Day 26: To McLeod Meadows, British Columbia

July 25, 2007

The temperature got down to 7C overnight. I zipped my sleeping bag for the first time on this trip. The morning was sunny with low humidity. Very nice. From the Lake Louise townsite I rode up a big hill to the Bow Valley Parkway and turned south towards Banff. The road follows the Bow river downstream with the railroad on my side of the river and the Trans Canada highway on the other side. The parkway was quiet most of the time.

The photographer in the lower right was waiting for a train. I didn't wait.

I saw 3 touring cyclists today. One was a solo female from Ohio. My first stop for the day was at the Johnston Canyon catwalk. It was worth riding 8km out of my way to see. A 4.5km round trip hike took me into a narrow gorge with many waterfalls. It's a popular attraction close to Banff and only a 1.5 hour drive from Calgary. So I had a lot of company on the trail.

Johnston Canyon catwalk. Blurry picture but good composition.

The end of the Johnston Canyon catwalk is cantilevered over the creek.

The only view of this double waterfall is from the cantilevered portion of the catwalk.

While standing on the catwalk my cyclocomputer managed to fall out of my jersey pocket, bounce once on the catwalk, then disappear down below. The computer had been unreliable lately so I don't miss it terribly. I guess I'll finish the trip with no computer. From now on I will get distances from maps and estimate the climbing.

Back on the bike I backtracked 8km to Castle Junction and turned left onto highway 93, the Kootenay parkway. The road crosses over the Bow river and the Trans Canada highway, then climbs up to a 1750m summit.

Crossing the Trans Canada highway at Castle Junction. This way to Vancouver.

Crossing the Trans Canada highway at Castle Junction. This way to Calgary.

Shortly after the summit I crossed the continental divide.

Continental Divide. To the left is Alberta, Atlantic watershed, Banff National Park.To the right is British Columbia, Pacific watershed, Kootenay National Park.

British Columbia, Canada, and Alberta flags at the continental divide.

Kootenay National Park is the "highway park". British Columbia gave the land to the federal government (for a park) in exchange for construction of the highway.

My second major stop of the day was at the Paint Pots trail. I hiked 1.5km round trip up Ochre creek to see the colored pools.

Swing bridge on the trail to the paint pots.

Kind of an anti-climax, but it was very scenic where the trail crosses the Vermillion river and along the red creek.

It was almost 5PM by the time I got back on the bike and I have 55km to go to the next campground. But that was mostly downstream with a tailwind and the sun behind me. Perfect conditions for a long ride. I did stop for ice cream at the Kootenay Park Lodge. The temperature was 27C (80F) with very low humidity. I rode through burned areas from a 2001 fire and regenerating areas from a 1968 fire. The climate is getting steadily drier as I go south. The forests no longer have a lush understory like they did up in Jasper.

Late evening shadows in the Kootenay Rockies.

I was extremely tired the last 10km to McLeod Meadows Campground. The campground was mostly empty. What a change from Lake Louise! It has flush toilets and nice sinks, but no showers. This is bear country so they have a concrete block storage building for cyclists and backpackers to store food in. Mosquitoes were bad at dusk, but not bad after dark.

Today was a long day because of the long tourist stops. It was past 8PM when I got to the campground. So I set up camp and cooked dinner at dusk when mosquitoes were at their peak. Later I made a shower inside the toilet building, sheltered from the mosquitoes.

Castle Junction was the easternmost point of this trip. Now I'm headed west and south, towards home.

Distance: 117 km / 73.1 mi

Climbing: 650 m / 2150 ft

Today's ride: 117 km (73 miles)
Total: 2,131 km (1,323 miles)

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