By Richelle Olsen - She Science Ambassador

Last time we checked in we were cautiously looking forward to the Rogers Pass climb and its rather scary tunnels. Suffice to say, the climb was what Shane described as "LAME", with an incline averaging only about 2% for 70kms! And the tunnels were all super well lit, and as a result of some roadworks and an accident behind us, we didn't encounter any vehicles at all through any of them...winning!!! But the views were awesome!!!

So after such an apparently lame climb, we pushed on to Golden, our biggest day yet, at 115km for the day...massive, I haven't done that kinda distance in years!! It was too long for Shane who decided to walk the last 6kms....nothing at all to do with blowing out the wall of his tyre or anything!!?? Just lucky it happened so close to town!

Our digs for the night was a lovely Warm Showers host, Tanya, who offered free camping at the rear of her hostel, with shower and kitchen access. We hadn't seen almost any bike tourers till that point, but there were 7 of us camping there that night!!

So new tyre on board....we pushed on and a few days later finally left the Trans Canada, such a relief, ahhh the quiet....temporary though, as we hit Lake Louise....gorgeous but wow thousands of people!!! Pics were taken and we escaped!!

And then before we knew it....we were in Banff!!!!!! Wow can you believe it...we had made our start point!! 800kms cycled! Whoa that's massive! Super proud of ourselves!!

Soo it's time to start the Great Dividing MTB Route....and that's what we did yesterday, the first 20km of the 4,400km trail!!!

Yep it was freezing and pouring rain, but wow was it amazing to get on the trail...the peace and quiet! The trail is already way tougher than the road but it will be worth it!

We have stopped for a day in Canmore to recover the legs and I haven't been feeling well...and to dry off our gear!! Back on the trail tomorrow!!! 3-4 days in the bush woo hoo!!

Yep it was freezing and pouring rain, but wow was it amazing to get on the trail...the peace and quiet! The trail is already way tougher than the road but it will be worth it!

We have stopped for a day in Canmore to recover the legs and I haven't been feeling well, and we needed to dry our gear! Back on the trail tomorrow!!! 3-4 days in the bush woo hoo!!

By Richelle Olsen, She Science Ambassador

Revelstoke, quaint lil town surrounded by mountains, and 515kms into our 800km ride from Whistler to Banff...another well deserved recovery day today. We have ridden the last 4 days in a row, averaging around 60km a day...legs are happy bout the rest!

I'm pretty chuffed with myself that's more riding than I've ever done! Less riding than I'm about to do haha!

Last night we treated ourselves to our first steak since being in Canada...wow! Amazing, Shane's been raving bout how good they are meant to be, and well no disappointments there..yum!

We have also splurged and bought a new, bigger backpack, in lovely "Marvelous Magenta", for Shane to carry. He's trying to take as much weight off me as possible to make my riding easier, he's a good boy! He also doesn't want to be riding uphills at 3km/hr! It's soo his colour don't you think?!

So we have started the planning for the next few days...tomorrow we start Roger's Pass, a 70km climb out of Revelstoke, topping out about 1,400m, a rather long climb for the 1,000m increase in elevation. There's some hot springs halfway up, so we will stay overnight there, as 2 x 35km climbs seems so much more bearable!

I'm not hugely worried about the climb (tho I know it will definitely suck!), however there are several long dark tunnels we have to go through (to protect us and the traffic from avalanches apparently!), where the best method is to pedal like buggery through them, fast as you can, and hope like hell no truck, bus or humungous campervan catches you, as there's very little in the way of bike lane. Eeek! We have just visited the local Dollar Store for reflective strips to add to our panniers and helmets, in addition to our flashing rear lights, and headlamps! People will wonder why there's a couple of slow moving Xmas trees in the tunnel! We are also planning on setting off super early in the morning for minimal traffic. I'll be employing my usual method of holding my breath, as it means I take up less space!

Though checkout the map below, the downhill should be fun! It will be easier to go fast through the tunnels on the downhill! The aim is to sleep somewhere after the summit on the second night, and hit Golden on the third day...all going to plan! Least we know the tow rope works!!!

As we won't see much in terms of shops for the next 3 days, we have done our biggest food shop to date! Cous cous, pepperoni, laughing cow cheese, tortillas, dried mash potatoes, cookies, tuna, baked beans, porridge you name it we have it! Nothing like the thought of a pepperoni stick smothered in cheese and wrapped in a tortilla for lunch to make you ride fast!

Plus there's a visitor centre at the top, so a can of liquid happiness (coke!) will def be in order!

Righto, time to sort out the bikes for tomorrow...wish us dry weather, and a tailwind!!!!

Well we have started! Let's keep this short and sweet...we would rather be riding, and you would rather not be falling asleep in your bowl of cornflakes!!!

It feels like we have been bike touring now for ages..funny it's only a week!

- 7 days in, 5 days riding, with 2 rest days...

- Whistler to Pemberton (Owl Creek) to Seton Portage (via the Highline road) to Lilloet (via a bike carrying caboose) to Pavillion Lake to Juniper Beach to Kamloops

- 285kms, 4,124m of ascent (that's riding uphill!)

- all days over 35 degrees, a couple over 40! Sweltering! Shane said Canada doesn't get hot!

- 2 rattlesnakes

- 0 bears

- 3 nights camping with no tent, under the stars - amazing you must do this once in your life!

- Extremes of scenery... Whistler was forests and glaciers, we have spent the last few days in what felt like the Mexican desert!

-1 toys out of the cot. Richelle may or may not have declared "I'd rather be at work than doing this any day!" Gulp - will never live that down! Though to be fair, it was the 20km mark of the 23km Highline climb, up a dusty dirt road, no shade, 38 degrees, so steep that all we could do was push our bikes up - with Shane being the gentleman and pushing his up each section, then coming down to get mine. It was so steep I was shuffling up backwards!

- 1 self confessed "crazy dog man" who offered to drive our panniers into town....lifesaver when we had 7km of the Highline to go! Even better he left em at the pub (and didn't nick em!)

- 1 new bike touring mate Mark, who shared a campsite with us, his hummus and many an insight into bike touring from a seasoned veteran.

- kms means nothing. 60k of flat and mostly down can take 3hrs, 60k of up can take 9hrs!!

- Tim Hortons "Tim's bits" are delicious! Donut holes for the uninitiated!

Just had a lovely day in Kamloops, fixing and servicing bikes, hanging out at the laundromat and supermarket shopping, oh and making new friends in the motel breakfast room, Mike and Ivana from Switzerland, as they drive down to Argentina (myartoftravel.ch)- good luck guys!

Off tomorrow for the 4-5 day ride to Revelstoke...