Good morning to you all. Thought this one would be in english for a change.
After taking all the bear precautions last night at our wilderness campsite at 1500m, we had a good night. The kids at the campsite next to us ended up being pretty quiet too. Must have been the pouring rain and the cold that calmed them down. Although with the amount of booze they had, maybe they just passed out :-). We still don’t know how they managed to fit 8 in that tent. 3 boys and 5 girls…. We think there might have been two stories in that red tent. 😃Good pasta supper last night too. Warm food helps when every thing is wet!
We set off a bit late because we had to cook breakfast and pack all of our wet gear. Nothing dried because of the low temperatures and humidity. Claude certainly is getting a lot of use out of his multiple pairs of gloves…. Haha. Cool at around 9c again but only overcast. The temperature will warm up during the day and we have a lot of climbing for the first 70km of the ride today anyway. Clear day with no smoke and the views are amazing all.the way up the vermillion highway and the pass at 1798m. Built.origininally in the 1920’s, you can see why it is such a nice place to drive through. It is in the Kootnay National park and we can finally see the majestic rockies and fully appreciate the Stanley Glacier. See pics below.
Good slog up the pass and we crossed the continental divide heading east….. so…. I guess that means that if cyclists act like water we should be heading downhill soon? NOT! 🤠Still climbing and took a pic of the “Welcome to Alberta” sign. Goodbye British Columbia. It has been 😊.
Amazing day of riding and geeting late so we high-tailed it down highway 1 to Banff after about 5km of a sizzling descent. I was flying and enjoying to reward YESSSS. I have to say that Claude is betting better at decendimg too. I guess old age is making him as crazy as me! In Banff on a Friday night with no reservations for lodging…. Ifffy at best. The reason is that for the last 2 days we had bsically no cell coverage as advertised in the mountains. So no internet which explains my apparent bad planning as well as us not posting in the last few days. I will let you imagine what kind of comments I was getting from my travelling partner. Club-med was not in the cards🤭
Here’s what it could have looked like for the night in Banff. Steps of the tourist info.
Turns out that Banff had some room in a great hostel. Sweet and bonus, adjacent door to a liquor store. Claude was a happy camper and, the cashier spoke French too. We were pretty to be out of the mountains so a good supper at Korean BBq (Pat’s recommendation) was amazing. Hit the sack and crashed only to be awoken by an Aussie hostel guest rollimg in at 4am. Oh to be young again I guess. Oh well, he was probably felling as bagged as we were the next morning because we finished the night with a Grand marnier….. bad idea. As you can see below, the hostel was great. Today is a banff visit day and short ride to Mike and Dena’s in Canmore for the night.
Cheers,
English (Canada) 
Français du Canada