Day 12 - Golden, BC to Banff, AB

Golden, BC to Banff, AB

165 km, mainly sunny, favourable wind.

Short version – massage, clean bike, “10 Mile Hill Truck Stop”, great food in Field, Alberta, frozen Lake Louise, beautiful Banff.

Regular (i.e. winded) version:

First – Happy birthday Lisa, and Gilles. Also, happy trails – officially the start of the mtb season in the Gats. Ride hard, and keep the rubber side down.

I went into town in the morning to (hopefully) do two things – clean the drive-train at a bike shop (gritty from the sand being kicked up by the rain the previous few days, shifting was being affected, and panniers were cooked with that stuff), and maybe get a treatment.

Bike – got it cleaned by a frenchie from Sturgeon Falls (ON). Funny thing too, my wireless bike computer, even when not attached to the unit, was going haywire – 45 km/h, then 13, then 28, then 72, etc. That affected my odometre, so I will have to do some calculations to find out how many km I've done.

Massage – not worth mentioning. I treat people like I want to be treated (pun intended), and I didn't get what I wanted (and asked). Trial and error, I guess. He did inform me of the Jasper Highway, a grizzly bear that figured out cyclists usually carried food with them. So, that bear would attack the cyclist (well, scare them off), and tackle the traveling food basket. It's not there anymore, and unfortunately, I am not heading in that direction (not this year).

Golden is/will be designated a Resort town, one of 7 in the province. Tourism is booming there, semi-ruining what was of the town before (according to the locals). Plus, a house goes for around 300k. Not bad. Prices have quadrupled in the past 12 years. Too bad. But, I still like the feel.

The ride – fun hill to get out of town. Saw some mountain goats again today (boy they look pittefull). Shortly after the climb out of town, I was rewarded by a nice downhill (80k/h this time, not much shaking from the bike weighted down, so there's still more kms to go get).

Plus, I learnt an expression today “Buffaloed”, as in “I am buffaloed”, meaning “confused”. I was buffaloed – why would they name a truck stop “10 Mile Hill Truck Stop”? Why not “16 km hill...” What made it even more confusing, the uphill was only 4-5 km. Lucky me.

Road – nice new pavement from a year ago, odd time narrow shoulder, but very nice ride.

Field, BC. Great place that was recommended to me – The Truffle Pig. But, it's now named “Chercher la vache”. I asked the guy behind the counter why “Chercher” instead of “Fetcher”, which he informed me of probable copywrite infringement. For those who are lost, do some research on “The Holy Grail” - Monty Python. They even had a drawing re-enactment of the battle between the “English pigs” and the “annoying Frenchmen”. “Stop, or I'll taunt you again!”. Time for Youtube for some of you.

Food – excellent there. The cream of fennel with smoked Gouda cheese was quite tasty. The smoked salmon turkey club was also delicious (with Gouda cheese, and a bunch of other things on there). The beer for lunchtime was the Bigbie Mountain Light Ale. Good, but not as good as the Big Rock's I've had lately. It was the second restaurant that had some Tom Waits on the radio (satellite). I realized that if a restaurant plays Tom Waits, it must be a kick-ass restaurant. I should visit the Black Tomato in Ottawa more frequently.

After that fulfilling meal (and beer), it was the start of the big pass of the day. Fun hill. See picture attached – but, not to scale – they make it look scary steep. Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I thought, just like Roger's Pass the other day. After the hill, I knew all the major passes were behind me, hence the mountains were basically behind me. It was mainly downhill from now. Up the hill – tanan tuul (and tanan Tuul). I had the wind helping me a bit, which was much appreciated.

Alberta/BC border – there's 200 metres between the two signs. I was in no-man's land for a while. Weird.

Lake Louise – I didn't bother venturing into the little town (the information centre said don't bother). They did recommend I climb the 4 km hill up to the Lake, and soak in the view. That hill was actually the hardest climb on the mainland (in my opinion). The heat from the sun on my thighs – I wasn't sure if the quads were on fire, or if it was just the sun beaming down. I believe it was the latter.

