Cycling the Great Parks North & Great Divide Loop

Sandwiched between staffing two Montana-based Adventure Cycling trips, I spent ten days cycling a loop through British Columbia and Alberta. I departed from Eureka, MT (just south of the Canadian border) and travelled north to Banff, AB along the paved Great Parks North route. I then looped back to Eureka via the unpaved Great Divide route. All in all, the trip was just over 500 miles in length.

My loop.
(Red = the Great Parks North route and
Blue = the Great Divide route)

I really enjoyed the route. It provided a great mix of pavement and off-road riding as well as a great mix of nature and rural and urban settings. I had plenty of opportunities to bathe in the forest and to relish in the beauty of snow-capped peaks, pristine lakes, and colorful wildflowers. Below is a photo journal of my trip. For those interested in the details on my ride, my trip takeaways, route beta, and itinerary are provided at the bottom of this post.

Bicycle Adventuring in Glacier, Banff, & Jasper National Parks

Immediately after returning from A Roadtrip Through California and Oregon in mid-July, I guided two trips for Bicycle Adventures.

The first trip was an 8-day ride from Glacier National Park (in Montana) to Banff and Jasper National Parks (in Alberta). The second trip was a 6-day ride through just Banff and Jasper National Parks. Both trips rode along The Icefields Parkway, a route I have wanted to bike for a number of years. There were two guides on the trips -- me and Laura (the head guide). We took turns every other day driving the van and riding alongside the guests.

Below are some photos from the trip:

Binoculars at Lake Louise.
This was my favorite photo from the trip.
I later saw this same image hanging in a hotel room where we stayed.
I guess I have an eye for a good photo!

Backpacking, Hunkering Down, & Bookreading

I've always wanted to backpack somewhere beautiful to hunker down and read a book.

Backpacking to somewhere beautiful and hunkering down...

...to read a book.

That's what I've wanted to do, and so that's what I did.

I'm Officially Homeless

Someone once said that the days are long, and the years are short. I'm reminded of this today.

I've had so many wonderful, long days over the last few months since I returned from my visit overseas. I crossed two items off my bucket list -- including getting a tattoo (see Sailors, Whores, & Ink) and taking a sailing course. I've spent lazy afternoons enjoying Seattle's unseasonably mild weather. I've spent hours relearning the Spanish language that I haven't spoken since the last millennium. I've started to plan a big bike trip for this upcoming fall and winter. Oh, and I finally met my financial target for early retirement (even though I left my job two and a half years ago, only 75% of the way to my target).

Suffice it to say, it's been a great few months of back-to-back long days. But it's already June 4th, and I am officially homeless!

Let me back up a bit...to October of last year...

Sailors, Whores, & Ink

As I entered the shop, my eyes were drawn to a large sign hanging above the rows and rows of sample artwork. The sign read: "Tattoos -- not just for sailors and whores." A smile spread across my face. And so it was, with that affirmation, that I got inked.

The Before & The After.

People have just as many opinions about tattoos as they do about religion and politics. There's a saying that the difference between people with tattoos and people without tattoos is that the people with tattoos don't care whether or not you've got one.