Day 1

We drove about an hour and a half from our hotel in Swift Current, SK to get to Val Marie fairly early in the morning. The Visitor Centre hadn't opened yet, so we continued along the marked route into Grasslands National Park with the purpose of dropping our water jug at a crossroads in our biking route. We'd found we couldn't carry all the water for the 6 days biking, and decided to cache some water. We drove about a half hour and arrived at the appointed spot. Luc hid the jug in some long grasses beneath a park sign. We didn't waste any time, and headed back to Val Marie to get ready for our day of biking.

We arrived at the Grasslands National Park Visitor Centre in Val Marie, SK around 10:30 am. Had a brief chat with a staff member there, and provided details of our route and camping locations so the park would be aware of our plans. She gave us some tips about the conditions of some parts of our route, and also warnings about the wildlife, especially the plains bison that roam the park. From the Visitor Centre we also picked up a copy of the geocaching guidelines and accompanying 'passport' used to log each find, as we planned to visit the 5 geocaches in the park along our cycling route.

We unpacked in the parking lot. After re-assembling our bikes and making a few adjustments, we loaded the panniers onto our racks. Almost ready to go! The combined weight of our racks, panniers and contents of the panniers (including 16 liters of water), was about 65lbs each.
We hit the road around noon. Our first 15 km were on paved roads from Val Marie to the park entrance. The road led us through fields, some cultivated with wheat or other grains, others lying fallow. The sun was high but there was a strong wind that kept us cool. It was a headwind of about 25 km/hour, and with all our gear we weren't too aerodynamic. I found steering was a challenge, and even on the paved road, biking was somewhat strenuous.

The wildlife we saw on this part of the route was mostly hawks, small birds, cows and horses. We saw a herd of about 25 horses that gallopped around their pasture - really wild and graceful to watch. Also, there were scads - no, swarms! - of grasshoppers! As we biked they tried to jump up out of harm's way, landing on our legs, arms, feet and flopping back to the ground. Their hum in the fields was so loud it could be heard over the wind in my ears.

We ate our lunch in the shade created by a Sasktel outbuilding; pitas, dried fruit and nuts. We moved on and into the park where the road turned into a well maintained gravel road for the final 15 km of our day. This road led us through a different, wilder landscape which was covered with golden grasses and dotted with blue shrubs, prairie sunflowers and other wildflowers. We passed through a small prarie dog colony where they tried to shoo us away with their little barks.

Along the way we stopped to find a geocache. From the GPS data, it seemed at first it would be easy to access but it turned out it was a ways down a steep hill. We picked our way through the dry grasses and thorny shrubs, cacti and wildflowers. In rattlesnake country, it is important to watch where you step! The geocache was a little tough to find, but Luc found it at last, tucked under a bush. We climbed back up the hill and got back on the road.

We camped at Belza's which is currently the only official campground in the park. The amenites are a gravel parking area, picnic tables, trees for shade and two portable toilets. There is no running water here. For dinner we ate some jerky, pitas and granola bars.

The view from Belza's is quite scenic, especially as we near sunset. We took a short walk on the road to enjoy the view. Luc found a small frog, which seemed out of place in such a dry grassland!

Feeling tired but pretty exhilarated about completing our first day of the trip.

Woke up in the night to peek out at the sky. It was incredible. There were more stars up there than I've ever seen in my life. This is because Grasslands National Park is a Dark Sky Preserve. That means the park and some surrounding areas don't use artificial light at night. The main purpose is to maintain the night-day cycle for flora and especially noctournal fauna in the park. Pretty cool!