July 19, 2009

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Day 49. 13,737Km
I was'nt far from Lone Butte before I spotted the mountains again. Big mountains. The Rockies again. The trip across Hwy 24 does'nt take too long. It's less than 100Km. Once you turn North on Hwy 5 the GPS says the next turn is in 349Km. I fueled up in Clearwater, a town I've looked at on the MLS site before but after having seen it there are lots of nicer places.
I'm cruising along Hwy 5 and there is a turnout for a info board and washrooms. As I'm passing buy I look over and notice a car parked watching two bears so I turned around a couple K further down the road and went back not knowing if they would still be there or not. Sure enough they are laying on a small patch of grass near the edge of the parking lot chewing on the grass or something in it. I did'nt want to scare them off so I slowly approached to within 50 or 60 feet and stopped. While I was watching at least a dozen other car came and went and the only time the bears even acknowledged any of us is when one asshat pulled up about 25 feet away half blocking my view and got out of his car to go to the trunk to get a camera. At that point one of the bears got up and slowly started walking toward the guy to challenge him but once the guy jumped back in his car the bear turned back and laid back on the grass. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. I paid my fee at the edge of Jasper National Park and carried on into the town of Jasper or rather just south of where I am camped.
After my much too familiar dinner of three hotdogs on bread I took the bike into the town of Jasper and stopped at the local grocer for a few supplies including a couple small steaks which are now marinating for tomorrow. Mmmmmmm.

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Photos

short ride
before dinner I took a short ride into town