We borrowed Patti‘s son’s car today to drive to Canmore, where we rented bikes and rode to Banff.
Once we were on the highway, there were beautiful views of the mountains, all the way.
We reserved the bikes online last night, and chose mountain bikes as they were less expensive than the road bikes, and we weren’t sure about the geometry of the road bikes that they had. We have each replaced the stem on our road bikes with one that elevates the bars somewhat over what is standard.
We were rather shocked to see the size of the tires on the bikes we rented. Mine were 29 inch tires 2.2 inches wide. Patti‘s were 27.5 inches , 2 inches wide. The bars were also extremely wide. I brought my own saddle and installed it. The employee helping us seemed impressed that I had it done by the time he finished helping another group and came over to install it. I also installed our phone holders and my bar bag. Patti brought her bento box that goes on the crossbar.
The ride was 23 km one-way, all on paved multi use path, and almost all uphill.
The sights were beautiful. Sometimes we were within sight of the highway and sometimes riding through trees.
At the 10 km point there was a rest areia where we had a snack. I couldn’t believe how challenging I was finding the ride. The bike is definitely much heavier than I’m used to, but the ascent seemed relatively gradual. We also had a moderate headwind.
We were happy to arrive in Banff, which has many blocks of their main street closed to private motor vehicles for the summer and allows only active transportation and public transit.it was lovely to have so much space making it feel uncrowded, and quiet with the traffic noise.
We stopped at Evelyn’s coffee world for lunch after leaving our bikes with the free bike valet.
The temperature got up to 28°, so we were happy to have a rest and a meal before exploring Banff.
We did a little loop around the town crossing the Bow River on one active transportation bridge, and back on another.
The views were stunning.
There was an art walk, which had some interesting pieces. This one was called The Bear-tage.
We passed the Banff railway station on the way back out of town.
Traffic was relatively light, and there were super sharrows, indicating that we should take the right hand lane.
As we left Banff and started to descend, we were surprised to realize how steep climb had been. We were often able to coast or pedal lazily and generally had the wind at our backs. It was a very pleasant return.
There was an area for a few kilometres where they had electric fences to keep the bears from crossing the highway.
We were able to ride over the mat with a rubber tires, but a bear should get a shock. Although, we saw a cyclist walk her bike over it and not get shocked. Pedestrians were supposed to go through the gate.
The bathroom at the bike rental place had a shower so we were able to quickly rinse off before changing for dinner.
I always wondered why people were riding fat bikes, but now I know for sure I wouldn’t want one. I wouldn’t choose a bike like the one I rode today, again, if there was another choice.
We had dinner at the Iron Goat Pub and Grill. It started raining just as we arrived so we sat inside.
For a few minutes on our drive home there was a tremendous downpour, but it cleared up fairly quickly. When we arrived back at the apartment, the balcony was covered in hail. Apparently it had been a very damaging storm in the city.
We walked around the neighbourhood to survey the damage before coming back to the apartment to write the blog and hopefully get to bed a bit earlier tonight.
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