Canada - Day 2 - Icefields Parkway, Icefields campground to Mosquito campground

 65.8 miles, 3625’ climbing - 🐻 1 black bear

Skies were cloudy when we woke up. After breaking camp, PJ was still in his tent, so we left without saying goodbye. Maybe we’ll see him down the road.

The theme of the day was changing weather and temperatures. We also had a lot of downhill which was a nice contrast to all the climbing yesterday. After a climb to the pass, we started descending, taking breaks to put puffies, rain gear, and overmitts on and off as it drizzled, cleared up, and at one point it snowed on us. 

We quickly left the Athabasca River behind, instead following the North Sasketchuan down. We made stops and side excursions to look at a creek flowing out of a slot canyon, waterfalls, glaciers and heaps of snow on nearby mountains. 

We spotted a black bear by the roadside. By the time we reached him, a handful of cars had stopped, but the bear was munching on vegetation, unconcerned, so we pedaled past.

We took a lunch break at the Crossings Lodge as the rain started again, and we chatted briefly with 3 northbound bikepackers.

Our planned destination was Waterfowl Lake campground, and it was closed. The next campground was online reservations only (no cell service), so we continued on to Bow Lake. The lodge desk had closed and they only took multiple night bookings. It was cold and snowing as we got back on our bikes. Seven miles later the sun came out as we rolled into Mosquito campground, large and charming and nearly full, but we managed to nab a site. It was a longer day than we planned, but tomorrow is forecast to be very wet, so good to be closer to Lake Louise where we will be next.