Bicycle Tours

Waking up at Castle Rock Junction was the coolest morning that we had since we left Albuquerque.  Actually put on both coats on together.

Castle Junction was not much to get excited about.  A pleasant campground with a great view of of Castle Mountain.

A short 18 miles later we were setting up camp at Lake Louise Village Campgrounds.  They were surrounded by an electric fence that kept the campers from feeding the bears.  I guess it worked I didn't see any bears inside the grounds.  That evening we took a bus to Banff.  Banff is a regular tourist town and we thought an afternoon there would be interesting. 

We had a good dinner and walked around and then had to be back at the bus station before 9:00PM.  

The next morning we rode up to the Lake Louise Chateau

As soon as this picture was taken we went inside to have lunch and the storm you see brewing above Victoria Glacier had become a torrential down pour lasting more than an hour.  We sat back with the rich and famous enjoying the cleansing of the mountain air and watching the hordes of tourist run frantically out to the lake take a picture in the rain and run back to their busses.

Our view was fantastic from where ever we were sitting.

After a lengthy lunch we rode back down a trail that use to be the trolley rail system to the château.

There weren't any cars and it came out just before our camp ground.  Once back at camp the wind blew and the rain came down.  We were safe in the camp shelter where Pierre and Jeff another biker had the stove warm with a blazing fire.  Wet clothing strewed from one wall to the other trying to dry.  Not wanting to be out done we rinsed our fragrant clothing out and hung it side by side like a flag indicating how far and long we had been on the road. Several folks found it difficult to remain in the shelter once our clothes were drying and had to retire to their tents.  I believe Pierre's wife said something in French like get my clothes down from there or they will smell like those $^^&&%%$ bikers.  Somehow there wasn't the language barrier between us.  All joking aside we had a wonderful time chatting with Pierre his wife and their family of three boys.  We found Spanish to be a common language between us with English as a back up.  His English not mine.  There were also a young man with his brother and girl friend who were hitchhiking across Canada from Quebec. Luckily she spoke English and I did my best to massacre "spanfrench" into a language that will never again be spoken in the northern hemisphere. The French are very comfortable in Canada since all the signs including road signs are printed in English and French.  It is like having a mini French lesson.