Creston to Invermere
I woke up early again, despite my best intentions to sleep in. I only had about three hours to ride from Creston to the Radium Hot Springs area, but with yet another timezone change (most of British Columbia is in Pacific time, except for the areas right around Banff & Jasper) I had about four hours of time to plan for. Either way I didn’t need to take off until 10am to make my 2pm check-in time.
My AirBNB host, in addition to lending me a hose and laundry machines, brought me fresh sourdough and eggs from their chickens. While eating my farm-fresh breakfast and drinking coffee, I did one last check of the forecast for the areas I’d be riding through and saw a problem. Despite BC having had unseasonably warm and sunny weather recently, it was about to take a turn for the worse. I was looking at pretty solid chances of showers and thunderstorms with daytime temperatures in the 40s and 50s for most of the next two days with overnight lows in the 30s. I made the last minute pivot to book some cabins via AirBNB for the next two nights instead of camping. While I can camp in the cold and camp in the rain, camping in the rain & cold after riding in the rain & cold for two straight days kind of takes the fun out of it.
The ride to the newly-booked cabin in Invermere, just south of Radium Hot Springs, was kind of scenic but nothing spectacular (at least not compared to the recent riding in Idaho and South Dakota). There were a few lakes and river valleys that I stopped at for photos as I headed west towards then mountains, but things definitely got prettier as I hit the Kootenay River and turned north.
Eventually I turned a corner on the road and could see snow-capped mountains in the distance as I approached the Rockies. I pulled up for a late lunch at a little bistro in Invermere and the restaurant seated me, too my order, then promptly shut the doors and flipped the closed sign. I enjoyed my quiet meal while feeling a bit bad that they didn’t just tell me to kick rocks, picked up a few more backpacking meals, and headed to my rustic cabin.
The cabin was a lovely one-room building on the edge of the host’s property with no running water, electricity, cell service, or wifi. It was cozy enough and I settled in to read while the showers and thunderstorms rolled in around me. They did offer wifi and electricity in their basement a few hundred yards from the cabin, which I used to catch up with Tori before falling asleep.
Invermere to Valemount on the Icefields Parkway
Day two in the Rockies was longer, about 330 miles — sorry, about 500k. I’ve been trying to convert myself and my GPS, speedometer, and other electronics to metric to make conversations with the Canadians easier. I took off early in the morning, around 7:30am, in hopes of missing most of the rain that was forecast for the afternoon.
The road started off a bit boring into Radium Hot Springs but then turned east into close-walled canyons and good twisties. That section was short lived, but soon the road started to butt up against the Rockies and the views would have been fantastic if the fog & clouds hadn’t been so heavy. The temperatures dropped into the 40s and a constant mist kept me and my camera lenses damp while riding towards Lake Louise. Luckily the layers of wool, down, and my heated grips and seat kept me comfortable enough to focus on the riding.
The Lake was pretty but crowded even with the weather. I stopped for a few photos but didn’t linger too long before making the short jump over to the Icefields Parkway that connects Banff and Jasper National Parks. I small $11 CAD entry fee buys you hours of stunning scenery as you ride along the spine of the Rockies between the two parks. The fog was lifting enough that I could see most of the scenery, just not the tops of the mountains.
The parkway gets better as you get closer to Jasper and the Icefields, with the Athabasca Glacier being the focal point for most tourists. It was a bit of a hike up from the parking lot with signs everyone not to leave valuables unlocked/unattended. Between the crowds, the warnings, and the weather I didn’t hike all the way to the glacier, but I did get up to the top of the hill overlooking it and spent a few minutes appreciating the view before heading down.
The scenery kept getting more dramatic as the exit of Jasper approached, and then the ride was mostly ended by riding through Mount Robson Park in BC, where I’d initially planned on camping. I did stop there for food at a tourist-heavy cafe before wrapping up my ride and heading to the “cabin.” This place was similar to my stay in Creston, where the owner converted a barn on their property into apartments to rent out. The young Dutch family sharing a wall has finally quieted down as I write this, so hopefully I can get a good night sleep before my ride back down into the plateau and Sheridan Lake tomorrow.
