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Stage 2015/11 [A033] |
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| Lake Louise - Great Divide - Field - Golden (Trans Canada Highway) | |||
| ⇨ 56 mi / 90 km | |||
| ⇧ 732 m (garmin edge 1000) | |||
Cycling from Smithers, British Columbia to Vancouver.Stage from Lake Louise to Golden crossing the Great Divide following Trans Canada Highway. |
 The breakfast this morning is just as bad as the windowless basement hole in which it was served. Strictly speaking it was not even served: advertised as a self-service buffet it was waiting uninspired at the basement wall. And if you have to share a bagel toaster with 120 people, you change from plan A "eat what you want to eat" to Plan B "eat what you get because others don´t want to eat". We go for plan C: get on the bicycles and leave this place as soon as possible. In my push-off-and-away-mood we miss the junction to the old Tramline Trail, get lost in the forest and we accidently cycle back to the Lake Louise Drive after a 2.5 kilometer detour. Only 200 m behind the place where we left it. No matter. Beautiful was the detour anyway. |
 The Lake Louise Drive is very scenic. But the traffic situation is a disaster. For cars the road ends at a parking lot, and there is a big trffic jam all the way to the parking lot. Here the holidaymaker can feel like home and get stuck in a congestion just seconds after leaving home. Anyway, I am lucky enough to make a photo before this zoo starts. |
 At Lake Louise we make a short stop and walk along the shore. |
 1.5 km east of Lake Louise there is a small road blocked for motor vehicles leading north-westbound to the Trans-Canada Highway 1. Here we meet no one in the early morning hours - apart from several squirrels. |
 Just before reaching the Trans-Canada Highway, we cross the watershed Great Divide along the border between Alberta and British Columbia. |
 After experiencing the section between the junction to the Icefield Parkway and the exit to Lake Louise, we expected the worst from the Trans-Canada Highway. Pleasantly, the road is less crowded than we feared. |
 The stage from Lake Louise to Golden takes us about 900 m downhill. This makes cycling much easier. And after two days of cold wether, we enjoy today's temperatures, which are continously increasing with every meter we ride downward. |
 On our way we stop at the Spiral Tunnel. From here you have an unobstructed view of the two spiral tunnels of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The entrance and exit of the two tunnels each have an altitude difference of 15 m. The maximum gradient of the railway track could thus be reduced from 4.5% to 2.2%. |
 Not only the railway tunnels were blown into the rock. Spectacular incisions were also made for the highway. |
 Cycling across the four-lane Park Bridge, opened in 2007, is just as spectacular. The 405 m long reinforced concrete bridge leads Highway 1 at a height of 90 m above the Kicking Horse Canyon. The bridge had become necessary because this section of the Trans-Canada Highway had been known as one of Canada's most dangerous roads with 140 accidents per year. |
 In the further course the highway remains dangerous. The street is two-laned and unfortunately not always provided with sufficiently wide curbs. On some sections, the road is so narrow that safe overtaking of cyclists is not possible. Rockfall, rubbles and boulders on the road are all over the place and make the situation even more difficult. We therefore stop several times to let the vehicles pass. Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of the truckers we encountered on the road had a prudent and considerate driving style. |
 Beer of the day: left in picture: Okanaga Spring Sonder Hefe for Marion. On the right: Okanaga Spring Bavarian Lager 1516 for Falko. Both brewed by the Okanaga Spring Brewery, which was opened in 1985 and belonges to the Sapporo Brewery Group since 1996. Ordering the drinks was quite funny: the waiter recommended the 1516 to me, but did not know what the name 1516 means. Well, I was able to help out: The year of 1516, when the Bavarian purity law was estableshed, is one of the very few numbers I know. Actually, it is the only number I know. |