Words and photos by Morgan Taylor.

Where I last left you we were less than 50 miles from home as the crow flies, having ambitiously pedaled three days from our front door and ridden a remote high mountain pass with way too much gear. We were solidly in travel mode, no longer just camping in the front yard. It was early July and while that sounds like it should be summer, we wore our GoreTex more in the week we rode in Canada than we did for the two months that followed. You know, the Great White North, and all.

There was still some amount of comfort in what we were doing: while the scenery was changing more quickly than we had anticipated, we were still spending colorful money and freely using our overpriced cell phone data. The people we ran into still knew where we lived – or at least had heard of it – and could drive there in an easy day.

At the beginning of a long trip there is so much in front of you and not as much behind, the unknown far outweighing the known. One of those things we knew was that camping comes easy in Canada. Rural properties are rarely fenced, and there isn’t the fear mongering of Second Amendment rights that happens south of the border. We found great spots to camp for free in southeast BC, unknowingly setting the tone for the rest of our trip by spending our mornings drinking lots of coffee, cooking breakfast, and leisurely rolling out of camp.

That’s not to say that the following weeks in Montana weren’t mind blowing – they were, and you’ll see that in tomorrow’s gallery – but the comfort of being close to home can’t go unmentioned. So, there you have it, a quick hit to get you up to speed before tomorrow’s huge gallery from Montana.

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Follow Morgan and Stephanie on Instagram and follow their routes on Strava.