Last night was a strange one. It was very windy and we could here the trees rustling like mad, but the tent was calm and still. It was because the trees were giving us shelter, but that did not ease my concerns because before we went to bed we were watching them sway from side to side. I did not want to get flattened by a widow maker as they are called. But I did manage to fall off to sleep and have some crazy dreams.
Rachael did wake me up at about 1am though to highlight a very strong smell of smoke. It smelt thick like there was a fire right outside our tent. Once I stuck my head out could not see a golden glow from any of the mountain sides I was sure it was the smoke coming over from some very large fires in the distance. Jen told us when we started the route in Banff that Jasper had already been evacuated. In one of the stores in Banff they were making contingency plans in case they had Yogo the same thing.
So we got up early as we knew this was going to be a very big day for us. We had to get to one of the highest points of our whole route and ride fifty five miles to get to Elkford. Once we got to the top of the pass the route flowed quite nicely on perfect gravel track. We were lucky though that for most of it we were Sheltered by the trees from a crazy wind. We crossed over the province from Alberta to British Columbia.
We met a few bikers on this stretch some doing various loops and others taking a couple of month to do the GDMBR to the Mexican border.
Due to the terrain we made great time and got to Elkford at about 1600 which is incredible, it also goes to show the crazy uphill we had on the first couple of days as we doubled our average speed today.
We were hoping to find a room as a storm was coming in but the two motels in the town were full. So just as it was starting to rain we got in on the campsite. We got the tent up and had showers. We headed into town, which was just across the road and consisted of about five buildings. Luckily one of them was a very nice bistro so we looked after our appetites and charged our phones. After food we went to the store to get breakfast and lunch supplies.
I am just in my tent writing this blog at the moment.
Tomorrow we are trying to head to Fernie where we have a warm showers lined up.