So yesterday we got up pretty early at Maycroft Park on Highway 22 (or the Cowboy Trail) in Alberta. We had breakfast while watching a pair of deer cruise along beside the river. While biking we had a good weather and a sweet tailwind at some points as we could rip up several inclines at 30 kph. So we made the 159 kms to Calgary in the same time it took us to do 120 kms the previous day. And there was a lot of a ups and downs since we were right in the foothills. I guess the 159 km day is close to 100 miles or a century using Yankee style measuring so that's a first for us.
The day before we got Tyler's spoke replaced in Fernie and battled a vicious headwind (average speed was 13kph on flat terrain) up to Sparwood where we saw a unique 350 ton restored coal truck that was billed as the world's largest truck. The pictures will be up soon but since I was half as tall as one of the wheel- it was pretty big.
The summit of the Crowsnest Pass denotes the BC/Alberta border. Getting over that was bit of a joke. The climb was maybe 200 metres. Pretty small considering the 1000 metres+ climbs of Anarchist and Paulsen. Still it was a great sense of accomplishment when we finally crossed out of BC. The headwind didn't help but that switched in our favour about five kilometres into Alberta. One of our stops was at Frank's Slide where part of the mountain collapsed and buries much of the mining town was destroyed. Most of the rubble is still there but I guess you can't do much to move a field of giant boulders.
And now we are in Calgary for a couple of days. My bike needs a tune-up for sure: mostly the gears and the front brakes. Tyler has already gotten new front racks for his panniers. And my tent desperately needs a new zipper. I've had that tent up for at least 10 months while I was working planting jobs in the wilderness during the past three years. So I shouldn't be too surprised that it is showing its age.
It'll be good to rest for a while but I'm already looking forward to hitting the prairies.
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5 comments:
Good to hear you are still whole, hale and hearty! Yes, the Prairies will be much easier now. Are you going south on the #1 to Medicine Hat? Where is that Dinosuar Museum? I seem to remember it's further north, but can't remember the town - I always wanted to go there.The kids and staff at Westview are following along!
Good to see you guys are making good progress. I still say that you should turn around and tour more of BC for 3 months.
On your way, you should try to get to some xkcd geohashing locations. What's geohashing? These links explain it:
http://xkcd.com/426/
and here is a tool that does the algorithm and displays in on google maps:
http://irc.peeron.com/xkcd/map/
ps. this is a hard captcha...i've attempted it three times
sorry for not hyperlinking,
http://xkcd.com/426/
http://irc.peeron.com/xkcd/map/
Just so you know, your name was actually inspired by St. Aidan, except I preferred the alternate spelling. I had studied Lindisfarne and have some copies of illumniated manuscripts from there. Always wanted to visit:
St. Aidan of Lindisfarne
An Irish monk who had studied under St. Senan, at Iniscathay (Scattery Island). He is placed as Bishop of Clogher by Ware and Lynch, but he resigned that see and became a monk at Iona about 630. His virtues, however, shone so resplendantly that he was selected (635) as first Bishop of Lindisfarne, and in time became apostle of Northumbria. St. Bede is lavish in praise of the episcopal rule of St. Aidan, and of his Irish co-workers in the ministry. Oswald, king of Northumbria, who had studied in Ireland, was a firm friend of St. Aidan, and did all he could for the Irish missioners until his sad death at Maserfield near Oswestry, 5 August, 642. St. Aidan died at Bamborough on the last day of August, 651, and his remains were borne to Lindisfarne. Bede tells us that "he was a pontiff inspired with a passionate love of virtue, but at the same time full of a surpassing mildness and gentleness." His feast is celebrated 31 August.
About this page
APA citation. Grattan-Flood, W. (1907). St. Aidan of Lindisfarne. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved May 31, 2008 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01233d.htm
MLA citation. Grattan-Flood, William. "St. Aidan of Lindisfarne." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 31 May 2008
www.newadvent.org/cathen/01233d.htm
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Paul Knutsen.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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great having the boys here for a visit albeit that there was a mechanical problem but that was easily fixed. They left Calgary at 830 this morning (the 5th of June)heading for Drumheller, where the Dinosaur museum is located. Day is clear so the should have a good ride.
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