Erick L

Can't you read? I know I can't...

Machka 

Seems I did see that sign there.

SparkyGA

Reading this thread makes me miss home I'm a native to this area (Hinton/Jasper)

Regardless of how you do this tour, it's a great ride. Just watch out for the traffic and the often anti cyclist RV drivers, they can be extremely nasty in the peak summer months.

sth

It is a great ride, well suited for cycling. Did it this past July for the 3rd time in about 20 years. I was really happy to see mini water treatment plants at each campground. Boiling/treating the water last time was pain. One thing that is a pain in the arse is the 40 or so km's of frost heaves perpendicular to the shoulder north of the Icefield. It gets old fast. North to south, south to north, it doesnt really matter. Do both. I parked in Jasper then cycled south and back. You can park for free on Jaspers main street, west of the PetroCan gas stationj just have to advise the bylaw dept. Lake Louise had parking too, but that was 2o years ago.

Side note: great shots Erick, as usual. Loved the Marmot. What site/programme do you use?

sth

Most of the campgrounds are nice, most are full of RVs. A few have walk in sites. I had one walk in area to myself while the rest of the large campground was full of people. Best spot of the trip. Every so often the booming sound of the glacier high above calving off could be heard. Cool. Bring lots of memory card capacity.

Erick L

Thanks! Everybody loves the Marmot.

I used an Olympus E-M5 with 9-18 and 14-150 lenses. The tilt screen with touch focus and shutter release were handy for the Marmot shot. I shoot RAWs which I convert to DNG and process in Lightroom 3. The E-M5 is quite new so that's why they need to be converted to DNG. Lightroom 4 can process E-M5's RAWs without conversion. MY site is hosted on Zenfolio. I used to be on Smugmug but they doubled the price of the plan I was using. The increase was too much for my taste.

Machka 

By Hwy 735, do you mean Hwy 734 aka Hwy 40 aka The Forestry Trunk Road?

If so, I think most of that is paved now, but I'm not positive. I know they were working on paving it from Hinton up to Grande Prairie back when I lived up in the Grande Prairie area, but I'm not positive how far they got. It the early 1980s it was all gravel.

If it is paved, it would probably be rideable. But it is remote. You wouldn't find much in the way of services ... you'd find km after km of forest.


However if you want a break from being in the midst of breathtaking mountains, you might also consider riding the Cowboy Trail (Hwy 22): https://www.thecowboytrail.com/

I have cycled quite a bit of the Cowboy Trail. I've cycled from Alder Flats (Buck Lake) all the way down to the Airdrie turnoff, and then from where Hwy 8 joins Hwy 22 down to Longview, and a little bit right in the Cochrane area. I've driven from Alder Flats (Buck Lake) all the way down to Pincher Creek ... and we drove most of that again today.

It runs along beside the mountains ... they are a bit of a distance away. It is a hilly road, one rolling hill after another, but when you top some of the bigger hills you get quite a view of the Rockies. The road itself is good - wide, with a decent shoulder. And it is fairly quiet. There are also services along the way. Mostly quite small towns.

Anyway, that's another option to throw into the mix. You could ride up Hwy 22 (Cowboy Trail) from Calgary to Rocky Mountain House, then turn west on Hwy 11 to Nordegg, then Saskatchewan River Crossing.

Carbonfiberboy 

Thanks again! Looking forward to it.

keenancook

Hey,
Like a couple others here I grew up in the area, in Rocky Mountain House. And just to correct Machka, the Forestry Trunk Road is not paved for the southern part - I'm nearly 100% sure it's gravel all the way from highway 16 (that would connect you to Jasper) down to the Trans-Canada, that would connect you to Banff. It's definitely scenic, but a lot of the time it's in pretty bad shape - tons of washboard gravel. And very remote - you won't find any services along it. Water from streams, but that is about it. And using highway 22 - the Cowboy Trail is alright, there's a nice wide shoulder on it the whole way, but the northern stretch, again from highway 16 down until Rocky Mountain House isn't the most scenic - you can see some mountains off in the distance sometimes, but it's really just through farmland and then thick forest, and rolling hills. And straight. The part further south, from Rocky to Sundre to Cochrane is better, you have better views of the Rockies and the road curves and dips a bit more, but it's definitely not in the same category as the Icefields Parkway. Machka's right about highway 11, from Nordegg to the park boundary being great, but it is a bit tougher to incorporate into a loop, unless you have a lot of time, or don't mind doing an out and back.

Oh, and in regards to the park fees, I've biked into the parks on the highway 11 entry coming from Rocky Mtn. House/Nordegg, and never been charged at that gate. Maybe I've just been lucky, but the lady in the gate seemed to like cyclists, and said we already paid enough by biking to get there. No guarantee of that, but it's possible.

SparkyGA

The forestry trunk (Nordegg to to Robb)is one of the worst somewhat major roads I know in Alberta. It's lovely to drive/ride, but its full of trucks, logging equipment, dust from hell and has extreme amounts of washboard in places. Use to work down that road on a gas plant project. Hilly too, but nothing too serious. Minimal services in the area as well, only place I can think is Robb (liquor store/hotel/gas station IIRC)

The road from Cadminton to Hinton to Grande Prairie has been paved for at least 20 years now, and usually good pavement. Overall a nice ride, not overly busy in the spring to fall seasons, but it doesn't have a very large shoulder to ride on and services are pretty limited (pretty much Grande Cache). Do beware of the heavy equipment that rides on that road, plenty of logging and oil & gas equipment around, and the idiot drivers (daily serious accidents on the road....). Oh and 2 very nice big hills to climb Use to drive this road daily for about 2 years......

Never been charged by the gate people either in Jasper while on bike either.

Erick L

A little spoiler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JXmZGuuess