Day 33 - 258 miles
NOTE: Low bandwidth. Will add more photos later with better resolution.
I don't know how I ran out of time on this day, but I did. I was one of the best days so far, but I was a bit bummed at the end. I probably lingered too long in Banff and Lake Louise, but...who wouldn't! Again, you simply need A LOT more time. Another mental note to come back. You could spend WEEKS just in this area.
The day started with a pretty serious crisis at one of my clients, which delayed me an hour or two. I managed to get it sorted before I left Calgary, fortunately. I then had to pick up some "bathroom items" in a nearby drugstore. Plus, get gas. This all eats into your time, of course, but the map was telling me 5 hrs 37 mins, so I figured, "I have loads of time." NOT!
This was really an epic days drive, though. As you get out of Calgary and up into the Rockies, the scenery changes fairly rapidly, and dramatically. Banff is a fairly quick hop away.
You pay a Parks Canada fee to get into the general Banff/Jasper area. It allows you to traverse all the highways their-in. I was beginning to wish I'd bought a yearly pass, as I was racking up my Canadian national parks at this stage.
I had lunch in the magnificent Banff Springs Hotel, out on the terrace. The weather was perfect (about 78F) and I just soaked it in. I was cognizant of the time, but also probably over-stayed a bit. Hard not to in a place like this though.
Lake Louise is about another hour on from Banff. I stopped here for about an hour. Another place right out of a painting or even your imagination.
After I gassed up once again, and down a can of Rock Star, I was on the road, and a few kilometers (remember, we're in Canada) later, took the turn off for the fabled Icefields Parkway. This was something I'd been looking forward to, really since Cape Breton.
The Icefields Parkway, is STAGGERINGLY beautiful. I would say, it it one of those drives you have to do in your life. The scenery is truly breathtaking, and you at times will literally "gasp."
I didn't realize how much ice I would actually see. Walls of it. Hundreds...I don't know...thousands of feet thick in places.
As I got past what I thouhgt was about the halfway point, I realized it was getting a little late. It probably would have been okay, but the weather, which was supposed to be clear overnight, was beginning to change - for the worse. Fortunately, I got to see all the good bits before it really started to close in. This is a road I would like to drive again though.
I also think it might be better to drive it from the northwest - from Jasper down to Banff. A lot of the glaciers and icefields were on the left-hand side, and were better viewed coming from the northwest. Also, the sun would be better placed coming that way.
I met a friendly Canadian girl at one of the stops. She offered to take my picture - on my bike - which was welcome, as most of my pictures of either of me, or the bike, but rarely both. I told her I was camping and she recommended one, right as you come into Jasper. I figured it might be my last night camping, and I was kind of looking forward to it.
The weather really closed in suddenly, and obscured the sunset, and with it most of the remaining light. By then the scenery had changed and we were out of the icefields and on a more mountainous, wooded road to Jasper - still 40 or 50 miles away.
I got in behind an SUV that was really blasting along. I think they were trying to "lose" me most of the time, and I was probably freaking them out, but they got me into Jasper just as it got completely dark - and just as the skies opened to a downpour. I would not be camping tonight.
I saw a little hotel ahead, with a restaurant attached. No vacancies. Try further on in town, they assured me. Thanks...and I headed back out into the rain.
All the hotels and motels in Jasper were either full up, or wanted $200 for the night. Thus goot me kind of pissed off. If I underestimated one thing on this trip, it's the cost of motels. Long gone in the United States and Canada, are the days, or should I say nights, of $39.99 and $49.99, and the like - forget about it. Make that $139.99, and $149.99 - if you're lucky. And, if you can get in. I'd say I must be up to (at least) $3,000 in accommodation costs by now.
I finally got a place for the bargain of $179.99. With tax, it would be $200. The one behind the desk was a bit of an auld cow, and wasn't interested in my moaning and complaining.
I went out for something to eat, and as I pulled in to look at a place, a guy yelled at me, "C'mon in here! Great food, great fun!" Didn't sound too bad, so in I went.
I think the place was called "Downtown," and the staff here were really cool. Did I mention before how nice Canadians are? THEY ARE REALLY NICE. Cultured, civilized, and friendly. And good fun too. I had a good evening in this place, and it cheered me up, after my slight downer of an early evening.
A few other notes:
1) The bike is covered in bugs. Lots of wasps keep hovering around it when I stop. I guess they can sense all the dead ones.
2) The tread on the rear tire is getting kind of low. Almost bald. I may need a tire change somewhere.
3) The weather has been changeable. I've been wearing rain gear most days.
4) It is noticeably colder. I need a lot of warm clothes on, especially if I'm driving near sunset, which I try to avoid, but seems to happen more as I try and hammer out those extra miles.
I better go to bed. Weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow, and I've got to drive through the mountains of British Columbia.
Onwards!
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