We have been enjoying some lakeside camps – Coopers Lake, Lake Clearwater, Seeley Lake and Flathead lake and they have varied from no people, no lakeside houses, no motor boats to lotsa people, privatisation of the shoreline and motorboats.
At Lake Clearwater I was introduced to huckleberries which is a major food source for the bears – the berries are similar looking to a small blueberry but with a much stronger flavor. We wonder why we bother hanging food when we are camped in close proximity to huckleberry patches, but we do it anyway. The huckleberries are a great addition to our yoghurt and muesli.
We met up with Eric and Olivia, US cyclists heading south, who woke to hear the crashing of branches and lost their food bag to a bear – they wondered in retrospect if it had anything to do with being camped in a raspberry patch. Needless to say we are still to sight a bear on our travels.
The other feature of the travel in the last few days is the feeling of cycling through a green corridor – lots of forest roadside – but nice travel underwheel. We have had some lovely sections of single track and we wish there was more of it.
We are meeting more southbound recreational cyclists as now is the key time to head south from Banff. It seems we are dragging the good weather with us as they report daily rain on their journey south and the summer has been late in coming to Canada.
With the afternoon thunderstorm rolling in, Alan is hurrying me along and out of the library, till next time…
