July 13, 2025 to July 15, 2025
Canmore - Banff
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Canmore was a wonderful place to complete our ride and then head in our separate directions for flights home.
Lyle and Kirsten were fabulous hosts. We were fed delicious food, regaled with bikepacking stories and treated like family. We also watched them begin Ralpie's training, which requires almost constant attention, except when he sleeps.
The promised rain arrived overnight Monday and Karo arrived damp and muddy mid morning. She had "camped" the night at West Spray CG, in their woodshed. Staff at the CG knew the wet forecast, so offered her their driest solution. Nice!
Over lunch on Monday Karo shared her itinerary since Whitefish and the wild camps she had enjoyed. Kokomo Claims is a section of the Tour Devide route, notorious for a rock slide that riders carry their bikes up. Karo did it nobo, and although there were slow parts (10k in 3 hours!) she loved the southern section through the gorge. Total respect for choosing this route!
Our Completion Celebration was hosted and catered by Kirsten and Lyle and we certainly felt pampered. It was lovely to be able to full stop on the trip, even though we will both be mulling and reviewing and savoring moments from the ride over the next weeks and months.
Tuesday morning was still wet, but I loaded Wally again, we pulled on rain gear, posed for the team photo, and headed for Banff on the Legacy Cycle Trail.
We stopped for coffee at Wild Flour in Banff, and then to bookend our start photo at the border in Columbus, New Mexico, we took photos at the Banff sign.
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We said our farewells, Karo returned to Canmore and then Calgary for her flights to Germany, and I pedalled further north to Lake Louise, then Jasper and my train to Vancouver on Saturday.
Today's ride: 24 km (15 miles)
Total: 4,624 km (2,872 miles)
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