Day 48 Pincher Creek to Waterton Park

Please note this blog entry is out of order for some reason I can't fathom. The chances of meeting Janice where astronomical!

After the thunderstorm, we had a partially sunny morning and a continually rising road. The temperature dropped and dark clouds gathered ominously in front of us.

We passed some Texans going the other way. They were on a 900 mile tour in 7 days, and even though they were sagged, it sure sounded tough to us.

To our surprise we slowly got up to 1345m which is very close to the Crows Nest elevation, only to find a railway bridge traversing the road. This was much tougher than anticipated. To make things even more interesting, a stiff headwind and a fine drizzle had joined our party. At halfway, we stopped at the Twin Butte Restaurant for a burger,and were about to leave when this silver haired lady accompanied by two friends, asked if we were the owners of the tandem outside in the now pouring rain. She said that when she had done this route it had been very tough. I asked her to sit down, and Marge asked if her name was Janice Kenyon. She looked stunned.

So for the next hour we chatted happily with the lady from whose book we had based our route, and whom we had gotten to know well from her daily log of her trip across Canada in 2004. A truely magical moment.

Our reverie was short lived as we went outside, and dressed up for the last 30km into Waterton. A passing cattleman offered to take us to the camp in his truck. We were soooooo close to accepting but got refused to his amazement, got on our rusty steed and pedaled off into the rain.

Not long after, our rear tire blew with the sound of a rifle shot. It had only done 300km, so it was a little surprising. Off with the bags and trailer and we set to to change it with the tire Andrew had brought with him. (Did I mention that?)

We were now down to a single emergency spare, and were a little tense as we rode in complete solitude in the pouring rain.

As I’ve said before all good things come to an end and we made it safe into the Park and met Andrew and Jon for a cup of high test hot chocolate and a cookie. Thus fueled we tooled round Waterton to try and find a Hotel/motel to stay in with no luck. Everywhere was booked up, except camping.

The rain abated for just long enough to get our tent erected, then we went into town for dinner in Andrew’s car. (Not really for those of you with detailed minds, we used plates, cutlery, and as close a facsimile to a restaurant as Waterton in the rain can provide.)

Getting back into a tent, on our return, when it was throwing it down with rain was quite an art, if one does not want to bring in gallons of water. I would like you to picture this, two 60+ year old farts trying to make themselves into pretzels so that their bed stays dry. Smile if you can.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print except that we suffered no permanent injuries. Night Night.

15.5kph Average

Distance 60km

Total distance 3336km

Altitude Change 700m.

Total Altitude Change 22974m