Day 12 – June 29th 2018 Lake Louise to Canmore

Today took us over the familiar terrain of Lake Louise to Canmore.  An 80 km ride with almost no climb if you ride on the Trans Canada (TCH).  So we rode on the 1A from Castle Junction to Banff and then the Legacy Trail from Banff to Canmore which meant that a lot of the ride was not the normal Lake Louise to Canmore.

The first few km have Mt Temple over your right shoulder and there is no more spectacular mountain on this ride.  Once it was behind us, then Bulwark, Armor, Protection and then Castle dominate the left side.  At Castle, we jumped on the 1A (closed west off Castle for bridge repair) and rode the quiet pace of the Bow Valley Parkway.  No trucks though still motor homes and campers.  There seem to be many more cyclists on the road around this area.  Met a guy who cycled Anchorage to Lake Louise at the hostel last night, two people cycling to Mexico, a guy who cycled here from Minnesota and was heading up to Alaska and two couples just riding up to Jasper.  Seems a 300 k ride is considered small on these roads.

 

We saw two black bears just west of Moose Meadows but so far off that we did not get a picture.    Further on we saw the resident big horn sheep.  Along with animals, the 1A gives different views of the Bow as it winds its way through the valley.  We rode slowly because the ride was just so beautiful.  If you want to have a great ride, ride the 1A anywhere from Lake Louise to Cochrane.  It would be a great weekday ride when the roads are quieter.  Get an 8 AM start to get the most out of the ride.

In Banff, we linked to the legacy trail and it just allowed you to roll along without worry of cars.  In no time, we were at our hotel in Canmore, three hours before checkin.  Twelve days of riding and about five minutes of rain while we have been riding.  It is good to be lucky.  We did have a downpour once we were checked in.  Today we wore our coats because it was 5C for the first hour and probably took until 11:00 to hit double digits.