Day 11 - Golden to Lake Louise (T.D.: 88.7km; S.T.: 5h27min)

Feeling refreshed after a lovely sleep in a warm house, we got on the road at the reasonable hour of 10am. We knew that today meant our last big climb for a while, as we would be ascending into the Rockies via the infamous Kicking Horse pass. Perhaps surprisingly, this mountain pass would be the easiest of the four serious climbs it takes to get out of BC on this particular route (BC is the only place in Canada where we’ll encounter such climbs, by the way – all downhill from here!). In hard numbers, the Kicking Horse Pass rises 845m in 71.2km, which is quite reasonable, considering we had already conquered Roger’s Pass (which rises 887m in 68.6km), the Okanagan Connector (roughly 1300m in about 80km), and, of course, the Coquihalla (about 1000m in just over 40km). Not that numbers mean much when you’re carrying 220 pounds of weight (body included) up a hill on a bike. In any case, we had glimpsed the first part of the ascent out of Golden on our way into town the night before, and it looked big. And steep. And tiring.

Turns out, it was. But we got through it alright. In fact, the first 30km or so was a breathtaking winding road along the Kicking Horse canyon – a lot of fun to ride on. We’ve gone through a lot of construction zones on this trip, and today was no exception. For the most part, though, construction was our friend today. It slowed the traffic down, and even gave us our own private lane for a few kilometres somewhere in Yoho National park. The trek through Yoho was eerie – the road was quiet, and our first up-close encounter with the Rockies was a misty one. The tops of the mountains were obscured by a low cloud covering, giving the effect that they might extend upwards forever. You feel quite small on your little red Devinci Caribou as you glide along with these big old hunks of rock and trees looming over you.

The rain held off until we got to the tiny mountain railway town of Field, at which point things started to get a bit wet. We stopped for lunch at the Siding Cafe, and then got back on the road for the long climb up into Alberta. Construction on some bridges out of town gave us no other option but to hold up traffic for a while as we pushed ourselves up the single lane and got back on the shoulder. Not so fun.

As there was no summit sign, we guessed that West Lake Louise was the top, as things seemed to level out around there. We were almost tempted into a getting a room at the West Louise Lodge, cold, wet and tired as we were; but cold, wet, and tired, it turns out, is no match for CHEAP, and so we pushed on to the campground at Lake Louise proper – crossing our first provincial boundary line as we did. We were happy with the decision, as the extra dozen kilometres turned out to be pretty reasonable, the rain rained itself out, and the campground was lovely. It even had an electric fence to keep out the grizzlies.

It’s about time that I mention the little community of self-supported bike tourers we’ve encountered out here. The reason I bring it up is that we met a couple from France riding a tandem bicycle on our very first day, somewhere near Pitt Meadows just outside of Vancouver, and have since crossed paths twice, including today. This is remarkable, I think, because, for one, they took a different route from us – traveling along highway 1 the whole way, while we detoured through Kelowna – and two, because they appeared to be doing much longer days than us, so we didn’t expect to run into them again, and certainly not twice. The man is a very tall, broad sort of fella who rides in front, while his partner, a small woman, is dwarfed as she rides in the seat directly behind him. When we spotted them in Glacier National Park, we thought it just one guy on an unusually long bike, maybe pulling a trailer behind him; it wasn’t until they were right in front of us that we realized it was the tandem couple again! Then, at the Lake Louise campground, we saw them pull in with a couple of other cyclists, and thought “Well, look at that, a whole family doing a bike tour – they even have a little kid on the back of that tandem”. Turns out it was the woman again. Oh how we laughed.

We’ve also been playing leapfrog with a father-daughter team, Dan and Allie, who are doing similar distances as us, and riding the same route. We first saw them in Sicamous, then in Revelstoke, and then camped together in Glacier, and kept in touch through Golden. We’ve lost track of them now, but wouldn’t be surprised to see them again along the way. Then, of course, there’s Sherpa Mark – a teacher from Guelph, Ont. – who’s riding all by his lonesome and putting down some impressive mileage as he attempts to make it across the country before school starts again in the Fall. He took a photo of us, so we’ll probably be on HIS blog before too long, if we aren’t already. We’re famous, by the way.

Last but not least: Wayne McInnis. He’s a crazy old guy who’s biking across Canada while his wife drives a van along from place to place. He’s raising money for the Canadian Mental Health Association, and is pleased to tell you all about his adventures. We thought we left him behind outside of Sicamous, but when we pulled up to the West Louise Lodge, who should come stumbling out of the bar but old Wayne. What a guy.

This is our family out here. I’m sure it’ll grow as we get towards the highway bottleneck East of Winnipeg.

Stats:

Av. Spd: 16.24km/h

Mx. Spd: 59.1km/h (on one gorgeous stretch of downhill – the only one, in fact)

Town we’d be most likely to visit again: Field, BC

Most notable rail design: The spiral stairs near Field, which cut the Kicking Horse grade in half in order to keep trains from destroying themselves on the steep descent.

Dirtiest look: One transport driver on the bridge where we were holding traffic. He did not look pleased with us.

Dirtiest person: Caroline, who didn’t even shower when we got to the campground!

Dirtiest joke: I’d tell you, but I think my elementary students might be reading this.

Worst dinner: Freeze-dried chana masala. Eww. It was no Corner Tandoori, and I ain’t lying.