In the Belly of the Beast

We are in the “Belly of the Beast” here, as we cycle through busy city streets we are surrounded by the towering buildings of big oil; Shell, Esso, Husky and Encana to name a few. Our messaging will remain strong here, especially when it comes to the tar sands; Canada’s fastest growing source of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Learn more about the tar sands and the role they are playing in Canada’s contribution to the climate crisis as well as their role in causing Canada’s shameful track record in international climate negotiations. We won the “Colossal Fossil Award” in Poznan last year. Shame.

Met up with the Pedal for the Planet Prairies and Yukon crew! Malkolm who has cycled all the way from Whitehorse in the Yukon, Jeh and Lisa from Edmonton and Nikita who has come out to be our driver are all in the city and we are set to cause a ruckus at Jim Prentice, our environment minister and Calgary MP’s, constituency office.

We arrive at the office; three climate action super cyclists, one Grim Reaper (the bearer of death), one unemployed wind turbine, 20 cyclists and activists and three media teams. We are ready to rock this! We gather outside and give some shorts speeches before heading into the office to ensure that our letter gets right onto Jim’s desk so he doesn’t miss it when he gets back from his canoe trip in the North. In the office, Jeh delivers the letter and then we proceed to really make some noise. One of Jim’s staffers isn’t too fond of us “Please keep the noise down, there are people on the phone with other constituencies” Jeh replies, “We just want to sing a song in your honour” and then we all start screaming… “ooh its hot in here! There’s too much carbon in the atmosphere! Take action! Take action! And get some satisfaction!” and then “when I say “Jim”, you say “where are you ?!” Jim! Where are you?! Jim! Where are you?!

It was pretty awesome, too bad Jim missed all the excitement.

That evening we gave a presentation at a community centre. Ourselves and Malkolm shared some photos and stories of the trip so far and then Alex from the Youth Delegation to Copenhagen shared his experiences last year in Poznan and further shed light on Canada’s embarrassing and detrimental role in international climate negotiations.

Day 17 - 96km Miles of blue skies and canola fields

After a long "rest" in Calgary were back on the good ol' number one. Set off this morning with just 3 of us, Nadia, myself and Steve. Malkolm running a little behind due to a misbehaving lock falling and breaking some spokes and a few other things. We had some great bike trails leaving Calgary and didn't actually get onto the highway until we had put about 20km behind us.

We found it funny that as we rode Steve constantly was riding on the rumble strips, something that annoys us to no end but we realized he has duel suspension on his bike and probably wasn't even noticing the bumps! That duel suspension sure sucks your energy though and he was very tired by the end of the day! Malkolm caught up to us around 30km into the ride, speedy guy that he is. We continued on for about another hour before stopping for lunch in Strathmore. Nothing too exciting between Strathmore and Gleichen just lots and lots of Canola fields. When I asked what I can do to keep myself entertained in the prairies the only answer I received was to count the wheat fields...this could be a fairly boring next two weeks! We did luck out though and find some sprinklers which were a very welcome cool down from the hot sun. That was until I started feeling sticky and a little weird after and we realized it may not have been just water spraying out...feeling fine now though so no permanent damage done!

We arrived in Gleichen just after 4pm to find Nikita (our driver) at the welcome sign. Apparently that was to be our "campsite" for the night. No facilities aka washrooms were to be found so we set off to explore the town in hopes of finding a public washroom. Gleichen didn't appear to be the friendliest of towns we noted as we absorbed the bars on windows and solid metal doors of all the shops. We eventually found a gas station where we assumed we could use the toilet but when I entered I noticed a sign stating that washrooms were for staff only and under no circumstances was anyone else to use the bathroom. By this point we were getting a little desperate so I asked at the counter if there were washrooms anywhere in town. I guess we looked harmless enough and she took pity and allowed us use of the bathroom. While we were waiting we apparently witnessed a shoplifting and/or gas and run incident without even realizing it. I guess these things are common in Gleichen because the kid hanging outside of the store casually asked the owner "you guys get jacked again?" and the response "yah again...guess we better call the RCMP" Another indication of a not so safe and friendly little town. Needless to say we made sure to lock our bikes and store everything else in the car that night.
We went to sleep a little nervous about staying out in the open and that we might have some unwanted visitors in the night, but this morning when we woke up all was just how we had left it. Now were back on the road heading for the provincial park of Kinbrook Island.

