Backroads Canadian Rockies Trip

During the first week of September of 1995, I went on a biking and camping tour of the Canadian Rockies with a friend of mine, Mike McClane. The tour was run by Backroads (1-800-GO-ACTIVE), an "active" vacation company. The trip would take us from the city of Banff in Alberta, Canada, through both Banff and Jasper National Parks, and end in Jasper, including a total of roughly 240 miles of biking. The first four nights of the trip would be spent at campsites along the way, the last night at an inn. As you'll see below, we, along with the other 25 tourists in the group, were in for not only a fair amount of biking, but also some spectacular scenery and fun.

Day One

The bike trip departed from the Banff train station. A short ride on the first day took us out onto Tunnel Mountain Road, where we got our first clear view of some of the scenery. Here, Mike is seen taking it all in.

We made our way out of Banff, past Lake Minnewanka to the Two Jack Lake Campsite. Their, we began to get more familiar with the other folks on the trip, and with the Backroads camping experience itself (e.g., everyone learned how to set up their tent). It was interesting to see our Backroads ride leaders (Michelle, Mark, and Padme) handle the whole group. In particular, as each person introduced themselves, they were required to come up with a descriptive adjective matching the first letter of their name (despite going last, I blew it & couldn't come up with one).

Day Two

The second day got off to an early start since I didn't sleep too well. I wandered across the road from Two Jack Lake campsite to the Lake itself. I had planned waiting for the sun to come up over the mountains, but soon realized that would take some time. Instead, I took a couple of shots like this one. I also saw some elk, but didn't get a good shot of them.

Again blessed with wonderful weather (but cool), the group packed up and headed down the road (effectively the Bow Valley Parkway) to Lake Louise Village. Mike and I stopped to fill up the water bottles at this gas station. I know it says "Beer and Wine", but we ended up just getting water. The fellow tending the store appeared to be British; hence, the sign (which can't be read from this photo):"Gas - Cheaper than Banff - England & Australia, too." I now have a higher resolution image of this shot in which you can read the sign; beware it's over 400 kb.

Throughout this trip, we were continually making decisions about when and where to stop to do more detailed sight-seeing. On this day, our leader, Mark, suggested the trek out to Silverton Falls. A short, but challenging (since we missed a useful switchback) followed. Mike and I agreed that it was a good move. Mike complained throughout the entire trip about my camera tripod; the shot below would not have been possible without one.

As we neared Lake Louise Village, Mike was getting more and more anxious about the day's NFL action. Hence, when I spied this view from the roadside, Mike kept going, the scenery being largely oblivious to him. It turns out that I'm not the first to notice this scene which combines the CPR (railroad), the Bow river, and the mountains. According to the guidebook, this is view is known as "Morant's Curve".

Mike and I arrived in Lake Louise Village at about 2:30 PM, just in time to catch the last two minutes of the San Francisco, New Orleans game at the Outpost bar (Post Hotel). We spent the next three hours or so drinking beer and watching football. Following a short but clumsy ride to the day's campsite, we met up with the rest of the group for dinner. (Mike decided to return to the bar later...)

Day Three

We would visit Moraine Lake and Lake Louise on this day, remaining at the same campsite. This day would involve little biking, but potentially alot of hiking. Following the largely uphill climb to Moraine Lake (I considered it practice for the mountain passes to come), Mike, myself and several other folks on the tour set out on the hike to Consolation Valley. At the time, the trip hardly seemed worthwhile, considering the relative beauty of Moraine Lake and the scenery we would see later at Lake Louise. However, some of the best pictures I took came from here. Note the people in this shot.

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