I was up early and out of the camp site before anyone was around to collect the overpriced fee. Sadly, I've only seen only one site so far that offered lower rates for cyclists. Sorry naysayers, $25 for a spot of gravel to tent on is robbery in my books. I'll stick to random fields and churches from now on. Lucky for me the town had a 24 hour laundromat so I was able to kill some tine while the grocery store opened. After cleaning and shopping I was set to leave. I went down the TCH with my sights set on crossing the border to Alberta.
Right off the bat the TCH shoots uphill and carves it's way along a mountain and eventually to a long bridge that cuts left over the valley that you can see coming a you go up. At one point along the way I passed a tribe of mountain goats lazily chewing on some bushes. About half way there was a rest area and a french fry van, the vendor told me I was riding up "Ten mile hill". He also suggested I not get the poutine since I was going up and not down. In total it ended up being 556m of climbing which took 2 hours before the hill finally broke.
It was rivers and mountains, all growing more epic as I went along. I eventually entered Yoho National Park and dealt with more ups and downs (but mostly ups) until I arrived at the small town of Field. When asked, a girl at the gift store told me the Alberta border was only 20 minutes away. Motorists have a poor feel for distance in kilometers and hills, I swear..... Before I left the visitor center an english gentleman and his family approached me and said they had seen me earlier in the day on ten mile hill. The father said my climb was "brilliant". That tickled me and I set off to conquer B.C.Sure enough you've got to climb one more hill to finish B.C. called Kicking Horse Pass. I guess I can't complain. The pass was first explored by an expedition in 1858 without the convenience of a paved highway or bicycle like I had. I've heard they even ran out of food and one member was kicked by his horse before they reached the top. Guy didn't even get the pass named after him, his asshole horse got more credit... Poor James Hector.
After approximately 0 horse kicks and many turns of the wheel I reached the top. I was happy to find that this was the highest point the TCH reaches at 1643m. Here as well you can view the spiral tunnels that were constructed in 1909 to ease the 4.5% climb (steepest in Canada) the trains were having to make near Wapta lake down to 2.2% at the cost of a slightly longer trip.After spending a bit of time learning of the spiral tunnels I noticed a storm far off and the clouds overhead indicated it was heading my way. It started getting windy and tho it didn't rain there was water from the many falls along side the road being blown about. I had to get moving. I sped along from the summit and flew down the other end. The winds subsided and I looked out for a welcome to Alberta sign. All I eventually saw was a welcome to B.C. sign on the other side of the road so I figured I had just entered Alberta. I had successfully crossed B.C.!
Like clockwork the skies opened up and rain poured down on me. The timing couldn't be more hilarious. I felt like I was in The Truman Show and the guy up in the booth was trying to get me to stay in B.C. I hadn't seen it rain in 15 days (curiously enough I was going way the wrong way the last time it rained). I zipped through construction on the roads and sought shelter for the day. In no time I spotted an unusual basketball court on the side of the highway next to apparently nothing, so I rolled up in the bushy field behind it and camped out for my first rainy night in Alberta.