• It took 4 days to complete what would typically be a 3-day ride - We had an adventure!
• Every Day we saw a big mound of bear scat about every 500 yards/meters.
• On Day 1, the actual route around Spray Lake was nothing like the depicted map route. Instead of being a gentle around a lake route it was an over some hills route (about 1 mile west of Spray Lake).
• On Day 2, there was a a lot of dead fall on the trail, none of it was new, it had been there for 2-3 years. We had to break out our saw on one occasion and lifting the fully loaded tandem was problematic, often running the Stoker's and Captain's Chain over multiple logs.
• On Day 2, from the bike we saw a Grizzly Bear, a Black Bear, two swimming Moose, and one other walking Moose (while about to filter some river water).
• On Day 3, the road was so torn-up by logging trucks that we lost (and replaced) rear rack nuts and bolts. The pannier rack's brace came loose and had effected the rear brake (preventing engagement). While undiscovered until 2 days later, we had broken a spoke on the rear hub. We had to wild camp on Day 3 as we had lost too much time in repairs and walking the bike through timber truck ruts with 8 to 12-inch-high walls (not enough room to pedal the bike and too soft away from the truck wheel tracks). We wild camped that night, on previous nights we had deliberately used Camp Grounds for their Bear Proof Food Vaults.
• On Day 4, we finally rode into Elkford on some decent road conditions (a 1/3-day ride). We spent the rest of the day using the shuttle motorcycle to retrieve our motor vehicle and trailer from Banff (4 hours each way).
• On Day 5, we repositioned the shuttle motorcycle to Roosville, did a walking tour of Fernie, and we had the rack fixed at a bike shop in Fernie. On the evening of Day 5, while loading the bike's panniers for another 4 Day run, we discovered a broken spoke.
• On Day 6, in the early morning, we took the bike into a bike shop at Fernie to get the broken Spoke replaced, looked for other damaged spokes, and we bought some replacement spare metric parts (nuts and bolts).
• On Day 6, at noon time, we realized that we had lost so much time that we wanted to attempt an abbreviated distance run on the GDMBR from the town of Corbin to Roosville (an estimated 3-day ride). We climbed and rode just over Flat Head Pass only to discover that the trail road was 12 to 18 inches under water for about 1/4 of a mile (1/2 a kilometer) which was as far as we could see around a flooded road bend. There were too many unknowns! Was it safe after this road? Were there more flooded road conditions? This area of BC had a record breaking winter snow and in the month of June (now) the summer snow melt was known to be flooding in some areas (but this was a surprise).
• On Day 6, in the evening, we road our bike all the way back to Corbin and we decided to get off the GDMBR and to come back in August and, if need be, ride the Alternate Route. We had run out of time for this adventure, we had an old friend to visit in Washington State.

Day 1 - Banff to Spray Lake Camp Ground

Above: GDMBR Canada: Dennis & Terry Struck and the Bee were in front of the Fairmont Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta. Behind the Photographers (from New Zealand) was the beginning of the route for the Canadian GDMBR.

Above Left: Trailhead at 0.0 miles - Notice the big bicycle pump and tools at the side (GDMBR, Canada, Banff; Tandem Bicycle Tour; June, 2017)..

Above Right: Close-up of the Pump and Tools collection. This is really a good collection of tools and I have never seen anything like this in the USA but I've heard of similar set-ups in the Europe.

Above Left: The Trail Map.

Above Right: Our Trail Map, we're cycling!

Above Left: Spray River - Note the blue-green color comes from Glacier Silt.

Above Right: Those are strawberry flowers in bloom but one must search to find the strawberry leaves.

Above Left: At first,, from a distance, we thought that it may be a bear up in the tree BUT this is a mistletoe ball and it killed the tree.

Above Right: Dennis Struck next to the Spray River.

Above Left: The trail ahead.

Above Right: Super ground cover, very absorbent for heavy rains.

Above Left: Granite Outcrop.

Above Right: Snack Break.

Above Left: A color variant of Adobe Lily (more blue than lavender); it is not open yet.

Above Right: Enjoying life.

Above Left: Trail Sign - We're close to crossing Goat Creek. BTW, there are many Goat Creeks in the Canadian Mountains.

Above Right: Getting ready to cross Goat Creek and we met several riders. We shared trail info, we didn't have much to offer, everything is good behind us.

Above: Spray River Crossing.

Above: Terry & Dennis Struck and the Bee at the Spray River Crossing.

Above: The climb-out from the Spray River crossing.

Above Left: We crossed 3 small creeks, all roaring with water.

Above Right: We decided to have lunch at a small bridge. We were now closer to Canmore than to Banff.

Above Left: Around mile 15 we started to run into traditional mountain bike obstacles. We also ran into tradition map and reality issues; the map directions and layout did not match the actual route that we were taking.

Above Right: We actually saw the most people ever on the trail. It was Father's Day weekend and this is what a lot of Canadian Fathers wanted to do! We were the only folks that were Through-Riding.

Above: Interesting geology.

Above Left: See the Warning Markers ahead.

Above Right: I am holding the bike, Terry is exploring the Trail and will come back to let me know if it is safe or if we have to walk the bike. We walked the bike.

Above Left: Happy Girl.

Above Right: Goat Pond.

Above: We're now on a road route that is not depicted on our map. Frankly, we did not know where we were and we did not figure it out for 2 days. We rode a cross country roller-coaster route (and we did enjoy it).

Above Left: We rode through it. We will end-up having ridden through the most water for any bike segment that we have ever performed on the GDMBR.

Above Right: Canada.

Above: Overland we go.

Above Left: We finally come off the Overland Route and discover that we are at Spray Lake (still). We probably arrived around Mile 24, but that is just a guess. Our Map Route and the Actual Route are two different things. We can cope easily.

Above Right: We are riding through a wetland area, it's very boggy, and it is sprinkling again. We just ride on through and our bike is very muddy now.

Above Left: The GDMBR is the two roads behind the bike (left and right). We parked to figure out what is going on (not demonstrated by the map). Spray lake is a series of lakes in a row, each lake has a dam and a spillway. We would be guessing but it seems to be 5 or 6 lakes in a row. This road that we are standing upon for this picture is one of the spillway roads.

Above Right: The area has become so boggy that a "nature boardwalk" was made to keep hikers and bikers dry and to preserve the wetland a little bit. There is a road on the other side of spray lake (that stays out of the wetland and maybe someday the GDMBR will be routed that way as it should be).

Above: This is our campsite. The photo was actually taken the next morning. That is Spray Lake in the background. We were next to a nice group of Germans on Holiday. We were surprised that we had not escaped Spray Lake, we were at about Mileage Point 27.

The route started super easy on a well-maintained forest road, straight out of Banff, directly behind the Fairmont Hotel. Over time the route became more of a challenge. Parts of the route were flood eroded and a cyclist was on their own to get around; we had no problems. About mid way, our map and the route did not agree. We stopped some passersby who let us know that there maps or GPSs were accurate and they were not having any problems with navigation; some Canadian websites were recommended. We kept following the route as described by the Canadians, we rode in blind trust. We had no problems but the actual route was more time consuming and difficult than the Adventure Cycling Map had indicated. This is called an Adventure and we had one.