Jasper to Revelstoke - The Icefields Parkway

Overview
Scenery - 10
Road Conditions - 8
Free Camping opportunities - 9
Hills - 8
Services - 6

I decided to hitch into Jasper from Mcbride to give my leg some time to rest before paul would arrive a day later. When I arrived in town I headed to the Park HQ to ask about camping, they said it would $27 a night per site. Since I was by myself this would have been rediculously expensive so I set off around town to find someone to share a site with. I found Jethro, a guy from England hitchhiking and working his way around the world. We decided to meet at the campsite a few hours later. When I arrived at the campsite I found out that there were cheaper walk in sites available for only $22.50! Camping at Jasper didn't end up being that expensive in the end as when Paul arrived we split the cost three ways and then recruited another english guy for a night and since no one was checking who was on the site we stayed for free on our last night.

Jasper was a nice enough place to spend a few days but had little character. On our last day in town we went to the aquatics centre. We went in the early afternoon and it was $5 which is pretty reasonable. I'm not sure what I was expecting from the aquatics centre but I was a little disappointed. The hot tub was certainly hot and I spent most of my time in there trying to soothe my aching muscles. I tried to massage my hamstring that was hurting but I realised that it may have looked like I was massaging something else so I soon stopped that. After about 40 minutes in the hot tub I decided to get my 5 dollars worth and have a go on the slide. After coming down feet first I was a little dissatisfied so decided to go down head firt. On arriving in the pool at the bottom I was promtly told off and as I stood up I realised my shorts had fallen down, I pulled them back up and made for the exit.

Jasper was the beginning of the Icefields Parkway which would turn out to be the highlight of the trip so far. On the 25th we headed out of Jasper, a little ways down the road there was a checkpoint to pay the park entrance fees. I ended up getting a two day pass for $20, Paul just cycled straight through and didn't have to pay. We ended up cycling about 45 miles that day and headed down a dirt road to a large clearing that we think must have been a lake once. It had a picnic table and a set of antlers, everything you'd want in a campspot I'd say.

The next day I managed to get up pretty early and was only the road by about 7.45. The roads are empty this time of day and I would definetly recommened getting up early if you cycle the Icefields Parkway as it really improved the expiernce for me. It was great cycling with zero traffic and the views just kept getting better as the day went on and it ended up being one of my best cycling days ever!

In the early afternoon I reached Sunwapta pass(2030m) which wasn't actually that bad and the downhill on the other side was awesone (probably best to come from jasper to get gentler hills).We ended up camping at Rampart Creek Campground.

The next day I had good intention of getting up even earlier but when my alarm went off at 6.00 it was still dark out so I decided to stay put. I ended up getting about 6.45 and saw Paul in his new hammock with a tarp wrapped around him for warmth, it was pretty cold at night in the rockies, probably the coldest of the trip so far. The scenery was really breathtaking for the first hour after I'd set off. 

The only downside of setting off early was sacrificing the feeling in my fingers! Bow Pass was a little tougher than Sunwapta and I put my headphones on and put on some Modest Mouse, which normally does the trick, I decided that I wouldn't stop cycling until the album had finished. After about half an hour and in some distress I checked my MP3 player and there were still 6 songs left! I quickly decided that my first idea had been too optimistic and stopped for a break after the next song had finished. I passed quite a few cyclists on the way up but none of male ones waved, I suppose it must have hurt their ego's to see that a guy on a loaded bike had just done the same climb as them.  There wasn't much of a downhill after the pass but there was a very scenic bright blue lake called Bow Lake.   We stayed at Mosquito Lake Campground that night and found a spot away from the other sites next to the river with a picnic table which had great views of the surrounding mountains.  When the sun went down the sky turned red and looked very impressive.

  I foolishly slept under the stars that night and my sleeping bag developed a layer of ice on its outer.  The down actually didn't get wet and I managed to dry it out when the sun came out later in the afternoon and it was like new. 

There was about 15 miles left of the Icefields Parkway, of which I savoured every mile, to cycle before we would turn onto the very busy and annoying TransCanada Highway.   The first section of Transcanada wasn't the worst because of the great downhill.  After a very short climb to Kicking Horse Pass (1627m) there was a pretty nice downhill all the way to Field.

to be continued.....

Some Recommended Equipment

If you haven’t done much bike touring before it’s sometimes hard to find the best equipment for the job, here are some of my recommendations. I have used all these products for at least a hundred days on the road.

