DAY 1 - day of the moose

Ok so the official ride has started....
We headed off down the Spray River trail the 1st 6km were nice undulating riding on double track.
Then the climbing started - another 13km of solid climbing ahead & we both wondered what the heck we were in for...
After 19km& 2 hours later we popped out onto a gravel road where the riding got a little easier but no less hilly.
Stopped to talk to a Cycle Tourist heading in opp direction - turns out he was on his last day of the GDBMR south to north, he gave us lots of good tips & encouragement.
After a picnic lunch we carried on & on & up & up the tracks for the next 45km were a mixture of hiking trails & gravel road.
After a days total so far of 65km we decided to stop on the side of the road for dinner as it was about 6pm & we were both starving.
Just after eating we stood up to see Moose #1 500mtrs down the road just grazing, we were so very excited to have seen a moose - we felt it made the days hardships worth while.
6km down the road we stopped to camp for the night by a very small lake (pond), just as we arrived at camp we saw Moose #2 across the side off the lake watching us.
We set up camp & just on dusk we went to clean our teeth to find another Moose about 30mtrs from our camp ( we suspect it was Moose #2 coming over to check us out).
When we returned to the tent the Moose was gone & it appeared again across the other side of the lake then all of a sudden it just walked into the water & headed straight for us....came up onto the bank about 10mtrs from us stared at us for a minute & walked off!! Was quite an interesting experience!
The scenery is beautiful - the Rockies are HUGE!!
The weather today was HOT - about 25ish degrees & no wind.
We got ourselves quite sun burnt... let the tan line begin.

DISTANCE:69.9km
AVERAGE SPEED:11.7km
RIDE TIME:5.58hours
ACCEND:1110mtrs

Photos to follow...