Day 16: 142 Km-Out of the mountains and into the city!

Broke our record of longest day cycled today! Banff-->Calgary!

Through the mountains outside of Canmore we came across the Lafarge Plant. Lafarge is the world's biggest cement manufacturer. Cement is the most widely used building material in the world and contributes approximately 7-8% of global GHG emissions.

Again, we have had the pleasure of avoiding the Trans Canada for the most part by taking H. 1A which has no semi's on it! The Rockies are now behind us and we spent most of the day cruising on downhill and flat! I spoke too soon, there was a GIANT hill coming out of Cochrane, we have named it "Cochrane Pass" as it was equivolent if not worse than the passes through the Rockies!

A big shout out to the BC Pedal for the Planet Crew, especially Emma who is 12 years old and cycled all the way from Sicamous to Calgary with us, what an accomplishment! Thanks to everyone who has cycled with us and has helped to organize this great campaign. A special thanks to our tour leader, J.D, and our driver, Laurie---we will miss you all!
As we enter the city limits we are faced with views of sprawling suburbia and the annoyance of having to wait at stoplights and attempt to move in harmony with motor vehicles.

Day 15 – 92km Kicking the Horse’s ass

Camping at the kicking horse campground was a little chilly, got down to around 6 degrees that night but our sleeping bags and extra layers kept us warm through the night. We mentally geared ourselves up for what we believed would be our most intense day yet. 28km through kicking horse pass up to Lake Louise.

We started the day off with a little off-roading/bushwacking shortcut to get back on the highway and then up, up and away we went. About half an hour into the hill we reached a blasting site and were detained for 20minutes but while we were there we got chatting with a man who informed us that we were already most of the way up the mountain and it was all downhill from there! What a surprise, we had been waiting for the beast of a mountain to rear its ugly head but really we had almost reached the pass! We decided then that we may as well continue on and instead of ending in Lake Louise we would pedal all the way to Banff.

On our brief stop at the bakery in Lake Louise to refuel we met a girl riding her bike to Quebec, she was riding 200km that day and wild camping! What an inspiration for us to see her doing that on her own! We invited her to join us since she was planning on following a similar route and hopefully we will meet up here in Calgary and continue on together!

The ride into Banff from Lake Louise was stunningly beautiful and quiet since we took the Bow Valley Parkway a much less used roadway. We saw more cyclists on that route then we had on the entire trip thus far. I guess that is a very popular day trip route since the road cyclists were just zooming by us as fast as can be.

That night we camped above Banff at the Tunnel Mountain Village, and a village it is – we estimated there were probably as many tents there as there are dwellings on Pender! That being said the sites were still spacious and there were lots of trees! We celebrated our last night all together as team BC with a tasty dinner and some red wine and ciders. After that it was quick to bed since the next day’s ride would be our longest yet, but that’s a story for another day…

Day 14: 67 Km-Highway Construction--is that really the best use of our tax dollars?

Out of Golden and off to Field today!

Started the day off right with a great big hill to get our muscles warmed up! Windy-narrow-cliffside roads welcomed us when we got to the top and slowing down to let semi's pass before sharp turns was a necessity.

Further along we cycled through kilometres of highway construction. We have been noticing highway improvement signs throughout BC with huge sums of money attached to them. Some read "Keeping Canada's Economy Moving". Clearly those who are spending our tax dollars haven't got a clue about how to keep Canada's economy moving in perpetuity. Wishing we were seeing high speed passenger and cargo rail lines being laid down rather than stinky black asphalt. Just another reminder of why we do what we do and why we're going where we're going ;)

Into Yoho National Park, again the Mountain Pine Beetle has really shown up in full force. Stretches of grey trees creep up the Rockies, we are interested to see how much of the infestation has gotten over the mountains and into Alberta. Have also seen a sign reading "Stop the Mountain Pine Beetle, it is unlawful to bring pinewood with bark into Alberta".

Had yet another lunch of wraps and hummus, this time next to the Kicking Horse River. Spent some extra time getting our feet wet, finding smooth round stones in the river and laying in the grass before tackling the last leg of a hot day.

