Day 24 - Canmore, AB to Whitefish, MT

There is blue sky this morning but is pretty cold in Canmore. When starting the bikes my bike and Don's bike struggle some. I get mine started after 3 or 4 attempts. We're just about to push Don's bike to start but he gets it started with a limp and then takes it easy until it is warmed up. This should be the last of the cold weather we have on the trip. We're heading south now.

We pass through Calgary and can see the Olympic park beside the highway. All of the ski jumps look like of the skier overshoots they will cross the freeway!

As we head south from Calgary we are now into open range land. Lots of cattle country up here. In one spot we pass a herd of Bison. I guess they raise those here too.

Shortly after that we cross back into the US. It is good to be back in the states. Just crossing the border makes home seem closer.

We next pass east to west through Glacier National Park. It is very interesting to compare Glacier with the Jasper and Banff area we just rode through yesterday. The Canadian parks have an excellent highspeed highways (the Icefields Parkway) going down the middle. The towns of Jasper and Banff and inside the parks and are large tourist towns with kind of a "Swiss" cleanliness. Very clean and organized for the tourist. Many shop and hotels.

In contrast, Glacier is more "raw" and western. We are riding across the park on a narrow two land road (lots of cars through) that climbs the pass along steep mountains and with sheer drops of several hundred feet!

We crossed the continental divide at the top. We're now back into the Western half of the continent. This is the third time we have crossed a continental divide. The first one was in Alaska which was a north/south divide in the Alaska Range near Fairbanks. Next we cross from west to east across the northern rockies. This crossing from east back to west should be the last one.

We stopped in Whitefish and got a recommendation for an excellent restaurant. Shaker's Steak and Ale. We had a nice dinner and the waitress was extremely helpful. She has suggest a more scenic and less crowded way for us to get to Livingston tomorrow. Same destination just a better route then interstate highways.