[Northendzone]

last Friday and i a co-worker and i took on highway 1a. We wound up riding from fenlands rec ctr in banff to the samson mall in lake louise - 115km with a moving time of a little under 5 hrs. the wind was stronger than i would have liked. We rode into it along vermillion lakes and then it was a sideways wind along 1A - so we were sort of against it on the way to LL, and it was somewhat helpful on the way back - whihch is the way i want it

my observations were:
- kms 40 to 50 were really tough for me. At one point my chain jumped off my cassette, thought i had it fixed, only to then have a slow speed tip over as the chain was not sitting on the jockey wheel. i felt like a donkey as an oncoming motorist stopped to ask if i was ok
- we saw three bears, include two that were right beside the highway at the 1A overhead sign at the LL end
- going over those texas gates near LL (on the road from the ski hill) on a gravel bike is terryfying
- kms 85 to 96 were also real difficult for me - i think mostly because i had not done a century in a long time as most of my long rides on my GG are in the 60km range
- my coworker (a runner) would do some jackrabbit takeoffs, and i would then reel him back in. it was also funny in that i would always catch him on a lot of the downhills. i attributed that to me being a heavier guy and having a better bike with less rolling resistance in the wheels

in the end i was glad we did it. We had initially planned to ride highwood pass, but i then kept seeing reprots of snow still; however, it is my understanding that it opened late last week as well