The Lake – still semi-frozen. You can still see the skating rink there. Lots of tourists, Korean, frenchies, you name it. Nice views though. So, I didn't get to see the turquoise water as I've seen in pictures before. Maybe another time.

The downhill – I thought I'd be able to hit at least 80 k going down, but the winding road did not allow for me to keep my line, so I had to stick to a measly 50-60 k/h. Disappointing.

The 1a Highway (Bow Valley Parkway) is a side road parallel to the Trans-Canada heading to Banff. Very scenic, no cars (10 within 2 hours?). Picture a corridor of pine trees, with the “end” displaying a Rocky Mountain top, rolling hills, slight switchbacks here and there, and the occasional split of the two lanes heading in different directions just winding up and down the hills. I spent most of that ride just cruisin', enjoying the scenery, riding on the wrong side of the road, slaloming with the dotted yellow line, and spending most of the time not looking at the road, but at the mountains and the trees (looking for wildlife). Very great ride. The tune “Gin and Juice” (Snoop) was perfect. There were many great tunes that went well with the terrain, I would have to start a seperate entry of music “coincidences”. As examples: climbing Roger's Pass, listening to Peter Gabriel's “Dont give up”, or riding trough Pitt's Falls and The Dead Milkmen's song “The Pit” was on, or “Slow Down” (Kanye) while barrelling down a hill somewhere. Lot of weird coincidences.

Banff – beautiful. Oh, the Rockies, beautiful too. Majestic. I kept on staring at various peaks all day. I can just imagine how high they are, and they are still covered by snow. Entering Banff, I see many white-tailed deers (but they are not deers, I just can't think of their name). I think I saw 30 by the time I reached the campsite. It looks like a beautiful town, lots of various shops (chocolate, jewelery, gift shops). Very geared to tourists though.

At the campsite, I hooked up with these frenchies from all over the place (all originally from Quebec, but now posted in Fort McMurray, traveling to Nicaragua, etc.) After I drank my only beer that I bought for the evening, I had 3 more of theirs. The party kept going fairly late, with neighbours not complaining, but joining us instead. Had people from Northern BC, UK, Quebec, Ontario. No one complained about the Marley blaring until 2 am or so. So, I didn't get to write my entry until now (6 pm currently the next day). I hope I dont get in trouble.

But, this seems like a lengthy entry – sorry. It seemed like lots has happened yesterday (Rockies, food, party, massage, Alberta, etc).

Well, on to the next entry. I will upload the photos later (when I have more juice for the computer, and access to internet again sometime in the next 20 hours).

Thursday is a rest day – plan: rent a mtb, and ride those trails over here. you can guess if I'll finally get my wish....

Merci, et a bientot,

Bisous.

(enjoyed the comments . No, my little skinny legs can not carry more supplies – food, beer, to Ottawa on a trailer. I wish I could, seriously though. No, no need for Shamy butter, or Utter stuff for the “sensitive” area, all natural – just good hygiene, clean clothes daily, great shorts, and a great saddle. I highly recommend Koobi (from Colorado), the Xenon. Women and men love it, and I can ride 24 hours straight and still ride the next day without being sealed-up for good. My little p2-2, she's so cute. I can picture her now. I hope I get to create some excitement in Rachel with some animal pics being uploaded soon, and Riley will (hopefully) go crazy with the pictures of the Red Mile (and surrounding area) from Calgary in the next few days. Franck – by naked women movies, you must mean the David Lynch films, with gratuitous nudity in there. He is a great director. I must say I prefer those films to your favourites, which I haven't seen – The Butterfly Effect and Broke (his) Back Mountain. Do, about the facial not knowing when to end, nice one, touche.)

Also thanks to the folks to write me an email here and there with some news.

On se reparle bientot, merci,

p2

There, nice, short and sweet entry.