edwards block

Banff to Calgary. DAY: 152.45km. ODO: 1,271km. AVS: 25.2km/h. MXS: 64.5km/h. ATM: 6:02.

As I departed Banff, it occurred to me that I should stay an extra day to rest the irritated right Achilles tendon. It is the only part of my body that I have ever really injured, besides a little whiplash and some unfortunate hair incidents. Twenty years ago (astonishingly, I was twenty at the time) I slipped on some shag (!)carpeted stairs and tore the tendon slightly. I was on crutches for a week or so, and it was fine after that. It has never given me any trouble since, despite activities such as running, racquetball and Wreck Beach stair climbing.

Nonetheless, I carried on. I took highway 1A, rather than the Trans-Canada, which again was a good choice. Though longer, it is scenic and quiet. Less motorised traffic is always more pleasant. Except for a couple of magnesium processing plants, it crossed much first-nations, mostly rolling, grasslands.

As usual, it was sunny and hot, but thundershowers had been predicted. Ahead of me I could see two large black clouds spewing sheets of rain and occasional bolts of lightning, with a clear space between them, roughly where my highway was headed. The clouds seemed to be moving north, but barely moving at all, so I thought I might make it through the gap. However, about 25km west of Cochrane, the southern cloud moved over me and the rain hit. I stopped and put on my rain gear, but by the time I was finished, the rain were abating. Five minutes later the sun was shining again.

I had thought that I would stop at Canmore or Cochrane, but the former was uninspiring and the later was close enough to Calgary that I thought I may as well go all the way. I arrived on the outskirts of Calgary at about 6:00, but I wasted an hour looking for a route downtown that doesn’t involve a shoulder-less freeway. Eventually I gave up and just took the Trans-Canada into town, to the chagrin of the traffic behind me. I found a couple of “bike route” signs, but they inevitably ended up at a dead end or otherwise nowhere, with no continuing signage. I chose the Calgary hostel as my bed for the night.

By the end of the day, the Achilles was quite sore, and it now has a tender lump in the middle of it. I guess I will be resting in Calgary until it’s better. Just as well, as I have relatives here I can visit.

Lake Louise to Banff. DAY: 65.79km. ODO: 1,119km. AVS: 21.2km/h. MXS: 59.0km/h. ATM: 3:06.

The scenery today was the most beautiful so far. Leaving Lake Louise (that sounds like the title of a Nicholas Cage sequel where he decides to end it all by maxing his Visa card in ‘Saitoh’ outlet stores), I avoided the Trans-Canada in favour of the Bow Valley Parkway, which turned out to be a great choice. For one thing – no trucks. In fact, there was very little traffic of any kind. A quiet secondary highway through forests, with great mountain views, and numerous mule deer foraging along the road, and several bold ravens:

    
A lot of scenic spots and interpretive displays, and with a short distance to cover, meant that I stopped frequently. In one spot, I found an osprey’s nest below the height of the road, and sat and watched them for a while. There were a huge number of cyclists on the parkway – perhaps as many bikes as cars – though most were a single group from Canmore out for the day.

After four hours in Banff I have concluded that it must house the largest number of Australian service workers outside of Sydney. Check into a hotel or eat in a restaurant and the chances are your server will have an aussie accent. Banff, despite it’s wondrous surroundings, is really just another tourist trap trying to suck money out of visitors.

As for physiology, neither my knees nor ass are hurting, so I guess my body is adjusting. However, today’s pain is in the right achilles.

Before I left Ruskin, I mentioned to Elaine that the battery in my wristwatch, a gift from Focal Communications, had been working flawlessly for four years. The very next morning, it was dead. Though not generally the superstitious sort, it is for this reason that I hestitate to mention that I have cycled across the entire province of British Columbia and into Alberta (1,119km) without once having had to use any of my rain gear. In fact, my right arm is peeling from sunburn. I could not have asked for better weather. There – watch it snow in Calgary now.