The second section of the road was a 95 km segment of the Alberta Forestry Trunk Road, north up to Nordegg. This was a great couple of hours on the gravel, mostly 2nd- & 3rd-gear cruising, interspersed with some 1st-gear switchbacks, steep ascents and descents, and some 4th-gear straights. I stopped often for photos, and spent most of my time in motion recalling and reflecting on pieces of the weekend's training, for which the Trunk Road's myriad turns, hills, and surface conditions represented a great setting for the real-world experience portion of the learning.
From Nordegg, I headed west on the paved Highway 11 into the mountains, joining the famous Icefields Parkway at Saskatchewan Crossing. (The gatehouse was closed, so I got a toll-free ride on the Parkway, woo!) Traffic was heavy on the 93 down the the TransCanada, with lots of tour buses, rented RVs, rented cars, and cyclists. Basically, holidaymakers everywhere.
The day wrapped up with a slog on the TransCanada Highway west through Field to Golden, BC. Traffic here was even heavier, and now included semi-trucks on top of all the vacationers. The last 15 km or so into Golden was single-lane bumper-to-bumper crawl through the ongoing re-construction of the highway (Kicking Horse Canyon Phase 4), which is an outta-this-world construction site to see. The TCH is presently fully closed every night overnight, but during daytime was just a bit slow.
Tomorrow will be a scheduled rest day as I visit an old friend here in Golden and slum it up at his mountain shack.
Days total: 386 km, 6h30m Trip total: 2,196 km | Start: Rocky Mountain House, AB. End: Golden, BC. Soundtrack: More Hawksley shuffle in the mountain air, Dan Mangan. |