138 kilometers see detail

Other than some loud Englishman next door berating his son for marrying a German girl because his father told him not to marry a “Helga” all the while the supposed wife and some other Germans were in their company. It was totally embarrassing I wasn’t even there. I myself can say I have met a few German ladies and most of them were marriage material. I guess you can’t pick your family eh?

I got up pretty early around 7am and Mark the rider from Montreal had left a note that he had left already and didn’t want to disturb me. I packed up and started to ride off as Tim appeared from the camper trailer. I said farewell and was on my way up the hill back onto the flats. I discovered that the camera on my phone has a really easy wide angle option which will stitch 2 to 5 pictures together so I took some more of the badass lands.

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83 kilometer ride details

Note the railway runs right behind the campsite or the whole town for that matter. There were a few trains at night and one in the morning that blew their horn but I easily fell back to sleep after the sudden blast. I woke up at 6 and proceeded to sleep until 7. I got up, organized and then rode without my gear to the credit union to get some cash since this campsite is run by the town and uses the honour system. While I was at the bank I decided to pick up supplies at the grocery store. Inside I gave out a small cough while reading my phone. From out of nowhere I heard a voice “I wish I had that”. I looked around at the clerk stocking the shelves and said “my phone?”, “no your cough so I could get off work early” said the clerk. You know those akward forced conversations where one party wants to tell their life store while other just wanted a loaf of bread? Well this was one of those and I learned he was in the army, lost a third of his brain in a truck accident and was fifty years old. I didn’t know what to make of it but the accident was very plausible.
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I really tried and tried to get up early but just couldn’t. Then I needed to sort out my electronics which I thought were okay but turns out they weren’t. First was the Gopro camera which now when I turned on just started taking hundreds of photos and I couldn’t turn it off without removing the battery. The second problem was my solar charger which I had returned and upgrade yesterday at MEC. The different brand had a multitude of connection types for various phones and electronic items but when plugged into my phone, the phone indicated I was at risk of wrecking the phone. It also would not charge my tablet no matter which combination of connections I used.

I left the apartment by 9AM and had the Gopro replaced at London Drugs. I have to admit I always get great service at London Drugs and there is no fuss or blaming the customer. I then rode to MEC and simply returned the new charger, borrowed a floor pump for my tires and bought a 12′ x 12′ tarp! By the time I got on the road for real it was around 11am and already starting to get hot which I in fact welcome.
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The rest day consistent of wrestling cow girls, riding bulls and roping the little balls hanging off Chevy pickup trucks or something like that. I set up all my malfunctioning equipment to charge up fully while I rode out to Bow Cycle out by 16th where I entered Calgary the day before. I was great because I pretty much took the bike path along the Bow river almost the whole way. Even though it was midday Wednesday there were lots of cyclists and even more runners.

When I got to Bow Cycle my new friend Tim was on lunch so I chatted up the people in reception about my trip and gave them some of my cards. Wait, let’s back up, this shop is humongous! I walked in the service entrance where 3 or 4 mechanics are going at it. To right of their area is all of the bike accessories in the middle of the floor and there are bikes and frames hanging all around including an upstairs balcony full of bike overlooking the floor. There is another group of mechanics working downstairs out of site and finally there is an off site warehouse where they build bikes. Okay back to the story.
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128 kilometer ride details

I got very early in anticipation of the long ride and was on the road by 8:30. It was a bit chilly in the mountain air but things  soon warmed up as the road wound up and down the valley to the East. Even with the odd little climb of 100 meters or so I covered a lot of ground in the first couple of hours. There were still interesting camera shots but nothing like yesterday from the top of Sulphur mountain.

There is a Banff cycling trail beside the highway but it just didn’t hold the consistent grade like the highway so I only tried it for a kilometer before going back to the highway. Coming out of the mountains really felt like I was in new territory growing up in British Columbia and only having only seen Toronto and Montreal outside the province. The road is mostly flat but the grade changes from time to time and there are little hills here and there that take a little effort.

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I slept in just a little longer than my roommate at the Hostel which was around 10:30. The only plan I had was to relax at the hot springs which I did for a good 4 hours today. The Banff hot springs area is $7 but it is only one small pool. In every way except one, the fantastic view of the mountains, Radium hot springs is a superior facility to the Banff hot springs. If you had to choose, go to Radium!

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62 kilometer ride details

I can’t say enough how yesterdays simple little hike was so amazing. I will definitely come later in summer when more of the trails are open. I’m sure Vlad is saying what is wrong with hiking in the snow 🙂

I was out of Lake Louise by around 10am and as I headed for the Parkway highway, the trans Canada just looked too inviting as it was super wide, flat and appeared to be downhill whereas the Parkway had an immediate climb and a lot of up and down sections. I made a spli decision and headed down the Trans Canada and what a good decision. Being Sunday (I actually had to look that up as days of the week are now meaningless to me) the traffic was very light, I would say less than 10 vehicles passing each minute. The road was downhill but because it is so wide and long you wouldn’t have known it. I actually hooked up my odometer this morning and though it has the wrong tire size registered I was easily over 35km/hr with effortless pedalling.

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27 kilometers ride details

Today definitely an off day since Lake Louise was only 30 kilometers away. I took my time eating lot’s of the leftover food and repacking everything since I was only taking two bike bags nd leaving my camping gear at the hostel. That way I travel light and pick things up on my way back to Banff. So off I went down Parkway road instead of the trans Canada. I was quickly passed by two women road bikers in uniform. The put on a good pace and I tried to keep them in eye shot. This road is very up and down with limited views as the trees are tall and close to the road. There were tonnes on cyclists coming the other way in all shapes and sizes.

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106 kilometers of beauty!

I finally got up reasonably early and had breakfast by 8am. I was sorting out my gear when a guest who runs the Hostel at Castle Junction (where the highway I am taking to Alberta meets the Trans Canada highway). We chatted for a quite a while as he is a bit of a cyclist as well and he gave a donation too! I left around 9am and made my way up the steep incline to the Radium Hot Springs. I decided to film myself riding near the big crag the highway goes through and was fairly successful and it was easy to trim the video because I had to run down after and get my camera. Now I understand how tough it is for Survivor Man Les Stroud.

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After the somewhat big ride from Cranbrook (145km) I decided I should sleep in for a bit. Then an hour later I thought naw, stay in bed. Eventually hunger got the better of me so I jumped in the shower and organized. Today would laundry, food, blog and sit in Hot springs day. Stepping outside I was greeted by the snow capped Rockies and the sound of the rushing river below the highway and out of sight.

For those that care the laundry mat is beside the Petro Canada, the food store by the Visitor Centre and the wifi is of course free at the Centre so I uploaded a bunch of video while I ate a sandwhich.

Back to more interesting stuff I dropped off my supplies back at the Hostel and rode up about a kilometer and a half to Radium Hot Springs. As soon as you enter Kootney park the highway cuts right through the mountainside and I recommend stopping here to looking at the rushing river pooring out from some diversion under the highway. At the Hot Springs there is a hot tub (40 degrees), a hot pool (35 degrees) and a cold pool which is regular swimming pool temperature. I was hoping they had a supper cold pool for legs but there wasn’t and I wasn’t going in the river either as it had some pretty intense flow.

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