Willow Creek No. 26, Canada - Polarsteps

First prairie cycling day! It was like having motors attached to our bikes; the land gradually sloped down and there were strong west-east tailwinds. I'd never even used the high gears on my bike before; we covered the 77km to Fort Macleod like it was nothing. The first couple of photos are our last views of the mountains; the change in landscape is sudden and total. I learned that there are two types of roads in Alberta. Anything that's a paved highway is impeccably paved and super wide with a wide shoulder. It's nice to be able to ignore the traffic; we have a good buffer from it, and as opposed to the blind corners through the mountains, we have high visibility for a long way back on the straight roads. Through a bit of a Google Maps mishap, we ended up on the second kind of road at the end of the day, the loose gravel range road/township road-- fine enough if the grader hasn't been by in a while, but otherwise like riding on marbles. Looking at a road map of the prairies, you could be fooled into thinking you could cycle the whole thing on the ubiquitous grid of back roads. I understand now that unless you have a serious mountain bike situation and/or a lot of extra time on your hands and/or a steel butt and iron-strong wrists, you cannot. More! friend! visits! We got to Alycia and Riley's place just in time to meet Riley and Baby Claire on their way out to Vulcan, and spent such a sweet evening with Alycia. Post-Lethbridge it's going to be a while before we see some familiar faces again; these stops have been unbelievably abundant and precious. -Sara