Banff to Calgary

We woke up the day after completing the Great Divide in the Banff Campground. It felt sort of like a normal rest day. We took the bus downtown for breakfast although I only had half a pastry and hot chocolate. We checked for boxes at the bike store and there was only one with no real hope of getting more in town.

We set a time to meet at an Italian restaurant for dinner then Daniel headed off to his barbershop appointment. The rest of us decided to visit the famous Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel. We walked along the Bow river to check out Bow Falls first, then headed up to the hotel.

The place is gigantic, with over 750 rooms. We sat in the Rundle Bar and ordered lunch. It was very nice with delicious food and beer.

Wytze stayed to read while Andrew and I walked back downtown taking the same route we had ridden the day before. We spent some time at the Park Museum with a bunch of taxidermy exhibits. We had some ice cream, looked in a photo gallery where Andrew got a great wolf print, had ice cream, talked to another NOBO rider who we knew from a week ago, then met the guys at the pizzeria. We didn’t go too big but the pizza was great.

I was tired when we got back to the campground and settled into my tent to read although it wasn’t even 8 pm.

With my earplugs jammed in I still heard some noise in the night but I missed a lot. Our tents were very wet from rain and everyone else told me how loud our new neighbors were, until after midnight.

We got up early on July 20. Daniel and Wytze took their bike bags off and headed for Calgary about 7 am. Andrew and I leisurely packed up camp a little later.

I took the bus downtown at 11 and walked to the car rental office. I picked up our SUV and drove back. We were easily able to fit our two bikes with front wheels removed plus all the luggage in the back. After almost two months of biking it was weird to be driving a car but we had been in a bunch of Ubers.

We stopped in Canmore for lunch, bread hummus and cherries. We drove up to the end of a road where people were parking for mountain biking and ate there. Then, down the Trans Canada Highway all the way to Calgary, about an hour and a half.

We tried a couple of bike stores to see about boxes; the second one sounded very promising. We also tried the famous MEC, Mountain Equipment Coop I had heard about for years. Then it was a half hour to the apartment we had rented, in Saddletowne, near the airport. Wytze and Daniel rode up right at 16:00 and we checked in. It’s very comfortable with three bedrooms and the large living room couch for Wytze.

We got settled, I verified with the airlines that bikes would work on our flights, then we drove to a nearby Indian restaurant. This whole part of Calgary is distinctly Indian, kind of cool. Dinner was big and good, then we headed home.

We needed a movie since the restaurant had no beer and Daniel had bought us some but we couldn’t even BYOB there. So we watched The Spy Who Shagged Me and laughed a lot!

In the morning we got up early and headed for Lake Louise. We stopped in Cochrane on the way for coffee and breakfast. It took two and a half hours to get to the Lake and we read about how all parking would be taken by 6 am and how crowded it would be. Sure enough there were lots of cars but we just pulled into the lower lot and parked easily (for CAD$42!) and had a 3 km walk up to Lake Louise.

Everyone says it’s amazing and beautiful and in truth it is. It was completely overrun with people but still gorgeous. We decided to hike up to Lake Agnes, so pretty much headed up straight away, hoping to get away from the crowds. But no, there are still very many people who can brave the 400m climb in 3.5 km; we were not alone.

The line to get into the Tea House was very long but I was fine just soaking my feet and looking at the mountains. Wytze immediately went swimming then got in line for food. Somehow it paid off and in a few minutes we were sharing a big table with a woman from London and her father.

We ordered drinks and food and it was really great. It’s old fashioned and the baked goods are made there daily.

After lunch we headed down on a different trail, a bit longer. It was even more crowded so we continued down to the car park via a more pretty route next to a stream. We drove back the same route Andrew and had taken the day before and tried one more bike shop in Calgary. While I was on the phone to other bike shops in the car, Wytze was dumpster diving for a box. We crammed it in the car and continued downtown to dinner.

Our reservation at Cassis Bistro was at 6 and they welcomed us in a little early. The place is very French and high end. But as with every similar place we’ve been to on this trip, our clothes were not an issue at all. We had a round of beers first, small plates, white wine, appetizers, main and then dessert. My after dinner drink was grapefruit soda instead of port since I had to drive. What a meal!

At home we tried watching another movie, Hamnet, but it was too slow and we were too tired so we only made it halfway.