Originally Posted by
raybo
How long should it take me to ride the length of Chief Mtn road? From the mapmyride.com map, it looks to be 65 miles or so from St. Mary (any services?) to Waterton. Is this a a long one-day ride or due to difficulty a two day ride?
Yeah, we did St Mary to Waterton in a day. A tough, long day but still a day. There is camping on Chief Mtn just after the border if you wanted to shorten the day. St Mary has a store and I believe a restaurant or two. The smaller town of Babb before the 89/Chief Mtn junction had a store too, from what I remember.
Originally Posted by
raybo
Will there be water stops or will I have to bring a water filter (which I've never taken on a tour)? Again, looking at the map, it looks like a 2-day ride from Longview to Banff and from Pincher Creek to Longview. Are these routing assumptions correct?
We got by without a water filter, but you'll need to have the capacity to bring extra water. The last place to get water before turning onto 22/Cowboy Trail is the small town of Lundbreck. On the Cowboy Trail itself I remember potable water being available at Chain Lakes Provincial Park and at the historic ranch administered by the National Parks between the two (there's a cafe there as well). But Chain Lakes is closer to Longview (25mi/40k) than it is to Lundbreck (47mi/76k). There is a small provincial park wayside on the Oldman River between Lundbreck and Chain Lakes that has water, but...
Two days between Pincher Creek and Longview sounds about right. I can't tell you about two days between Banff and Longview as I didn't do the section of road that you propose. But if I remember correctly, there's a lot of gravel on that section of road.