Day 20

6/11/09: Segment 15 Golden, BC to Lake Louise, Alberta

         GREAT DAY!!!!!!!! But first let me digress to finish out the crazy day we had last eve. Yes, I pounded some more severe food action again, buying a sub at Sobey’s, along with an 8-pack of carrot muffins, a huge piece of bread and a couple of bagels. Went back to camp and ate while Ryan had to go into town again to see if they were going to be able to get that rear wheel relaced before closing.

         So I sat at a picnic table in our camp, out in the sun, and just munched, drank some Merlot, and listened to CBC new on my little short wave radio. Yep, we’ve got all the gadgets for this trip indeed. Well, the sun is setting up here, in MST zone at about 10:00-10:15, waited for Ryan this long and then finally went to hit the hay. Got situated around 10:30 in my Hotel Hille when Ryan rolled in. Turns out the kid did indeed get the job done, putting on downhiller spokes on Ryan’s rear wheel. Completely new spokes, filed down to fit his 29’er and everything. It probably helped, Ryan being there that they didn’t shine this on to tomorrow, which is what I thought they’d do.

         So he rolled in, made din-din in his vestibule, and I must have nodded out with the radio on in my tent. Woke up to another awesome day, not a cloud anywhere. Though we did sleep a bit on the late side – 7am wake-up – we were anxious to get it going with another big day of climbing ahead of us.

         Now the guys in the bike shop told us of the nasty climbing we’d encounter today, the first 20K being cruel, right out of the gate, and then we were told of another killer pass, Kicking Horse, about 35 miles in. We even had a guy in our camp area, him and his family visiting from Colorado, tell me that what lay ahead of us was just brutal. He said he was a rider (no shaved legs ……..and you know what that tells me!), and said he did plenty of riding in CO, centuries, even  close to double centuries. He then went on to tell us that they just came down from Lake Louise, and that he just couldn’t believe that you could haul luggage up that thing. Painted a pretty grim picture.

         So we left in the morning with all this talk in our heads about how hard today’s riding would be. And it was a total BIT—right out of Golden. No, not because it was really that hard, but because of the road construction on the mountain climb. They had it blocked off so that there was only one lane on each side of the climb, not the usual two on the climbing side. Not only was a lane missing, but a concrete barrier was set up so that there was a mere 1 foot berm for us to negotiate on. Now this puppy was a steep climb, such that I was in the little cookie, about 3 cogs down, out of the saddle, rocking and rolling up this climb out of Golden. And we have semi’s behind us, like about 6 inches off of my left hip. And this idiot trucker honks at me…..like I’m going to ride up over the freaking concrete barrier for God’s sake to get out of his way.

         I had to dismount my steed, just to make sure the moron wouldn’t take me out. So we had this narrow sliver of berm, and damn near every trucker in BC going up this ^&%$#&$ hill right on our *&^^&%$ arses. It was probably the most frustrating moment of the trip thus far. Damn was I mad. Wanted to jump aboard that bloody truck and just pummel the imbecile.

         So THAT was the tough part of the day. Then we settled into the meat of that 20K climb. And it just kept going, and going, and going. Up this massive bridge, way the heck about the river and the RR tracks, going and going and going. And I felt like a rock start, like superman, like……what, are you kidding me, this is fun, not hard. And it was a total blast, for about two hours of climbing. And there were times, when there was no traffic for minutes on end, where it was just the cool breeze blowing across the mountains, making the traffic signs sway gently side to side, creaking ever so slightly, but enough to make you feel a heightened sense of awareness of your surroundings – a very surrealistic feeling indeed. I would get this feeling time and again throughout this climb today.

         And I just didn’t get tired, or sore, or anything. It was if it was just a pure joy to keep climbing. And I would laugh out loud as I came around another big, sweeping switchback, only to see the road continue up further into the stratosphere. Then I’d stop, snap some pics every now and then, over and over, like a picture around every corner.

         And the day was just so awesome, with a clear blue ski, temps in the low 60’s, and a bloody tailwind. It just all fell into place for this day. Later Ryan would tell me that it was the same way for him. Was it the rest day? Was it the surroundings? Was it the weather? Who knows, but I just haven’t had that feeling on a bike for a long, long time.

         Our descent down to Field was a real screamer, and I was a bit bummed because we were loosing all of the altitude that was had gained. Nonetheless, I was happy that we made Field in 2.5 hours, and averaged about 10.3 mph through this first pass. Stopped at a convenience store and I got a coke and chocolate bar while I waited for Ryan. He rolled in about 15 min later. About the hardest part of the day was me parking the bike & yak at the store without it falling over. This had to take 3-4 attempts.

         Let me tell you, I could write a book on the parking thing. I had originally bought 2 $50 buck kickstands for the bikes, specially make to use with yaks. Well, I couldn’t get mine to fit the bike prio to us leaving for the trip. I was scared that by tightening it so much that I would crush the chain stays. It just wasn’t very stable. Well, there was 50 bucks down the drain. But I did get the stand to fit Ryan’s bike………..and it lasted about a week into the trip, eventually just hanging on by a thread. I was so mad that night that I took it off and hurled it into the marsh, winding up and giving it a damned discus type of a throw. Ryan just laughed like heck.

         So, how we both have this parking issue. And I’m telling you, it is a total hassle trying to find something to lean both bike & yak up against. It’s a very delicate issue, as the front wheel can swing wildly to the left or right. OR…..the yak can literally pull you and the whole bike down to the ground. Worst case is you break the skewer (a very special skewer for the yak yoke to fit into), and then you’re SOOL. We have one spare skewer, so we have to be very careful not to break these guys.

