Tomorrow night Ill be alberta bound,
Though Ive done the best I could
My old luck aint been so good and
Tomorrow night Ill be alberta bound
No one-eyed man could eer forget
My old luck aint been so good and
Tomorrow night Ill be alberta bound
No one-eyed man could eer forget
The rocky mountain sunset...
Alberta bound, alberta bound
Its good to be alberta bound
Alberta bound, alberta bound
Its good to be alberta bound
Its good to be alberta bound
Alberta bound, alberta bound
Its good to be alberta bound
- Gordon Lighfoot - "Alberta Bound"
Field - Banff -- 82 kms / 51 miles
On a scale of 1 - 10 where 1 = desire to get up and 10 = desire to stay in bed I was about a 15 this morning.
Cleaning up a soaking wet tent is among the top 10 worst things in the world. Everything is wet. It stopped raining overnight but the damp stayed as there was a lot of low-hanging cloud. The fly on my tent was sopping wet but fortunately the inside of my tent was totally dry. There is a fine art to taking off the fly so that everything inside stays dry… and there is also a fine art to figuring out the order to do things – eat first? Pack wet
sleeping bag first? Take off fly first? Take down tent first? Brendan got the order a bit wrong – he packed, took down tent, organized stuff, made lunch etc. but made the mistake of leaving his packed peanut butter lunch on the picnic table. It took about 5 seconds before a giant black crow discovered it and immediately devoured it leaving BC lunch-less. He was not amused and cursed the crow for the rest of the day.
It was an amazing pancake breakfast which was a great ballast for the short day ahead. By the time we left at about 9:30 (I waited for BC and Andrew who were on Galley Duty) the sun had begun to burn off the thick layer of fog which had enveloped the campground overnight and made the mountains appear almost ‘mystical’. By the time we hit the road most of the fog had burned away. We were all really excited because it was a short day and today we’d be heading to Lake Louise..! The first challenge of the day was to get over our final climb in the Rockies – Kicking Horse Pass..! Half way up the pass we stopped at the Spiral Tunnels.
When we reached the top of the Pa
ss Andrew and Brendan decided to treat themselves to a 
huge, huge second breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausages etc. It was nice to sit down and relax and enjoy the spectacular view of mountains. We then turned off of the Trans Canada onto a bike-only trail which was awesome. Rolling hills, through thick pine forest and not a car in sight. We were all on the look-out for bears as this was total bear country. It was sooo beautiful. We then reached yet another “Point of Interest” on our trip – the Continental Divide AND the border between BC and Alberta..!! We had cycled through our first province..! 1 down, 9 to go..!! We celebrated with photos and lots of water.
Next Point of interest along the rout
e was the famous ‘Lake Louise’. Lake Louise is, as always, stunning and full of tourists. We took the steep uphill to the chateau and then parked our bikes for a few photo sessions down by the lake. We were soooo lucky with the weather as there was a light breeze and loads of sun.
As we still had about 50kms left to do that day we decided to cut our visit to Lake Louise short. We were also keen to get into Banff with some time to spare so we could set up our tents and head into town. The ride through to Banff was spectacular – rolling hills, some gorgeous downhills, great shoulders, and a light breeze. The views around every corner were wild. Every mountain and every hill seemed to be a photo opportunity. Canada is really an absolutely stunning country especially when set against the backdrop of the majestic Rocky Mountains. We hit about 60kms / hour coming down from Lake Louise which was a bit insane but so much fun..!
At one of the rest areas about 30 kms from Camp we stopped and took a quick lunch break where we met up with Christie and Dave for a quic
k photo shoot. Again, absolutely incredible views and some tame wildlife – birds that would fly down and eat straight out of your hand..!
As it was getting hot and late and as we were keen to head into Banff that afternoon to check out some bike shops we decided to do a ‘5-man pace line’ down into Banff – a distance of about 35kms from where we were. I have tried the pace line now a few times but if you’re an inexperienced biker it can be a bit nerve wracking. bAlso, because you’re always looking at the wheel in front of you trying to maintain the 1.5 foot distance between your front wheel and the other bikers back wheel you have very little time to look up and look around you. BUT, having said that, pace lines definitely work and the last person in the pace line can use about 50 – 60% less energy than the leader because a ‘tunnel’ has been created through the wind. Yes, I am being educated on this trip..! We literally FLEW down to Banff. Christie is training for an Iron Man and she led the pack and I held up the rear as I’m still slower on the uphills because of my double chain ring. We averaged about 32kms / hour and breezed into Banff.
