Moose sighting on windy hilly ride

Day 12 Hinton to Grande Cache, Alberta. Distance 89 miles. My distance 81 mi.


Within a mile of our departure this morning, we came to this appropriate sign showing us the way to our eventual destination!

I was the first driver today, and cruised straight away to the halfway point at 43 miles. It was very rolling with long climbs for the boys out there on the road, and for me when I rode back to meet them. The thing that was better for me was I had a tailwind vs their headwinds. Therefore, I was able to scoot 17 miles by the time I reached the rider at the back. On the way while I was alone, I saw this fine animal just off the road:

This was our first moose of the trip! The others saw many elk today, and we all saw many deer. I was glad she stayed long enough for me to get her photo, because the guys might not have believed I actually saw a moose; on the ride into Banff last Thursday, I told them I saw a moose and showed them my photo, but it was an elk. hahaha

I rode hard most of the way back to the RV at the halfway point, and that hard effort up to that point must have been my downfall. Why? Because my afternoon 43 mile ride was a huge chore. I seemed to have no energy at all. I decided not to push it to save as much energy as possible because tomorrow is 109 miles and will have some doozy hills.

Today had several LONG tough climbs too, and into a strong headwind. If you look closely at this photo, you can see way off in the distance the road we would eventually get to.

Here's a descent as we approached our destination for the day, Grande Cache. It was our last respite before a long stiff climb to the city, which Derek and I barely survived.

Here's Derek nearing the end of that long final uphill. You can see that we had pretty scenery the entire day.

The only WIFI this campground has is in the laundry room! lol But hey, I'm not complaining if I get ANY Internet connection.

We're glad Rick will do some shopping tomorrow instead of Bob. Bob buys the necessities, while Rick gets us cool stuff -- desserts, breakfast pastries, peaches...Bob gets the peanut butter. hahaha Just kidding Bob, we need those things too! For example, Bob bought our current beer supply!