A big day – 138km, with more than 900m of climb …and we crossed from Alberta into Saskatchewan. It was not the most auspicious border crossing – we drove to the border in the back of the truck belonging to the day’s hero. His name is Howard, he lays culverts for the County of Vermillion River, and he is wonderful. More in a bit.
The morning was just exquisite out of Elk Point into wisps of mist in the valleys, sun above. Although we had lots of climbing to do, the hills were, in Gill’s words, more “honest” today. Generally ups came with downs and there were only a few long, relentless climbs. The wind also played its part – although in our faces, it was fairly gentle. And the road conditions were mostly lovely – quiet, smooth paved country roads, although with oddly placed rumble strips everywhere.
The day’s trip on to gravel landed us in some trouble. After about 15km on the thick gravel, Bron’s pedal arm loosened alarmingly and the bearings started screeching. Not having a torque wrench, we relied on a good old Swiss Army knife, but it meant tightening it every two or three kilometres.
We ignored a “Road Closed” sign and that might have been our best luck of the day. Soon a county truck came along, the occupant Howard sternly told us we couldn’t continue – then offered us a ride back to the highway. He did more; telling us our planned route wasn’t safe, he dropped us farther south (at the border) so we could go along Highway 3. It added a couple of kilometres to the already long route but it was paved and he had a Leatherman tool to tighten the nuisance pedal arm – which made it a big win.
Scenery today was definitely still more boreal forests and rolling hills, lots of livestock ignoring cars and trucks but totally taken by bikes, and a fair amount of fields being harvested. And lakes. Everywhere.
We also saw our first moose thanks to Howard, as well as a herd of bison, lots of snakes and incredible birds.
We were shattered as we pulled in to the Farm Inn in St Walburg. We had had no cosy meal stops today, so were also starving and to our relief the food was great.
Today’s distance: 138km. 912m climb.
Total distance: 2,799km
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Trans Canada Epic 
You need to carry tools! I carry some so that those that stop to help me have the correct equipment to fix my things 😁
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Exactly! Hopefully Howard’s Leatheman saw did a good enough job to make it hold 😬.
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