Day 2: Spray Lakes to Mount Engadine Lodge

Ride time: 1:40
Average: 8.1 mph
Distance: 13.7 mi

Guess what?  We awoke to more rain.  In fact, it didn't stop raining all friggin' night long.  I'm not exaggerating.  I woke up with a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach due to the fact that it was barely above freezing and everything was soaked.  My fingers and toes were numb.  What a horrible way to start out our Great Divide Route trip.  And of course, today is my 31st birthday, and this is NOT how MY birthday is supposed to turn out...(watch Robyn's will run rampant)

We slowly packed up our super saturated camp, mostly because my fingers were not working that well.  We decided to bike east around Spray Lake instead of following the map, which was a great decision.  We saw Mount Engadine Lodge on the map, and agreed that we were going to stop there and warm up and get a room, if they had one.  We were in the middle of nowhere and this was the only service around for at least 50 miles (provided that we didn't bike back to Canmore, which would be really lame).

We ride into the lodge, and Chris, one of the innkeepers asks, "What can I do for you guys?"  All we could muster out was, "Warm food and a room."  Turns out, today was their opening day for the summer season and all they had left were two rooms.  We promptly set our bikes against the side of the lodge, walked inside and shed our rain gear, and got some delicious hot tea.  By the way, the tea they served is a local company in British Columbia called TeaLeaves and it's the best tea ever.  And I'm not saying that because we were cold; it's really delicious.

The lodge we stumbled upon was spectacular:

Departure from Engadine.  It's not raining...yet.

We saw at least 3 moose in the meadow behind the lodge, traipsing through the mud and soaking in the rain.
We ate super well and had great conversation.  In fact, we met another wet biker that is doing the Great Divide Route solo--he checked in yesterday.

Necessary gratitude list:
1. Dry sacks for the sleeping bags
2. Gore Bike Wear
3. Merino Smartwool
4. Lodges in the middle of nowhere

Transportation Change

It turns out that you cannot rent a car in the United States and do a one-way drop off in Canada.  I became painfully aware of this Saturday afternoon as I was trying to arrange our transportation from Milwaukee to Banff.  This is ridiculous.  Nate and I spent a few hours trying to figure out alternatives to getting to Banff (we looked into riding the train, and I even went so far as to look at craigslist to buy a beater SUV and then we'd ditch it or try to sell it in Canada), and the best we could come up with was a one way rental of some crappy mid-sized sedan with Hertz to Calgary for over $1,000.  LAME.

We let the problem sit and went out last night to forget about the snafu.  We went out with some friends and one of them started asking Nate and I about the bike trip.
Peter: "So I hear your headed on a big bike trip really soon?  When are you leaving?"
Me: "Well...um...we're hoping to leave Saturday morning, but as of right now, we can't secure a rental car."  I explained the problem concerning international car rental rules and regulations.  On a whim, I said, "Wanna take a road trip out there with us?"
Peter: "Serious??!?  Like Banff, Canada??  I wrote a paper about that place my sophomore year in high school, and I've always wanted to go!  I even have a Prius!"
I can't believe this conversation is really happening, and it turns out that he's a teacher as well and has the summer off, so he's able to give us a ride out there and see Banff at the same time.

As of right now, we're still on schedule to leave MKE Saturday morning, but now we have 3 drivers, some company, and a great this-world-is-way-bigger-than-me story to tell.