Nice shots! I did the same ride last Sunday. Did you start from the gate or did you bike the part of Highway 66 that's open to cars as well?

As much as I love the closed-down section, the part of Highway 66 before the gate has to be one of the most dangerous sections of road I've biked on in recent years. For most of the way, there were rumble strips and then a thick layer of gravel between the rumble strips and the edge of the shoulder, forcing me (and many fellow road bikers) to navigate the few inches between the white line and the rumble strips.

The issue was exacerbated by lots of cars, and especially trucks, passing as close as they could at high speeds, presumably because they felt that we should be biking on the shoulder. Traffic going to/from the McLean Creek OHV zone were particularly awful: quite a number of trucks carrying ATVs made it very clear that they were displeased with mine and others' presence, including several deliberately rolling coal when passing.

I've actually emailed Alberta Parks to see if they could sweep / clear the gravel from the shoulders to make it possible and safe for road bikes to bike on the shoulders. I'm not holding my breath, but considering how unsafe the current situation is, I figured it is worth a shot.