Day 9 - Please Louise

Pano just west of Golden

The first highway sign that greeted us this morning in Golden was “Ten Mile Hill”.  Heading east out of Golden, this is your welcome to Kicking Horse Pass, our chosen route over the Continental Divide, into Alberta, and to Lake Louise, our destination for the day.  The hill was everything you are imagining right now, and with long sections at 6-7 percent grade or more, it was a bear of a climb, and it didn’t stop there.  After a short downhill we were back at it again, and again, and again. Honestly we climbed most of the day, with uphill section’s separated by flats and the occasional downhill which provided nice breaks, and a chance to look around at………you guessed it…….the beautiful scenery, and oh, oh, oh, the beautiful weather.  Our anticipated 85km light day turned into a full on workout, and was one of our best riding days so far on the trip.  A very satisfying ride that left us with a feeling of accomplishment, which is always good on a trek like this.

It's a picture postcard around every corner, even when you're climbing

I've seen this scene in a hundred westerns

We had decided to ride to Field, BC. and stop for a bite to eat, and as we approached the town nestled into the Kicking Horse River Valley, we spotted another cyclist up ahead.  Could this be the mysterious lone rider the boys have been telling us about, with the sun hat under the helmet, etc.?  As we approached, we could see the rider was Asian, which fit the description, but alas this was a male rider and not the female we had heard about.  We thought they could have made a mistake because he was kinda cute, but we found out later on from Jon, that he had been in Banff  visiting a friend that afternoon and he saw the lone rider, who apparently might not be Asian now, and did not have the sun hat under the helmet.  I think these guys are screwing with us.  The Japanese cyclist we met was Kito, who was riding from Vancouver to Whitehorse, but that’s about all we could get out of him. Nice guy.

Kito

Field, BC is where hippies go to retire and make really good lunches for cyclists passing through town.  Great spot, great people, and a nice break before we resumed climbing up the pass.  I have to say this was as big a ride, if not bigger than Rogers Pass, although not as long, but with many steeper sections.  Will have to look at the stats, but that’s how it felt to both Sid and I.

Field is just around that corner in the distance

I don’t believe there was any way I could have missed a Welcome to Alberta, or Continental Divide sign, so what is with that?  You bust your ass all the way up the hill and the only way you know you have crossed the divide is that the streams are now flowing with you rather than against you.  That was a real pisser because we hoped to have “Welcome To” signs for every province we entered.  I have decided we will wait until we are leaving Alberta, go across the street, and knock out Alberta and Saskatchewan in a hundred yards or so.  Photoshop will do the rest. 

So we are in Lake Louise, a place I have not visited since I lived in Calgary many, many moons ago, and it was fun to run up to see what the Chateau has become………….the lake still looks the same………gorgeous.  We have a big ride scheduled tomorrow, trying to make Calgary in one shot from here………160km or so, but uphills should turn to downhills on this side of the Rockies.  If our weather luck continues we have a great shot at it.  I have to get some shut eye, so will be rested and ready to go……signing off…….Hugh