Wednesday 18 May 2011

Day 11 Field to Canmore, AB

Hello Again,

We had a fairly slow morning since the beds were so comfy in the hostel. I(Chris) let Patricia sleep in a bit while I got a bunch of stuff ready for the day. We then both split a box of fruit loops for breakfast. We ate those, drank tea, and watched the news - it was a fairly slow morning. While we were eating Craig, one of the hostel owners, came to talk to us for a bit. He gave us some good advice on different routes to take(other than the trans Canada). Eventually, we had the biked all packed up and ready to go.

Front of the hostel

Shot down one of the streets in Field
 The road out of field was flat for about 5km which was good for a warm up. The road follows the kicking horse river(it followed it all day yesterday too). The river still had almost a foot of ice on it which was pretty neat. Field is surrounded by mountains on just about all sides so the sun doesn't hit in the morning - it was a pretty cool ride out of town but nothing too bad and we warmed up quite quickly on the climb out of town. The sky was really clear all day today - we couldn't have asked for better weather.
River near Field
 Part way up the climb out of field is an attraction called the spiral tunnels. Originally the railway went up the kicking horse pass at the same grade as the trans Canada highway does now. This meant four engine cars were needed per 15 cars going up the hill. Also, trains frequently derailed because they got too much speed down the hill. The solution was to carve two big spirals in to the mountain - one of which you can see from a lookout point. The spirals are neat because the engine of the train passes over top of some of the last cars on the train. While we were here we met a bike tourist from Belguim who had started in Montreal and made it here. He said he had some really cold nights(-10)...brrr. We waited for about 20 minutes but no trains showed up so we eventually had to leave.
Model of the spiral trains

A Christopher in the tunnel!

The sign.
 Today's ride was beautiful and there were so many clear views of beautiful mountains. We could only take so many pictures of mountains though.

Made it to Alberta!

Another mountain
 The ride after the Alberta border was alot flatter and slightly downhill. We got rolling pretty good a few times.

 Eventually we made it to Canmore. Our first stop here was the information center and the second stop was Wendys for a spicy chicken and frosty. In Canmore we went to Patrick and Camille's house. We met them at the campground in Salmon Arm a few days ago and they invited us to set up our tent in the backyard. Well, when we arrived they offered much more then some space for our tent in their backyard. We had a delicious home cooked meal, hot showers and a comfy bed for the night! We couldn't have asked for more and we really appreciated all of the hospitality. We also woke up to coffee brewing and a delicious breakfast. 
Made it to Canmore

Picture of a mountain in Canmore
Thats all for today folks,

C&P