A tour is born...As the long 4 day weekend approaches [Canada Day is Tuesday 1 July] I had the cunning idea of riding the Icefield's Parkway as a warm up for the Dempster Highway. It will be busy with tourists, but most of my day will be riding so I will only have to deal with the throngs when I need to find a place to sleep and at the odd rest/food stop. I called the Park Office to inquire about campsites and was told there were no reservations for camp spots on the Parkway. Naturally I asked what I was supposed to do if I rolled into camp in the evening and there were no spots available. I got the stock reply...I was to moved down the road until I found a free camp site. Clearly that won't be happening! It's a bit surprisng that Park Officials aren't more sensitive to human powered visitors, but I guess we are so overwhelming rare there isn't much demand to accommodate us.
I did manage to reserve my first night's camp spot online since it is near Jasper and at the north end of the Parkway. I was a bit shocked that a single backpacking tent spot with no services cost $38 [$49 if you have a 24' RV with full hook ups!], but what can you do? At least my first night of tour won't be a commando raid style adventure....=-)
I think I'll ride my Long Haul Trucker this weekend. It would probably be wise to ride my Thorn Sherpa in a full shake down tour as that will be the bike I'm going to take to the arctic, but I don't have any other tours on the books this summer that I'm planning on using the LHT for and we rode the Icefield's Parkway together a couple years ago so it has sentimental value to me. You know you have too many touring bikes when you have to go out of your way to make sure you get them all out on tour each year...lol...oh well I can think of worse problems to have!
As with all my trips this one is starting with a pile of gear in a corner of my living room. The pile will grow until I have almost everything together at which point I'll get out my panniers and pack them. I know it's been a good summer when I've never quite got all my gear put away from the last trip before I need to start thinking about the next one...=-) I was cleaning up my camping pots & utensils from my SoCal trip today and realized there was no point putting them away.
I haven't been on the Icefield's Parkway during the peak of tourist season. I'm expecting a bit of a circus, but I have to admit I enjoy the stupid questions and amazed looks of the tour bus crowd when I roll up the top of a heinous mountain pass on my bike. Hopefully some RV campers will be sufficiently impressed to lavish an icy cold beer on me in the campground...=-) No matter what happens the stunning scenery and lack of cell coverage will be ample reward for cranking up the steep inclines.
Riding the Sherpa on a tour closer to home makes loads of sense. I'd feel awfully silly if I have a major snafu on the Dempster Highway that I could have dealt with easily with a LBS close at hand. So I'm thinking I'll get the Sherpa out for a 2 day 1 night mini tour in the next week or two. That way I still get to use the LHT on a tour that is ideal for it and I can log a few more touring miles this summer.
I've been feeling rather sheepish as brevets reports keep rolling into my inbox and I've only been out on my rando bent twice [including a 200K brevet]. However as the summer creeps along I can't help, but notice that I'm making up for my lack of rando action with quite a lot of bike touring. I'm on pace to do 6 tours this year - possibly 7 if I get down to Costa Rica in December. Not bad when you consider that I did zero bike tours in 2007 - nada, zip - the big "0". That's making me feel better. I'm not a total bike slug. I'm just torn between some different 2 wheeled pursuits...=-)
I did manage to reserve my first night's camp spot online since it is near Jasper and at the north end of the Parkway. I was a bit shocked that a single backpacking tent spot with no services cost $38 [$49 if you have a 24' RV with full hook ups!], but what can you do? At least my first night of tour won't be a commando raid style adventure....=-)
I think I'll ride my Long Haul Trucker this weekend. It would probably be wise to ride my Thorn Sherpa in a full shake down tour as that will be the bike I'm going to take to the arctic, but I don't have any other tours on the books this summer that I'm planning on using the LHT for and we rode the Icefield's Parkway together a couple years ago so it has sentimental value to me. You know you have too many touring bikes when you have to go out of your way to make sure you get them all out on tour each year...lol...oh well I can think of worse problems to have!
As with all my trips this one is starting with a pile of gear in a corner of my living room. The pile will grow until I have almost everything together at which point I'll get out my panniers and pack them. I know it's been a good summer when I've never quite got all my gear put away from the last trip before I need to start thinking about the next one...=-) I was cleaning up my camping pots & utensils from my SoCal trip today and realized there was no point putting them away.
I haven't been on the Icefield's Parkway during the peak of tourist season. I'm expecting a bit of a circus, but I have to admit I enjoy the stupid questions and amazed looks of the tour bus crowd when I roll up the top of a heinous mountain pass on my bike. Hopefully some RV campers will be sufficiently impressed to lavish an icy cold beer on me in the campground...=-) No matter what happens the stunning scenery and lack of cell coverage will be ample reward for cranking up the steep inclines.
Riding the Sherpa on a tour closer to home makes loads of sense. I'd feel awfully silly if I have a major snafu on the Dempster Highway that I could have dealt with easily with a LBS close at hand. So I'm thinking I'll get the Sherpa out for a 2 day 1 night mini tour in the next week or two. That way I still get to use the LHT on a tour that is ideal for it and I can log a few more touring miles this summer.
I've been feeling rather sheepish as brevets reports keep rolling into my inbox and I've only been out on my rando bent twice [including a 200K brevet]. However as the summer creeps along I can't help, but notice that I'm making up for my lack of rando action with quite a lot of bike touring. I'm on pace to do 6 tours this year - possibly 7 if I get down to Costa Rica in December. Not bad when you consider that I did zero bike tours in 2007 - nada, zip - the big "0". That's making me feel better. I'm not a total bike slug. I'm just torn between some different 2 wheeled pursuits...=-)
4 comments:
six tours... wow I'm very envious :) the upcoming icefield parkway tour sounds like a perfect long weekend. Now you are inspiring me to want to go somewhere by bike for the long weekend but limited interesting 3 day trips out of Toronto.
hi vik,
hope you had fun. I've found in practice the campgrounds are accomodating. "worst" case I've had to go around and see if there is anyone willing to share...
The tour went really well and getting camping spots was no problem at all. I hope you both enjoyed your weekend...=-)
So when's this tour to central illinois?
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