Topeak Mountain Morph Mini Pump
Although not the smallest mini pump around, the extra hundred grams or so won’t make much difference to your overall weight and having properly inflated tires will have a noticeable impact on your average speed. This pump folds out in to a mini track pump so you can pump against the floor, which makes a massive difference if you’re trying to pump your tires to a decent pressure. I have had this pump around 5 years and it has come with me on every bike ride in that time and still works like new.

Old Man Mountain Pannier Racks
This company makes great bike racks and has a great customer service reputation. They provide the best solution for putting racks on bikes without rear rack eyelets (they are attached to the V brake bosses and through the wheel quick release skewer – see photo at top of post) and putting a front rack on a suspension fork for off road touring. I have used their racks for all of my bike tours and have had no problems. They are available through Carradice and St John Street Cycles here in the U.K.

Topeak Alien Multi-tool
This multi-tool has all you need to fix most roadside repairs and doesn’t really have any faults that I can think of. Highly recommended.

Feathered Friends Winter Wren Sleeping Bag
This is an unusual sleeping bag in that it can be worn as jacket, well if you don’t mind looking a little silly. It has arm holes and a front zip and a draw cord at the bottom so can it can be fastened around your waste, it's nice to be able to read or cook around camp in your sleeping bag. It doesn’t weight much but if you choose to take this instead of a sleeping bag and an insulated jacket the weight saving will be even greater. It works best as a jacket if worn under another jacket, a waterproof for example, to give it some sort of shape. I would recommend getting the Epic outer fabric, it has proved to be extremely water resistant. I use this under a tarp without a bivy bag and am confident that even if the outer fabric gets damp the down will stay dry. This bag is also extremely warm, I’ve slept in it with very little on below zero degrees Celsius under a tarp and been warm.

MEC Panniers
I have used the MEC PF-21 Cordura Cycling Panniers from MEC (they’re a massive outdoor retailer in Canada for those reading in the UK), which have proved to be extremely durable for the price. The attachment mechanism is basic but it works extremely well and they sell spare clips but I doubt you’d ever need them. I have also used these off road for long periods without any problems. I would recommend these for anyone looking for a set of small non-waterproof panniers.

Map Your Ride

Before going for a bike ride/run it is nice to be able to accurately calculate how far your going to ride/run and to be able to see an elevation profile for the route. To do this I have been using two websites:

http://www.mapmyride.com/
http://www.mapmyrun.co.uk/

Both website work well and are very similar in many ways. When using either website I would recommend selecting the auto follow roads option. As the name of this option suggests, it means that when your mapping a new route and select a new location on the map, it will find the shortest route sticking to roads.

Mapmyrun.co.uk
I used to prefer mapmyrun.co.uk because its auto mapping was much quicker(it still is quicker but the difference is less noticeable), this is probably because is gets less traffic and because the website has less bells and whistles. It never seems to fail to auto route which mapmyride.com has on some occasions. It also gives a basic but adequate elevation profile.

Mapmyride.com
Mapmyride.com seems to have improved its auto routing recently but now has floating advertisements which can be annoying. It has a much better elevation profile diagram which is colour coded with different colours used for different percentage inclines and also gives you figures for elevation gain/loss. The map at the start of this post is from one of my recent rides, I mapped the route in advance on mapmyride.com, once you are a member they have an option for embedding your maps into blogs which is helpful if you have a blog or website but most people probably won't use.

Conclusion
I use and would recommend both websites. I use maymyrun.co.uk when I'm in a rush and mapmyride.com when I want a better elevation diagram and the option to embed the map into this blog.

Favorite Photos

If you don't want to look through all my photos, these are my favorites so far for Canada.

Gear

This shall be updated as I get more time and as my gear changes as the trip goes continues

Camp Stuff

Tent - Vango Spirit 200 +
This is a tunnel tent that I've been happy with so far.  One of the poles snapped on the first night (It had been used a lot before the trip) but since it has three poles, I used a section from the non essential vestibule pole to replace the broken section.  I've been using it with two poles for two month without any problems but hopefully I'll get a replacement section soon. 
Sleeping Bag - Feathered Friends Winter Wren
One of my favorite pieces of kit, this is very warm and the out layer is epic fabric which has turned out to be very water resistent. Even when the outside of my bag frooze one night ( I wasn't sleeping in a tent) the down didn't get wet and I was still reasonably warm!
Sleeping Mat - Thermarest Z-Lite
If the ground is rocky a single layer of this pad is pretty useless but I've cut mine in half and so I just double it up under my torso as my legs don't get too cold.  It works pretty well as a sitting pad around camp and I don't have to worry about it piercing which is the main reason I got it and because its cheap.
Stove - Century Stove
I've just been giving this stove by the very generous Lorraine.  Its pretty heavy and looks just like the your gas stove at home and runs on Coleman Canisters that should be easy to come by!  I'll probably pick up a MSR Whisperlite International before leaving the US but this should do for now.

