Wandering on the Road...In the Canadian Rockies... with Phil Roach

A two-time Cabot Trail Relay veteran for the Wanderers, Phil has moved to Calgary where he has established a Wanderer outpost.  He filed this report on his biking trip in the Canadian Rockies with childhood friend Ken Klinger.

We drove to Jasper, Alberta last Thursday, June 8, and stayed at the Astoria Hotel.  It's one of the older places to stay in the town of Jasper, but unfortunately has lost some of its charm through several reno's.  They had good food and a pub with a dart board, so we enjoyed it anyway.  Speaking of pubs and darts, we had pints and chicken wings 3 out of 4 nights on the road... some fine training habits that I'm sure all Wanderers can appreciate.  If you ever venture up there, I recommend the Athabasca Hotel if you want to go on the cheap, or the Fairmount Jasper Park Lodge if you want the other end of the scale.  The Atha-B as the locals call it is a funky spot with good food and a crowd that must have hung around after the end of ski season.

We started our ride out of Jasper on Friday morning en route to the Columbia Icefield Centre, our first stop, under rainy conditions with a temp about 10C.  Not perfect, but not enough to hold us back, time around 11:00am.  We had dropped 3 small bags at our checkpoint accommodations on the drive up on Thursday and our plan was to check into the Icefield Hotel, change into dry clothes and then catch a surprisingly convenient bus back to Jasper to collect our van and drive back to the Columbia Icefield for the night.  30kms out of Jasper, Ken had a blowout.  I heard a rubbing sound coming from his back wheel and pulled alongside to have a look just when it blew.  Luckily we were coasting on a flat.  Gave a good scare though.  We had everything to make repairs except a new tire.  Tried another tube and blew that.  So we were stuck on the highway becoming hypothermic.  I rode up the highway to a turnout and asked a tourist in a pickup for assistance.  He and his wife kindly took us and bikes back to Jasper to fix the tire.  We got back underway around 2:00, drove back to approximately the point where we broke down and continued on from there.  It was a tough day with a series of punishing climbs up Tangle Creek and Wilcox Peak to finish at the Icefield Centre.  Day one mileage, 103kms and elevation gain, approximately 800m.

Day two was better weather and a heck of a start. (The Athabasca Glacier is the mountain picture with sunny sky.  The hotel was across the highway from that view).  We exited Jasper National Park and into Banff National Park via the Sunwapta Pass, elevation 2029m or 6658ft.  The descent was thrilling, surrounded by mountains up to 3500m, or 11500ft.  We hit 70kms/hr, but were really holding back.  We stopped frequently for pictures and saw a black bear fairly close up.  There is a shot of me observing it at a safe distance.  All the stopping, longer distance than originally calculated and more climbing than anticipated made for another challenging ride on the way to Lake Louise and our stay at the famous Chateau Lake Louise.  We abandoned our plan to catch that day's bus and took it easy, resting at the 1920's vintage Num Ti Jah Lodge at the Bow  Lake and Glacier.  The lodge was just over the Bow Summit, which was actually the highest point on the trip at 2069m or 6786ft.  Spectacular view of the lake in one picture (cloudy sky with mountain reflection on the lake).  There was a nasty, probably at least 8%, 4km climb to the chateau at the end of our 135km ride that day, but what a reward when we stopped.  Since we had no luggage, we changed into our bus clothes but ended up borrowing a couple of hotel fleece jackets from the bell captain.  The service of all hotel staff was fantastic – they are quite accustomed to cyclists.

Day three was cloudy and started out with some brief hail, but quickly cleared.  The 4km climb of the previous afternoon was a twisting 65km/hr heart-racer down to the bottom to start the morning.  The ride to Banff was rolling and very picturesque.  We saw some elk and the mountain goats I'm stopped beside in the photo.  Over the course of 3 days of riding we saw numerous elk, 4 bears, big horn sheep, mountain goats, marmot, coyote and plenty of deer.  The traffic was very light, which made the sightings more plentiful I think.  We only had to ride around 60kms that day, so it was a pretty leisurely jaunt to the Fairmount Banff Springs Hotel.  Both the Banff Springs and Chateau Lake Louise are now owned by a Saudi prince and are two of the nicest hotels in Canada.  We enjoyed our stay immensely once we were finally back from the long bus trip to collect our van for the last time.  We drove straight to the hot  springs at Sulphur  Mountain, not far from the hotel.  A 40C mineral pool was a great way to end the day.  Found a great pub called St. James' Gate and spent the evening there (more Guinness and chicken wings) before returning to Calgary the next day.

I highly recommend this ride to anyone interested in a challenging but definitely realistic trip.  Anyone with reasonable fitness at an intermediate biker level can do it.  Calgary is at 3500ft above sea level, so I didn't notice a significant altitude effect when we got higher, but my friend who is from Toronto certainly did.  There are hostels and campgrounds along the way also, so it can be done fairly cheaply.  We did not have any support this time around and I would consider doing that next time to eliminate the need of bussing back to pick up a vehicle.  There are decent bike shops in Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff.  Great continental food at the Sunwapta Lodge and convenient rest stops all along the way.  The black top was in fairly good shape with a shoulder wide enough to ride two abreast.

Wanderers who like to bicycle should definitely put this trip on their To-Do list.  

Photos:

Wow, what a place for a triathlon!

Spectacular! Its even more impressive than the Wissahickon!

Phil, I hope that wasn't a grizzly bear. Quick question. Can a biker outrace an approaching grizzly?

Phil takes a breather out on the road.

Phil checks out the wildlife en route. What are those animals, Phil? Mountain goats?

Phil, left, and Ken, right, wrap up another day in the mountains.

<- go to the last page  |  old news reports (pre 2008) »  |  current news »