Ride to Columbia Icefield

It was mostly clear and sunny when I left Sunwapta Falls on June 24th and headed south just after 8am. It was good riding with beautiful scenery along the way and mostly uphill. The traffic was very light for the first hour. There were some good, steady climbs for the first 30km which I was able to handle with my heavily loaded touring bike. Over the next 11km or so there was an elevation change from 5000 feet to around 6200 feet. At one point I had to get off my bike and push it uphill for more than a kilometer. I was wishing I hadn’t brought all that camping gear. My reward was a gentle downhill ride for more than a kilometer and then a gentle uphill ride to the Icefield Centre. I arrived before noon and covered just over 50 kilometers. Along the way I stopped several times to take pictures. I had lunch at the Icefield Centre and looked at the displays. I had planned to ride another 3 kilometers and camp at the Wilcox Campground. It started to rain and cool off so I took the easy way out and got a hotel room for the night. I’ll start ramping up the mileage over the next few days if the weather is good.

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