Christmas Time at Togwotee, WY

 Currently, we are in Wyoming about an hour outside Jackson Hole at a lodge called Togwotee, where Keith has spent four Christmas seasons (last year I was with him) working for Billy Snodgrass, an Iditerod racer who operates a dog sled tour kennel here.  We're here only for a few weeks--the busy season.  Keith has been doing two tours a day and having some interesting experiences, as always (yesterday he took a Saudi prince and his enterage out).  He loves mushing, it is Beautiful up here (though so far, less snow than usual), and I get to just Relax!  I have had the time and space to do those things I always want to do and seldom do:  reading, writing in my journal, doing yoga, knitting, up-dating the blog : ) and going on some photo/snow-shoe expeditions (internet too slow to post more pictures now). It is really quite like a little "holiday" for us.

Here's Keith doing what he does... just coming in from the afternoon tour and feeding the dogs.

This is the mushers' cabin and the kennel.  However, Keith and I actually stay in the lodge employee dorms--more comfortable for married couples!

A little late perhaps, but I still wanted to wrap-up our bike trip with a post celebrating the end!  We arrived with smiles at the edge of the sea in Prince Rupert, September 6th--four months and 5,900 miles after starting our trip.  Our last day's ride was one of the most beautiful!!  We were blessed with an amazing sunny day as we biked along the inlet, although rain had been forecasted--a perfect end.  This is Keith and I getting off the ferry in my hometown Sitka, Alaska.  After a day on the ferry from Prince Rupert, B.C., we arrived in Sitka at 2:00 A.M. and I insisted on biking the three miles to my house (It would be silly to get a ride to my house after crossing North America!)  We felt disbelief at the thought that we had flown into Maine and biked from there North through the Maritimes and across Canada all the way home!  It's amazing what your own two feet and a little mental endurance can do (appropriate gear helps)!  My grandparents, mom and dad and sister were awake (2:00 A.M.) to celebrate with us and fixed a great early breakfast for us!

We had an Amazing experience (or set of experiences) this summer!!  We loved our trip!  We especially loved getting to know some amazing people along the way and feeling a bond of humanity that can exist with near strangers--especially when people surprisingly went out of their way offer kindness to us.  This touched us a great deal and we thank you once again!  Thanks also to those who have followed our blog through our journey.  It was fun to watch as we gained followers across the continent and we became excited to share our experiences and sights with you--like you were with us : )

Stay tuned for further adventures!  I am going to try to be better at occasionally posting updates again after taking a few months off : )

British Columbiaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!

One more province to go!!!!

Riding through Mount Robson Park

The Majestic Mount Robson-- We got to the parking lot of the Visitor's Center near the start of the park at the end of our 85-mile day's ride.  Tired and relieved to have made our goal for the day, we took in our beautiful surroundings.  There was so much to look at around us, that we didn't for a few minutes even NOTICE this beautiful mountain back behind us... Keith was looking around at other peaks and when I excitedly said, "KEith look!!" and he finally did, he was like, "Woah. Hahahah"  (you know that laugh of delight he does  :)

We took many pictures of this mountain.

A frequent sight/rush while on the bike...

Riding through the Robson Valley, Keith and I were in awe at it's beauty.  We were struck by these beautiful farms at the foot of sharp, snow-covered peaks.  We could easily see why someone would chose to live here.  It was peaceful and wonderful.  A few minutes after taking this picture, we stopped to watch two healthy teenage black bears raiding someones apple trees... one was standing on it's hind legs eating the apples and the other one alarmed some dogs inside the house whose barking scared them off.  Too bad we didn't get a picture...

This was a really cool little town.  Of all the towns we have passed through in Canada this summer, McBride, we decided, would be in the top five of somewhere we would ever consider living.

At the local grocery store (we were so impressed with) was an awesome "Cheese counter" we were told about.  We love cheese.  We decided to celebrate our passage through Jasper National Park and the main bulk of the Rockies with some good cheese.  Keith got this Roquefort.  He loved it and ate it all right then.

I got this Mango Ginger Stilt.  It was AMAZING.  We had also gotten some buttery pastries with a walnut glaze and the combination of the two was one of the most succulent combinations of two foods anywhere.

We crossed quite a few of these impossibly high bridges... quite nerve-racking on a bike, but very beautiful.  Breathtaking, in multiple ways.

