Day 40: 6/29/19: Canmore to Elkwood Campground, AB

It has been great spending time with Lisa and Hannah the past few days.  Today, we said our goodbyes and I started my return trip to Chattanooga.

Okay, call me a wimp.  I will be riding on Adventure Cycling's Great Continental Divide Mountain Bike Route for a few miles.  I was looking at the cue sheet, which looked like this...

I thought to myself, "That looks like a bunch of foolishness."   I then studied Google Maps, and saw a more direct way on a gravel road.  I decided to take the easier route, the gravel road.

Most of my day was spent riding on a dusty gravel road. There was a moderate amount of vehicle traffic on it that kept the dust stirred up.  The scenery today was just as beautiful as the scenery we have enjoyed the last couple of days (pics below).

Because of all the dust, I wore this for several miles.  It worked really well.

I ran across this mountain goat on a cliff right beside the road. It must be losing its winter coat because it looked kind of mangy (pic below).

I met Tim, Mark, and Margaret during my ride today. They are from Idaho, and are cycling from Banff to Idaho.  Below is a pic of them as I was coming up on them.

I then came across Eric, who is riding from Canmore to Detroit.  He is a teacher from Seattle.  This is his first bicycle tour.  We rode together for several miles, and ended up sharing a campsite at Elkwood Campground.  We were fortunate to get a campsite tonight because most campgrounds are full because this is a long holiday weekend.  July 1 is Canada day, which is like the United States' July 4.  Below is a pic of Eric and our campsite.

As I was riding up behind Eric today, he suddenly stopped his bike and let it fall to the ground. As I approached him, he told me to stop because there was a bear ahead.  About 30 yards from us was a bear hanging out beside the road (pics below).  It stayed there, and we stayed out, for several minutes.  We eventually decided to go to the other side of the road and ride past the bear.  Due to the slope of the road, we could not see the bear as we rode by. After we got past the bear, I looked back and the bear was standing upright on his hind legs looking at us.  When the bear saw me looking at him, he got down on his all fours and went back into the woods.  I'm pretty sure it was a grizzly.  Before we decided to ride past the bear, Eric and I had the conversation that we don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the other person :) I'm glad we didn't have to see who the faster rider was (I'm sure I would have been the bear bait).

Total miles today: 46.3