I have begun to pick up patterns in the traffic which I think has made me a more aware biker. For example, when you notice that there is a ‘gap’ in traffic (eg. nothing has come by for about 2 – 3 minutes) you can guess that there is a camper / trailer / huge transport coming either from behind you or from the other direction. This also inevitably means that behind the camper / trailer /huge transport is a chain of vehicles waiting to pass… So, as a biker, you really need to be on the ball particularly if they are coming up from behind as the second vehicle behind the ‘blocking’ vehicle likely won’t see the biker on the road because it’s blocked from view.
Cleaning up a soaking wet tent is among the top 10 worst things in the world. Everything is wet. It stopped raining overnight but the damp stayed as there was a lot of low-hanging cloud. The fly on my tent was sopping wet but fortunately the inside of my tent was totally dry. There is a fine art to taking off the fly so that everything inside stays dry… and there is also a fine art to figuring out the order to do things – eat first? Pack wet
sleeping bag first? Take off fly first? Take down tent first? Brendan got the order a bit wrong – he packed, took down tent, organized stuff, made lunch etc. but made the mistake of leaving his packed peanut butter lunch on the picnic table. It took about 5 seconds before a giant black crow discovered it and immediately devoured it leaving BC lunch-less. He was not amused and cursed the crow for the rest of the day.It was an amazing pancake breakfast which was a great ballast for the short day ahead. By the time we left at about 9:30 (I waited for BC and Andrew who were on Galley Duty) the sun had begun to burn off the thick layer of fog which had enveloped the campground overnight and made the mountains appear almost ‘mystical’. By the time we hit the road most of the fog had burned away. We were all really excited because it was a short day and today we’d be heading to Lake Louise..! The first challenge of the day was to get over our final climb in the Rockies – Kicking Horse Pass..! Half way up the pass we stopped at the Spiral Tunnels.
When we reached the top of the Pa
ss Andrew and Brendan decided to treat themselves to a 
huge, huge second breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausages etc. It was nice to sit down and relax and enjoy the spectacular view of mountains. We then turned off of the Trans Canada onto a bike-only trail which was awesome. Rolling hills, through thick pine forest and not a car in sight. We were all on the look-out for bears as this was total bear country. It was sooo beautiful. We then reached yet another “Point of Interest” on our trip – the Continental Divide AND the border between BC and Alberta..!! We had cycled through our first province..! 1 down, 9 to go..!! We celebrated with photos and lots of water.Next Point of interest along the rout
e was the famous ‘Lake Louise’. Lake Louise is, as always, stunning and full of tourists. We took the steep uphill to the chateau and then parked our bikes for a few photo sessions down by the lake. We were soooo lucky with the weather as there was a light breeze and loads of sun.As we still had about 50kms left to do that day we decided to cut our visit to Lake Louise short. We were also keen to get into Banff with some time to spare so we could set up our tents and head into town. The ride through to Banff was spectacular – rolling hills, some gorgeous downhills, great shoulders, and a light breeze. The views around every corner were wild. Every mountain and every hill seemed to be a photo opportunity. Canada is really an absolutely stunning country especially when set against the backdrop of the majestic Rocky Mountains. We hit about 60kms / hour coming down from Lake Louise which was a bit insane but so much fun..!
At one of the rest areas about 30 kms from Camp we stopped and took a quick lunch break where we met up with Christie and Dave for a quic
k photo shoot. Again, absolutely incredible views and some tame wildlife – birds that would fly down and eat straight out of your hand..!As it was getting hot and late and as we were keen to head into Banff that afternoon to check out some bike shops we decided to do a ‘5-man pace line’ down into Banff – a distance of about 35kms from where we were. I have tried the pace line now a few times but if you’re an inexperienced biker it can be a bit nerve wracking. bAlso, because you’re always looking at the wheel in front of you trying to maintain the 1.5 foot distance between your front wheel and the other bikers back wheel you have very little time to look up and look around you. BUT, having said that, pace lines definitely work and the last person in the pace line can use about 50 – 60% less energy than the leader because a ‘tunnel’ has been created through the wind. Yes, I am being educated on this trip..! We literally FLEW down to Banff. Christie is training for an Iron Man and she led the pack and I held up the rear as I’m still slower on the uphills because of my double chain ring. We averaged about 32kms / hour and breezed into Banff.