We biked 107 miles this day so that we could end at this rest stop... the only place with people for two-days worth of biking.  We felt a little safer here with trucks and cars constantly pulling in, in this, the middle of brown bear, black bear, and mountain lion country.  The spot was actually very beautiful, next to a wide glorious river, and had flush toilets and everything!  Keith rigged up this little tarp system to block the light from the streetlight nearby.  We slept well and did not get a fine.

Hobos.

Eh.  Keith loves spiders.  And he's discovered he loves photographing them.  There were a bunch of these ones living in the cracks of a picnic table we were eating our lunch on.  Note the hundreds of baby spiders clinging to this mother's back.  Keith thought it was amazing and wonderful.  Though I feel these shots he got are great, I prefer not to look at them up close. 

These are the Wilkinsons--an Amazing family we met in Prince George who invited us to come and stay for the night, since we had no where to go in town.  We were planning on heading for the city park to set up our tent somewhere hidden, but when we realized how sketchy the area was, we were so thankful to (randomly, or not) run into Clayton.  It was fun to get to know them and their VERY cute kids and enjoy a wonderful meal of Crepes the next morning before heading off to church.  Thank you so much for trusting us, for taking in and feeding strangers.  We have been so blessed along our way.

We met the Youngs at church that day in Prince George.  They won the lottery, I guess, of having us over after church, or so they acted :)  But it turned out that WE won the lottery.  These guys were awesome.  We had a wonderful time hearing their stories of living in Ukraine during their Mission Presidency years, enjoying a tour of the UNBC campus where John is Dean, perusing their wall of awesome books, and dining with them on an amazing feast of Ribs.  They are truly a cool family.  We have enjoyed this part of our trip most of all--having the opportunity to witness the lives of families across the continent and learn from them and come to look to their examples and take peices of each to shape the way we want to be in our future family.  This definately applied here in the Youngs' home.

So, in Prince George, with one week left of our Summer's ride, our camera stopped working. (It has since been revived).  For the rest of the ride, we had to do with our "Go Pro" video camera's still shots which we didn't take very many of.  But enough to give the idea...

This was at the Moore's home outside of Burn's Lake.  We tried to take a "Go Pro" shot of their family and thought we had, but it didn't work.  They are a very nice family we met last Spring on a road trip we took up through B.C. to Alaska who had invited us months ago to stay with them when we passed.  It was a perfect ending place for our day and we enjoyed their hospitality for a warm, secure night :)

5,555.5 miles down.

We were invited by a man we met at Morisetown down to the river bank where the local people were dip netting in the raging river. 

This was an awesome experience. We took a few hours off from biking to take the opportunity to witness some interesting cultural issues in this community concerning the salmon run.  If you want to know more about this, just ask me, I don't want to explain it all online without permission.

This is Kenny--an awesome guy who we enjoyed learning from and joking with down by the river (and me adjusting my bike shorts).

Salmon roe sandwich :)

I loved this.  So interesting, so fun. These guys showed us a good time down by the river :)

If you look closely, you can see that this routine Mac & Cheese lunch was jazzed up with some salmon eggs :)  Fishy, but good. 

I can't say where we got this salmon...  I seem to have forgotten  :)

When we got to Terrace, BC, we already had an awesome couple, the Bohles, to stay with that we had been hooked up with weeks before. We had met their son in Edmonton who had told us his parents had been following the blog of another bike touring couple and would be very interested in hearing about our trip and that they would love to have us stay with them :)  That was so fun-- for weeks they had been following us on our blog and knew all about our trip when we got there. They took us out with them on their weekly date night with their friends.  We went to an AWESOME restaurant and got amazing burgers and sweet potato fries--good fuel for the next day.  That was followed up by wonderful homemade pies back at the house... They were so fun to talk to and took such good care of us : D

The start of our last day's ride. One day to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a post dedicated to those who told us along the way that they would love to do something like this, but are too old :)
Short, beautifully done video of a neat true story:

Dream Rangers

Alberta

 Getting close...

 The day we came into Alberta we started experiencing these Rolling farmlands!  Very pretty.

 Cows break up the monotony of a long ride sometimes.  They usually are quite interested in us when we pass and often break into a run and follow us along the length of their fence.  Part of the reason they are so curious probably has something to do with Keith's quite realistic mooing.  We taunt most of the animals we pass plainly for some amusement to liven the day of continuous pedaling.  You should hear Keith's hawk screech.

