It has been a while since my last post, many of you have probably read the reason for that on a social media platform. My bike got stolen in Kelowna the day before I wanted to continue my trip. No locker or camera could hold the thieves... but I finally did my decision, I want to continue and so enough with the bad stuff, there was good in Kelowna too.

As I mentioned I stayed in a hostel in Kelowna. Nearly every day there where some actions together, going to the beach, playing tennis or volleyball and in the evening sitting together outside and eating. It was a really nice time, I could buy a nice bike and continue my trip to he Rockies.

On my way to Revelstoke not a lot happened, but it was a good feeling to be on the road again. Nature became more wet and green, the air not so dry anymore and I finally could see some mountains again.
After 3 days I arrived in Revelstoke, a nice small town in a valley nearby lots of mountains. I had a quick look on the map and decided to go on a hike the next day. It was a 5 hours hike up a mountain with a really amazing view over the valley. The trail started in a forest with many berries on the side of the trail, on the upper sections I could see many mountain flowers on wide open areas. Sounds perfect, but guy I meet earlier the day said that these are exactly the places where to find a grizzly. I really would like to see one, but only from a save distance. The only animal I did saw where mosquitoes ... millions of them, they are really a plague.
After Revelstoke I rode again to the east, my goal was to hike around in Glacier National Park. It would be my first time in a National Park in Canada. You need to purchase a pass to enter them, money I really was willing to spend. The campgrounds in the park and the park itself are really fascinating and so worth every cent.
After one day of riding up through the valley I reached to campground I picked out. I expected to need to days to reach it, but after a small pit stop at a bike store my trailer was running smooth again and so I had enough energy to reach the National Park.
The park was around the summit of the highway between Revelstoke and Golden. In the early years there was a railway over the summit as well with a really famous and extraordinary hotel named "Glacier house". Right behind that hotel you could see one of the many glaciers in the park. It is really a special place for a hotel, but the winters are hard, lots of avalanches happens, 3-5 meters of snow are normal. And so one day an avalanche destroyed the hotel. The railway had problems too, the coast the maintain the railway where to high, and so they decided to build a tunnel trough the summit area to minimize the coast. After that the rail didn't passed by the glacier house and so there was no reason to build it up again. One can still see the ground of the building and some old boilers.
But I was there for some hikes, I wanted to see the glacier close up. So I hiked up to Perley Rock, where I could see on top of the glacier. Compared to the pictures from up to 120 years ago the glacier had lost a lot of its original size. A big stream of water was running down over ice scratched rocks and creating a beautiful waterfall. In the valley the stream meet another one from the second valley and together they passed nearby the campground. The water was blue and grayish because of all the minerals and sand in it.
The nature on my hike changed from a forest with nice trees to sub alpine small trees and later to alpine meadows with flowers. The last meters where rock and snow only. Nearly on the top I meet a couple from Germany, both are computer scientists. They took a year off and traveled the world. It was funny to see 3 computer scientists, all with a great tan hiking up in the mountains ... not exactly the common stereotype.

The second hike was on a mountain ridge with a stunning view over the valley from the first hike and the second valley beside it. Again I saw the nature changing and ended up on a small rocky ridge. There I meet again some people from Germany, this time 4 friends on a world trip. They had been to New Zealand too and so we got a lot to talk about.
On the summit we did a short photo shooting and I continued the hike further on the narrow edge to another summit. From there I had a good view over the second valley with different glaciers, waterfalls and trails.
In the evening we did together a small hike in the second valley. We went together because there where nearly every day grizzly sightings, one trail got close because of that. On our way we saw some grizzle pop, later some trails which probably came from the grizzlies. But we didn't saw the bears itself, even if there were 6 around. The valley was nice, but with all the time scarily watching for grizzlies not to good to enjoy, so we just had a short look at a waterfall and went back to the campground.

On the next day I rode to Golden, it was a long way down the mountain and I could see through a nearly endless long valley. There is a trail which I may have done with some companions and a secure place to store all of my stuff. After the National Park the road was quite boring, long straight parts and often slightly uphill.

Now I am in Golden, my next trip will be to Yoho National Park, then Lake Louise and up to Jasper over the Icefield Parkway. A lot of mountains, millions of trails and a beautiful nature. I will see how often I can upload some impressions during my trip, there are not a lot of places to do so.

Talk to you soon.