June 16, 2015

Day 88: Silverhorn Campground

No snow in the morning but the excursion onto the Glacier was a treat and highly recommended. I enjoyed both the geology and we also met some interesting people.

As a consequence of our walk Ewan and I did not leave the Icefield until approximately 1.45pm for a 60 odd mile ride.

Moreover, the weather did not look too promising. However, apart from a little drizzle on the decent from the Icefield all was good all the way to our rest stop, which was just before the climbing was due to start.

Then, just as we were leaving, Ewan discovered that his bike was suffering from a rear wheel puncture, which we promptly fixed and left in sunshine for the finally 33 miles, 22 of which were climbing! The time was 5pm ish!

Some 12 miles or so further up the road we could see that the weather immediately ahead of us was looking pretty ugly. And, as a consequence of my previous experiences cycling in the mountains on this trip I started to feel uneasy about continuing to our designated campground and began to think of possible bailout options.

Fortunately, a couple of miles further on we came accross the (closed) campground of Silverhorn and so, after a short discussion, opted to stealth camp, which was clearly the correct decision because just as we started to pitch our tents the heavens opened and almost two hours later, as I write this listening to the drumming of water droplets on my tent, it is still raining! Goodnight!