Day 51 Cardston to Milk River

Up and out of bed full of the joys of being 62. So after doing a few knees bending, back stretching and allowing the escape of gas from various orifii, I was able to make and enjoy a breakfast that would kill a younger man. We were on an almost deserted road before 8am, and making our way up a deceptively unflat road. I had Marge check to see if we had a flat, but after about 15km kilometers we were warmed up and over the top of the 150m rise in no time. Definitely Ranchland, that’s what Marge said (and she has a degree in geography you know.) Lots of different types of beef on the hoof, brown ones and black, and even a scrap yard to brighten up the scene as we undulated our way up to Del Bonita, which consisted of a post office-general store and some abandoned wooden buildings, where we chatted to the lady there and got some background on the place. There’s not much doing now though, except it was starting to get hot.

The further east we went the drier it became, but what rivers there were, flowed very fast. The riding was relatively easy however. There was a fair amount of farming, wheat, sweet smelling canola, and other cereals but, after a 100km we were getting to the end of our ride we were both a little irritable with fatigue and then found that we had to do a 4km detour to get passsed some road construction. The upside of this was that we got some good shots of a couple of grain silos This is one:

In Milk River there is a very nice campsite called “Under 8 Flags” and there is a plaque explaining why it is so aptly named.. First it was French, then Spanish, then French, part of the USA, then British, then under control of the Hudsons Bay, then Britain again. The last two flags are the Ensign from 1946, and the Maple Leaf. We found a really nice campsite and put up the tent. Sausages,mash and peas and carrots, with a couple of cups of tea and lots of superb cherries.

Tomorrow is the start of the dirt, I hope I sleep well.

22kph, average

Today’s climb 350m,

Total climb

Today’s Distance 117km

Total Distance 3510km