Under the misconception that today would be short and easy, I slept in and took my time getting ready. I even caught up on my blog entries a little bit as my fingers froze in the morning air because the sun hadnt quite reached over the trees amd RV to where I was camping. It was a beautiful morning with a clear view of the mountains around the town. The Chain Reaction Ride group took off earlier than I did, but I managed to get a group photo of them with their bikes first.
Once I was finally on the road, I slowly cruised up the big turnpike out of golden and back to the highway, readjusting to biking with my gear again. Right away I hit the first big hill, a steep but comparitively short slope out of Golden. I had been talking to another traveller, so I expected this, but not how challenging the remainder of the day would be. The road levelled off and followed along some cliff faces, maintaining an easy gtade for while. But then I hit 11 Mile Hill, a long sweeping rise that seemed to continue forever. I took several breaks, and eventually reached the top, just in time for lunch. There was a cool little meadow on a cliff face with the Kicking Horse River below and the mountains above. It was the perfect scenic locale for lunch and I lined up a few self pictures.
Just after lunch I noticed one of my front bags was missing a nut and bolt thay held it to the frame, so I temporarily fixed it with zip ties until I reach a hardware store. Got back on the road just as the Chain Reaction group passed me, on their way back to whete they finished biking earlier. I continued on my way, thinking I had already made good progress and would be there in no time. Nope.
I continued to bike, and bike, and bike some more for what felt like many KM, up and down hills in the hot sun. Nowhere to be found was there a single road sign indicating how far I had vonw or how far I had left to go to reach anywhere. There was one at the very start if the day that said Banff was 144 KM away, and that was it. So I jusg kept going, rolling through tough but beautiful scenery, wondering when I wouks arrive. After a long period of time I arrived at a "Discover Alberta Info Centre" by the town of Field. This area was particlarly beautiful, a crystal clear river running below a close up view of some mountain craigs, train below. Now, I knew Lake Louise was inside the Alberta border, and I thought the info centre meant I crossed the border, especially with the way it displayed both BV and Alberta flags in rows like at fhe NB/ NS border. So I figured I must be almost there.
Just past Field there staryed a hill that can only be described as fiendish. It was rather steep and stretched on for an eternity, crawling around bend after bend for must have been an hour of struggling in an already tired state. Once I finally reached the top, I found an info graphic at a tourist stop that made Lake Louise seem really close, so I left happily. I kept going. Nothing. Not even a sign. I kept asking out loud "where am I!?". I was out of water, so I stopped and used a mountain run-off to fill my bottle, cold water drenching my right arm in the process. Water need fulfilled I keep going, still no sign of Lake Louise. I notice a "Welcome to BC" sign facing the opposite direction, but no Alberta one facing me. So the info centre wasnt the border? Confused, I keep going, and suddenly I am in Banff National Park. I knew for a fact I was supposed to pass Banff tomorrow, and the sign at the start said it was 144 KM away, so what was going on? Did I pass Lake Louise? I become more and more certain as I go that I missed Lake Louise somehow, and this is why it had felt like I had travelled so far. I prepared myslef mentally to have to continue to Canmore, the following day's stop.
I passed into a zone marked for high collision rates with bears, and soon enough there was my first bear of the trip! Luckily he was about 50 m away on the opposite of some roadside construction. The workers kept blowing air horns to make it go back to the woods.
Suddenly, when I was certain I had missed it, there was finally a sign for Lake Louise! I was incredibly happy. I pulled into the scenic resort with the mountain backdrop and got myself a room at the hostel. A meal and a shower later I was off to explore and hopefully see the famed lake itself. I eventually fpind the accesa road to the lake, but it was 4 KM up a really steep hill and I didnt think I could get there and back by dark. As fate would have it, at that exact moment the Chain Reaction gang passed by in their truck and gave me a lift to the top! The lake was very scenic, even while frozen and snow covered. I would quite like to see it in the summer. A long walk back later and its time to catch up on journal writing and then a well deserved sleep.
It is amazing how confusing today was considering I was on HWY 1 the entire time! I lost count of the number of times I found myself asking "where am I?".
I have survivrd BC, the hardest part of my whole journey. It has been an amazing and surreal experience thus far, and I am proud to have made it. Only 9 more provinces to go.
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