Day 35, August 10th, 31.7km and 631m climb, Banff to Spray Lake campground.
Our first day on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. We managed to be on the trail by 9am after breakfast at the hostel and a stock up at the supermarket. Today was entirely on single track/rough double track with a heap of pinch climbs. It was lovely riding but with a fully loaded bike those pinch climbs really took it out of me! Gordon was great and just ploughed on up, his fitness is really there now.
The trail was predominantly in trees so not a huge number of views today but some lovely creek crossings and slightly technical downhills that kept the fun factor high. We reached Spray River campground at around 2pm. This was our goal for the night as there is no freedom camping allowed and the next campsite is too far away for us. My legs were definitely not taking me any further today anyway!
At the campsite we met Zack who arrived shortly after us and is heading toward Argentina. We are sharing a campsite as it keeps costs down for both of us. $31 for the night here so sharing makes it $21 for us. The campsite is really well set up with a designated hiker/biker site with Bike tools, bear boxes and even bike stands. The view up to the mountains is spectacular with the most interesting patterns on the rocks.
Apparently there is a grizzly bear in the area and the camp managers are having to do a drive through the campground two or three times to scare the bears away. We still haven't seen any.
Tomorrow we continue south. It's odd after having spent so much time heading east then north to now be heading in the opposite direction.
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Brilliant. Gutted that banff was so expensive, 9 bed room! But at least you managed rest.
Here’s to heading south.