Calgary AB to McBride BC - Day 7

Banff and Jasper are pretty little towns that have turned into well-heeled tourist traps; not where we want to be on this trip. But the road in between the two points are pretty spectacular.


So hard to describe the colour of the water in the lakes and rivers; the silt coming down from the glaciers gives the water an opaque turquoise cast.

You know why your bike fell over? It was two tired.
~ Bill, Keith's dad

Yeah, I had a small oopsie with the bike. We'd just gone up a small switchback, no biggie, but it was the first where our lane was on the outside. My fear of heights kicked in and I had to pull over at a small viewing area at the top for the adrenaline rush to subside. I was still a bit shakey when we went to leave, and, well, the bike fell over. Nothing hurt, nothing damaged, just me feeling like a bit of a goof as I waited for Keith to come back and help me pick it up. D'oh!

As gorgeous as the Banff-Jasper run was, I was a bit glad to move on past Jasper. The views are all so perfectly framed with the conveniently placed pullouts where everyone stops, piles out of the bus or van and snaps the requisite photos, it starts to seem almost contrived after a while.

The majority of the tourist traffic was left behind at Jasper, and the rest of the day's ride to McBride was a good one, as we ran along the Fraser River for a while.