Long Rest Weekend

I got to Calgary on 7/21 after spending a night in Brooks and a night in Gleichen. I approached the city from the Southeast, mostly on the Bow River Trail, which was a nice and well-used 20km bike path along the river. Calgary has a lot of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, including paths, separated cycletracks, and bridges.

I spent 4 nights at the University of Calgary, which runs one of their dorms as a motel during the summer. The first two days I did very little -- ate Indian food, Vietnamese food, and walked around the campus. The 2nd two days I walked extensively downtown, and ate 9 tacos. I also visited 4 bike shops in hopes a buying a Schwalbe Marathon Tire between 35mm and 40mm, but none of them had any. I decided I'd try to find one in Canmore, Banff, or Jasper. The 3rd afternoon was very hot and there was a group of people surfing a standing wave on the Bow River a few blocks from downtown.

I also went to MEC and bought two spare tubes, new bike shorts (I'd worn large holes in the one pair I brought), a shifter cable, and long underwear, which apparently I forgot to bring. MEC is a large outdoor store like REI, but ONLY sells to members, so I had to pretend to be Robin to shop there! I also wanted to buy BB7 brake pads but they didn't have any.

I'm excited to be done with the prairies and about the enter the mountains for the remainder of my trip. I spent my nights in Calgary working on my journal/website and trying to plan some things to see in the Rockies.