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| Peyto Lake (our first photo of the day) |
Today’s entry
will be a bit brief since we’re really tired and want to get some sleep. It rained a lot last night and the
morning was cold and pouring rain.
It was about 8 degrees at The Crossing, which is at about 1500 m in
elevation, so we knew that the top of Bow Pass, which is at 3200 m would be
cold. We at leftover burger and
Picky Bars for breakfast, suited up and hit the road.
Not much to take
pictures of since it was dark and pouring rain. There was lightning and thunder close around us and it was
pretty dismal. We had about 45 km
of climbing and we went at what seemed a snail’s pace. As we approached the summit we caught
up with a guy who was pushing his bike – he simply couldn’t turn the pedals
over. We struggled past, giving
our encouragement but knowing that we were close to walking ourselves.
Salvation came
at the summit where signs indicated Peyto Lake was about 2 km off the
road. We’d heard great things
about the lake and would have been more excited in decent weather. We rode in, and up, to the parking lot
where there were quite a few buses.
We talked to a few folks who said that the walk to the lake was pretty
short so we decided to go for it.
The lake has
that look – the emerald green that you see in photos. It is gorgeous.
Glad we took the time.
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| We and cold, but still smiling... |
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| Peyto Lake |
We headed out,
planning on stopping at the Num Ti Ja lodge, which is about 4 km down from the
top. It was about 4 degrees and
sleeting – the sleet stung our faces and we were soaked to the bone and frozen. It was tough to brake as we came to the
turn off. But we made it to the
rustic little lodge on Bow Lake and grabbed some coffee to warm our hands. Free refills. Nice.
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| Bow Lake |
The guy we had
passed had made it to the lodge a few minutes ahead of us and he was downing
coffee to warm up, too. His name
is Peter and he is from Frankfurt.
He’s recently retired (he’s 55!) from the telecom business and is taking
6 months to explore Canada from west to east. He’s camping and is really hoping the weather turns up a
bit. He's cataloging the wildlife he's seen and includes in his list bear (black and Grizzly, wolfs, moose, elk, deer, fox and lots of different raptors).
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| Peter from Frankfurt in improving weather |
We had our fill
of coffee and the weather broke a bit, so we headed down the 35 km descent to
Lake Louise. The weather held and
we warmed up a bit and started feeling a lot better. Plus, the clouds rose some so we could see the mountains.
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| Hector Lake |
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| Ah, Lake Louise. They have showers here! |
We checked into
our hotel and showered but were still kind of cold – that lingering cold that
you can’t shake. So we headed to
town to get some food. We walked
into a deli and the lights were off. We thought that maybe they were closed. But the kids behind the counter explained that the power had just gone
off, so the were giving away all their pizza, and asked if we wanted some. Well, yeah, that would be good. We chowed down on free pizza and it was
great.
They told us
that we ought to go visit the Chateau Lake Louise. We figured that we should see the lake, so we rode up the
hill – it was only 4.2 km but super steep (we didn’t have the Garmin telling us
how much it hurts, and I was kind of glad for that). But we made it in spite of the huge volume of traffic. The lake is fantastic and very
picturesque with the glacier on the far end. The hotel is, well, huge. But neither of us felt that it has much charm -- it is just so big and out of place in that environment. No matter, we were glad to see the lake and the chateau. The rain was approaching again so we headed downhill fast
and jumped into the hot tub, which felt great on our somewhat weary legs.
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| Lake Louise |
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| Chateau Lake Louise |
Tomorrow's ride is short and mostly downhill to Banff.
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