The Soothing Highway Sounds

Everything was dry, and now it's not! Wow, that was quite the downpour. Credit to the trusty Henry Shires Tarptent for going up quick and keeping me dry (once I'm inside) with such a thin and flimsy-appearing sil-nylon layer. 

Spent the day in the town of Jasper doing errands. New shoes, waterproof pants I should've been carrying all along, new socks, plus less fun stuff like trying to roll over my retirement account so I don't get tax penalties, trying to change an investment account address so I don't get tax penalties, trying to get health insurance so I don't get tax penalties... I really had to stretch those to make it all about taxes; there are other totally non-tax things, but they're all Society, Man! Society! Why can't I just hit pause, make my credit card pay the balance automatically, and mountains for three months without having to do forms every three days? (Oh, yeh, moving your family, stuff, and job across the country takes effort. Forgot. Also, gear, I need gear in order to mountains.)

Anyway, I took care of stuff. Then I walked along the highway. The trailhead is 20+ km of serious highway shoulder walking. I like making *continuous* journeys on foot, in the sense that you could string together overlapping footsteps, but are allowed to take rides to a store and back and then continue on from the same point. Pure continuous never getting in a car is also great but I've never done much of that before. You learn something from having to walk the crappy parts, and I know myself, hard line rules are easier to follow than grey ones. So I walked the highway shoulder, and it's wide, and it's fine, and I walk up to a road sign right as an adorable family wants me to take their picture, and that's fun, but then the highway gets to a construction site that is oneway controlled over a narrow bridge over a pretty big river with zero shoulder. Ok, I'm stubborn, but I'm not *that* stubborn. 

The first car in line gave me a ride through the section, and the rest of the paved highway stretch (10km more). As soon as I hopped out and turned onto the gravel road, there were two big caribou on the bridge I was supposed to cross. We admired each other for a minute or two and they wandered on. First ever sighting for me!

Should be at the top of Mt. Robson park in 80km, but it's 28km down to the Visitor Center for my last resupply, and then back up and then another 150km to Kakwa, 30 back to the crest, and another 60 down to Grand Cache. 380km. Shall we say 8.5 days, so 3pm on the 1st? But with a slowdown to try and be legal about camping near the resupply, and with the bushwhacking involved, I'm guessing later, so end of day on the 2nd. Better be by the 3rd because the race is the 4th!

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