The last day of our journey was pretty straightforward. We knew we still had 83km to cover but we knew it was relatively flat.

However, it started off with a slight disappointment. If there's one thing Beauty Creek is known for, it's the pancake breakfast served by the hostel managers. People were raving about the pancakes in the guest book and I even read about the pancakes online prior to booking this hostel. ($5 for all you can eat chocolate chip pancakes ! How can you go wrong ?)

Unfortunately for us, the managers were out of town and we had to settle for some ramen and canned oysters.

 

Here's the pullout for the Beauty Creek hostel. I'll be back for the pancakes !

 

Here's the typical view/terrain on the way to Jasper. As you can see, it's relatively flat and the shoulders are fairly wide.

There was a strech of around 20km where there was a crack (perpendicular to our travel) almost every meter. Luckily for us, the lack of traffic allowed us to use a part of the highway when it got really bad.

 

Halfway through the day, we decided to pull out at the Sunwapta Falls area where they had some accomodations and a general store. Of course I had a Pepsi !

Here's one of the final hills before reaching Jasper.

 

Yes !!! We made it !!!

After arriving at my car, I went across the street to the Shell station to pick up my new tire replacement for my Civic.

The new tire was already mounted on my wheel and ready to go but the incompetent buffoons couldn't find my invoice ! After around 40 minutes of waiting, I simply told them to take down my credit card information and charge me the appropriate amount on Monday. (They preauthorized $150.)

I couldn't believe it ! They had 2 weeks to prepare the invoice ! Argh !!!

 

Here's Dave's Cateye right before we loaded his bike on my car.

 

After loading up our bicycles, we headed straight back towards Calgary with a stop in Lake Louise (to view the lake) and Banff (for dinner at Bumpers).

While driving out of Jasper, we encountered some heavy rain - the first since Day 1.

What an awesome trip this was ! Couldn't have asked for better weather and company !

So... who's up for a trip from Calgary to Vancouver in 2007 ? :)