My new touring bike!

[Ambikes]

This whole summer has been a combination of good and bad times for me, which is why I haven't updated any of my posts in so long. I finally feel like I'm in a place to get back to posting in a public forum though.

So, my Sherpa arrived in May, but I didn't get to use him much until the middle of June because I was training for and recovering from a marathon at the time. I put in some base miles (not enough!) between then and the first week of August to prep for a 4 day tour in the Canadian Rockies. We cycled from Jasper to Canmore, which was a fantastic trip. I felt like I didn't train enough because I was having some health issues leading up to the trip, but I think that no amount of cycling in the prairies will prepare you for cycling up and down mountain passes anyway I was super thankful for my granny gear and good brake pads!

I ended up going with Ortlieb panniers all around, an Ortlieb handlebar bag, Tubus racks, and Planet Bike fenders to complete my ride. I *think* I attached a pic of me riding during our tour below. At this point, I had already ditched the front panniers because I wasn't feeling well enough to drag that much weight up the mountains.

[Ambikes]

YIKES! That photo is huge, but I'm not sure how to fix it. Does anyone know?

[divingbiker]

Did you post a trip report on your Canadian Rockies tour? I'd love to read it since that's on my list of must-do rides.

[Ambikes]

No trip report yet, and I'm not sure if I'll ever have time to write one. It's a great tour, though. There are so many options. You can do hostels/hotels or camp. You do have to bring some food, but there were quite a few places we could have stopped along the way if we wanted. Plus, the views are just as great as everyone says they are. We saw lots of wildlife (including grizzly bears ) too.

Compared to what I normally ride (prairie), there was some serious climbing. I didn't feel like any of the trip reports I read were all that accurate in regards to difficultly, but that could just be my lack of experience showing. Personally, I would not plan to do much more than the 50ish miles a day that we did. I think you get to enjoy the route more that way, anyway.