Coast to Coast with Tour du Canada 2013: Lake Louise to Banff, 62km: Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, oh my!

As today was a short day it called for a side trip, to Lake Louise and the continental divide no less! :D

As mentioned, the previous day I did not go see Lake Louise because it was getting late and I wanted to get to camp. As well, I did not see the continental divide because Old Highway 1A was blocked off due to the presence of grizzly bears. However, that night I spoke with other riders and they went on Old Highway 1A despite the fact of the bear warnings. They said they did not come into contact with any bears and they simply rang their bicycle bells the entire time they were on the highway to make bears aware of their presence.

Louise also did not see Lake Louis so we decided to go together especially since she just had to see the lake she was named after her :) Since other riders went onto the old highway we decided to also cycle to the continental divide. We saw Lake Louise first and the cycle up there was quite the challenge, especially since our legs were not warmed up. But we made it there and along the way I found $5 on the side of the road, which was a fantastic start to the day :) We got to the lake at around 8:30pm and already coach buses full of tourists were parked at the lake. The lake was a beautiful sight with water a spectacular aqua blue. It was strange to see a lake so high up in the mountains. We both managed to get a picture by the lake despite all the tourists. Then we headed to the continental divide.

We lifted our bikes over the tape blocking the road; however, before we went over we took photos by the sign, pretending we were terrified of encountering a bear. Funny enough that false terror would come true.

We were discussing what songs to loudly sing to ward off any bears and we began to ring our bells. I was looking around and I noticed a brown spot in the field off to my right. I focused on the brown spot and realized it was a grizzly bear! We were only 100-200m from the road block and we encountered a grizzly bear! Immediately I said to Louise, “There is a grizzly bear in the field!” I had to say it three times before Louise registered the fact that we were in close proximity to a grizzly. Stupidly, the next thing out of my mouth was, “Do want to get a picture?” Louise immediately said no and we began to turn around; however, she noticed the bear was not chasing us and so she said, “Let’s get a photo.” At that point my mind was set of running. But I stopped, whipped out the camera and attempted to take a photo. The grizzly totally knew we were there, but he was calmly munching away, the least bit interested in us. When I thought I got a photo Louise and I zipped away to get off the old highway. Right when we were almost at the gate a man in a pickup had stopped and yelled at us, saying we were not supposed to be there because there was a grizzly spotting that morning. We did not tell him that we just saw that grizzly, but pretended to head his warning and over the tape we went and off we zoomed, down the hill away from Old Highway 1A.

Louise and I were quite tense at that moment. We decided to stop at a coffee shop and buy hot chocolate with the $5 I found. While drinking our hot chocolate we were in a daze, we just saw a full grown grizzly bear! Unbelievable! As a result of our grizzly encounter, we did not see the continental divide, but the divide is not going anywhere; however, seeing a grizzly is not that common, so I counted myself lucky :)

Once we were calmed down we left Lake Louise Village. We began on Highway 1 but later headed onto the Bow Valley Parkway. On the way we saw an osprey which was significantly less terrifying than a grizzly :D

The Bow Valley Parkway was a beautiful road; however, the entire time Louise and I were cycling on it we were wary of encountering another grizzly, which could definitely have happened because Mike encountered two grizzly’s while on the parkway! It was a grizzly filled day :)

While on the Bow Valley Parkway we stopped to check out the Johnston Canyon. There we visited the Lower Falls which was nice break from the bike.

Afterwards we headed to Banff. Before we reached the town we took star jump photos on a dock just for the fun of it because a star jump photo is awesome and there was a really neat looking mountain in the background too :)