Icefields Parkway Cycle Tour - Lake Louise to Jasper

Camera Details

Camera: Canon 5D Mk IV
Lens 1: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM

Trip Details

Date: June 16, 2017
Start Time: 3:00pm
Total Time: 96 hours
Participants: Patrick Latter, Jeff Trudel, Michelle Wong, Chris Hunt, Colin Chapman, Nina Chapman, Pam Pribilovic

I flew to Calgary to meet everyone else to start the tour. This jankey looking box contained my bike.

We packed up all the gear and headed for Lake Louise.

We had to wait around 7 hours in the small town site of Lake Louse for the others to go and drop off 2 cars in Jasper. We did our best to keep busy.

Just a little mall parking lot bouldering.

Everyone looking so fresh and clean just before starting the tour.

There are a number of natural overpasses that allow wildlife to cross the highway safely.

230km to go!

The remains of a very large avalanche that crossed the road earlier in the season.

One of many snack breaks.

Just seconds after he finished going to the bathroom here, a small bear emerged from the brush. We scrambled to get on the bikes and to a safe distance.

We reached the Waterfowl Lake campground at around 7pm and had some dinner at the lakes edge before setting up camp.

Camp bootie bouldering.

We had one more friend that was planning on joining us later that night. This was our makeshift sign near the entrance of the campground.

Colin definitely had the heaviest bike of the group by far.

Michelle lifting her bike “unassisted”

Slaps!

We stopped at Saskatchewan Crossing gas station for the most expensive ice cream and pretzel I’ve ever seen.

Colin some how managed to lose and find the screw to his bike shoe cleat… twice in 5 minutes.

So just after finishing the largest climb of the tour at 700m over 8km we celebrated…

… only to find out that we read the map wrong and that was just a small climb before the REAL climb.

Only to realize again 2 minutes later that we were right the first time and we had really finished the hard climb. Drinks all around!

The Icefields campground was our favourite of the trip. Beautiful sites right next to the creek.

There is zero cell reception for the entire 230km stetch of highway, so the only method of communication is with a handful of lone phone booths.

Improvised jacket repairs.

‘Gourmet’ cheesecake for dessert.

There are signs marking where the glacier used to be in the past. It’s amamzing to see how far it’s receded.

This gravel trail leads up to Athabasca Glacier. Jeff was the only one with tires robust enough to attempt the ride up.

In the distance you can see a group crossing the glacier.

Dirty snow angels.

We stopped to have lunch by the river.

We made it!!

Smell test after 230km of riding and no showers.