Riding up in Fort McMurray wasn’t stellar. I started riding 12 km back to camp after work on the ice roads each day, which was pretty rad. This got shut down pretty quickly by the head contractor who made it pretty clear I would be riding back towards Jasper if I kept doing this. The boss of the company I was working for approached the head contractor to get my biking privileges back but was told that it was too dangerous as there was a pack of wolves in the area. Interesting Fact: The last person to be fatally killed by a wild Wolf in Canada was in 1922.
Not being able to ride outside, I turned to the Macdonald Island rec centre in Fort Mac. I rode the trainer for 8 minutes, ran two laps of the track, then hopped back on the bike for another 20 minutes. It wasn’t fun. Each pedal stroke built a hatred towards biking. That was that. 30 minutes of indoor biking for the winter. Any more and I would likely either quit biking or have to start reading suicide prevention books
Riding picked up once work was done as I headed to Jasper for some winter riding. This was highlighted by 20 hrs of riding on the Icefields Parkway with my buddy Leighton Poidevin from Canmore. On Friday night I drove my truck down to Rampart creek then biked 62 km to Mosquito creek hostel near Lake Louise. I figured it would take 2.5 hrs to do this. It took 4.5 hrs due to snow and ice. That is when I began to wonder about Leighton’s and my idea of riding 210 km back to Jasper the next day.
The night at Mosquito creek was a bit of a gongshow as the hostel had some serious snoring issues. After shaking the blankets of the snorers a couple times I gave in and headed into the main building, built a fire and then slept on the couch waking up every couple hrs to stoke the fire. It was a cozy but not stellar sleep. In the morning Leighton was dropped off at the hostel by his wife Lynda and then we started rolling towards Jasper.
Riding up Bow summit was a gongshow. It had snowed 4 inches during the night and the only way to make any progress was to each ride on one of the vehicle tracks . We were riding about 8 km/hr and having to put our feet down once in a while when we lost our track and fell into the snow. As more and more vehicles drove by our riding got a bit better. Going over the summit we got bent over by a couple minny snow tornadoes which made us silently ponder our bike ride.
Decending Bow summit was like riding with two flat tires through Costa Rican mud as our bikes were squirming all over the road in the fresh snow and hitting invisible ruts. Leighton opted for a questionable move as he had one foot down for most the decent. It was smart but it looked ridiculous for one of the top 10, 24 hr riders in the world.
Our ride was looking like it was going to be a 24 hr ride until the Parks Canada snow plow came by and saved our asses. Being able to ride without piles of snow meant our speed increased from 11 km/hr to close to 20.
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The rest of the ride was pretty straightforward. Going over Sunwapta pass was testing as the wind was howling and we were in white out conditions for close to an hour. Once we passed the Icefields centre we were granted a solid tailwind which was a big boost to the moral. With 80 km to go our daylight was dwindling when a Parks Canada vehicle pulled up and asked where our support vehicle was. We both looked confused. Support vehicle? Did they think we were a Tour de France team or what? One of the Wardens was a good friend from Jasper and gave us a key to his Warden station at Sunwapta just in case we got into trouble. Thank you Mike Eder.
Once darkness hit, we both went into zombie mode as we were pushing 10 hrs on the bikes with over 60 km to go. At one point a city slicker pulled up in his big truck and yelled "Good Idea boys!" Funny guy... The last 40 km into Jasper was nice with another tailwind helping us get our sore asses out of our shamies a little bit sooner. 13.5 hrs after leaving Mosquito creek we were sitting at my Mom's place in Jasper in front of a feast fit for kings. Thanks Mom. It is always great coming home for some home cooking and Motherly love!
The next day was one of the rides of the year as Derrick and Andrew dropped me off at Beauty creek, leaving a nice 4ish hr ride back to Rampart Creek to get my truck. This was a spring like ride with temperatures above zero and not a breath of wind in the air. A nice change from the white out the day before!
Riding in the wintery Rockies was a really cool way to kick off training for another year. Now I find myself out in Victoria BC, enjoying some easier riding under some really nice weather. Here we go 2012!