7th June Cycling to Banff

A bad day on a mountain bike beats a good day at the office – retirement day!

A momentous day all round today:

• Start of serious cycling in N America
• Hopeful arrival at the TD start (WYCA in Banff) and
• My official retirement day

Interestingly I was not really sure which was the most noteworthy. Obviously the official end to my full time Consultant career was quite a major event (22 years 10 months) but if I am honest I was more enthused by the forthcoming expedition and the thought of actually starting this event, after all the planning.

However before I started I had to leave the premises. This proved more difficult than might otherwise be imagined because the Chinese owner and her family – grandfather and young child appeared.

She was obviously desperate for conversation and for me to enthuse about the property, her pride and joy, and for me to post positive feedback on the web site. I said I was more than happy to highlight the cleanliness etc. but did point out that it was impossible to lock the front door!! I thought overall this was a bit of a downer.

She agreed and said you had to put the snick on the lock when you pull the door to as the key paradoxically worked to open, but not lock, the door. I said unfortunately I was not psychic and didn’t know that when I left the premises open yesterday to visit the LBS – fortunately I took all my worldly goods with me, but other people might like to know about the door idiosyncrasies and thus avoid having their kit burgled.

Anyway we parted on good terms, especially when I gave her the room rental. I had been worried about just leaving it on the coffee table and not being able to lock the door when I left.

My initial route followed the path I had taken to the LBS yesterday so I was initially on autopilot. GPS worked well.

Today I would be travelling west via Canmore, paralleling the Bow River, avoiding the major highway between Calgary and Banff. The weather was excellent and, after I had crossed the Bow River, I climbed the other side of the valley to gain the road running west.

Initially on my left, before I turned north, I was able to see the ski jumps in the Olympic Park, used in the Calgary 1998 Winter Olympics2.

Once on the northern bluff over the Bow River I was able to gain my first real view of the Rockies some 60k away. These grew in size and grandeur as I slowly moved west.

It was good finally to be underway. I tried with the ipod nano the children had given me for my birthday, but the sun was so bright I couldn’t see the screen. However, by pushing the screen randomly I managed to get the tunes to play.

In Cochrane I stopped for a coffee and a Danish pastry at a bakery with a waterwheel outside (no pan au chocolat as per my European jaunts) before pushing on. The road was very quiet in contrast with the Trans Canadian Highway to the south. As I neared Camnore the bike started to develop an alarming creak when exerting pressure on the pedals, extremely worrying.

I stopped at the Canmore LBS and we ascertained that it was a combination of worn pedals and a relatively loose rear axle spindle. I bought some (lighter) pedals (please don’t ask how much they cost) and was pleased to have eliminated the problem.

The LBS mechanic showed of me a picture of his lateral cervical X-ray which he had on his phone. He’d had an anterior cervical plate and posterior wiring to stabilise a near fatal neck fracture which he had sustained about 9 months earlier, while doing jumps on his Mountain Bike! He said he was back on the bike now but not doing jumps – yet!! I suggested that that was wise.

The route from Banff to Canmore had been relatively benign along quiet road roads however, after leaving Canmore and re-crossing the Bow River things changed dramatically.

When planning the route Plotaroute had been in ‘bike’ mode and it certainly delivered. I was pottering along the banks of the river when I noted that I had lost my GPS track.

This was odd as I had not seen any junctions so I retraced my path until I identified where I was supposed to go; straight up a near vertical slope and my first introduction to ‘hike a bike’ in the Americas.

This led me out into a deserted surreal combined bike/ski park with jumps, bridges for skiers, langlauf and biathlon trails with targets. Not what I expected at all in the woods.

It was here that I encountered my first ‘Beware Bear’ notices with instructions about precautions to be taken, such as not to leaving food stuff around at the picnic table where I’d stopped (for a short time).

After navigating my way through the myriad of trails, I eventually ended up on a narrow single track with dense ‘bear friendly’ vegetation

I made lots of noise as I negotiated this section, which proved quite technical and very enjoyable, if rather remote.

You may have guessed by now that I was somewhat apprehensive about the bear issue especially as I had not yet purchased any bear spray – I was planning to do this in Banff at a store which offered a discount for TD racers.

My route had several tricky sections and I could not help thinking that it would be ironic if I came a cropper on this trail before I had even started, especially when I had not even had the opportunity to pick up my GPS tracker.

The trail dropped down to the Bow River and I ended up wading through a couple of sections where the bank had collapsed creating large relatively shallow lagoons. This afforded the opportunity to try out my trusty Goretex cycling boots and wash some of the mud off the bike.

Bizarrely, having been on a narrow technical remote trail, I was then spat out into an immaculate golf course (part of the 5* Fairmount Banff Springs Hotel complex) inhabited by loud rich Americans driving golf buggies.

I then came upon the impressive Bow Falls rapids before rolling into the outskirts of Banff and my destination for the next couple of days the YWCA.

It was immediately apparent that the YWCA was being taken over lock stock and barrel by TD participants.

While clerking in I met Crazy Larry the unofficial Banff starter for the TD. He is an off the wall very hyper but likeable chap who has adopted the event and is identified by his very individual multi coloured posts encouraging the TD racers on bikepacker forums leading up to the start of the TD every year. He lives in the ‘Y’ as it is known.

It was good to finally have arrived in time and to be in a position to realistically consider undertaking the event.

We were allowed to take our bikes into the 6 bedded dorms. There were multiple rigs all over place; spilling out into the corridors, being worked on, cleaned, loaded up or just talked about by multiple like-minded, very friendly individuals.

I was struck by how (apart from me) everyone was tall, relatively young and wiry. I suppose it is not surprising how the same mind-set and view on life pervaded the whole place. No one had to ask what you were doing here, no one had to ask where you were going – we all had a common purpose.

There was a sense of anticipation and bonhomie, coupled with an underlying element of steely determination. The last time I had encountered just such an atmosphere was some 38 years ago at the beginning of my TA SAS selection course. On both occasions, while the participants would all be undergoing the same hardships etc, each was doing it alone, without assistance and by definition the number of successful participants was inevitably going to be small.

I must admit I was glad I had decided to do this and I enjoyed the evening; even if, after talking to several racers, I felt my experience placed me very much at the ‘newbie’ end of the spectrum.