Note the railway runs right behind the campsite or the whole town for that matter. There were a few trains at night and one in the morning that blew their horn but I easily fell back to sleep after the sudden blast. I woke up at 6 and proceeded to sleep until 7. I got up, organized and then rode without my gear to the credit union to get some cash since this campsite is run by the town and uses the honour system. While I was at the bank I decided to pick up supplies at the grocery store. Inside I gave out a small cough while reading my phone. From out of nowhere I heard a voice “I wish I had that”. I looked around at the clerk stocking the shelves and said “my phone?”, “no your cough so I could get off work early” said the clerk. You know those akward forced conversations where one party wants to tell their life store while other just wanted a loaf of bread? Well this was one of those and I learned he was in the army, lost a third of his brain in a truck accident and was fifty years old. I didn’t know what to make of it but the accident was very plausible.
Back at camp I packed one less item than before: the pink running shoe I found in Kootney park. I feel bad I was unable to reunite the pair but the chances of the other shoe surviving this long was very low. I left it on the picnic table it the warm morning sun. I had peanut butter and bread for breakfast then rode to the gas station near the highway entrance. I wanted to confirm the route since I was going off the main highway which I was able to do but not before buying another one of those chocolate muffins along with a hot chocolate.
By the time I left I was on a sugar high. I rode up the trans Canada for a kilometer or two then turned East onto the 550 highway. Though it was windy this road was pretty flat and other than the birds chirping at me this really reminded me of the wide flat valley in the Southern part of the Shanxi province in China. It was warm, the breeze was warm and farms lined the roadway. I was even chased by a dogs on three separate occasions: the first was a German Shepard but he saw me too late and gave up early, the second was a golden lab who had a shot at catching but wiped out in his overzealousness, finally the third looked like a wolf cross and he bounded through the dips filled with water with impressive closing speed and would have easily headed me off it it weren’t for the barbwire fence. That last one made me nervous and reminded me of the large dogs in Western China.
As I closed in on the final 20 kilometers to my destination I saw a slow moving vehicle which I knew from a distance it was a bicycle. I pulled up and met Mark from Montreal. We chatted for a bit but he was going to slow for me. We stopped to confirm directions and then I went ahead. He was not a cyclist and hadn’t biked since he was very young. However he decided he wanted to bike across Canada and I told him he had a lot of guts to do that and he had done very well to get through the mountains considering everything. He basically starts riding around 7am and finishes around 8pm each day. And you thought I was crazy?
I confirmed the route for him with GPS and headed off. As described by a man at the service station, whom I neglected to mention, the road came to a T, then after turning right there was a sign for Dinosaur park (16 km) at the next left. I continued along until the road veered North which conflicted with my GPS. The road East was gravel which I really wasn’t up for either. I decided to believe my GPS and left a note with rock pointing East down the gravel road for Mark. Shortly up the road I ran into a guy on a motorcycle who stopped to work on a fence or something. He indicated that I needed to stay on the paved road. Lucky!
I went back and wrote a new note indicating “Stay on the pavement” which I found later that he did read. The road wound back and forth and the wind was quite potent as I made my way to the badlands. About 5km out I sat and ate peanut butter sandwhich’s before my final push to dinosaur heaven as it were.
Is this country rose?
The badlands are lot like south of the border where canyons have formed from erosion just not on the same scale. Before decending into the Dinosaur park/campground area there is a lookout which I recommend stopping at to see the moonlike landscape of grey cones on limes stone laced with iron ore which appears as reddish rock. It is a windswept landscape except for near the river where cottonwood grow and in the valley bottoms green grasses, wild flowers and flowering cacti with a yellow blossom.
I went to the campsite booking window and was told half sympathetically that they were full. Huh? Well this is a UNESCO site you know. Okay so now what, I rode 80 kilometers and I am not climbing back up that hill. It was suggested that I go around asking other campers if I could throw up my tent on their site, if allowed I still paid $23 for my share. Sure, barring that I am setting up in the parking lot.
The second couple I asked said “no problem, where are you riding from”. This is always a good sign when the are actually interested that you rode up on a bike. I set up and went for a shower, $2 for 5 minutes, put my laundry in, and eat a veggie wrap with a slushy. After that I made my rounds of the five trails in the park. I rode my bike around and found them to be generally not that interesting. The flora fauna and rock formations are cool but only site 3 has a full on dinosaur in the rock as discovered (behind glass though). The main site where they found the bulk of the dinosaurs is marked with two metal rods.
After my tour my neighbors, Ed and Lorna invited me for dinner with their son Tim, his wife and his two young boys. We talked a lot about my previous trip through China and the current one and just biking in general. Tim had done a trip from Calgary or Jasper to Vancouver a few years back and had an interesting storey about a flat and riding through the rain in Merit. We had steak wrapped in bacon, potatoes, corn and salad with feta for dinner. Lorna kept feeding me and I must ate about three of everything. That was dinner but then came desert: brownies, strawberries, ginger cookies and nectarines. The same thing happened as Lorna stuffed me. I rarely refused and funny thing is I had room in the stomach. Maybe I was catching up from the previous weeks but I have been eating a lot. Mark did finally come by and we chatted for a bit.
I put on the rain tarp, yes I smartened up and then started writing but I quickly fell asleep. What great company in Ed and Lorna’s family. This is really what makes my journey so awesome.
