Lake Louise, Alberta

A holiday from cycling today (again). I took a walk from the village of Lake Louise up to the lake itself. When I set off there was a light drizzle which had become a slushy snow as I got up to the lake. At the lake is a huge hotel, the Lake Louise Chateau. It must have several hundred rooms. Looks a bit like the hotel from the Shining, but many hotels round these parts do. There was (at least) one in Banff.

The clouds came down over the lake while I was there, but going higher I started to see blue sky between the tops of the trees.

At Mirror Lake, which was partially frozen, the snow had settled and people had made snowmen out of it, though only small ones, perched along a wooden fence kind of thing in the path to stop bikes getting past.

I kept going, and after a while I was crunching through snow several inches deep. I started to see blue sky between the tops of the trees.
I wanted to get to the top of a mountain called the Big Beehive. I was going to go for the Little Beehive but getting up there the Big Beehive didn't seem that much bigger so I went for it. The path which had previously been clear by the numerous footprints now dissolved away. There were some footprints but I'm not sure if there were human. I was carrying my anti-bear spray, clipped onto my rucksack within easy reach, just in case I should meet something furry and hungry.

By the time I got to the top the sky had cleared quite a bit and I was able to see down to Lake Louise and across to some snow capped mountains. It was quite nice, but a long way down. I was thankful I bought waterproof shoes. When I got back my feet were still dry, but aching quite a bit.

Tomorrow I'm back on the bike, going through Kicking Horse Pass, which I was told today is not much higher than the height I'm at now (5'7"). I must've been going uphill more than I realized. I could feel myself climbing, all the way from the praries, but it didn't seem like that much. It certainly doesn't feel like I've gone up much since Banff.

The weather forecast is not great for tomorrow. Cold in the morning (minus 9 degrees) but no wind, then rain or snow in the afternoon, though it says less than 1cm of snow and less than 1mm of rain, so I guess that's much like today.

It's 85km to Golden, British Columbia, where I hope to be tomorrow night. And it's 795km to Vancouver.

Lake Louise, Alberta

I cycled 60km up from Banff today, along the Bow Valley Parkway, Highway 1A, which runs parallel to the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) but is a really quiet road - about one car every five minutes. It was quite easy going - not very hilly and I was sheltered from the wind.

At one point I was cycling along and noticed several cars up ahead had stopped. I slowed down, guessing they must have seen some kind of wildlife. I thought for a moment there was a bear standing upright by one of the cars, trying to get in, but then, seeing there were other people by the car realized it must be a person wearing a dark coat. (Good thing I'm not a hunter.) I then saw what they were all looking at. Two elk up on a slight hill a short way from the road. By this time I had stopped and was getting my camera out when one of the elks spotted me and ran off into the woods, and then the other one followed.

Yesterday in Banff I saw a deer, grazing on some grass right next to a house. On the porch of the next house a guy was smoking a cigarette but he didn't appear to have seen the deer. I stood still. The deer seemed to look at me then went back to eating the lawn. A man and a young girl walked by on the path. The man spotted the deer just as they were passing it and pointed it out to the girl. She went up to it, but it backed away behind a tree, though didn't run off. The girl stood there, very close to it as it went back to eating grass.

I'm travelling very slowly now, doing one day cycling followed by a rest day. Not because I'm tired, but I don't want to race through these places. I'll spend tomorrow here in the hostel in Lake Louise and then the following day, if the weather seems okay, I'll head off.

Forecast for Golden, British Columbia (destination)
Forecast for Lake Louise, Alberta (start point)

Banff, Alberta

Sitting in the hostel here going through the video I've shot. I've just grabbed some stills from the last finished tape (tape number 40) which you can see at the video stills website, but just in case you can't be bothered to click on that link here's one of me sitting outside a gas station cafe at ten to nine, on my way from Calgary to Canmore. That was a tough day.

Banff, Alberta

Just been to the Banff hot springs - like sitting in a warm bath that smells of sulphur, and has other people in it. My legs feel a lot better now.

Off to Lake Louise tomorrow, which is about 60km, and I don't think too hilly. But after that it's Kicking Horse Pass, the highest point on the Trans-Canada Highway at 1643m above sea level. Then it's downhill to Golden, BC, where I'll hopefully spend the night. It's only about 75km from Lake Louise but that will definitely be a tough day.

After that there's Roger's Pass, which is almost as high, but then it's pretty much all down hill.

Banff, Alberta

I'm surrounded by snow capped mountains. They arrived very suddenly.

The ride yesterday from Calgary to Canmore was tough, not because of the hills because it was relatively flat, but the wind. I had thought wind wouldn't be a problem when I got to the Rockies but I was wrong.

I set off at about 11am, thinking I had to do about 100km, found a cycle path along the Bow River which runs through Calgary, stopped and chatted to a few people (that is, they chatted to me) and it was all going quite well. There was a bit of a steep hill leaving Calgary, but just after that, as it was flattening out, there was a sign showing that there were still 96km left to Canmore. I'd already done 24km, so realized it was going to be a long day. But at that point there was very little wind, and what there was was behind me, so I was speeding along at 25 to 30km/h.

It was only at about the 60km mark that the wind changed direction and became quite strong - not as strong as I've had it in the praries, but enough to slow me down to less than 20km/h. It was getting late in the day and I realized I would be cycling the last bit in the dark.

But I could now see the mountains, finally, after days of expecting to be able to see them but only being able to see clouds on the horizon, which sometimes looked a bit like mountains, but weren't definitely mountains. Now what I was seeing was definitely mountains, with snow on them, and pretty soon they were all around me.

I eventually got to Canmore at 10pm, having done the last 3 hours in the dark, and with the wind easing off for a while around sunset but then getting a lot worse - or maybe it just seemed like that because in some places I was sheltered from the wind and in other places I wasn't.

Today I just had to do 30km up to Banff, which even though the wind was still blowing, was an easy ride. Still no major hill climbing, but a lot more mountains.

I'm in the Alpine Centre in Banff, which is like a five star hotel except for the fact that I'm sharing a dorm with several other people. It has wireless internet access though, and a bar with a free pool table and I've signed up for the Thanksgiving pool competition so better go now.