or so dollars for the roud trip. The ride down was really nice and enjoyable.

After hitting the bottom I had to hike down the road and go get my bike from the trail head. Feeling pleased with my hike I was walking down the road with ny mind adrift in alpine daydreams. Suddenly I looked up and across from me maybe 10 meters on the left side of the road stood a large blackbear staring me down with his big empty eyes. With his humungous nose sniffing the air, my scent was being blown directly towards him by the wind, he knew I was coming. Usually if your scent is travelling with you it warns bears of your prescence and the bear will hurry away but this bear seemed attracted and fearless. Immidiately I decided my course of action and wanted to get some space between the two of us so I stopped and without turning began to back up the road from where I had come. Keeping my calm, trying not to show any fear but not wanting to intmidate him I backed up slowly while talking in a slow deep voice, "No bear, go away bear, I dont want trouble bear I'm just going to leave bear, I dont want to fight bear," well what the hell are you supposed to say to a bear anyway, I just want him to know Im a human and not prey nor predator. As I backed up he began to make an approach one step towards me for every one I took back. I was sensing the possibility of a charge any second as I eyed the road side for a big stick, a rock or something the whole while obviously cursing because it was one day practically ever I did not carry my bear spray while hiking solo. You wouldn't think it but actually a man has a good chance to defend himself against a blackbear attack. If the bear charged me I was going to charge him back, turn into an animal screaming with my arms in the air and ready to go. Just as all this was racing through my head and the tension was getting unbearable the wonderful sweet sound of a tiny honda civic came racing up hill. Immidiately diverting the attention of the bear, the car slowed as it passed within meters of the bear, a funny site because the tiny car made the bear look all the bigger. Definetly a bold and fearless bear compared to most I've encountered as it was totally unphased by the prescence of the tiny automobile. The driver a middle-aged woman stopped "Do you want a ride," she asked me. "What the hell do you think, do I want a ride, theres a freakin huge bear who wants to eat me," I thought, of course not saying this but rather" yes please I would very much appreciate a ride." She was going the wrong way but it really didnt matter much at the time and as it turns out she was picking up some people at the gondola and going back down the hill so I got dropped off near the trail head. Back on my bike I felt safe; with the hill there no animal could catch me except for maybe a cheetah and I dont think theres many of those around.

Back at camp I told my days stories around the campfire while downing some cheap Albertan beers. We got pretty drunk and I told dozens of stories to Ian, a young German guy backpacking around BC. Almost every German I meet is facsinated with the Canadian wilderness and he was very eager to hear my stories of bear and wolf encounters. I think I kind of scared the shit out of him but in the end left him with some good advice to help him avoid bad situations. Its amazing what some people get away with in bear country simply because they dont know what to do. I had to explain to him the importance of not sleeping with food in your tent because it obviously will atract bears straight to you and rather he must hang it from a tree in a bear hang well down wind from your tent, something that is the way of life camping in BC.

We left Jasper the next morning on route to Edmonton to watch some hockey. The first day out from Jasper was beautiful spotting several elk and one mountain goat and then leaving the mountains behind and into the foot hills. The foot hills were actually really interesting with huge hills one of which I reached my fastest speed yet of 68.8 km according to my speedometer. Also we met some of the worst weather yet. As we biked into the town of Hinton we were quickly overtaken by some nasty clouds with incredible cross winds. Just about knocking me right off my bike a couple of times. At one point all the dificult moments of riding climaxed in a ferocious 30 second period on the tiny shoulder when we were passed by 6 semi trucks racing eachother side by side with no room for them to give us any extra room. The roar of the trucks and the howling wind saturated with mist from the trucks 18 wheels all spinning a foot to my left was a sensation overload. As total hell stormed up in our faces I yearned to get off the road and if I could have I would have but a concrete divider to my right forced me to keep going, no choice but to head for the next cross street. Finally we got right off the highway and straight into a warm Tim Hortons for soup and hot chocalate, I swear it whould have made a great comercial.

Once in Edmonton we got ourselves dormitory beds in the Edmonton Youth Hostel very convieniently located one block off Whyte Avenue, the heart of the cities bars and night life. We spent four nights there and watched two of the hockey games one of which was game three the first of Edmonton's wins. Happening to also be a Saturday night the street was alive. Thousands of people marching up and down the street screaming shouting, everybody happy and singing "We Are The Champions" in to the late ours of the night until every body had lost their voice and just the odd drunk guy in a coarse voice was quietly struggling "Go Oilers Go." It was indeed an awesome experience but we agreed rather than stay for more games that the trip must continue so the next morning hung over and tired we saddled up and hit the road.

From there we were in the praires still lots of trees but flat, oh so flat. Nothing but straight road and big sky. The days riding were pretty boring and repetitive down the praire road until around 6 pm as the sky became alive. As the sun lowered the sky became very beautiful and we often kept riding right till sunset just because it was so nice and plesant. The ride was pretty uneventful to the border with Sasktchewan except for an elk ranch that we stopped at. We passed a farm advertising Elk jerky and buffalo sausages so we went in to maybe get some buffalo sausages to add to our pasta for dinner. The people were so excited to meet us and here about what we were doing they just gave us a ton of free meat, elk jerky, buffalo smokies,giant smoked elk and herb sausages, and buffalo and garlic smoked sausages. Needless to say we ate well for many days after.

Arriving at the border I felt very content with my experiences in Alberta and was ready to have a go at Saskatchewan, the land in which I was born and that I know so well. But the question was how will I find unique amd memorable experiences in Saskatchewan without mountains. Because I certainly made nice of work of BC and Albeta largely due to mountain adventures. It is clear to me now that it must be my goal not only to visit every province but to have a unique and local experience that puts into my mind what that province means to me. Afterall one of the main goals of my trip is to have a mental picture in my head of the different landscapes and characteristics of the different regions of Canada.