Bike trip continued

As I continued my trip, I eventually got into a rhythm. I scattered a few ashes and reflected on good memories that I had with Baxter. Most of the time I was on the bicycle, however, little meditation or contemplation was possible. It turns out that I covered about 28 km my first day, at which time it was raining and getting dark. I stopped at Mosquito Creek for the night.

The next day Allison and Jackson were there to help me out. We drove back to Lake Louise in order to grab the car. In the morning it was pouring rain, and I had little motivation to ride my bike in that weather. We had coffee and went for a walk down by Bow River, where we scattered more cremains, and gathered rocks.

I had come to the conclusion that wherever I scattered some cremains, I would take an object and replace it. Then at the end of scattering all the ashes, I would have memories and sacred objects to hold onto. I also decided to pick up a map of the park and mark all the spots where I would leave a pinch of baxter. It was during this day that Jackson asked to see Baxter. We had been very open with him about what I was doing and he had some questions. He didn't think much of the plastic bag of cremains, but he did like gathering rocks and little sticks to place back in the plastic box.

By the afternoon, I felt ready to do some more peddling. I decided to set up camp at silverhorn , even though they were closed for the season. I found a little offshoot of a road and a spot to camp. We left the one car there, and then Allison dropped me off at Bow Lake. The rain seemed to slow, while I tried to put the front wheel back on my bike. I will have to read the owners manual of how to do this properly because it seemed like a significant hassle with the disk brakes. Allison followed me for a few kilometres, and then I waved her on as she had to get all the way back to PG that night.

The hills didn't seem as difficult today, although I think they were just as steep. The rain and temperature didn't help though. I took the turnoff to the top of bow summit to see the glacier. The ground was covered in snow, and there was no one in sight. Then when I got to speed down hill, I thought my hands would freeze solid. I couldn't even enjoy the gift of gravity.

By the time I got to my campsite, I decided to just strip out of my soaking clothes and stay in the heated car. No guilt felt about idling for hours, I was just happy to warm up. It was supposed to get to close to freezing that night, so I knew that I needed to be warm and dry if I was going to stay warm in the tent.