June 27th, 9:20
odometer start: 2209.9
now: 2213.1

I'm at a touristy cafeteria in a touristy hotel that charges touristy ripoff prices which they can get away with because they are located right by Roger's Pass in the Selkirk Mts. The main reason I'm putting up with it is because it's lightly raining out and I'm hoping it might stop soon as the last couple of days have been doing the same sort of thing. It would also be nice if the clouds would at least break up some allowing me to get some decent pictures, but that's probably too much to ask.

Riding in the rain doesn't bother me, what does is the spray from both my wheels and everyone elses, as that will get my legs whereas my cycling poncho will get most of the rain. Guess its getting a little lighter maybe there's hope for the road to dry out a little.

Finally finished roll 7, which has a lot of the Cascades (including the snowbank ecosystem) on it. I'll mail it at Golden. The bear pictures are on roll 8 and will have to wait. Turns out bears (at least this one) are afraid of quickly moving objects like bicycles, which I discovered as he ambled toward me in search for a handout or a hand.

Golden is about 40 miles east, then another 20 - 30 to Kicking Horse Pass in the Rockies. Think I'll try to camp either further from the pass or cross it today in an attempt to avoid the rain. That pass is 1200 ft higher than this, so I'd expect some more rain. Currently, the Cascades stand out as the high point of the trip not only because of better weather, but there was more snow around (none at this pass) but also from the road conditions. The road through the Cascades was a long, pretty easy up followed by a long down. This road is up and down all over - If the pass wasn't marked, I would have missed it! In the Cascades I was always in earshot of the river I was following and could watch it shrink and see the road get correspondingly steeper, finallly leaving the stream to go over the passes on a yet steeper grade. There was also a lot less traffic, possibly due to my crossing on a Saturday (no trucks) while this is the truck route over the mountains. I suspect I 90 carries all the truck traffic in the Cascades since it's 4 lane and open all year (the Cascade highway is generally open only June - October).

Guess I'll try to shave here and head on down the hill.

June 28th, 9:30 AM
odometer start: 2284.8
now: 2301.8

I'm at a dorf called Field at ~4000 feet so I have another 1300 feet to climb to the continental divide. I'm getting a bit low on cash and hope Lake Louise has a bank as Monday is a national holiday and I'll have a bit of trouble reaching Banff before their banks close. Lake Louise is marked in red, but so was Rogers Pass and all they had was a single tourist trap. Guess I could give up eating in restaurants for a few days.

More rain yesterday afternoon. I tried stopping at a warden's house to see if he'd invite me in, but he didn't. A few miles later I saw some buildings by the railroad which was close enough to the road to warrant an access road to it. I found sort of a ghost station - a switching spot that has gone the way of automation. Some vandals had conveniently broken into the bunk house and torn up some cabinets, so I was able to put together a fairly clean surface to setup sleeping pad and bag. By the morning the rain had stopped so things aren't too bad despite temperatures in the forties.

The scenery to this point hasn't been too spectacular, but it shows signs of improving greatly in the next several miles. The morning valley fog is pretty well dissipated, but its still quite cloudy, so I may not be able to get the quality pictures I want.

Better get moving.

Oh - passed a time zone change yesterday. Now that's progress.

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Written 2024 June 16, last updated 2024 June 16.