Mountains are fun. They're great to look at, and I just like climbing. This made the ride over to Banff along the Icefields Parkway something to look forward to.
After an epic 100m climb to the top of Mcdonalds Summit we finally had a really big descent to pay us back for all the climbing. 10 minutes at around 60km/h had our mouths stuck in silly grins and our arms hurting. The road designers must have little faith in driver's brakes though, as they had half a dozen runaway lanes, including one only a km from the top.
The hot weather continued, but not for long. At lunch a day later it got cloudy, then started to rain. A well timed coffee stop allowed the worst of the storm to pass, leaving great cycling conditions.
As we approached the Rockies the number of cyclists picked up dramatically. Dozens of cyclists, all on an Audax style ride based on setups passed by. Before this most of the other cyclists had been fellow tourers, unless we were close to major towns.
When leaving Vancouver, we'd also left RV country, but all good things must come to an end. Unfortunately this corresponded to some awful road design, with rumble strips placed in the middle of already far too narrow shoulders, forcing us out into the traffic in sections. No issues with drivers though.
Right at the end of the day we reached Mt Terry Fox rest area. You could be forgiven for not even noticing the areas namesake though with a perfect view of Mt Robson. Whilst the first view was amazing, seeing the mountain at sunrise was even better.
Approaching Jasper we had the rude shock of a toll booth. I'd known about the toll, but I was expecting to reach it on the other side of town. When asked how long we would be in the park, we looked dumbly at the attendant. We had know idea how far the park reached, let alone an estimate of the time required. 3 days we said, which was always going to be a stretch, $60 later and we were in.
Our timing couldn't have been worse. A long weekend was about to start which brought with it a massive influx of people. With these new people were the welcome faces, and soon to be welcome RV of Isobel's cousins.
After a quick catch up and plans for a rendezvous in the evening myself and Isobel were off. Upon leaving Jasper we were pleasantly surprised with how quiet it was, it was only the next day that we realised the weekend had not begun. Isobel had been pushing through some mild pain the last few days, at lunch it became clear that it was not going to stop on its own, so we aborted our ride and went scurrying back to Jasper.
After a surprisingly quick stop at the doctors and a promise that the drugs being prescribed would sort her out in a day or so we took advantage of the vehicle support to jump us back to where we turned around. This was only the start of the luxuries of a Sag wagon.
The next day it started out fine, then it got grim, and then it got worse. The epic views of the mountains were replaced by no less spectacular, but much more ominously stunning views. With two hours of riding to reach the top of the first pass at the Columbia Icefields the heavens opened and we got properly soaked. The temperature was dropping dramatically so we made the decision to push through lunch and just rely on snacks. When a familiar vehicle stopped we even refused the offer of a lift, as we were actually not too cold, and with only climbing to go and an epic tailwind pushing us there was little risk of hypothermia. We didn't refuse the offer of lightening our loads though.
With much lighter bikes we powered up the hill. Waiting for us up the top was a nice big RV, heaters running. Without the RV the day would have been very unpleasant, likely ending with us huddling together in the visitor center. The RV style is basically opposite to our sort of touring, but I have to say having a solid shelter for the night was a most pleasant experience.
Ending the day with a climb generally means starting the day with a descent, and today we had a beauty. One corner had a recommended speed of 50km/h, I looked down and entered it at 65km/h, when I saw the corner open up I got back in a tuck and exited it at 75km/h. Soon after we arrived at a massive hairpin corner. Admiring the view were three cyclist just out for a few days riding the parkway. Soon after a cyclist coming the other way stopped as well. He was heading to Fairbanks. Hopefully I managed to convince him that his skinny tyres would be able to handle it no problem, it seems as though plenty of people are unaware that the road is completely sealed now.
Throughout the day there had been very ominous clouds around, and at lunch some of them caught us up. With handy shelter we remained dry. We met an NZ cyclist, out on a few week credit card tour. After the rain cleared we continued on.
The next pass was so pedestrian we continued climbing up to Peyto Lake where there was a constant stream of tour bus's unloading and reloading tourists. The rain closed in again, so we took shelter again. We had a reasonably dry descent, but decided to stop at a campground when it started to rain again. During dinner we chatted to Al, a Canadian cyclist out for a few months discovering the country. When it stopped raining we pushed on and found a spot just down the road to camp.
The next few days included lots of breaks, and not much riding whilst Isobel sorted out coming down the Divide with me. The first long break was in Lake Louise, where we did the very un-touristy thing and skipped the lake!
After the constant traffic on the Parkway it was extremely pleasant to continue to Banff on the Bow Valley Parkway. Our camp for the night was hard to beat as well. The next morning we continued onto Banff, where a few more errands were done, including switching to my knobby tyres, in preparation for The Divide!
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