For the next couple of days I am riding in an area of limited services, high elevation, changing temperatures, and a few hills. Oh yes, and there are bears. Brown and black ones. Before leaving Jasper I checked for campsites near the Columbia Icefield and found two. One was dedicated to those tenting and the other was for anyone in a vehicle of certain size, or less. I felt that if I could get myself to tenting only campsite early that I would be able to find a site since it was first come first served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now along the route every hill I climbed or descended or every turn in the road the scenery was spectacular. It was forever changing. As I climbed higher the glaciers became closer to a point where I felt the tongue of the glacier was lower than I was riding. There was one prolonged climb before the Icefield visitor center that was long and steep. Along the way up this hill there was a good water source in the form of a water fall. It was nice and cold water to drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I was riding I was wondering to myself if I would see any bears. Within 5 minutes of thinking that I saw my first one. It was on the side of the road and over a guard rail eating blue berries. If I was not standing up riding my bike downhill I would not have seen it. It never saw me. Then 20 minutes later I saw another one. This one crossed the road in front of me and I stopped, not to take a picture but to see what it was going to do. What do you know? The bear decides it wants to go across the road to my side. He made it across just before a pickup truck arrived. He was then gone back into the forest. I felt it was safe to proceed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a quick stop at the visitor center it was only a few miles to campsite. I pulled into the campsite and walked around the camping spots and everything was taken. This was not good. So it was off to the next campsite, which was a few miles further south. If there is nothing there I am heading back to the visitor center to find an awning to sleep under. Fortunately I found a site that was near a cooking pavilion. The people in the campsite where curious about me and those who drove by looking for sites gave me stares like \u201chow dare you stop there and stay in your tent in a spot suitable for a small RV\u201d. Tough luck buddy. I can\u2019t go any further and you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This campground was above 6500 feet and the air felt cool. Around 8 pm it started to rain. It was also another site with a hard service in which I could not adequately fasten my tent fly to the ground because of the hard service. It was whipping around. As it got darker and I felt like no more RVs were driving around looking for a camp spot I moved my bike and bags into the cook shelter. At least they would stay dry and it would be easy to pack in the morning. Then the wind picked up and my fly was flapping around and its effectiveness was diminished. I picked the tent up and moved it into the cooking shelter. I now knew that I was going to be dry and warmer. Sometime in the night the rain stopped and the skies cleared. It became much cooler. It was the first time since I left that I zipped my bag all the way to the top to stay warm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s stats<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total mileage: 66.08 miles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Average speed: 11.0 mph<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total ascent: 4419 feet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total descent: 1365 feet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maximum speed: 39.1 mph<\/p>\n\n\n\n