June 23, Tuesday: We Complete the Gravel Portion of Highway 40

July 25, 2026

A beautiful view from Highway 40 gravel road

Today, on our third day, of the detour, we completed the gravel portion of Highway 40. I really like the photo that headlines today's page of the blog. I could see myself doing a jigsaw puzzle of this view. It was taken as we were nearing the end of the ride planned for today. The countryside of today was basically similar to yesterday. We were trying to avoid raindrops again, but the skies cleared up nicely at day's end.

But I'd like to take you back to an area not directly along our biking route, but an area we would pass through, traveling between our hotel in Pincher Creek and the daily bike rides. We enjoyed a three day stay at the Econo-Lodge at Pincher Creek. It seemed to be a brand new hotel. We had chosen it at a time when we expected to be traveling on Highway 22, a good deal east of our route on Highway 40. But consequently we now had long rides from the hotel to the riding area for me. Along the way we would pass through the Frank Landslide area. On April 29, 1903 at 4:00AM, a massive slab of limestone slid off of Turtle Mountain, onto the town of Frank and the local coal mine. On the photo immediately below, you can see Turtle Mountain, and the landslide area cut from the mountain. The debris field still remains. It has to be at least a kilometer wide, with limestone boulders strewn across the landscape. Some of the boulders were the size of a small house. One is struck by the unimaginable force of the mountain slide which took between 70-90 lives that day. Some recoveries were made, including the story of 17 miners trapped underground, who dug a new tunnel to the surface.

Now returning to the bike, it was exciting to complete the approximately 45 kilometers of gravel road remaining. As the skies brightened, we were able to get some nice pictures. Finally we arrived at the sign at the end of the road. A right turn would take us to Longview, but our route would be a left turn toward the TransCanada Highway, number 1. It was cool to see the sign for the TransCanada Highway. It had been near our route during the first years of our trek on the TransCanada Trail, but we parted ways at Hope, BC (years earlier). We hopped in the car for the 105 kms to the TransCanada Highway, because our lodging for the next few nights was the Stoney Nakoda Nation Resort along Highway 1. There was a distance of about 240 kms between our lodging stays last night and tonight. It was like turning another page in the journey; gone away now from the Crowsnest Pass and Highway 3, and onward into Kananaskis Country and Banff National Park. But it would be several days for me to get the bike to Banff!