As predicted the weather has warmed up and last night I was actually too hot until about 4am. I had an early start as I was on breakfast duty and by the time we rode out of Banff the sun was up and the day set fine, although there was a chilly wind.
Today’s route was the longest yet at 91 miles but I knew there would be some downhill involved as we were dropping out of the Rockies. In total today we have lost about 1100ft and for all but a few Km we have had a tail wind pushing us along.
We left Banff and as soon as we hit the freeway it was obvious the tail wind was going to make the day good fun. We were tanking along at 30km/h without really putting any effort in, after the last few days it was very welcome.
After about 25km we got off the Freeway and onto the old highway which was much more relaxed. We continued to drop out of the mountains and pretty soon the scenery started to change as we went through first cattle country and then into cereal country. The farms are massive and the fields seem to go on forever (And they say the prairies are even bigger) but there was a lot of scrub land and wooded areas so there was quite a lot of wildlife; today I have seen two Fawns bouncing around a field and jumping an 8ft fence, numerous birds and a Coyote.
The second half of the day was spent on rolling roads, and these were really rolling. The roads are dead straight and you can see them ahead of you for miles and miles, we just went up and down for about 50Km.
Tonight after showering and setting up the tent I have gone to download the Garmin and my bloody computer has lost all my previous Garmin data. Luckily I hadn’t cleared the routes off my watch but I am a little peeved to say the least, hopefully someone with a little compute skill may be able to rescue them after the trip. Thankfully I have already bought a map of Canada and I have been keeping the daily maps so I will have a record of the trip.
Tomorrow is another long day to Drumheller. Saturday is a Rest day and Alex is coming across from Calgary for the day. The plan is to get to Drumheller and get my washing etc sorted so I have a free day on Saturday.
As I’m typing this people are beginning to batten down the hatches across the campsite, apparently we are due a thunder storm in the next few hours so for the first time this trip I’d better make sure the tent is well pegged and the groundsheets in place, lets home for a quite night!!
Onwards and Upwards!!
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