Ajourney never starts from the beginning of a route.  Sometimes and mostoften it's harder getting to the starting line than most of the riding. To give all y'all the real feel of the trip, it is at least fair to brush overour experience getting to the town of Canmore, the place we would start thebicycle tour.

Tomake it very short and more interesting, it took us from 7am to 11pm to finallyland in Canada.  Within that time, I was capable of dragging my bike boxin a way that shaved 5 teeth of my chain-ring completely flat (600 miles laterand I'm still riding it like that), getting no sleep, and eat nothing but soda,chips and pop tarts.  Oh yeah, and Sam forgot his front skewer so wecouldn't ride anywhere.  We slept in the airport, caught a ride with asemi grumpy man to Canmore, and started riding south through the CanadianRockies.

Tobe quite honest, I actually wasn't initially impressed, or wowed like I thoughtI would be.  I think that had a lot to do with previously living in theEastern Sierras, a place known for its dramatic landscape.  Nonethelessthat opinion changed slowly, a little bit everyday as we got deeper into thewilderness.  Wildlife was so abundant; deer, elk, beavers, fish, and yes,bears. Alberta and British Columbia give a real sense of getting out there, youreally are far into the wilderness.  Soon we entered Kananaski lakes park,which for sure, impressed us both, and also at this point we were in ourgroove, and spirits we high.  We were able to take our climbing gear outand get high above the reflecting lakes, but unfortunately a storm came in andwe were forced to retreat back to lower elevation.  The next 100 miles wewere able to find many rivers, 2 grizzly bears, and lot of concrete mud thatcut our drive-train’s life in two.  And just like that the landscapedchange, and low and behold we were 20 miles from the Montana border.

Asecond for reflection... The pace of this western Canadian life style waslovely and slow, people not only were nice but took time to really listen, andit made me realize that people do a lot of talking but aren't genuinelyinterested in each other's lives.  Between the nature we've seen, and thekind people we've met, it feels like we are off to an excellent start. Canada was short and sweet, I really hope I come back to this part soon. Bzzzzzzzz, the freewheel buzzes and we continue to roll onward, with lots oflaughs and smiles on our faces.  I love bike touring.