Day 28: Banff to Lac des Arcs, Alberta

A day of mostly “meh” (and easy) cycling, but great excitement on the bicycle assembly front.

Having reached our 2019 goal of Banff a few weeks ago, we decided to cash in on good weather, strong legs and acclimatized lungs and add the Banff to Calgary section.

For the first time, we flew with our bikes, all neatly disassembled and packed into bags in a learning session with Michael of More Bikes on 4th Ave Vancouver. All a bit daunting to then be let loose with bike parts and Allen keys.

An easy flight to Calgary and a delightful evening with Jen Koury, husband Mike and daughter Hannah set us up well. Mike helped us transfer the bikes from their fancy bags into cardboard boxes which Jen had fetched from the local Bow Cycles earlier in the week and which we could put in the recycling in Banff before we rode back to Calgary.

Up early today to take our boxes and selves to catch the Brewster’s bus to Banff from downtown Calgary. But the pre-booked taxi didn’t arrive (“ah sorry, it’s a holiday and we don’t have many vans on duty”) so we had to raise poor Jen and Mike from their slumber at 5am so Jen could drop us downtown.

Brewsters’ service was great, we managed a short nap on the bus, and soon we were back in the Rockies. And the rain.

We found an overhang to shelter under in Banff (great coffee on the other side of the windows helped) and rebuilt the bikes. Can we say we are enormously proud that our first effort of bike assembly went smoothly, with no extra bits (or bits missing). A quick check confirmed that brakes worked, as did gears (mostly), and we set off out of Banff.

Many people have raved about the Legacy Trail. But it was a huge disappointment – and not only because the mountains were mostly hidden by the low clouds (which later shed a completely unforecast downpour on us). The trail is a paved path which runs right next to the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) which on this Labour Day was horribly busy.

But Canmore is a delight. We stopped to dry off and warm up in the Communitea cafe (wonderful tea) before heading off on the local trails along the turquoise Bow river. We did an extra 20km out of town to make tomorrow’s effort more manageable, but 12km of that was actually on Highway 1. The only positive thing we could say was it wasn’t raining. It’s probably a busy road under normal circumstances, but with every boat, canoe and bike-laden RV (South Africans – read caravans on steroids) heading home at the end of the summer holidays, it was nasty. However, unlike in BC, here the highways are not lined with discarded beer cans. Either Albertans don’t toss them as much, or they actually clean their highways. Having seen two folks picking up litter we decided it’s a combination of the two.

Relieved to get through the highway section unscathed, we were even more relieved when Mirrah of Three Sisters Taxis picked us up in her truck (with unexpected cold vodka soda drinks) and took us back to Canmore. Gill’s bike didn’t like the travel so much and the guys at Rebound Cycles gave it a tweak, and we settled in for an evening of a shower, pub dinner and drinks in one of our favourite Canadian towns so far.

The old Georgetown Inn has a pub that serves roast beef and fluffy Yorkshire pudding, the walls are lined with photo stories of climbers and skiers from the area who have made their international mark. And the hallway boasts posters of all the movies made here – and there are so many, because Canmore has cleverly wooed Hollywood to make it advantageous to film movies here. Many of these films pretend to be elsewhere. Which seems silly given how spectacular it is to be just here.

Today’s distance – 46km

Total distance – 1,802km

#thegreattrail

#transcanadatrail

@rockymountainbikes

@morebikes