Wilderness Adventure - National Parks and Bears - Day 8 - Revelstoke to Golden

Cycling in the mountains is very ummm... what's the word... interesting! (I bet you thought I was going to say hard). It's interesting in so many ways - you never know what the next curve will take you past, what wildlife you'll encounter, and the weather changes quickly (similar to all Alpine areas of the world). But if you want my honest opinion it is also challenging climbing some of these passes.

Leaving Revelstoke I had a big hunch that the weather was going to be a mixed bag. Lots of dark clouds were about, but the sun seemed to follow me - maybe the universe finally realizes that this is supposed to be my year of perpetual sunshine? Anyway, today I went through two national parks: Mount Revelstoke National Park and Glacier National Park.

I had a few light sun showers in the morning, but didn't experience the nasty weather til I was much closer to Golden, and after Rogers Pass (1330m). Suzanne you would've been proud of me - I saw the major storm in the valley and stayed at the top of the mountain and watched the rainstorm move around the mountains below. That did mean that I cycled on wet asphalt... but not in torrential downpours, I'm sure I'll encounter that at some point on the trip.

Highlights of the day:
- seeing a mother and her two cubs at the side of the road, thankfully a couple in a pickup truck saw them and warned me - heck they offered to put my bike in there truck and drive me past - I should've taken them up on it - then I would've had a picture or two... but instead I did as I had read in the cycling books. Cross the road and have a car drive slowly between the bears and yourself. So thanks goes out to the pickup truck
- seeing another bear (it was all by himself) and I was travelling about 30km/h so all was good there, the bear actually was frightened and ran into the bush after he looked at me roar past.
- cycling through 7 tunnels - who knew. Only one was really dark and a bit scary
- Lowest point of the day... having to do a detour into Golden because of a transport crash on the trans-Canada... adding about 10 extra kilometres to a LONG day.

Distance travelled to date: 880km (once again this is approximate... funny how I forget to look at this when I'm cold and all I want to shower.

*** Please note the picture of the bears was found on the internet... I do have enough sense to NOT stop and get the camera out ~ just thought I'd put everyone at ease.