The Cassiar Highway - Watson Lake to Kitwanga

Overview
Scenery - 8
Road Conditions - 7 (some gravel and less than smooth sealed roads)
Free Camping opportunities - 10
Hills - 7
Services - 3

This section of the trip was one of the highlights so far. I can't remember quite when one day ended and the next begun, I'd like to say this was because it was one great continous adventure but I just have a pretty bad memory. So my descriptions of certains parts might be a little sketchy.

The first day to Boya Lake Provential Campground had plenty of good swimming spots of which all were appreciated as it was a pretty hot day. The Boya Lake campground is in a beautiful spot which was only tarnished by the large number of RVs (massive caravans for the UK readership) but still comes recommeded nevertheless. We took a day off here as we hadn't had a day off in a while and I managed to handwash some clothes with my general purpose biodegradable dish/hair/body and now clothes soap. I was pretty happy with the results and shouldn't need a laundry ever again!

Towards the end of our rest day a guy came over and offered us a beer and a lend of his canoes! We gladly took his beer and his canoes and had a little explore of the lake. From on the water you can grasp the size of the lake much better and it was pretty massive or at least much bigger than it seems from land.

The next day the scenery started to improve as we got into the mountains
and after around fifty miles of riding we found a great camp spot by the road right next to a river. The cassiar highway overall was great for wild camping and it would would be easy to ride the whole road without paying for a campsite. The next day was undulating with geat scenery for most of the route and we finished up in Dease Lake. I imagined a scenic settlement by a lake and was disapointed. The town is pretty ugly and we picked up some groceries (they have a better selection than Iskut and are a little cheaper) and camped on a dirt road that wasn't in use that ran from a trucker station just south of town. The trucker station itself warned campers and RVs not to camp therefor thier 'own safety and enjoyment' and to stay at the RV park across the road (who I suspect made the sign) but we had a pretty good time nevertheless.

There was a long gradual climb out of dease lake follwed by a long downhill to the Stikine river and then a shorter steep climb out of the valley and then another downhill into Iskut. For most of this day the views were hidden behind smoke from recent forest fires. Iskut was advertised as the 'resort capital of northern BC' . I suspect the guy who wrote this had been dabbling in some hard drugs at the time because it was another disapointing ugly town. It had one redeeming feature and that was it provided us with a great camp spot. I asked a lady who worked in the understocked and overpriced supermarket if she could recommend somewhere to camp for free and she told us to follow the dirt road across from the store. After about half a mile we came to a large clearing which had great views of the mountains and a river close by that had a cool old wooden bridge across it. From iskut it took is two days to get to about 5 miles past Bell II. The scenery in this section was probably the best of the whole road, a continous supply of snow-capped mountains. The campsite 5 miles past Bell II was one of the best of the trip so far. We met two other cyclists who were heading north and camped with them beside a beautiful lake. I went for a swim but it was hard to relax as any part of your body that was above the water was attacked by moquitos and a some type of wierd biting fly.

The next day we managed to get the Stewart, towards the end of day there was a long climb and then a down hill to the junction for the road to Stewart. We decided that we would try and hitch to Stewart and ride back since it was off route to save time. After waiting about two hours, we decided that if the next pick-up didn't pick us up we would go to a nearby campground. Would you believe our luck! The next truck that passed us stopped and picked me and Paul up and two other German hitch hikers. To our distress he then decided to try and set the land speed pickup-truck-with-two-bikes-precariously-balanced-in-the-back record. We all luckily survived and arrived in stewart in great time! Stewart was a small town with an amazing mountain backdrop. We stayed at the municipal campground which at $11 a night was pretty reasonable. We took the next day off, Paul went to see the bears at Hyder, they have a viewing platform there, and saw a black bear and I just hung around town. We treated ourselves to some petty good value steaks that night and cooked them over a fire and they tasted like heaven. The next day we rode back to the cassiar highway. The road from Stewart back to the highway has great views for its entirety and I would highly recommend the side trip.

It took us about another one and a half days to get to the junction of the Cassiar Highway and Route 16, the Yellowhead Highway, on which we would head east. There was a town, Kitwanga, near the junction with a free campsite which we didn't take advantage of as we hadn't ridden very far that day. We picked up some groceris , they had a pretty good selection and it was fairly cheap, then cycled to the junction and the Cassiar Highway was saddly over.