Day 13 Golden, BC to Banff, Alberta and over Kicking Horse Pass

93.6 miles, 6,650 ft ascent, assaulted by drop in temperature, wind, and rain

Today's highlight was climbing Kicking Horse Pass with a very strong headwind, making the climb even more challenging.  But first, the ascent out of Golden.  It was long and the steepest of the day.  We rode the Trans Canada Highway.  As an engineer, I couldn't resist photographing an ambitious Canadian project to widen the Trans Can to four lanes across the entire country.  Here they are building a more than five mile long bridge as the new outer lanes.

After the long climb out of the Kicking Horse River Valley, I rested on the ridge between valleys and took a picture looking back to Golden. The river looks like a long convoluted ribbon.  Golden is further back in the distance.  The rivers here, while it may not show well in the picture,  are a deep jade color due to the minerals they pick up as they flow over the rocks.

From the top of the ridge I took this photo of mountains in the direction we were headed....a challenge to come, but at this point, I didn't know how much of a challenge it would be.

Riding on we entered Yoho National Park.

 

Stunning and majestic mountain views along the route

 

Yoho National Park Visitors' Center, our next stop, was the only water source en route to the pass.  We filled our bottles and looked at exhibits there.  There was a model train of the Canadian Railroad's spiral tunnel, built to climb and descend the pass.  Long trains can be seen at two levels of the spiral.  Here are photos of the spiral track display and an entrance to the tunnel.

We climbed Kicking Horse Pass into a 20 mph headwind the engulfed us about 10 miles before the pass and presented a significant challenge through 6 miles of climbing.  Progress was slow, and painfully won, but eventually we arrived at the summit.  Again, it was disappointing that there was no sign at the summit of Kicking Horse, so we used  another mileage sign.  I had to have one of these "conquered the pass" photos for the trip and this was my last chance.  My Canadian companions probably thought this photo was "over the top", but I didn't care.  None of them wanted pictures of such a pose.  Different countries, different cultures, different thinking makes it all more interesting and fun.

 

Descending the pass and riding toward Lake Louise, we very carefully crossed electrified cattle guards onto an unmaintained road that was really a wide greenway in need of repair. This road had no traffic, and served as a great shortcut to Lake Louise.  Along the way we passed a log arch used as a Continental Divide marker.  The "Great Divide" marker sits on the boundary between the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.  All water that falls on the BC side flows to the Pacific, and all the water that falls on the Alberta side flows north to the Arctic Ocean. 

 

                

 

(Couldn't resist a selfie in front of the divide marker.  My excuse: a Canadian rider took one first!)

 

 

Then on to Lake Louise.  The shot below was taken along the way.

 

               

 

Canadians celebrating Canada Day Weekend at Lake Louise.  It's said that you aren't Canadian if you haven't been to Lake Louise.

 

At this point the challenge grew.  The weather conditions deteriorated between Lake Louise and Banff.  Temperature dropped to the mid 40s, a 10 mph wind arose, and it rained.  En route we passed Storm Mountain, obviously well named. A pass famous among Canadians, Vermilion Pass, is to the right of the infamous Storm Mountain.

 

We cycled a few hours in the biting cold to Banff.  Like most Americans, I do not carry panniers on my bike, and I was wearing a basic biking jersey and biking shorts,  with a rain jacket.  Canadians, however, ride with huge panniers, or saddle bags, filled with extra water and warm clothing.  They all donned a warmer layer under their rain jackets and rode more comfortably.  My bad....but I toughed it out.  By the time we arrived in Banff, I was so cold that I was shaking and couldn't stop.  We all paused at a Shell station for a warm drink and to absorb some warmth for about thirty minutes.  The extra heat and warm drink made the final 3 mile ride to the campground bearable.  

Below you see my warm beverage and the Nanaimo bar I enjoyed for a bit of extra energy.  Nanaimo bars consist of a  top layer of chocolate and a wafer  crumb base, perfectly sandwiching a custard flavored center.  These bars are staples at bake sales across Canada, like brownies are in the States.

 

Once in camp, we ate pizza and warmed ourselves by a log fire that faster cyclists who arrived first had already built.  The hot pizza, warmed in a frying pan over the fire tasted great and warmed our innards!  In order to keep our tents dry, we assembled them along with a rain fly under a large tarp tied to trees.  Then we carried the tents to our sites, keeping the insides of the tents dry.  Our campsite is in Banff National Park, and the campgrounds are run by the National Park Service.  This site is better than some of the campgrounds we have used thus far.  It even had a hand dryer in the wash room, which we used to dry out our wet cycling clothing and further warm up after a shower!

 

 

There is also a shuttle bus that runs twice hourly from our campsite into the town of Banff, so we do not have to walk or cycle into town, a real luxury! Thankfully tomorrow is a REST day because of the grueling nature of the day's ride and the fact that Banff is a major Canadian tourist destination.  After some rest, I will play tourist.