Tales from the dark side

Cam and I spent last weekend riding in Jasper. We woke up saturday morning, checked the weathernetwork where we learnt that Jasper was going to be way warmer and way sunnier than edmonton. And way dryer than the down n' dirty race. So, we were Jasper bound. We rode Valley of the Five Lakes on saturday and Saturday Night Lake Loop on sunday. Valley of the Five was it's usual fun, fast self. We cleaned it in record time.
Saturday Night Loop was fun as well, but way more of a dick dance...if you will. For those that don't know, SNL is a 20 mile loop with the first 10 miles up hill and the last 10 downhill back to the starting point. After the climb you are quite high up the mountain and quite alone. We didn't see ANYONE on the trail...no one. What we did see was a ton of bear poop. Fresh steaming bear poop. And, fresh steaming bear tracks. It wasn't THAT big, maybe 4" x 5", and NO claw marks...that was comforting. So, the loud singing began. So did the bell ringing, and shouts of "nachooooo-libreeeee." It must have scared the bears off but not the 3 elk with the velvety antlers. They were NOT moving off the trail, so Cam took us on a detour around them!!

I won't go into details about the detour I took Cam on, but lets just say, I am never allowed to pick the trail (marked or unmarked) again. It was an unmarked trail, that I had been on 2 years ago, and it was REALLY FUN. Well, our 2:15 hour ride turned into a 4:15 hour ride...oops. I mean really, he should have known, I can't even find Sherwood Park!
So, I am surprised we didn't get eaten by a bear and that we actually made it out of the woods!! We are riding in Bragg Creek this weekend, but that is a race course so it isn't possilbe to get lost....or is it?