Day 15, May 20 - Foothills to Prairie

Today we went from true Alberta foothills to true prairie. We left camp after 8 and spent two slow hours going south on Highway 800 straight towards Chief Mountain - slow because of the WSW winds, but tolerable because of the mountain views. After hitting highway 5, which we were on for most of the rest of the day, we turned East and passed through Mountain View and into Cardston, where we had a look at the giant Mormon temple, which appears to be built in a variant of Stalinist style. After lunch we continued with our backs to the wind NE through Magrath and turned east onto highway 52 to Raymond, which appears to be a bedroom community for Lethbridge, where we found the Perret Park campground at the edge of town backing onto prairie and featuring lots of mud (though thankfully avoidable). Today was our highest mileage so far, at 123km, even though the first 25km were very slow due to the winds. I believe we had our last view of the mountains at some point in the afternoon, though it may just be because they are clouded in - we had clouds and a few spots of drizzle throughout the day. Hello prairie! now the roads have almost totally flattened out, except for the occasional dip for a river or creek crossing, and from now on we will be heading due east to the Cypress Hills!

We are all now getting used to the constant questions and comments from people - once they see our loaded up bikes, lots of random strangers want to chat us up and wish us well. It is interesting to talk to other distance cyclists, if even briefly - a guy in the grocery store in Cardston mentioned his bike trip from Vancouver to San Jose, and said that, like us, he had the wind behind him most of the time!

Mark