I was a bit sore after yesterday’s ride on the heavy, wide barred, mountain bike and was doing some stretching after breakfast. Cat joined me.

We drove to a bike rental place about a 15 minute drive south of where we are staying. We were both much happier with the bikes we rented today. I really don’t understand the point of the bike I was riding yesterday. It was heavy, and with wide heavily treaded tires didn’t roll particularly well, but I was still bent over somewhat, but with such a wide grip, that I ended up with a sore back. Today’s bike is much more upright and lighter.
We had planned to ride along the Western Headworks Canal Pathway to Chestermere, but when I was looking for a place to park this morning, I began becoming concerned, because it looked like an old industrial canal, which wouldn’t have much tree coverage, and it was a very hot day today.
When we told the employee at Outlaw Bikes where we were planning to ride he made a disgusted face, and confirmed my concerns. He said it wasn’t a nice ride. He suggested another which coincidentally I had planned for another day, and started within a couple kilometres of the store.
He put my bike seat on the rental bike for me. I put my bar bag on the crossbar because it wouldn’t fit on the bars, and we couldn’t fit the quad locks on the bars because their diameter was too small. Patti’s bento box didn’t fit, either.

There was a multiuse trail from the store to the beginning of the trail.

We joined the route at Heritage Park, which is like Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto. The LRT runs past the park.

The park has a replica of Calgary’s first train station which has a café in it. It was on a lovely square with trees, so we stopped for coffee, even though we were at the beginning of our ride. It was already very hot in the sun.

The trail went by the Rockyview General Hospital.

As we rounded the corner, a beautiful vista opened up of the Glenmore reservoir. There was a paddle wheeler on it operated by Heritage Park.

With the Bow and Elbow Rivers, Calgary is a city of bridges. And there are many Active Transportation-only bridges. I have to admit to being impressed, so far, with the amount of Cycling infrastructure in the city of oil and gas.




The route was fairly well signed.

After the dam there was a horseshoe bend in the river with a beautiful view over the Calgary Golf and Country Club.

We passed many places where people were swimming in the river.


Riverdale Avenue was a beautiful neighbourhood with trees meeting over the street and many beautiful homes of varying sizes.





The bow river trail is also the TransCanada Trail.

We passed the Saddledome detouring around the grounds, which are now closed in preparation for the stampede next week.

The route that we were following, began and ended at Bike Bike. I went in and thanked him for preparing the route and making it available to the public. He had many interesting bikes available.

As we were leaving the store, we saw this pedal pub.

Then we rode down 9 Avenue SE looking for lunch. It’s impressive how many patios have been set up in places that would normally be used for parking.

This parking lot had an art display. It looks like in the past it was completely given over to non-car parking activities, but now the cars have returned, unfortunately.

We had lunch at the Hose and Hound, a pub in an old firehouse. Just as we were leaving it started to rain. There was a thunderstorm warning in effect, but we decided to go anyway.


The sky got quite dark, and we heard thunder. The rain got heavy enough that I was thinking we would need to seek shelter, but then it tapered off, and the sun came back out.
There was a great view of the skyline just as we turn back onto the river pathway.

I like this piece of public art. This is where the detour was in effect around the stampede grounds.

Patti’s been here a couple times in the last year and is starting to get to know her way around so she was able to suggest a couple short cuts to the route we had used on the way out. This active transportation bridge is on an old train trestle.

Calgary is starting to build curb protectant cycle tracks with protected intersections. They’re very nice to ride with the cars on your left.

We rode across the Glenmore dam, which was beautifully set up for separated walking and biking.

It also had a nice view of the city skyline.

The colour of the water was a beautiful turquoise.

This is another Active Transportation Bridge across the highway.

Back up Heritage Park we had ice cream. The flavour I chose was called barn floor, which was a mix of chocolate and vanilla ice cream with nine different things mixed in. It was creamy and delicious.

Calgary used to have a street railway system, but like most cities in North America, it was dismantled. A small section has been set up at Heritage Park, and an old tram runs here.

We returned the bikes to the store to keep overnight for us, as we don’t have room for them where we are staying. Then we picked up a few groceries and returned to the apartment for dinner.
After dinner we went for a walk through the Mission, a neighbourhood of modest homes.



Then we climbed up about 120 stairs to the Mont Royal neighbourhood.

It had a beautiful idea of downtown.

It was full of very expensive, beautiful homes and gardens.











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