Day 9 (July 6) (106 Miles) by Madison

This morning we got up to a rain-washed outside. We left at about 9:45. It has been cloudy and very hilly. Good shoulders on the road with lots of big truck traffic. On our trip today we saw a coyote and a black bear; the bear looked right at us when we rang the bell on the tandem. While in the car, Race and I entertained ourselves by playing sound-effect chopsticks and the dreaded quiet game. We went 106 miles today. Dad went the whole way; Mom 56; Gage 50;Gavin 30;Madison (me) 30; and Race 20. We are staying at a R.V park for the night; the people were kind enough to let us stay on a tenting area in the back. We are close to the showers and bathrooms. Today, we have gone pretty far, and fortunately, nothing has gone wrong. We’ll write, I mean type, for tomorrow. Well, ta ta for now.

Day 8 by Gavin July 5th 40 miles

We only went forty miles today but it was fun all the same. Today was fairly uneventful in the way of biking but at the campsites it was fun. This morning when we woke up we got a hot breakfast once again, and all of the kids went down to the river and washed our faces and gave our selves some painful brain freezes just from the water on our faces.
The shoulder was very narrow but the logger trucks were kind and gave us plenty of room. Although dad tried to make our ending spot downhill every day, but alas he was unable predict this monster of a hill before hand. After reaching the town which was on top of the hill, we visited the information center at Grand Cache (the town). then we headed over to our campsite and put up our tent. We then went out to eat at Milos and were going to swim but the recreation center in town was having a power outage. Not only that but when went to update the blog at the local library, they had no internet because they also were experiencing a power outage. What was nice about the camping ground was that it had showers and it had some washers and dryers for our clothes. After taking our showers and washing the clothes, we ate our dinner of hamburgers over an open fire. Then as we tried making s’mores, it started to rain on us so we got into the tent and began watching blood diamond on the laptop before we went to bed.
For the most part, today was as exciting as every day of this trip has been.

Day 7, by Rita 120 miles (July 4)

Today we were up early, tent packed, bikes adjusted, everyone fed, and on the road by 9:30 am. It had rained during the night and the tent had to be packed still damp so we put it up as soon as we made camp here at Big Berland River camp ground. The lake next to our camp site last night had quite a few resident loons (the birds) that called back and forth during the wee hours of the morning. What an eerie sound they make as it echoes over the still water.
We had a great day of riding although Brett finished out the day by him as the roads got narrower and there were a lot of logging trucks traveling it. It was also very hilly (big hills), I don’t think there was any level portion, he was either going up and or down the whole last 46 miles. He finished strong and we were all happy to see the camp site was by the river. After starting the fire the boys all had to go down for a dunk in the glacier cold river. It was a daring thing to do and even Race could not be outdone. I will try to include a few pictures. Because of our position near the bride on a railroad track, during the night, the noise of a train crossing was deafening. What made it worse was that it traveled very slowly and it sounded as if it were rattling through our tent.
As we tooled along the Yellow Head Highway and then the Big Horn Highway all of us in the van were kept entertained looking for wild life and were rewarded by two new species to ad to the list. Although, the moose we saw was road kill. The bear we saw quite near the road we believed to be one of the mighty grizzly. We also saw a large bull elk and another big herd of cow elk. We also had to stop for some Big Horn Sheep crossing the road in the middle of the day.
Our day has had lots of giggles and laughs; we talked with several fellow travelers and covered lots of territory. We burned our baked potatoes in the camp fire but did salvage enough to eat with our meal. The kids have put there pocket knives to good use and are currently carving walking staffs out of the willow here around our camp. As we travel farther North the Mosquitoes are getting a bit thicker. We have not yet been chased into the tent but we have been warned that it could get that bad. My great plan of shaving the dog down before our trip did not work out so well. She is now a moving target for the every biting bug around. And also she gets to cold at night sleeping on top of the sleeping bags and seeks refuge in the bottom of some ones sleeping bag. She has been lucky to find a friend to share with her every night so far. Well Ta for now.

Day 6, by Rita (July 3)

We are taking a little break today, at a camp site named Honeymoon lakes just south of Jasper. We are getting pretty good at setting up camp and tearing it down every day. Every one has there job and it all gets done. The camp site we are at does not have running water so we went to town to the swim pool. On our way we stopped at Athabascan chutes, (Falls) what a wonderful mile or so walking tour of some beautiful falls. One of those little side detours that you don’t know what you will be seeing till you get there. We also saw 20 mountain goats with kids(baby goats) on the way into town in the same spot as yesterday.
The pool facility had a very large hot tub and steam room. The kids enjoyed the slide and diving board; I enjoyed the nice clean showers. It was well worth the trip in to town.
We also stopped at the library and up loaded our journal for the first 5 days. Nice little library, we had to practically drag the kids out of there as they had all started reading a book. We ate at the Jasper Pizza house and headed to the tent so that we could start a fire and make some s’mores as we had promised the kids. On the way back we saw two black bears right next to each other going up an embankment next to the road. So all those clean faces went to bed streaked with soot once again. They were all happy and full though.
I have to say in over view of our trip. The sites have been spectacular and the people we have met have been very friendly. Other bikers stop us often to chat and give us a heads up on what to expect ahead of us and ask what they have a head of them. We have not seen many Journeying along with kids. So far our biggest trial is keeping every one fed. Brett is pretty good at manning the Coleman for breakfast and I can make a pretty mean sandwich. I don’t even have to get to creative as they all want peanut butter and jelly. We are eating out about every other day and the kids don’t leave a crumb on there plates.
I hope that you all are having a great summer! We are!