Made it the quaint little town of Field, population approx 200-300. All the houses have their own character and many of them have been converted to guesthouses for the many tourists that come through this area. Stopped at the only store/cafe/liquorstore/bar in town for a cold drink before heading off to the Kicking Horse Campground. Spent the evening playing frisbee surrounded by mountain peaks.....and RV's ;)

Day 13: 92 km-Rogers Pass! 1331 metres...

Woke up bright and early like usual but feeling substantially soggier then normal due to a giant rainstorm during the night. Cold and damp we got dressed and packed up eager to hit the road and get the legs pumping and blood flowing in order to warm up! We headed up up up towards Roger's pass. We had camped about 7km before the pass so that meant about 7km of uphill before us. Luckily the grade wasn't too bad and we had nice wide shoulders to pedal on. Loving the granny gear these days, slowly but steadily we went up the mountain. The morning was clear and we had lots of opportunities for great pictures of the mountains!

Heading down from the pass was a fast and easy ride except for the tunnels, a cyclists worst night mare! The first tunnel we encountered had no lights and was completely dark inside a.k.a TERRIFYING! Blindly pedaling through the tunnel and hoping for no potholes or other unforseen obstacles in our path was one of the scarier moments of the day. We all made it through or around in the case of Mary, Jon and Emma. I was feeling really good that morning and was keeping a fairly fast pace so I lost sight of the rest of the group after a while, I decided to stop and wait for them to catch up but after waiting for about 15 minutes and still no sign I continued on to the meet point with the car. I thought it was odd that they hadn't arrived but wasn't particularly concerned. A couple km later I found the support vehicle on the side of the road and JD and I proceeded to wait another 45 minutes for the rest of the group. By this point we were a little concerned and JD was about to hop on her bike and look for everyone when another cyclist came into view. We spoke with him and found out that Nod and Laurie were waiting at the bottome of the hill and he had passed the other 3 at the tunnels of which they were going around as opposed to through. What a relief to hear everyone was ok and they were just slow because bushwacking around the tunnels is substantially slower then buzzing through them!

After a lunch we still had 35km to go and I was back in the zone pedalling along to the time of my music! Bridges were the next obstacle we had to overcome, a race between us and the semis to get over the bridges, constantly looking over our shoulder to see whether we or not we were about to be caught! Bridges are a constant fear on this trip because you always lose your shoulder and have to ride in the lane with vehicles and depending on how patient they are they might try to pass us really close next to us!

Getting into Golden felt good, had a nice stretch on the grass while waiting for everyone else to trickle into town. We all rode through town together towards the church where we were making dinner. After a delicious Thai curry we were picked up by our billets for a good night's sleep in a real bed. Nod and I got to stay with a wonderful couple who live on the outskirts of town and have been there for the past 50 years so they had some great stories to tell us about what things used to be like when they were raising their children, as well as great stories about bears in their yard! We each had our own bedrooms that night and again big beds to ourselves, what a luxury! A much needed sleep followed shortly!

Day 12: Into the Mountains!

agh, forgot to record the kilometres for this one but I think it was about 55 !?

Said goodbye to Will and Kesten this morning and headed for the hills leaving revelstoke--off to Glacier National Park!

Gearing down real low and keeping a high cadence are key. This does mean that we chug along quite slowly---thoughts of stephen harper at the top of the hill always help to keep me going! Oh ya, and plenty of GORP (good ol' raisins and peanuts) stops are helping out. We are so impressed with Emma who is 12 years old and will be cycling with us all the way to Canmore! What a trooper!

Our main obstacle today was another set of tunnels! we stop for a roadside picnic lunch with a stunning view before we embark into the first one. Wraps, hummus and veggies are a standard and delicious cycling diet.

These tunnels actually have enough space for us to walk our bikes along the outside! the first and third tunnels were a breeze, the second--not so much. Given that these are Avalanche tunnels, the second one had snow/drainage trenches along the outside which we had the challenge of hawling ourselves and our bikes over! thank goodness John is with us, we may not have made it across without his help!

Made it to camp just before the rains began, had a delicious dinner of pasta with TVP (textured vegetable protein), marshmallows over the fire, and conversations of that constantly challenging question "How can we better engage the public in taking action on climate change?" as usual, the answer still remains quite foggy.

Another great day finished, the scenery has been absolutely stunning--there is nothing like being surrounded by mountains, waterfalls, rivers, creeks, glaciers, green forests and great people all day. Loving it.