The Mountains are Further Away then you would Think

So I have been in Alberta for a little under 3 weeks so far and I have already got a job, quite a job, had to turn down a job opportunity because I got lucky and found a place on a drilling rig with the help of my girlfriend and her cousin. I can't thank them enough for finding me a place on a rig. So this past week was a week of riding buses to and from Leduc and having Jamie take me all over the place to do some testing and courses so I could actually have a spot on his rig. We were origionaly supose to head up to Fort St John on the 20th but that was pushed back a week so I decided to come back down to Calgary so I could ride a few more days.

Yesterday was great, I spent some time looking on Google maps and some other bike web sites trying to figure out where to ride so I wouldn't get too lost trying to make my way from Calgary to Cochrane and back. Even with spending a lot of time looking at maps and writing directions down I was still very happy that I have a smart phone with Google maps on it. The plan was to ride out to Cochrane which included a few hills, one in town and one right in Cochrane. Then to head back into Calgary and climb over Canada Olympic Park (COP) switchbacks.

The ride started out OK, following the Bow river trail then the first of the climbs in a park I thought I was looking for a bike path not a road leading to the park so I spent some time riding around in circles there looking for a path. At the top of the hill is where I started to take wrong directions since some of the roads in Calgary are very poorly marked. I really don't know where they put street signs for some of the major roads. I ended up over in the west side of Calgary looking at the Rec center that my friend Alex works at so I figured that I was in the wrong spot, I finally decided where I needed to go and soon enough I was back onto a nice long open road headed west outside of town.

This was my view for most of this section of the ride, except that I couldn't really see much seeing as I don't have any riding glasses out here and I was riding into a 30km/h head wind. It was an amazing site non the less. I saw tons of riders headed the other direction along this road it was nice to see that many people out riding on such a nice day.

Then I was headed north on 22 hwy which is a pretty busy road but it was OK there was a nice big shoulder on the side of the road with a rumble strip between me and the traffic which made me feel safe, plus there seemed to be lots of people who do the route that I was doing. Coming into Cochrane I made my way up the hill, Kind of like riding up the escarpment in Collingwood. I decided to follow a few other riders who took the highway instead of the road that goes around, I think next time I will take the road not the highway, it was a little busy for me. And that busy road continued all the way into Calgary, I really don't understand how there is a ton of people who like to ride along the side of a 4 lane highway for that long but apparently people do, I even saw some people riding along the highway on the other side. Next time it will definitely be taking a little different route.

Now this is where I got really lost, I think I made about 2 or 3 different little loops along trails and roads just to make my way to COP I could see it for a long time I was just trying to make it there. Eventually I made it and grinded my way to the top.

After that I found my way back to some familiar roads and found my way back down to the Bow River trail wich from there I can find my way around town fairly easily.

All in all it was a good ride, 3:45 of riding time a little over 4 hours in total and a little over 100K.