Day 4 Rest.
Wednesday.
After a very restful sleep we got up, Lee cooked up some Buckwheat Blueberry pancakes, we watched the Deer that were munching the leaves around our campsite, Lee threw some rocks at the Squirrels that were tormenting him, we packed up our stuff and headed to Canmore.
We arrived at the Restwell campsite, sorry Celly and Skogan, but well it was not very restful being surrounded by mobile homes and RV's and buddy warming up his Diesel F250 at 7:00am. Not to mention putting us in the wrong campsite, the only one with a tree so when we moved the next morning, we left and stayed at the Bow River campsite for the rest of the time, where our neighbours were about 20 feet away not 5, and we had the Bow River as our front view,
not the 30 foot long streamlined RV/Bus thing with the satellite dish and RV mama wondering why they can't get channel 257.
On this day I read the Hobbit, and Lee, being unable to rest, went on a 2 hour ride under the three sisters.
That evening we met Rob (Endo) and Mark (kamakazi). Lee was trying to convince Mark that he should buy his Norco Team with the Superflys, while this happened a stray dog ate Marks dinner! Gotta love them trailer parks! Off to bed we went to the sound of the other RV'ers yacking away and the security diesel F*&(ing truck driving by every 10 minutes, and the street lights lighting my way when I had to get up to go pee in the middle of the night.
Day 5
Thursday Lake Minnewanka - 34km (return) 1480-1555 75m
We met the Crew at 11:00 back at Restwell.
It started to look a bit better when all of our cars blocked the view of the RV's across the road. The day was sunny and warm, Lee was off in search of a new 9 speed chain since his kept breaking over the last few rides, gotta love new Shimano marketing technology... Once Lee got back, we filled our supply of water packed our extra jacket, gortex pants, extra shirt etc and left Canmore to join the millions of tourists entering Banff National Park, each paying $10.00 to help pay jobless Newfoundland fisherman and newly beached Chinese refugees (whoops political commentary) We arrived at Lake Minnewanka and parked with the other hundred tourist and started on our way.
Again we were blessed with magnificent views!
For the first few km's we had to climb a steep little bit, passing hikers on the way who were truly AWED at how we could climb up such a steep trail! Once we were in a few km's there were no more tourists! Yeh! and we could ride without fear of a collision down the single track, along the scree slopes and looping up and down trail of Lake Minnewanka!
At one point there was this technical little bit where CalgaryDave and Endo tried to ride through. Endo succeeded, CalgaryDave did too but unlike Endo he did not get a flat! and then have to borrow a tube since he left his in the car so he could bring his camera! Priorities!
After building up the trail a bit, since this technical little bit spoiled the fast flow of the pace, we were on our way.
As Celly already mentioned I too suffered a mechanical when I got chain suck 'just riding along' and ripped out 4 spokes. Luckily I had the resourceful Lee to rip out my spokes and ensure me that my rim would be ok for the rest of the ride, which it was. Off we went racing down the trail,
we were stopped at one creek crossing to see sheep on the other side of the creek! One was definitely a male, with big rounded horns on him. After they had left we crossed the creek and carried on.
Celly and Kenny have no problem on this terrain! They are not even distracted by the
beautiful scenery since they get to ride here all the time!
I, on the other hand, have to stop many times to take in the amazing views!
Spike looks cautiously on when she hears a rustle in the bushes, fortunately for her it is
only LEE!
We rode to the end of the 'smooth' trail to the warden cabin where we took a break,
Chris and Endo had a swim and we fed some mosquitoes with our blood. At this point Leel and CalgaryDave decided to see how far they could carry on the trail. Not far it turns out since Dave broke his derailier cable and had to single speed it back down the trail. No biggy for him since he likes climbing in his middle ring!
We got back to the final descent of the trail where endo show us his 'Alberta wheelie drop'
I think some guys must have retractable testicles... Or maybe he wanted a leather seat enima!
Endo, Calgary Dave and Chris ride across the bridge, wondering where the rider of the Norco Team Issue is? Maybe he's trying to convince someone to buy his bike!
We got back to the cars, back to the campsite, ate, showered etc. Then back to Restwell to have a couple of beers while Lee replaced my broken spokes and trued my wheel. Then to the Brew pub for Micro brew beer!