Elapsed time 21 d 01 h 45 m; Distance travelled 4328 km (2689 mi)

The excitement in Ashleigh’s voice is electric as she heads out of Calgary, rejuvenated from her overnight stop. She put in an enormous push from Valleyview, riding 623 km (387 mi) with just a quick 1.5 hour sleep to get to the city and celebrate her birthday with a hostel reservation and a bike tuneup. “Like a challenge within this much bigger challenge” is how she describes it.

The challenge was worth it as Calgary proved to be a very productive pit stop. She bought some tech wash and re-waterproofed her gear, did some laundry, and charged her devices, but the big highlight was the stop at Ridley’s Cycles. They offered amazing service as they tuned up her bike, put on fresh tires, and helped her outfit her bike with new sleek fork mounts from the Canadian company Fauna Components.

Having left behind the coldest and most remote stretches of the route, she also took the opportunity to send some gear home from Calgary. She was able to shed the fork cages and bags for a more aerodynamic setup, sending home most of their contents and a whole lot more, which included:

her stove and cooking gear;
a spare tire;
Neoprene overshoes and waterproof socks;
two jackets that she subbed out for a new Mons Royale Diversion jacket from Ridley’s;
and of course, her souvenir bike pads that wore away during the first three days on the Dalton Highway.

Between dropping gear weight and a fresh tune up, she describes the bike as feeling faster and less cumbersome. It’s also helping with a shift from “a touring mindset to getting from A to B and picking up food along the way”, which is a much-welcomed change as she rides through populated areas with frequent resupply options.

For anyone who’s tracking her closely, you’ll see that she’s now crossed into the contiguous U.S. And we know lots of people are tracking her; her partner’s grandmother is doing it the analogue way, keeping tabs on her progress with a post-it note in an atlas.

However you’re tracking her, she’s moving fast as she’s gotten fully in the swing of her PanAm record ride. Keep watching to see how quickly she moves through each state to make it to country number three - Mexico!

- Aryn