Originally Posted by
John N
The Park Office has said they fill up but I have heard a couple others say what you say.
Most Parks Canada employees are not aware of the Whistlers Campground hiker-biker area. It is kind of a confidential secret amongst cycletourists, backpackers and the Parks Canada employees at the Whistlers Campground. The numbered sites in the hiker-biker area (hidden in the woods) are not even shown on the campground map:
https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/ab/jas...s/whistlers-cg
The absence of non-reservable hiker-biker campsites on the rest of the Icefields Parkway is a real failure on the part of the Government of Canada, which is hellbent on making sure Canada is the most car-dependent/F150-dependent nation on earth.
Sometimes you can meet other cyclists along the way to share a camping site on the Icefields Parkway. If I have a site I always invite the other cycletourists to share it. I have met lots of interesting people that way.
The good news is the Alaska Highway is more-or-less back to normal this year and pretty well all the businesses that were running when Covid arrived are back up and running. Robert Service Way in Whitehorse is currently closed due to revenge by mother earth (slope instability) so if you go into Whitehorse (Midnight Sun Coffee Shop!) take Two Mile Hill if the closure is still on. Between Teslin and Watson Lake at kilometer 1152 of the Alaska Highway the Swan Lake Rest Area has a sign up warning about a bear that did not hibernate so don't camp near there. It is probably a cocaine bear. I mean it is
definitely a cocaine bear.
https://midnightsuncoffeeroasters.com/
Originally Posted by
John N
However, while you may be able to ride the ~230km from Jasper to Lake Louis in one day, I would not be able to, especially since I am fully loaded. Oh, to be a young again.
Doing it one day does kind of ruin the sightseeing and the climbing is ferocious if you have stainless steel pots and pans, hardcover books and puncture-resistant tires. I am so old I have one foot in the grave but I occasionally do it straight-through with light camping gear. It is stunningly beautiful on a starry night with no cars. I always go straight through from Prince George to McBride on the Yellowhead Highway. I have lights. There is no way on earth I am camping at Slim Creek like everyone else. I have never heard of someone camping there who has not been startled awake by the rustling of the Slim Creek Mystery Horror Beast that is so elusive it has never been seen. Same goes for Hungry Hill (west of Houston, BC). World record-size Grizzlies (hence the name of the hill). I do not camp there. The only thing worse would be giant Grizzlies on cocaine.