The kids were watching a movie in the WL theater when I quickly fell fast asleep last night meaning I slept way more than I had anticipated the night before the first day of riding on this epic adventure. Erin was extremely polite and very helpful early this morning as the kids missed all the excitement as they slept soundly upstairs in the pop-top area. I managed to get myself ready and War Dog loaded up by 7 am. Erin took a nice photo of us before I departed and I tried to get out a quick “Thank You for Everything!” before the lump in my throat shut down all verbal operations.

Pedaling through Banff on a cold summer morning and I found myself full of nothing but gratitude. The magnificent Fairmont Hotel would be the last glimpse of the modern world for the rest of this day and I felt so fortunate to officially be at the beginning of the trail.

At the end of the hotel parking lot sits the beginning of the Spray River West Trail and the end of the paved rode. This is it, no turning back now as I pushed on through to the other side.

The first part of the day was everything I had imagined this trail to have in store for me. The complete absence of all humans made the experience even more exhilarating as my bear bell was already ringing it’s little heart out as I negotiated some medium sized river rocks periodically along with large tree roots crossing the trail.

Once across Goat Creek, I found myself on Goat Creek Trail followed a little later on by a more challenging High Rockies Trail. I made sure to stay as deliberate as possible taking it nice and easy making sure to pick the correct line throughout the trail. Speed is not what I will be going for on this adventure, I am here for the scenery and total immersion into the surrounding nature.

At the northern end of Spray Lake Reservoir I found myself on a very wide gravel road, which was nice since the previous few miles were on some single track trails with some nice bear poop found in various places along the trail. Ended up seeing about a dozen piles of this randomly placed excrement for the day for those interested in such marvels of nature.

The wide gravel road was the first time I had seen an automobile since I left Banff, now hours ago, as there are numerous trailheads for hikers along this particular road. At this point of the ride I was needing to fill up my water bottles and had a chance to use my new Katadyn BeFree water filtration collapsible bottle. I was so proud of myself for making this purchase as I easily filled up the bottles in a nice stream and headed on down the road.

The views continued as the miles passed and I soon found myself on a paved bike path that went through a couple campgrounds before arriving at our campground for the night. Once the crew arrived, we went straight to the campground store for some delicious ice cream to properly celebrate the first day being completed. Gratitude bucket is full people!