September 2, 2007, Sunday

Calgary to Whitefish, Montana

Previous

Because our bike boxes were stored in Whitefish, we spent the day shuttling from Calgary to Whitefish. In hindsight it would have made more sense to ship the boxes to the hotel in Calgary and fly home from there. The van ride was pleasant enough, along the wide open plains and foothills south of Calgary. We would be crossing into the U.S. at Roosville. We stopped briefly at Frank Slide where a huge limestone landslide had killed 70 people in 1903. After we said our goodbyes at the Grouse Mountain Lodge, the guides continued their journeys either back to Washington with the vans or to Utah for the next trip. The California contingent left by car.

Our room wasn't ready so we packed up Kerie's bike in the lobby, eliciting the usual stares from passersby. It took about an hour and 20 minutes to disassemble the bike, wrap it in insulating material, and then fit it into the bike box like a puzzle, using photos from previous attempts as reference. Before packing my Bike Friday I went for a short ride and then we took the motel shuttle into town for dinner at Mama Blanca's, a Latin American restaurant. The spicy shrimp was spicy and good. The Tres Leches desert that we split was huge and we stuffed ourselves for the last time on this trip.

Black Diamond town parkFrank SlidePacking up for the trip home

One advantage to staying at Grouse Mountain was the free airport shuttle, even at 4:30 am on Labor Day. It called for a large tip for the driver. We had another passenger on the shuttle, a drunk wedding guest who had stayed up all night partying. He stumbled into the shuttle and filled the bus with the smell of stale wine. It was a short 15-minute drive to the airport and we're sitting at the gate awaiting our flight home.

It was an excellent trip, one of our best bicycling vacations yet despite the disappointment of not being able to properly finish the bicycle trip to Jasper. If we join BA again* for a bicycle adventure we'll insist on riding if we're motivated to ride and it's part of the official trip. There is too much of a tendency to use the shuttle under adverse conditions which to us makes little sense. We obviously don't want to be unnecesarilly cold or possibly hypothermic, but when everything is provided for us, including a shuttle to carry rain gear or provide an emergency lift, we usually want to ride.


* After we returned home we contacted BA about our disappointment in not being able to ride the final miles of the trip. They were very understanding and offered us a discount on our next trip. As we said, it was a wonderful trip, with good company, excellent guides, and beautiful scenery. From our experience, BA provides the best accommodations for the price, with good lunches each day and knowledgeable, friendly guides, and we'll likely ride with them in the near future.

Previous