Today was an easy day. I don't normally think of 86km as an easy ride but compared to the last couple of days, it certainly was. It was very cold in Lake Louise last night (nothing new for Lake Louise -- I got snowed on in July once) so I slept in a bit and got away a little after 10am (MDT - Mountain Daylight Time). I bundled up fairly well but still wore shorts. My legs were fine but my feet were a bit cold.
The route was almost completely in the Banff National Park and followed the Bow River downhill and the highway followed the river fairly closely so there were only a few slight uphill sections and lots of slight downhill. I made great time covering the 59km into Banff, doing it in 2:15 (26km/hr). About half way between Lake Louise and Banff, I saw a pickup laying on it's side in the median. It had rolled at least once but the roof held fairly well so I think the occupants should have been ok. There were lots of people there and so I have hope that everyone walked away.
A few kilometers before Banff I spied a bicycle path that went to the Vermilion Lakes, just west of Banff. I did a little off-road to get to the bike path and had a calmer ride into Banff. Rochelle stocked up with food and we ate lunch in Banff. Upon leaving Banff I found a bicycle path heading east that took me right to the eastern edge of the Banff National Park and only a couple of kilometers short of our camp spot in Canmore. The path between Banff and Canmore was very busy. I think that a lot of the people that work in Banff live in Canmore so I bet a lot of that traffic was them.
I would have liked to have ridden further but the camping opportunities were limited between here and Calgary. Our camping spot today seems to be overrun with rabbits. They are a bit camera shy but I got a few pictures.
I am just 8km short of 1000km on this trip in 10 days of actual cycling. That's pretty much exactly what I was expecting as an average for the whole trip and much better than I had hoped for at the start, especially with the mountains.
Tomorrow I will head for Calgary, just 100km from here. It is mostly flat with a couple of river valley crossings and one odd foothill that the highway builders seemed to think was better to go over rather than around. We will hang around Calgary for a couple of days to regroup, get VanGo fixed up a bit, restock supplies and see some people.
I lived in Calgary from 1975 through 1987 but I haven't been back in a lot of years. It will be good to see it again.