Day 2:

• The morning was difficult to ride (rock slides and many downed trees).
• We passed by the edge of a Wolf and Bear Sanctuary.
• The afternoon held many pleasant surprises:
• A Grizzly Bear
• A Black Bear
• A Cow Moose spooked from the woods when we stopped to get stream water
• Two Moose swimming across a small lake
• We continued to see Bear Scat on the roads, about every 500 yards/meters.
• We deliberately stayed the night, again, in a Provincial Camp Ground because they offered Bear Proof Food Storage Vaults. The running water and outhouse toilets with paper were just a bonus, wink.

Day 2 - Spray Lake CG to Lake Kanananskis' Canyon CG

Above Left: Our Campsite (a repeat photo). We quickly evolved into a late morning wake-up routine as it was in the 40 F / 5 C at night, pleasant in the day, and day light until 10 pm / 2200 hours. It worked well for us to sleep later and pedal later than was typical for us. Notice that Terry is wearing a jacket.

Above Right: We saw some fat ground squirrels (the size of prairie dogs) the previous evening. Luckily, they did not bother us in our tent. I've seen more damage to tents from chipmunks and ground squirrels than from any other animal. If they smell food, they think nothing of ripping a hole or holes in a tent to go after the food. It is worse in places where people have spoiled them, like in most camp grounds.

Above Left: We were eating a hot breakfast and this guy was cleverly sneaking around to our back side, whenever I looked at him he would nibble on grass.

Above Right: We packed camp and we're pedaling - I noticed one high up mountain peak.

Above Left: Shark Mountain and Spray Lake.

Above Right: A Trailhead Sign for Bicycles and Hikers ONLY.

Above Left: We are at the top of the map on the left-hand side of Spray Lake (at the upper-right corner of the map). We will ride south on the bank of Spray Lake, ride around Spray Lake and then ride more or less head south-east off the map.

Above Right: Following the route around Spray Lake.

Above Left: Following the route around Spray Lake.

Above Right: Looking southeast across Spray Lake.

Above Left: Big rock slide area ahead.

Above Right: Calypso or Ferry Slipper (Orchid Family).

Above Left: Observe the Mouse looking attractor (or detractor) inside the Calypso Flower.

Above Right: Good road for now.

Above Left: We walked the bike over this one.

Above Right: Wild Strawberry Flowers.

Above Left: Open Adobe Lily.

Above Right: This Tree.

Above: Views across Spray Lake.

Above Left: Life is good!

Above Right: The Dam of [Lower] Spray Lake. Note that we still have another half day ride just to get around the remaining portion of Spray Lake.

Above Left: We're following the trail through the Dam's Spillway, seeing a potential trail problem down there.

Above Right: We have a choice, walk around or walk through; we walked the bike around.

Above Left: Our back-view shows where we and others went around the erosion gully.

Above Right: We immediately entered an old forest.

Above Left: We call this flower Buttercup, but many different types of 5 leaf yellow flowers look very similar.

Above Right: Calypso or Ferry Slipper (Orchid Family). Rich forest floor.

Above Left: The Bee takes a break for Lunch.

Above Right: Dennis at Lunch.

Above: Glacier Lily, we saw many.

Above Left: Warning, Do NOT Enter the Wildlife Sanctuary, it is for Wolf and Gizley Bear Protection! We are cycling along the southern border of this Wildlife Sanctuary. I have to tell the reader, I was NOT even thinking about Wolves until now. We have been seeing Bear Scat on the trail all morning. We will see a few bears later today, no wolves though.

Above Right: The Bee is enjoying the view.

Above Left: Well this is it, due to the washed-out road at the Dam, which happened a few years ago, there has been zero trail maintenance. This little Rock Slide is easy to get through BUT we will discover fallen trees to the degree that we are about to take 3 hours to proceed 2 miles.

Above Right: After 3 or 4 Tree Crossings, it occurred to us that we should start taking pictures.

Above Left: Another downed-tree ahead.

Above Right: We had to break out the saw for this tree combination.

Above Left: It was easier to cut the tip than to cut the trunck over the main trail. We could now walk the bike around the deadfall.

Above Right: Many more trees to cross.

Above: See Terry's Boot? This tree is too high up too heavy to carry the bike over, so we turned the bike sideways and rolled the bike over.

Above: The bridge for Turbulent Creek.

Above Left: The Slot Canyon of Turbulent Creek - Mile Marker 30.0. Notice the barely visible Water Fall (all white).

Above Right: We have reached the upland terrain just above Spray Lake, it has a high water table and things are to become on-again/off-again Boggy. It's not cool to tear up mud holes, so more walking for us.

Above Left: Spray Lake's upland terrain.

