#15 Let’s Bike!

Pam is biking too but I couldn’t find an emoji with both of us.

A Day Of Biking In Banff

They have terrific biking paths in Banff. They are everywhere and that’s where we wanted to go, everywhere. We said, “See ya later” to Lucca and whoop de do we went.

I had heard many great things about the smaller town of Canmore, the next town over, and wanted to visit. I am always up for the slower pace of a small town. But before we hit the bike path to Canmore we had to conquer Tunnel Mountain Road.

By name alone you can tell that Tunnel MOUNTAIN Road is on a mountain. Our campground was toward the top. That’s a good thing cause then we get to roll swiftly right down to town.

Whoosh!! That was the best ride to town. We both had big smiles on our faces coming down Tunnel Mountain Road. We didn’t need an E-Bike for that trip. Anything with wheels would do. I’m sure it was a scenic ride but we were moving too quickly to view anything but the town below.

The town of Banff is busy especially on a weekend which it happened to be. We were hungry after that hard ride and needed fortification before we started the real trek on the road to Canmore.

We sat at the outside railing upstairs at the Park Restaurant and we watched the world of Banff go by. The mountains were beautiful too. Please note that Pam was drinking water. I think we ordered beers but one beer wouldn’t hurt a bike ride.

By the way, I am extremely picky about drinking water. It is a rare occasion that I drink the water from any restaurant. Especially in Florida, even when they say the water is filtered, it still does not taste good to me. In Canada, every restaurant had delicious, flavorless water. Maybe it all came from glaciers but Yum!!!

We got back on the road and tried to find the bike path that was easy to find. We saw a lot of beautiful sites but do you think we could find that bike path to Canmore? Oh what a tangled trail we weaved. Once Pam figured out that we were on the wrong end of town, we were on our way.

In Banff, everything begins and ends at the train station and the bike path was no different. I had never seen a watering hole for trains but here ya go.

The Rocky Mountaineer will take you from Banff to Vancouver in style. Take a look at those windows.

We found our way to the bike path…finally and at that point we decided it was too late for the full ride to Canmore. Instead, we adjusted our route and rode the path to see if tomorrow would be a better day to take a more serious and mission driven ride to Canmore.

The bike path was wide and paved and easy to ride. The only downside was that it paralleled a major highway so it wasn’t all that peaceful. It didn’t seem to bother the other hundreds of people who were skateboarding, roller blading, biking, walking and enjoying the path. We rode about 8 miles or so and decided that the view was not going to change and we wanted something a little more scenic. It was also getting warm. Maybe 85 isn’t warm for Florida but it was pretty toasty.

We had 5:30 dinner reservations at the Three Bears Restaurant so it made sense to turn around and head back to camp, take care of Lucca and maybe take a little rest break. Pam said, “Let’s ride our bikes back to the camper and then we’ll ride them to dinner.” Okey dokey.

You may remember how much fun we had rolling down Tunnel Mountain Road and swiftly into town. Going back to camp was not quite as swift and not that much fun. In fact, even with an E-bike it was a haul getting back up to the top of the mountain. That’s Pam after the uphill climb. I’m somewhere, still climbing.

They say Tunnel Mountain is one of the smaller mountains in Banff but you have seen pictures of all the other mountains so smaller wasn’t all that small. Let’s just say it was higher than the Ringling Bridge, much higher (if you live in Sarasota, you know what I’m saying).

At the camper I said, “Pam, there is no way I am biking up that mountain another time today, maybe tomorrow but not today.”

At dinner, we started to make plans for a great bike ride the next day. Vermillion Lakes was supposed to be outstanding.

For some reason, I decided to take a look at RV Trip Wizard to check on our future adventures. Uh Oh!!!!!! “Pam, I have something to tell you. We have to leave for Jasper tomorrow. Not sure how this happened but we are doubled booked and our stay in Jasper starts tomorrow night. We also have tickets for the Jasper Sky Tram for tomorrow night at 6:21 so we can’t stay here another day.”

I guess we’ll see you all next time in Jasper. Come along for a ride up the Jasper Sky Tram. Lucca gets to go too so you won’t want to miss it.