May 21, 2014

I crossed the British Columbia/Alberta line today. That means one province down and only nine more to go. I also crossed over the Kicking Horse Pass which is another 300m above yesterday’s summit. At 1627m (5338ft), this is as high as I’m going to climb on this trip. While I’m not fully out of the mountains for a couple of days, crossing the provincial border and summiting the highest pass feels like an accomplishment. It’s starting to look like I may just be able to do the trip. To give you some sense of how high I climbed, snow and ice still covered the lake at the top. Sadly, no sign announced the pass and the welcome to Alberta sign was not yet up. Newly under construction, crews were only putting the posts in as I passed. I felt a little cheated at being prevented from taking a celebratory picture.

On the topic of marking things and places, I came across a couple of amusing ones today. I already mentioned Kicking Horse Pass. A name like that suggests a glorious story or that significances of some sort lurks about in the fog of yesteryear. The truth is more odd than glorious. The name references an incident on the first recorded expedition to find a suitable pass across the Rockies between 1857-60. Dr James Hector, surgeon to the expedition, reportedly got kicked by his horse while exploring in the area. Whoever decided that would make a perfect name must have thought the incident hilarious. Maybe he wasn’t particularly fond of Dr. Hector and thought this delicious comeuppance. Incidentally, Hector didn’t consider the pass suitable. CP rail used it over a more desirable pass further north in order to stave off rail competition from the US. They also wanted to insure their tourist passengers would continue to see the beautiful scences so they convinced the federal government to create large parks along the route. The rails are pretty important in this area to understate it a little.

The other little naming tidbit I encountered in the little town of Field. Named for the US industrialist Cyrus Field in the hopes he would invest, he didn’t give as much as a penny. I think there are some lessons to be learnt here. Don’t honour someone with a name before you’ve got the goods. And if you’re on the receiving end of an honour, be wary of anticipatory honours; they work just as well as a threat or blackmail. Who wants to be the guy who didn’t give a cent to a town named in his honour for all time?

Road Report: 88km

More beautiful pedaling along the TransCanada. The pull out of Golden is a brute, out of Field is hard but beyond that the usual ups and down.