Above Right: Well, we've been seeing it all morning, we might as well take a picture. Notice that it is too early in the season for Berries, so no berry seeds in the Bear Scat, otherwise it looks quite healthy. Bears love to mark trails and roads with their markers, I am convinced that bears go out of their way to poop on trails and roads. We are still seeing bear poop every 500 yards/Meters.

Above Left: We have come across a burn scar. The sign says Closed to Bicycles".

Above Right: Yet another downed tree.

Above Left: Adventure with natures loose gravel.

Above Right: The sign stated Bryant Creek (in French and English) but we are actually about 500 yards/meters away. None of the things on the sign apply to us, but we do need to cross Bryant Creek. We will figure things as we go.

Above: Glorious Adventure.

Above Left: Now we come to a fork in the road, Bryant Creek goes left. We're still about 100 yards/meters away from Bryant Creek.

Above Right: At last, Bryant Creek.

Above Left: Terry Struck and the Bee ready for Bryant Creek, Alberta.

We are now rounding a finger of Spray Lake and bordering the Continental Divide. We will cross the Divide tomorrow.

Above Right: More trail riding BUT notice that from here on forward, today, the road will be maintained and there we be no more downed trees to negotiate. Unbeknownst to us, we rode from Banff NP into Spray Valley Provincial Park.

Above Left: Looking upstream over Spray River.

Above Right: Looking downstream over Spray River (it is the namesake of Spray Lake). We're on a bridge crossing Spray River.

Above Left: Ferry Slippers.

Above Right: We've been seeing a lot of this bush lately, it is Blueberry or one of the berry fruit variants.

Above Left: A budding flower, classic Blueberry (Whortleberry or Huckleberry).

Above Right: The trail conditions are great. We're conducting a lot more riding and making some distance now.

Above Left: I slammed on the breaks trying to avoid a Snake Bite Flat (when both rim edges pinch the tube against a straight hit onto a curb). The bridge ends had been rounded to a 45-degree angle but from this perspective the boards look to be at 90-degrees. We probably would have been OK, but "An ounce of prevention ...".

Above Right: The Shrub Guardian and his Domain.

Above Left: TBD.

Above Right: .

Above Left: The Shark Mountain Helipad Sign lets us know that we are at Mileage Point 37.5, we are near a pinnacle that we have been climbing for about 30 minutes, and we will begin a descent on a wide well-maintained gravel road. Being as it took us all morning to travel 10 miles, it will now only take us 1 hour to travel ten miles.

Above Right: Those striations.

Above Left: Snack break.

Above Right: We were at Smuts Creek and we were going to take a break and re-fill all of our water bottles using our water filter. However, our stopping at this spot scared a wild female moose out of the woods. This has happened to us before (stopping can sometimes spook a hidden animal). We weren't ready with the camera, so no pictures; Never-the-less, it was a cool nature moment for us!

Above Left: We are leaving Spray Valley Provincial Park for Peter Loughheed Provincial Park. This road is a super highway for bicycles!

Above Right: A look west toward the Smith-Dorrien Creek. That ridgeline is the Continental Divide.

Above Left: A look south on the Smith-Dorrien Spray Road.

Above Right: It was not a surprise, there was already a car parked on the side of the road. The car's driver silently signaled us on our bikes that a bear was near. Of course we already realized that some animal was out there by his being parked there (like at Yellowstone NP). It was the Bear in the photo. I whispered to the driver, that if the Grizzly came toward us in a menacing manner that we would be joining him and his family in an already crowded car. The driver had to think on that before he smiled.

The bear is eating grass but it is pulling the grass up by the roots and is eating the roots too (roots are high in protein).

Above: Grizzly Bear (no other bear has a shoulder hump).

Above: Grizzly Bear.

Above: Grizzly Bear (the same bear as previous).

Above: Moose, Swimming across the Water.

Above: Moose, coming out of the Water.

Above Left: Ground Squirrel.

Above Right: The reason that the nights are in the 40s F / 5 Cs.

Above: Black Bear.

Above: Black Bear.

Above: Lower Kananaskis Lake - We have to ride our bike around to the other side and then find a Camp Ground with Bear Safe Food Vaults. Another 5 miles to go.

Above: Our Camp at Canyon CG on Lower Kananaskis Lake - This picture was actually taken on the following morning. It had Bear Proof Safes, Running Water, and Toilets; what more could a person need?

The morning was difficult to ride (rock slides and many downed trees) It took us all morning to go about 10 miles. We passed by the edge of a protected Wolf and Bear Sanctuary. The afternoon held many pleasant surprises: a Grizzly Bear, a Black Bear, a Cow Moose spooked from the woods when we stopped to get stream water, and two Moose swimming across a small lake. We continued to see Bear Scat on the roads, about every 500 yards/meters (which made us very cautious about where we should camp. We deliberately stayed the night, again, in a Provincial Camp Ground because they offered Bear Proof Food Storage Vaults. The running water and outhouse toilets with paper were just a bonus!