This is our third annual cycling road trip where we have driven to great riding locales whether they be road cycling or mountain biking. This year we headed to Canada via Wyoming and Montana.
Van Storage Updates
We made some last minute, low-tech, low-cost storage improvements to the van for this trip which helped alleviate the clutter and make finding things easier. For cooking and food items, we hung wire baskets above the side window behind the driver.
Basket with top shelf
Basket with no top shelf
For clothes, we hung a number of duffel bags from the L-Track that we had built into the ceiling panels. We call these our sky-dressers. These are super convenient with all the different compartments and when we sit up in bed, there is no consequence to bumping our heads into them. This is essentially a poor-man's version of the Adventure Wagon soft cabinets. Since Adventure Wagon seems to be having a tough time bringing these cabinets to market, we saved a bunch of money with our approach. We'll take another swipe at making them fit in better when we get closer to finishing the build.
The Trip
Our first stop, Glendo State Park in Wyoming. We stayed in Two Moon campground overlooking the Glendo Reservoir.
We got up in the morning for a MTB ride from the campground through the Glendo loop to through the Narrows Bluff Trail, the latter being the highlight of the riding with great views of the reservoir and some moderately challenging sections.
Ride details:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1055582176
https://www.relive.cc/view/1055582176
After the ride, we hung out at the campsite and stayed another night leaving in the morning for Bighorn National Forest.
A few hours down the road, we made it to Dayton, WY. This is the base of the northern route through the Bighorn National Forest and what was to be the beginning of a nice climbing road ride. Unfortunately, the weather turned hostile and the 48 hour forecast did not look to improve. So we decided to make it a driving route through the National Forest instead. The first 14 miles of the Bighorn National Forest route look to be a challenging but scenic climb with great road conditions. The next 17 or so are a rolling climb through the forest with continued good roads.
For the last 15 miles there was no road shoulder with tight twisty descents but still amazing views, maybe not so great for riding on this section.
We'll plan for a return trip to this area to do an out & back ride of the eastern 2/3 of the route.
Bozeman
Wednesday morning in Bozeman was beautiful, with no winds to speak of. We did a road ride up Bridger Canyon to Battle Ridge Pass
Ride Details:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1058304960
https://www.relive.cc/view/1058304960
Parking for the ride was a bit of an issue since Bozeman seems to think that no one should park for more than 2 hours and we knew our ride would last longer than that. Fortunately, we found Gallatin Recreation area in Bozeman that had no parking restrictions posted. http://www.outsidebozeman.com/places/crags/bozeman-boulders/east-gallatin-recreation-area-boulder.
We started the ride from here and did an out and back ride. It was also a nice place to hang out for a bit after the ride with a nice little dip in the lake to get refreshed. On our way to get lunch, we past https://www.mapbrewing.com and decided to check it out. It was a good find, we enjoyed a nice lunch, a few beers, wifi & charging power to get all caught up on email and such, as well as plan out our next stops & rides.
Helena
Helena treated us to a wonderful mountain bike ride from the Mt Helena City Park to the end of the Mt Helena Ridge Trail and back. The access to the ridge trail was a serious leg burner with some steep climbs. Once on it however, this trail is the epitome of sweet singletrack.
Ride Details:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1059875789
https://www.relive.cc/view/1059875789
We arrived at the Whitefish Bike Retreat later in the day after the drive from Helena. We left early the next morning to get into Glacier National Park to do a hike to Glennill Lake. So we really didn't get to enjoy the amenities of the Retreat this time.
We drove the length of Going to the Sun road to the East entrance of the park and then back in through the entrance near Babb, MT.
The hike took us by Swiftwater Lake, Josephine Lake and Glennill Lake. This was a very scenic hike from end to end.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1061656803
After the hike, we drove back to and managed to score a campsite at Whitefish Lake State Park. Being that everything in the area was booked, we felt lucky to get the site. Then the trains started coming through. Fortunately, we were tired enough that it didn't matter.
Canada
We made the drive from Whitefish to the Bow Valley in Canada expecting to find a campsite in one of the many campgrounds. No luck and no hope was offered by the folks working the campground. Happy Canada Day! We continued on to Canmore in time for the Canada Day fireworks in front of the mountains.
Canmore
We started the day with a road ride from Canmore to Banff with a few extra climbs in Banff before the return ride to Canmore. We met quite a few friendly folks along the way. The climbs included Sulphur Mountain and Mt Norquay.
Ride Details:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1064708443
https://www.relive.cc/view/1064708443
At the top of Mt. Norquay is a Via Ferrata, we saw the via ferrata outfitter during the bike ride. We've never done this type of climbing before and decided to try it out and made a reservation for the next morning.
We headed up Mt Norquay to do the via ferrata the next morning. We got geared up with safety equipment, got a lesson, and had to demonstrate our ability before heading up the mountain. Initially, the height was unsettling but the hand and foot holds were very sturdy which built confidence as we went.
After the climb, we took advantage of a grass field surrounded by woods which was used as an RV lot on Mt Norquay to get camp showers and a nap for the afternoon.
We got up early to get into the village of Lake Louise. By 8am it was already a zoo with tourists. We made our way through the village to the famous lake view. Our simultaneous initial reaction was, "what's the big deal? Maroon Bells is better". We are spoiled living in Colorado.
After that quick stop, we headed north toward Jasper on the Icefields highway. We were checking out all the great scenery as well as looking for available campsites.
The views at Bow lake were stunning, possibly the best along the route.
Waterfowl Lake was also pretty amazing with lakeside and riverside campsites. This would have been a great option for camping, but it was still early so we continued up Icefields Parkway.
We went right by the Columbia Glacier area as it also was zoo-like with the tour busses and crowds. The big glacier looked cool from the road and we saw vehicles driving on it. This will require further investigation.
We saw many great views along the Icefields Parkway.
We settled on camping at the Honeymoon Lake Campground with a sweet lakeside campsite. Ironically, after all that travel to get there, we were camped along with several other Coloradoans. We had a great view of a small but very scenic lake.
We did a morning road ride from the campground north on Icefields Parkway up to the 5 Lakes trailhead. We started on this trail with the road bikes toward the lakes, but it got a little too technical for the road bikes and we decided to head back before we got all the way to the lakes.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1069529657
https://www.relive.cc/view/1069529657
After the bike ride, we took a drive north on the Icefields Parkway all the way to the north end into Jasper. Unfortunately for us, Jasper was another town that was overcrowded with tourists on this holiday week. We grabbed a quick meal and some groceries and headed back to the campground.
Our next leg of the trip was a return trip to the States with a stop at Flathead Lake in Montana. At the US Border crossing, we had our apples confiscated. Apparently, you cannot bring any produce across the border even if it originated in the US. The drive was taking longer than expected, so we stopped in a Walmart in Kalispell with a number of other RVs to sleep and make the rest of the drive in the morning.
In the morning, we took a quick stop at Starbucks for breakfast then headed to Flathead Lake for some kayaking. There is a state park in the lake which is an island, only accessible by boat http://stateparks.mt.gov/wild-horse-island/. We rented kayaks at a place near the island so it would only be about 2.5 hour paddle each way. Once we made it to the island park, we went for a swim on the pebble beach for a while, had a snack and paddled back to the start.
Then we made the long road home...until next time.