Banff at around Noon
I got up relatively early and went to breakfast and grocery shopping
at Safeway. Service was slow at breakfast and it was crowded at Safeway,
so the lines were slow. The next thing I knew, it was noon and I was scrambling
to get packed and on the road. As a result, I left my AA battery charger
(for the Casio's batteries) plugged into the wall, when I left around 1:00.
Banff is real crowded.
I headed up to the most prominent feature in Banff: the Banff
Springs Hotel, another CP Hotel. Like the Chateau Lake Louise for Lake Louise,
this hotel is often the image used to epitomize Banff.
The Banff Springs Hotel sits on the riverbank and there are some
great views of the river and mountains.
Like the Chateau Lake Louise, this is a very classy place. The
doormen wear kilts.
I cruised through town looking for a place I might eat lunch
that was sufficiently secure for my loaded bike. After negotiating the crowded
streets for about half an hour, I gave up and headed out without lunch.
It was another gorgeous day. The Adventure Cycling Great Parks North map
is real confusing on the elevations for the 29 km Banff/Castle Junction
spur. It seems to show it to be all downhill when riding east to west, but
obviously, the Bow River (for which the Bow River Parkway is named) flows
down toward Banff, so this leg has to be uphill. Though I rode the same
road yesterday, it felt completely different today and, though I was going
uphill, I enjoyed my ride immensely. There were a lot of riders going both
ways.
The Bow Valley Parkway is real pleasant and sports some great mountain vistas.
At several points, the highway designers separated the northbound
and southbound lanes out of sight from one another. It was nice to have
no oncoming traffic.
Pat Baker, from Montreal, was riding fully loaded like me. His
riding pace was slow enough to match mine. He was awed by the scenery and
stopped often to take photos. We talked a couple of times as we rode and
leap-frogged past one another. Then we both stopped for water and a rest
at the Johnston Canyon Resort a couple of miles east of Castle Junction.
We ended up eating lunch there. He brought his lunch (purchased at Safeway
in Banff) and I bought a sandwich at the resort.
We had an enjoyable conversation, then headed along toward Castle.
At Castle, Pat continued on the Bow Valley Parkway toward Lake
Louise and I headed south on the Kootenay Parkway. First, I stopped at the
store at Castle Junction (note: they were using a Macintosh SE computer),
where I found the idea of a fresh salad and Italian food irresistible. I
bought lettuce, a tomato, oil & vinegar, cheese ravioli and marinara
sauce. I wasn't thinking about Vermilion Pass immediately in my path or
the fact that it was already 5:00.
From Castle Junction, the Kootenay Parkway crosses the Trans-Canada Highway.
I didn't relish the idea of riding on the Trans-Canada to Calgary
as originally planned. It is too fast and busy.
I started climbing almost immediately after I crossed the Trans-Canada.
I don't know what the elevation was at Castle Junction, but Vermilion Pass
is 5,380' and the climb was at least 2,000' of 8% -- one of the toughest.
It took me over an hour to climb 4 miles.
About 100' in front of me as I was huffing and puffing my
way up to the top of the pass, a grizzly bear RAN into the road, stopped
in my lane and looked at me. Though I'd seen many grizzly bears, I'd never
seen a grizzly run before. This bear ran like a cat, with huge 12' strides.
I could see his muscles flex gracefully as he ran.
I came to an abrupt stop, turned my bike hard to the left, thinking I might go back downhill, but the speed of the bear dispelled any thought, however, of outrunning him. The bear was looking at me and apparently smelling me. I decided that rather than attempting to outrun the bear, which I knew was futile, I'd drop to the ground under the bike and hope the bear would settle for my panniers full of food, or hate the taste of aluminum.
As I was standing there readying to drop dead (possibly
literally) under my bike, a motor home came toward us (me and the bear)
and some people came out of the lodge up ahead, so the bear moved over a
bit to the shoulder. I yelled to the people coming from the lodge that they
were too close to a bear. The bear clearly heard me yell and them reply.
By then the bear was only 25-30' from them, but they couldn't see it due
to vegetation. The activity on three sides seemed to scare the bear off
and he sauntered off into the brush. I survived.
Sorry, I was too preoccupied with survival to think of taking the bear's
picture. Here is one I took of another grizzly bear. ->
I stood there immobilized for a while and experienced
another one of those goose bump moments. Then I looked down at my pants
wondering just how scared I had been. My pants were dry, so I took off to
the summit and, realizing that the bear was still too close for comfort
and I didn't know where he was, I charged downhill very fast.
Maybe bear bells do work. I had no trouble with bears when I used the bear
bell on my bike, but I took it off when I went into Banff (I was embarrassed
to use it in public). Maybe if I stopped whistling, the elephants would
bother me. You never know.
After reaching Vermilion Pass, I crossed over into British Columbia
and crossed the continental divide again as I entered Kootenay National
Park.
I coasted down the hill to Marble Canyon Campground.
I managed to set up my tent and cook the dinner I'd hauled over the pass. Apparently at Rampart Creek Hostel, where I last cooked, I left my plastic plate and silverware in the dish water or something, because I didn't have it anymore. I had no plate or silverware, but managed to eat my salad from a plastic Gatorade container and cook my ravioli in about a cup of water in my tiny frying pan on the Sierra Stove. I used pine cones as fuel for the Sierra. In order to heat the marinara sauce, I transferred the cooked ravioli back to its plastic container. I ate the ravioli and sauce in the ravioli container. I managed to spill much of everything on the table. Being only a few miles from a known grizzly bear, I was careful to wipe off the table with one of my 3-M bike rags. I stored my food for the night in the Cyclists Food Storage building at the campground.
I talked to a couple at a nearby campsite for a few minutes and
took a walk down to the road. This is a really pretty area. But, a little
bit of bear fear lingered and I wandered back to camp soon for an early
sleep.
39 miles.
 Alberta Page |
  |
 Tailwinds Home Page |
© Ed Noonan 1996