 This is a little town we stopped in to make our lunch.  The whole town is "viking" themed--not, as we found out, because the townspeople have viking heritage (they don't), but merely because their town is called Viking.

 We camped in "Bruce" that night--a town with a rodeo heritage and theme.  We put our tent up in an empty grassy lot in town, right across from a fancy, widely-popular "dinner event" at a motel from which savory aromas were wafting across the lawn... ahhhh well... rice packets again!

 Okay, I know, we have posted a ton of pictures of frogs... they are all just neat! All the different kinds!  I had to post this... he's so cute!  These little ones are wood frogs, we guess, that we have found in the grass of a few campsites now.

 If you know who Hiyo Miasaki is this might remind you of his movies... we have seen a few of these and are not quite sure what they are.

 Okay, well, there is more behind this picture that needs telling, but first let me say that this Chicken Tandoori pictured is maybe my favorite meal I have ever eaten.  Yes, quite possibly.  It is making my mouth water now... the tangy, rich, savory, how do you even say it??!!  It was amazing.  We were brought to this Indian food cafe by Hafiz, a good friend we made in Edmonton.

We visited the Edmonton Mall-- formerly the largest mall in the world.  We are at the 24th of who knows how many entrances!  I like how, though he was just stretching, Keith looks like he is saying, "The Mall is THIIIIIIIIS big!"  We don't even like malls, but we had to check this place out.  We got pretty turned around in there.

We did get to watch the Sea Lion show that takes place in the mall everyday... that was one talented sea lion, but what may have been more amusing was that we were watching him in a huge lagoon inside a mall. 

Yeah, there is also a floating pirate ship.  We also found the ropes course, mini golf and water park inside the mall, which is no small water park. We couldn't find the roller coaster.  You wouldn't think it would be that hard to find in a mall...

So, this is Joanne and Hafiz, who we spent a wonderful weekend with in Edmonton.  We met them at the park and they invited us to stay with them.  They fed us, let us clean up, and put us in a nice, comfortable bed, showed us some of the great things to see in the city, and on top of that were just a seriously awesome couple of people.

They took us to the "Fringe" -- a festival that takes place in Edmonton each year.  The booths of good food, street performers, and tons of shows and plays put on make it a pretty cool event.  The rides brought in were actually run on vegetable oil-- they called it the world's first "Sustainival."

Thanks Hafiz and Joanne-- it was awesome :)

We biked that next day to a small town called Entwistle.  We were scouring the area for a good place to set up camp (we were going to set up on the grass behind a church) when we went to a nearby house to ask if we could fill up some water.  While getting our water, the neighbors came across the street and told us they had an old camper we could sleep in.  It was a lovely evening--they brought us into the camper the rest of the meal they had had for dinner and later pulled a bunch of vegetables from their garden to send on the way with us.  Gilda and her son, Dave, were great, warm-hearted people that we enjoyed getting to know very much.

5,000 miles!!   It was easy.  :)

Our camp in Edson--in a patch of trees between the rails and the main part of town.  We made friends with a nice guy working at the gas station across the street, Al, who gave us a flat of bottled water!  There are such nice people in this world.  Probably felt bad for us living like hobos.

Our first look at the Canadian Rockies!  Here we come Rockies!

What a beautiful sight contrasted with the prairies we have been in for quite some time.

Don't worry--it's not real.  Just thought this would be a good place to enjoy our lunch of Cinnamon rolls and whole milk.

Ahh, Jasper National Park.

Do you see the face?

I won't explain what we're doing here, as we might be prosecuted.

Wanting to be hidden from the road, we found this secluded space and stashed our bike and gear behind the cover of these bushes... I look up (doing a cougar check) to see this bride and photographer walking down this secret, random, wilderness path we have found to do a bridal shoot!!  How perfect.

Keith takes an evening dip in the frigid lake.

I had the shot set up so well, but... I didn't quite capture it the first time.

So he did it again-- better!

And again :)

Our view from camp.

A favorite "snack" we have developed, reserved only for those times of caloric desperation: a Pop Tart, Peanut butter sandwich.  Delicious with the fudge pop tarts; cream cheese would go between the raspberry ones.  Do not try this at home.
 

Early morning on the road towards the town of Jasper.