Today we rode from Bannf, Alberta, Canada to Boulton Campground, Alberta, Canada. Sunny / hot weather. Highlights of the day include the scenery. Lowlights was the distance, it was more than planned for a first day.

Riding statistics: on Monday, August 1, 2022, day 1 on the route, it took 10:10h (07:25h moving time), between 09:07 and 19:17, to cover 95 km (59 miles), including 1326 m (4351 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 13 km/h (8 mph), while reaching a maximum speed of 52 km/h (32 mph). During this ride the average temperature was 28 °C (82 °F) with a minimum of 19 °C (66 °F) and a maximum of 38 °C (100 °F).

Totals: So far, it took 0 days, 7 hours, 25 minutes, and 8 seconds of cycling time to cover 95 km (59 miles), including 1326 m (4351 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 13.0 km/h (8.1 mph).

Today is the first day of riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. Yesterday I met my riding companion Anna, and her boyfriend John, for the first time in person. We decided to meet up at 8am at my campground. That way I could put some of my stuff in John’s car so that John can bring them (hopefully) back at the end of our tour, for example my cardboard bike box. Although I used yesterday for preparations as well, I set my alarm clock at 6am so that I had time enough to get myself ready, eat some breakfast, pack up my gear, and store it all (for the first time) on the bike. The day started with a beautiful sunrise.

Around 8am Anna and John arrived. First John (by car), and slightly later Anna (by bike). There was quite an uphill from their hotel to my campground, which I experienced yesterday as well. We stored my bike box, together with some bags and bike protection in John’s car. Anna and John said their goodbye’s, and we were ready to leave the campground and start our adventure. Riding out of Banff was incredible. The weather was fantastic and the scenery amazing. There was some cloud coverage, and coverage from trees, so the temperature was no issue at all. Just after the beautiful Banff Fairmont Springs hotel, we left pavement and got on the Spray River Trail. The first couple of hours were all double, and some single, tracks. Next to the trail, a bit lower in elevation, there was always the Spray River, which we followed, and sometimes crossed by bridge, for quite a while. The number of people we saw hiking, biking, or horse riding, quickly became less and less.

It was especially in the morning that we followed the slightly narrow canyon next to the Spray River followed by some tree covered meadows. In the afternoon we reached the Spray Lakes Reservoir, which is a very big water reservoir (lake). The lake really looked beautiful, especially with the trees and mountains surrounding it. We also noticed that there was a hard wind coming over the lake to the trail where we biked. At that moment it felt OK because we did not have much sun coverage anymore. However, as our route made a turn, we got on a very wide and dusty gravel road, and the wind became a brutal headwind, which we had to cycle into for several hours. Although we regularly took small breaks, and I tried to eat and drink, there was a moment that I just did not feel good anymore. Somehow the elevation change (compared to the Netherlands), the time-difference, the heat, and only drinking water made it more challenging, I even felt cold despite the warm temperatures. I felt that I needed a longer break, so we stopped next to the road, sat down between the trees, and I forced myself to eat an apple and drink a Gatorade. Fortunately, that helped a lot and 30 minutes later I was confident that we could move on. We still had to cycle about 30km (20 miles) to our destination, one of the campgrounds close to Lower Kananaskis Lake. As it was later in the day and the sun got lower, the scenery became even more beautiful.

After cycling quite some more miles, we reached the end of the wide gravel road. However, that was not the end of our ride for today. After the gravel road ended, we had a nice long downhill on a pretty good road, which we enjoyed very much. Unfortunately, after the downhill we had to go uphill again, on a steep section. From this moment onwards it remained hilly, we had to go up and down many times, and it included multiple steep sections. We were already looking forward to setup camp and get a rest, but we had to continue to at least the first campground, which was the Elkwood Campground. Unfortunately, it turned out that there was not a single spot available anymore. We had to push on to the next campground, the Boulton Creek Trading Post Campground. We were told that it would take another hour of biking. That was a bit of a bummer after this long day. Fortunately, it took us only about 15 minutes to get there. We got ourselves a permit, bought some groceries and went (uphill again!) to our camp sites., I had site A18. There was a sign at the entrance of our section that there was a bear active in the area. Fortunately, there were bear-boxes, so we did not need to hang our food. During the night there was rain, a thunderstorm, and often a very brutal wind.

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