Ahhh, the feeling one gets after climbing over a steep mountain pass! hahaha This was at a roadside view stop not too far out of Radium Hot Springs yesterday, after we huffed and puffed up an 8-mile hill that climbed over 2000 ft. (For you Clarkston/Lewiston fans, that's almost identical to doing the Old Spiral Road grade from the river to Hwy 95.) The worst part of this climb was staying up with Bob Brown, who for the first time was riding his light 17-lb bike instead of his 38-lb touring bike. He was smokin' up that hill without the extra 21 pounds.
Just before this photo stop, I got to see my very first grizzly bear! It was just past the summit, and it was a cub. I stopped and whipped out my camera, but could not get a good shot. However, Rick did, so when he can send it to me, I'll post it.
The past two days have been unbelievably beautiful, amazing, glorious. In my previous blog I said we had incredible scenery, which it was, but that makes yesterday's and today's scenery......all I can think of is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
This photo was also taken at the same viewpoint as the top photo. We got to see such views all day long, and we were in a narrow valley most the time so we were really close to the steep cliffs rising on both sides of us. The peaks are so rocky and jagged and pinnacled. I hope as I post some of my photos, you will see what I mean. Here's one:
Day 7 Thursday June 21. Radium Hot Springs to Banff. Distance 98 miles.
Yes, 98 miles and it took 9 hours. Yikes! It was a long day, in the sun, and I was weary by the end. My riding time was 7 hours, but the extra two hours were from stops that included not only simple resting and lunch, but two flat tires and two headsets that needed Rick's mechanical expertise and bike-shop tools to fix. In both cases, the bikes were Bert's and Derek's.
Here are some more photos of our scenery:
You'll note that Rick is riding in the photo above. It was great that he was riding, because the only lousy thing to report about our trip so far is that his left leg has been bothering him. He decided to take off yesterday and drive the RV even though it was Bob's and my turn. Then, he decided to ride the last 40 miles or so over the Continental Divide and on into Banff, and Bob and Derek drove. Rick seemed fine and strong on the ride, but the leg bothered him greatly last night and he announced that he would take today and tomorrow off to give it a good rest. Right now, however, he decided to ride with the others to Lake Louise. I, on the other hand, slung my computer bag over my shoulder and rode into the village to find Internet. I have my priorities, which was to Skype with Janet first!! I miss her terribly, especially on days like yesterday when we had no Internet service.
That's me at the Continental Divide. We did get a nice shot of all of us in front of the marker showing how water on the left will flow to the Atlantic and on the right it will flow to the Pacific, but the tourist used Rick's camera so I will need to post that one later.
This picture is Bert and Rick as we were almost to Banff. Bob and Derek were busy buying food, beer, and gasoline.
Just a couple miles from our campground, we saw this elk grazing by the road. Pretty cool. And just a couple miles earlier we saw a bear cub. We were glad to be done with a long day. We had pizza and corn on the cob, and hit the beds early.
Day 8 Banff to Lake Louise. Distance so far - 44 miles.
We went out to breakfast at a real restaurant this morning! This is downtown Banff, a pretty tourist town with, as you know, incredible scenery.
After we all ate heartily, we rode the bikes and Rick drove the RV up to see the famous Banff Springs Hotel, captured in many photo books of Canada. Here's mine, with the motorhome right in front of me, and the other guys in front of the RV:
After that mini-sightseeing this morning, we changed into our riding clothes and rode 40 miles to Lake Louise. Without fail, the scenery has again been astonishing every mile of the way. And I haven't even been up to the lake here yet!
After about 4 miles, right as our bike path went under the highway with an offramp, there were eight bighorn sheep and two of them were "littlehorns".
Half of the ride to Lake Louise backtracked yesterday's ride into Banff, except that yesterday's was on the freeway and today's was on a pretty frontage road with hills and deer and bears. Seriously, we saw a big black bear lumbering across the road in front of us. Here are some more scenic pictures:
In the next photo, Bob and Derek are riding in front of Castle Rock.
Here is my last photo from today's ride, even though I will now be pedaling up to Lake Louise, which is one of the most photographed spots in the world (or so the tour book says). I will have to show you a picture in my next blog posting, whenever that will be; we never know whether we'll have WIFI or not.
Tomorrow we will ride halfway to Jasper on the famous Icefields Parkway. The tour guides say it is one of the most beautiful roadways in the world. Man, I don't see how it could be any more spectacular than the past two days, but we'll see!
No comments:
Post a Comment