Day Twenty-Five: Golden, B.C. to Edmonton, Alberta (or, "Home Sweet Home!")

I woke up a bit tired today at 8 am, showered, and headed over to the Big Bend Cafe for breakfast and coffee.  After packing up the temperature was still hovering around freezing, so I bundled up well and set off.  My GoreTex-over-leathers setup worked well in general, but my toes and left pinky finger seemed to get the worst of it.  Their constant complaint was comforting, though; at least they weren't numb.  Heading east on Highway 1 brought me up and over the continental divide once again at Kicking Horse Pass (elevation: 1,627 m/5,339') and, a bit later, past Field, B.C.  At the junction with Highway 93 (the Icefields Parkway) I headed north, paid the entry fee, and rode up one of the most spectacular highways on Earth.  Although still below freezing, the clouds and light conspired to give me a perfect day to end my trip.  The iPhone did a pretty good job of capturing the views (especially after applying touch of Photoshop to tweak the levels).

Bow Lake, Icefields Parkway.  This lake was one of Donjek's favorite stops.

I made a quick stop at Num-Ti-Jah Lodge on Bow Lake; this let me thaw out my fingers a bit, and to notice that the puddles in the parking lot were all frozen solid.  I used to stop here with Donjek whenever we passed through so that he could swim.  Once he staged a sit-in-protest -- literally -- when he saw that I was leading him back to the truck; another time he swam long enough in the cold waters that he had "dead tail" the following day.  Boy, did that depress him!

The White Pyramid (3,275 m/10,745').

The entire parkway is stunning; these are just a few of the scenes deemed too-good-to-pass-up.  (I did pass up others, though.)

Looking back after the ascent up Big Hill.

After rounding Big Bend (just out of view to the right in the above image), the road goes up Big Hill, where I stopped at an overview.  Years ago, during my graduate school days at UBC, my friends and I participated in the Jasper-to-Banff Relay Race.  My ~15 km (~9 mile) leg started at the Athabasca Glacier, climbed gently for the first third, leveled off for the second third, and descended Big Hill before rounding Big Bend for the final third.  I stopped at the lodge at Athabasca Glacier for a much-needed hot cup of coffee.  The scenery didn't let up.

One of Donjek's other favorite stops.

I largely missed the fall colors, though I noticed this scene in my rear-view mirror.

In Jasper the Icefields Parkway meets the Yellowhead Highway (Hwy 16).  After gassing up in town I headed east for the last leg of the journey.  The first hour or so was spectacular, but soon the topography leveled out and I was on the Alberta plain.  Beautiful in its own way, but the remaining couple of hours were pretty butt-numbing.

Heading east from Jasper.  Not a bad way to end the journey.

I pulled into my garage at 6:30 pm -- again just before sunset.  It was a pretty amazing trip, covering just shy of 9,000 km.  The bike was perfect, and the weather cooperated more than I could have expected it to this time of year.  I'm tired now -- and look forward to sleeping in my own bed!

Total distance: 8,974.8 km (5,576.7 miles).