Day 3. A big climbing day ahead, for both of them. They brought a TowWhee Bungee, just in case. Although the elevation gain is significant, my husband always reminds me that it is all at highway grades. While not even close to rail grades, these are not mountain biking or hiking trails, or even the gravel fire roads that we often ride in the backcountry; rather, this is a highway designed to get cars through the mountains the easiest way possible. I almost believe him…
Contents
Overview of the details
Overall, a lot of uphill today. Bridal Veil Falls is a beautiful pit-stop part way up the big climb, albeit a small hike off the highway (take your valuables) and lock up your bikes.
- Start/End: Day 3— Rampart Creek (campground) to Wilcox Creek (campground)
- Route type: one way (northbound)
- Campground: Wilcox Creek Campground, Jasper National Park (first come, first served)
*Note the only shelter with bear lockers is at the very top (according to this map; they were tired hunting for the bear lockers after all that climbing, and the campground sounds steep, so hopefully this knowledge helps a bit!) - Distance: 37 km
- Elevation: Climbing— 845 m; Descending— 125 m
- First trip: September 2020
- Terrain: Paved highway, decent paved shoulder (usually)
- Notes specific to kids: Suitable for competent riders. This can be a high traffic route (depending on the season) due to tourism. It is hilly (especially for kids) although highway grades.
- Highlights: Successfully climbing Wilcox Pass; the falls along the way; the scenery
Day 3: Journal Entry
When we got going, we knew what was coming; the BIG BEND. This was the climbing day, up to Wilcox. It was the day that we were going to have to use the Towhee (the Towhee is a special tow rope that we bought, you can attach it to a bike (usually Dad’s bike, but once, he wanted me to pull him!) and it tows the other person). Our first stop, well, it wasn’t really a real stop, was at the traffic lights at the bridge on the way up the hill, where people were doing work there. We were headed down the hill, and there we saw the BIG BEND. The wind was pushing on us, making us have to pedal down the hill, which was annoying. Although when Dad hooked the Towhee back up (he had unhooked it for the hill) we began the biggest climb on the Icefields Parkway…
It was hard, I imagine that it was harder for Dad, because he was towing my bike as I pedaled. At least the wind was pushing us up the hill, thank goodness. We had a lunch break on a viewpoint along one of the bends; and we enjoyed some chicken noodle soup, cheese, and bagels. We could see Bridal Veil Falls, it looked beautiful, we understood why they called it Bridal Veil Falls; it looked as if it would be a great place to be married. But I don’t think that they call it Bridal Veil Falls because of that, I think it’s called that because it looks a bit like a bridal veil; because of the way the water is white and spreads out as it tumbles down the mountain.
We started biking to the next bend; it wasn’t far, only about ten meters. Dad found a (very) small Parks sign, that said that one hike was this way and the other was that. One of the trails was called Panther Falls and the sign said that it was half a kilometer each way. We figured that we could probably do it in about ten minutes, so we did, and it was worth it; Panther Falls is a beautiful hike.
As we continued up the hill, I saw and found something… can you guess what it was? A wrecked car! Can you believe it? I saw a big red patch by the rocks nestled in the fireweed way below the road and then I said “Dad! I think I see a car down there!” We decided to investigate, Dad going first; we wondered how on earth the car had gotten down those rocks without popping any airbags, but maybe it had slid down the side, next to the rocks. The way that the car was facing didn’t really correspond to that answer, but we found some cash in it!
We were headed to Wilcox, the weather was getting a bit…wet. This was bad, Dad explained that once, he and his friend were hiking somewhere around here and it rained, he said that they had to feed each other carrot sticks because their fingers were so cold. Anyways, we had to put on rain jackets, it was kind of miserable, actually. We were quite close to Hilda Creek hostel.
We saw Parker Ridge, it was beautiful. A little after that, we saw some guys with a car that had some sort of problem; so they were stuck. We helped them by sending a text message via the inReach. We also entered Jasper National Park, just a bit before arriving at the campground.
When we got to the campground, we realized that it was A SERIOUSLY HILLY CAMPGROUND. Dad didn’t really feel good, I didn’t know why, but we managed to set up the tent, thank goodness. He took a Nuun Tablet (a Nuun Tablet is just a little thing that you can put in your drink, and it dissolves and gives you an energy boost, you can buy them at MEC). He felt a lot better after that. We had saved the dehydrated chocolate pudding for the BIG BEND day, it was pretty good, actually. There were some people chatting at another site on the road down below us, and when we went down in the little shelter with the fire going, we saw that they were in the small hut, and we decided to join them. Guess what! The bear lockers where like swimming pool lockers from a renovation! It was pretty nice; sitting in the little hut and showing them my drawings, we were there for a surprisingly long time, actually. It turns out that they were students doing a special kind of school; a type of school called “adventure studies.” They were training to do stuff like be guides for glacier tours, and things like that. Then we went to bed, and we played chess again; I like doing that before bed, Dad won this time!
Other days in this trip
Other family-friendly bike trips in the region
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