What a day! It really was mostly downhill to Jasper (86.3 km of riding with 373 meters of elevation gain, and 984 meters of elevation loss), resulting in the distance flying by as we hopped from stop to stop. The day began cold, although we were warm in the cabin and the kitchen, where I fried up some dehydrated hashbrowns and heated up the wild rice breakfast, to which I had added a couple of granola bars and a Larabar. The consensus was that this was a much more filling breakfast. Even still, we stopped in at Sunwapta Falls Lodge affter about 20km for elevensies of falafel wraps with a handful of fries.
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Cold, cloudy morning with fresh snow at upper elevations.
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Looking down the Sunwapta River
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Heading towards the Endless Chain
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Light on the Endless Chain
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Sunwapta Ranger Station stretch break
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Lovely mountains
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| Convenient outhouse for a break |
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Amazing to see the layers pushed up like this
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Back on the road it was more quick riding with a couple of breaks - a planned lunch break at the Glaciers & Goats lookout (finished the cheese buns from Lake Louise), a stop at the HI Athabasca Hostel to look for my lost Kobo (nope), then we had only a couple of hours left to Jasper.
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Coasting down - this didn't seem as steep and long on the way up, at least not to me...
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Mountains! Clouds! Sky! Light!
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Only 30km to go!
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We climbed a bit, stopped in at the Athabasca Pass Lookout/Mackenzie memorial, then mostly coasted down to Jasper. I'm sure Marieka even let herself get over 40km/h on some of the downhills! Getting into Jasper, I made sure to take a celebration photo at the Welcome to Jasper sign, and then we were on to the car, where we grabbed some clothes and such for tonight and tomorrow, and dismantled the bikes to put in the car. In the process, the bolt holding one side of Marieka's front fender to her fork fell out, revealing that threads in the fork to be stripped. The mystery of Marieka's wobbling front fender was finally solved!
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The David Thompson memorial plaque
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(Mount) Edith (Cavell) caught a cloud!
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Celebration photo! (Still a few km to go)
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Heading into Jasper with Pyramid in the background
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We made it!
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With everything piled in the car we checked into the hostel, grabbed showers, and then headed off to Famoso's patio to celebrate with Margaritas, olives, pizza, and tiramisu, which I think is what sol Marieka on the idea of climbign a mellow multi-pitch route on Morro Peak tomorrow, before I drive us home.
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