Day 5 by Brett (July 2)

Departed Waterfowl Lakes after talking with a friendly guy from Edmonton. He gave us the scoop on the road to our North and the big mountain we had to go up to get to our next stop at Honeymoon Lake Campground. At 30 miles, we hit the big hill with the boys on single bikes and me and Madison on the tandem. What a climb! It never seemed to end. After getting to the top, we coasted down to the Columbia Icefields Interpretive Center and switched out riders. Riding down the mountain was fun, but the fun came at a price, as the gaps on the road were extremely jarring…but no accidents. Rode the bikes to a Honeymoon Campground. Only running water is from a cistern and when you run over and get it, but the place is nice. We went into Jasper and had a very nice pizza meal at Jasper Pizza. On the way in we saw two black bears, a herd of elk, and 10 goats. Day off on 3 July to update our website and rest sore muscles.

Day 4 by Gavin 85 miles (July1)

Instantly after waking up at 6:30 we started eating breakfast and packing up all of our stuff. By 8:00 we were riding our bikes. By the way, today is Canada day. While going through Banff National park, we at Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. While still in the park, we stopped at Johnson canyon which had two unreal waterfalls, to walk the trail which had many amazing features. At one waterfall, you were in a cave right next to it and were sprayed with water. You would be amazed at the color of the water its actually blue from the glacier melt not only that but its colder than anything you ever felt. We stopped at a town and looked an outdoor sports store and stopped and got candy at an old time candy store. Not only that but we some food at a nearby bakery and café. I got an apple tart, Mom ate some date cake with Madison, and Race, Gage, and Dad had gigantic chocolate chip cookies. Before that, we stopped at the visitor’s center and picked up some little Canadian flags. We then went up to Lake Louise, an unreal blue/turquoise colored lake. So far, I’ve seen quite a bit of people who speak French as their main language instead of English. On the way down, a little boy kept petting Dash our Dog, and all he could say in English was “doggie” and “sit”. We then got back on our bikes and rode to mosquito creek campground which was our planned camping spot and was conveniently named, which was full. So, we went to our back up spot, Waterfowl Lake which was further on and found a campsite. Although, there had been a bear reported wandering around the campground two days before, and the park wardens had placed a live bear trip in one of the empty camp sites. There was even bear scat near our tent site. We tried hard to make a fire but our wood was damp. We went to bed with a few smoky s’mores in our stomachs.
For now, Gavin signing off.

Day 3 typed by Gavin (short day) (June 30)

Today we were going to have a break day but our camp site at Sundance lodges was full for that night because of Canada day (July first) which is Canada’s anniversary of becoming a country. So instead of not riding at all we ended riding 15 miles to the next open camping site in order to get a spot to put our tent, we had to take a RV spot because the other 100 tent sites were completely full. When we got there the Canadian guy next to us, whose name was Lauren, introduced us to his dog Amber and told us he had another dashaund but had to put it down 3 weeks ago. We had got there about 2:00 so we went to the city of Banff to look around, while there we looked at the Fairmont Banff springs hotel, named the castle of the Rockies for good reason and even though it was built in the late 1800’s it looks like it was built yesterday because it is well taken care of. We drove back to Canmore which is basically a town filled lodges for people to stay at during vacations. When we got there we got some food at the grocery, filled up the van with gas, and ate at a gourmet pizza place called Boston Pizza. We then went back to our campsite at Willow rock campground and it was about 10:00 so we went to bed right away.

Day 2 Typed by Gage (June 29)

Wow! Today was quite an experience. After packing up from our campsite, we set off intending to bike about 110 miles today. We started at 9:45 a.m. About 20 miles into the bike we passed a farmer’s/rancher’s fence which had hats on all the fence posts. It looked pretty cool (we should have a pic of that). We also saw a farmer training/working a team of horses. After 32 miles into the ride we stopped at a town called Longview which had the “world’s best jerky”. While we were there, it really started thundering and pouring, and we had our lunch at the Twin cities café. We haven’t found any internet access yet to download these journal entries yet. All the libraries are closed this week because up here in Canada it is a four day vacation (for Canada Day). The rain showers continued to douse us as we entered the Rockies. The hills were really hard, but it paid off on the downhill. We had a 28 mile downhill ride. Dad was cruising! While in the Rockies, we saw Rocky Mountain sheep, Elk, and beautiful scenery. At the end, we stopped at our 110 mile mark at the Sundance campsite nestled in between all these ominous mountains. They had teepee’s and trapper’s tents for campers to sleep in. We got the trapper’s tent. It was still pouring cats and dogs when we got there so thank goodness for the tents and teepee’s that were already there. We ended our biking at 8:00 p.m. Also, this campsite had showers. It’s a relief to be able to go to bed nice and clean after a nice hot shower. We’re all pretty wiped after covering 202 miles in our first two days. We’ll see what tomorrow has in store for us.

All; report on day one; (June 28)

This is Madison typing; we started our biking adventure yesterday at 2:00.We entered Canada through the Chief Mountain port, on the northeast side of Glacier National Park. We stayed the night camped in our tent at Chain Lakes Provincial Park. We ate fruit, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and Pringles. Our “neighbors” had a pot belly pig that kept squealing. The country side is spectacular and looks like Glacier National Park. We have seen beaver dams, cows, deer, a coyote, and even an elk. My dad rode his bike for 92 miles just 8 miles short of our campsite and will make the 8 miles up on day 2.The roads are up and down and no flats are nearby. The temperature is just right and all is going well.

Sincerely,
The Owens

A special note to my dad’s biking friends; the road has been great; it has a wide shoulder and not to busy with cars. He would go faster with you all here, but for now we’re all he’s got.