A Golden Ride in Golden

We had stopped at the bike shop in Golden...Higher Ground...to touch all the stuff and see if there was a ride that we could do today.  The owner pointed out a couple of possibilities and we liked an out and back on Upper Golden Donald Road.  It required a one mile ride up the hill to the east...maybe a 10% grade.  But Upper Golden Donald Road was a winner...we rode all the way out to Northern Lights Wolf Centre.  It is owned and managed by Casey and Shelley Black and dedicated to the care of rescued wolves and public education of the wolf's role in a healthy ecosystem.  Maya, their oldest wolf, is 16 and well beyond the normal life expectancy of a wolf in captivity.  Wolves in the wild only have a life expectancy of 3-6 years.  We learned a lot at the centre and were glad we made the visit.

We rode back to the hostel, stopping for a big, frosty mug of A&W root beer.  It brought back memories of the A&W stops my folks made when I was little...the tray that hooked onto the rolled down front window...big, frosty mugs of root beer...yum.

We had been warned about the mosquitoes in Banff and Lake Louise, but they were manageable.  The mozzies in Golden are aggressive and relentless, and my Off with Picaridin isn't cutting it.  They have declared Open Season on Cindi and all I can do is swat like a madwoman.

Tomorrow I'm going to get up at the crack of dawn and do my best to beat the traffic up to Rogers Pass.  It is about 50 miles from Golden with over 4000' of elevation gain, but I don't want to ride on Hwy 1 anymore than I have to, so...two days worth of riding in one day again.  

We were going to stay in a winter hut near Rogers Pass called the Arthur Wheeler Hut, but when we took a closer look, we realized there is propane for cooking but no services, and only pit toilets....all for $30 a piece.  We had thought it might be a little like the Refugios we stayed in while we were in Italy...but the Arthur Wheeler Hut doesn't come stocked with food and good wine.  We'll try staying at a place about 20 miles from Revelstoke called Canyon Hot Springs...a good place to soak our weary bones.