         Well, I’m  in this parking lot, and looking for somewhere to lean the gig. And I’m trying picnic tables and walls, and nothing is working. The bike & yak is just giving me fits. Finally, I balance the front pannier on the seat of a picnic table with the yak hanging in mid air, not leaning against anything. It’s like, you touch it, or breath on the bike and the whole set-up topples over like a house of cards. And now that Ryan’s kickstand lays in a marsh back in BC, he to gets to experience the fun of parking bike & yak.

         So we get done with the little food stop, and get the mindset to begin the next big climb – Kicking Horse Pass. And it begins NOW, right out of the parking area you can see the little tiny bugs moving up the mountain side. Yup, that’s our future. But again, I felt this sense of power slamming in and out of the saddle. I’ll have to say that the last year of riding in the Black Forest Region of Pennsylvania was definitely me ticket for feeling so at ease with these longer climbs. At least that’s what I think anyways! So I’m moving along pretty good, shifting in and out of the middle and small cookie, stopping occasionally for some photo opps, and just having a great ride. Look down at the trip time and we like already 45 min into this climb.

         So now I know that today……I’m KOM baby. I pass another thru rider……..like he’s standing still, and I look back after about 10 min……nowhere in sight. Yup, KOM my man, KOM. I finally see that the river we were paralleling is now a trickle, and there is snow patches scattered amongst the evergreens on the side of the road. The top is almost here. Shift into the middle cookie, hammer up out of the saddle for one last time and over the top I go. There are no cars, and a beautiful lake sits atop the pass. I just yell out YEAAAAAAA, like some sort of mad man and laugh out loud. It was fantastic.

         We’ve been thinking about this section of climbing for nearly 6 months. We’ve had people tell us about how beautiful it was, how hard it was, how much work it would be, how rewarding the feeling is to do it. And then I thought about it, visualized it, and dreamt it. But now I finally LIVED it. What a great feeling to have surmounted some of the most amazing climbs in the Canadian Rockies.

         After my victory yell, I shifted into the big cookie and let the descending begin. It wasn’t one where we lost all that we had gained. It was more on the gradual side, but with this nice tail wind, you could just let it fly. Got down to the junction with Rt 93, Icefields Parkway, and waited for Ryan. When I joined up we continued on Trans Can 1 down to Lake Louise, a short 5K away. We had finally put one Providence away, saying goodbye to British Columbia, and hello to Alberta. Not only that, but we have just gone over the 1000-mile mark in the trip. So two very special events occurred with our stellar rides.

         Now we’re actually in Banff National Park. We went through Yoho National Park on the two passes we climbed today, and we’ll continue north into Jasper National Park once we ride back up to Rt 93 and head north on the Parkway. We have to kind of strategize on this because it’s early in the season out here, and some of the camping areas are still closed. I had a lady in the park visitor center help us out with the logistics of doing the 150 miles of parkway. You cannot just camp along the road. It has a fence to keep wildlife out of traffic, and camping outside of a designated camping area is a huge no-no. So we must time our stop.

         We’ve decided to try to do the parkway in two days. We’ll shoot for an 80-mile ride tomorrow, and a 70-mile ride to Jasper on Saturday. We’ll have two passes tomorrow, and I sure hope all the patting myself on the back today will not come back and bite me in the you know what! If we do run into problems, and cannot get that far we do have one out as far as camping goes. So it’s not totally an all or nothing proposition.

         Lake Louise is your typical tourist town in a national park. It’s got the little commerce center where there’s a grocery store, a café, a liquor store, restaurant, a few cheeky gift stores, post office etc. You see bus after bus load of tourist carted in, let off, and then they subsequently meander all over the place buying junk food (kind of like me) and junk items. I’d love to be up in the backcountry around here, but that is a whole different gig. Now it’s get across the country by bike. The shame is that there is so much hiking and backpacking out here it’s just a crime, and I’ll not be able to do that on this trip. Even with 3.5 months, you’ve really got to keep it moving. Stop several times and each cool place and suddenly you’re a week behind schedule. Heck right now we’re 3 days behind schedule.

         Like this evening………I wanted to go to Lake Louise to take some sunset shots. So I get on my bike with my tripod and all my camera gear, ride back down to the main road out of camp, and there’s the sign: Lake Louise – 8K. Ok, I think I can manage to pedal 8K in my gym shorts and hiking shoes, with a day pack on and a fleece under the pack. So I start riding, and I begin climbing, and I do mean climbing, up, and up. And I shift into the little cookie and climb another 500 meters and look up, and this thing just keeps going up. DONE, I’ve climbed great today, but I’m not putting myself through a 2.5 mile climb in gym shorts and hiking shoes to shoot. So I did a U and headed back to camp, taking several pics of the mountains with the river in the foreground.

         It’s things like that that are frustrating for me when on bike. Because believe you me, there are many days when you’re just so tired after a day of cycling, that the last thing you want to do is get on the bike, and go take a long hike to get some pictures. Anyway…….No sunset shots at Lake Louise.

         We shopped earlier, and then came back to camp and cooked up 8 hotdogs and some mac and cheese. Put it down like it was nothing, and then took showers with our dishware. Yep, killed two birds with one stone by showering and doing the dishes at the same time!

         I’m going to head up now to park central and see if I can got this on the website, and maybe even skype Judy at 11:30pm EST. Had a blast today and talk to you probably in a couple of days. We hear that there is no chance of internet along the 150 miles of parkway, so it may not be until we reach Jasper that you’ll hear from us again in the blog. We’ll see. Goodnight………Pete