I have begun to pick up patterns in the traffic which I think has made me a more aware biker. For example, when you notice that there is a ‘gap’ in traffic (eg. nothing has come by for about 2 – 3 minutes) you can guess that there is a camper / trailer / huge transport coming either from behind you or from the other direction. This also inevitably means that behind the camper / trailer /huge transport is a chain of vehicles waiting to pass… So, as a biker, you really need to be on the ball particularly if they are coming up from behind as the second vehicle behind the ‘blocking’ vehicle likely won’t see the biker on the road because it’s blocked from view.
Beautiful Banff...
The sky threatened rain so we grabbed our tents, ran up into the forested area and set everything up just in time for the clouds to blow over and reveal an absolutely stunning blue sky set against the backdrop of the beautiful Rocky Mountains. It seemed almost surreal – if one was to build a hotel in the spot where we set up our tents the rooms with the mountain views would have cost a fortune..!
In Banff we checked out the bike shops and wandered around the streets trying to get reacquainted with civilization. We did what we know best – head to a local eating establishment and eat..! We ordered two huge pitchers of beer (sooo refreshing!), a pitcher of water and a gargantuan plate of nachos with all the dressings. It was fantastic. It took about 3 minutes for us to devour both food and drinks sitting outside on the patio enjoying the hot Banff sun. Bliss..! What a lovely, lovely town.
It’s always fun to sit down with the group and run through the days events – something seems to happen every day and we never come short of things to talk about, laugh about or debate. Everything under the sun is discussed – from tan lines to politics to bike-talk.
Pitchers and nachos were then followed by Guinesses in the Irish bar next door (Brendan had another craving), followed by a huge dinner in “Earls” with more beer and more food. By the end of it we were totally full, quite ‘giddy’ (to say the least!), and looking forward to topping out evening of debauchery and gluttony off with a Dairy Queen blizzard ice-cream.
Needless to say, when we did reach camp I slept fantastically well in spite of some dehydration worries and looked forward to t
he next day..! 
The sky threatened rain so we grabbed our tents, ran up into the forested area and set everything up just in time for the clouds to blow over and reveal an absolutely stunning blue sky set against the backdrop of the beautiful Rocky Mountains. It seemed almost surreal – if one was to build a hotel in the spot where we set up our tents the rooms with the mountain views would have cost a fortune..!
In Banff we checked out the bike shops and wandered around the streets trying to get reacquainted with civilization. We did what we know best – head to a local eating establishment and eat..! We ordered two huge pitchers of beer (sooo refreshing!), a pitcher of water and a gargantuan plate of nachos with all the dressings. It was fantastic. It took about 3 minutes for us to devour both food and drinks sitting outside on the patio enjoying the hot Banff sun. Bliss..! What a lovely, lovely town.
It’s always fun to sit down with the group and run through the days events – something seems to happen every day and we never come short of things to talk about, laugh about or debate. Everything under the sun is discussed – from tan lines to politics to bike-talk.
Pitchers and nachos were then followed by Guinesses in the Irish bar next door (Brendan had another craving), followed by a huge dinner in “Earls” with more beer and more food. By the end of it we were totally full, quite ‘giddy’ (to say the least!), and looking forward to topping out evening of debauchery and gluttony off with a Dairy Queen blizzard ice-cream.
Needless to say, when we did reach camp I slept fantastically well in spite of some dehydration worries and looked forward to t
he next day..! 
2 comments:
I'm cheering for you all the way! Enjoy the wheat fields, the stampede, the Oilers, the beef, and all the other great things that come out of Alberta!
http://www.cyclecanada.com/Wevebeeneverywhereman.html
another song for you ... but maybe not till the end
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