Chapter 12: The final days in Canada (for now)
Woweee, was there ever a backlog! I’m sorry that this post is so delayed (to the two or three of you who care to check often 😉). Since arriving in Europe at the end of July, time and space have been moving rather swiftly (not that any excuse is valid, really!) More on Europe in the next post, but for now, we have some unfinished business with North America. It ain’t over till it’s over.
(Maybe I’m reading into things too much but on a deeper level, my lateness probably signifies my ongoing reluctance to admitting that the glorious three months of cycling has come to an end. You may be wondering how it did all end, and this is where I tell ya…)
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Canmore, often overlooked by Banff’s shadow, is a neat little town. There, while waiting at the traffic lights, I met a couple of friends from New Zealand who were also bike touring. Being early in the day, I stayed the night a little further on in the Three Sisters Campground, possibly the most micro-managed camp ground I’ve ever stayed at. There was an instructional sign for every single thing, including which blade of grass you were NOT allowed to pitch your tent on, and hot to slide your money envelope into the payment box.
And there I was the next day, rolling into the Cowboy Capital of Alberta (don’t think it officially is but it certainly felt like it - just a week before, the Stampede had ended so my timing was perfect 😉). I remember the distinct moment of leaving the Rockies: cycling past that last mountain somewhere between the Three Sisters campground and Cochrane, before the land turned very flat.
With the mountains becoming hazier with each kilometre further into Pancake Country, I started to imagine what awaited me and Sirocco in Calgary. Each pedal stroke was powered by the anticipation of catching up with my childhood friends, Sarah and Shannon. Sarah has been living in Calgary for eight years, so I was eager to catch up with her and see her current of the world. Shannon has also been living in Calgary for the past 18 months, and as you’ll know if you’ve been following, we had the good fortune of meeting already twice on this trip!
Getting into Cochrane was a bit of a traffic nightmare with a few long lines for stop-go-signed controlled traffic under the beating sun, but I eventually made it to the centre of Cochrane. Once a small town, the demand for living there has seen it balloon into Calgary’s little cousin. Alberta has no shortage of land, but there must come a point where Calgary and Cochrane merge...
In Cochrane, just before arriving at my warmshowers hosts for the night, I stopped to get a huge muffin for lunch. Upon coming out of the cafe, I found my back tyre had been punctured. Cool! Although better round the corner from a bike shop than in the middle of nowhere, I guess. It was nearly impossible to find the origin of the puncture without a bowl of water to dip the tube into, but I got it pumped enough to get it to a bike shop to try-pump the tire fully at least.
My warmshowers hosts, Sandy and Dan, were also doing some repairs on their bikes when I arrived. Their garage was full of bikes. I couldn’t have found a better place to spend the final night on the tour before packing up in Calgary — they were so kind to me and let me sleep inside when the thunder began to roll in. We made dinner together and chatted for a while. Sandy printed out the riding instructions for me to get into Calgary, with handwritten notes for clarification. I so appreciated the gesture, given that approaches into cities can be daunting at best on a bike.
The next morning, Sandy and Dan rode the first part of the way with me, before we parted — I, off to the big city, and them, a more local morning loop. The route into Calgary was straight forward, thanks to the directions Sandy provided. After navigating a few busier intersections, Calgary’s skyline soon appeared on the horizon.
The backroad took me into northwest neighbourhood of Sherwood, where Sarah lives. Because we were going camping that afternoon with Sarah’s friends Jennell and Quincy, I virtually sprinted (as far as sprinting goes on a tour bike) to get to hers and leave for an authentic Albertan weekend away.
Sarah was loading up the car as I finally found her place. It was a surreal moment, meeting my best friend on a street in Calgary, loading up firewood for the campfire, and knowing I’d not have a single planned kilometre left to ride on this trip. It was a finish line of sorts, but in the most comfortingly mundane way.
Sarah took me up to her apartment and kindly let me hang my bike up in her parkade for the weekend. All in a bit of a daze, we picked Shannon up from where she had just finished housesitting. We three hadn’t been in person together for about 8 years, so it was another much awaited reunion. They just keep coming! We drove a couple of hours (or should I say, Sarah drove) along a very flat, very straight road through the prairies — while listening to country music — to a lake in southern Alberta. An authentic cultural experience.
Our weekend away camping was a beautiful — and very hot — way to re-connect. Sarah, Jennell and Quincy had kindly welcomed Shannon and me into their weekend camping plans. Although I’d been camping lots in my little peapod coffin tent, Jennell and Sarah showed us how real camping is done: inflatable kayaks, a gazebo, camping chairs, chilly bins with cold fresh food! Campfires at night! Hammocks! Honestly, it was overwhelmingly luxurious, and so nice to just relax in the shade, albeit in 30+ degree heat.
The next day, we packed up and drove further south to the US-Canadian border, in Watertown National Park. It was buzzy to think that, just two months earlier, Shannon and I had met on the other side of the border in Montana. With the sun still dramatically heating things up, we swung between finding cool things to eat and drink, and soaking up the beautiful mountains and lake front.
Like all good things, the weekend came to an end. We headed back north to the flat lands of Calgary and drove into a quintessentially prairie sunset. En route to Sarah’s, we dropped Shannon off at her place, where she’d leave in the next couple of days to head to New Zealand for a few weeks. So much movement going on! Shannon had been a constant in my trip, having met up a few times, and I really appreciated all those points of contact we’ve had throughout.
I now had a few days in Calgary to unwind, regroup and organise a few things for the next stretch of the trip. Sarah’s apartment was a quiet oasis, filled with all things New Zealand… including Marmite! Although Sarah had to work during the day, we spent the evenings catching up, including a mini op shop haul for a couple of new t shirts. Big shout out to Flynn, Sarah’s gorgeous cat, for the cuddly company too!
Downtown Calgary gives off intense big city energy, but I enjoyed finding quieter pockets of the city to explore such as Kensington and Inglewood. Aside from visiting Sarah at work, the highlight was the Calgary public library, an architectural marvel designed by Norwegian architects. Why are all good libraries designed by Scandinavian people?
After a few days of exploring Calgary and letting the last few months sink in, Sarah drove sirocco and me to the airport. I’d packed sirocco up in a travel bag that I’d bought to keep him extra safe for the next few flights home. It’s hard saying bye to someone when you don’t know when the next time you’ll see them is, but Sarah and I said that maybe the next time we’d meet would be somewhere between North America and NZ, like a Pacific island.
Canada, you have been a dream and I cannot wait to explore more of your vastness in the future — maybe on bike again, maybe on foot, or on canoe.
PS. I promise the next post will come soon. It’s waiting in the wings x
