Calgary – Cremona – Rocky Mountain House – Nordegg: 340km

Half of our flight is perfect. We get seats next to the escape route, legroom for days. The second leg of our flight is a little more cramped. But we don’t care, we’re going where we want to be. Broken from the travels and the time difference we arrive in Calgary. Marijn used his saved-up hotel points to get us a room in the Holiday Inn. The next morning, we reassemble our bikes and ride into town. The McFerrin family has graciously offered to host us. Actually, we got about five offers in an hour during our layover in Vancouver. The McFerrin’s live in what I can only describe as a quintessential North American neighbourhood. Wooden houses with verandas and pointy roofs. It’s like a house from a movie or a comic book. We drop off our bikes and explore the city a little bit. We ride over a grid of avenues and streets all perfectly parallel to one another. In Europe we would look for the tallest church tower to find the city centre. There’s no such thing here. In-between the tall glass buildings big 4x4 pick-up trucks pass us by, huge lorries on their heels. We buy bear spray, drink a beer and almost fall asleep on the terrace. It is immediately apparent that Canada is expensive beyond belief. The 1 Euro coffees and affordable dinners are a thing of the past. Back at the McFerrin’s we refine our route for the next couple of days with their local knowledge of the roads.

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Then we set out. Our first Canadian kilometres. Tarn rides with us. The roads are insanely straight. In the distance we can see the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Our plan is to ride north to cycle the Icefields Parkway, famous for its natural beauty. It runs through both Jasper and Banff national park and will take us back south again. But first we’ll need about a week to cycle up to Hinton. First stop is Cremona; a Chinese restaurant, a motel and a gas station that doubles as a convenience store. We camp town’s park. The locals look at us in bewilderment, but are extremely welcoming once we get to talk. 

Our next day is much the same. Straight roads through the prairie and mountains in the distance. We’re happy with the tail wind that blows us to our destination. Sometimes it suddenly hits me that we’re actually in Canada. It’s surreal. We cry out in elation on the downhills. We’re actually here and we’re actually doing it!

We pass villages that are built around the junction of highways. They seem more like places to stop than to live. They all share the same ingredients that seem to make up every town here; Chinese restaurant, motel, gas station/convenience store. Rocky Mountain House is a bit bigger. We find a perfect camp spot next to a river that carries away the water of thaw from the mountains. We fry sausages over our campfire.

Then we’re finally getting into the Rocky Mountains. At least somewhat. Nordegg, an old miner’s town, lays at the foothills of these mighty peaks that still have a serious amount of snow and ice on their tops. The pine forests are getting thicker, villages scarcer. We find yet another perfect campground at the edge of the city. It looks out over an icy blue lake that we take an incredibly cold swim in. We make a fire, we rest. Tomorrow will be hard; rain over gravel roads.