The further north we ride, the more dramatic the landscape becomes. Up here in Jasper, the mountain ridges appear to pierce the sky. The waterfalls are in a constant struggle with the hard rock (Athabascan falls is spectacular). When Martina and I journeyed up the columbian icefield with some yahoos we met along the way, the mounds of ice and crevasses made the Earth look like a differnt planet. Laura and I spent an afternoon at Lake Louis marveling at the unreal water. We camped one night at Waterfoul lake, where some trailheads started. They went up to two other lakes nestled about 5k into the mountains. One called Lac Chephran was at the base of a pyramid shaped mountain. Another called Lac Cirque is right in between three mountains so that three of its sides are sheer walls. Yes, it sounds spectacular, and I found the trailheads while I was walking around during sunset at about 10 pm. The sunsets last for hours every night up here. So, after I found these trails I went back to the campfire and told everyone I was looking for someone to do a trail run out to one of the lakes in the morning. I got to bed around 11, so I thought for sure that I could wake up around 5 to do the run (around here the sun is well up by 5). John expressed interest, so I told him we should wake each other up in the morning. We slept out by the fire till about 7:30, when Alok came by for wake up call. I guess my point to this story is two fold. One, there are just too many things to do on this trip to do everything, even the things that I really want to do. Two, riding day in and day out is taking its toll. Sometimes our bodies take over our minds and make sure we get enough rest even when we really want to do some crazy adventure. The only solution: I must come back to Waterfoul lake! As for tonight, we have free reign on the town of Jasper until 9pm. I got my first shower in five days. My last shower was at the Mustard Seed. Here is a big shout out to everyone at the Seed. Keep on truckin'.

I got to run, Mike