Day 139: 97.22 miles, 6:45 hours, Banff (Tunnel Mountain Campground)
[ MAP ] [ NATIONAL PARK MAP ] [ ICEFIELDS PARKWAY MAP ]

The second summit today was a lot easier. I got into Lake Louise at 3pm and found the bike/ski shop that I'd been referred to. The bike mechanic, apparently one of the finest in Canada, had gone on holidays four days ago. So they'd closed down the bike part of the shop and were now only selling skiing and snowboarding gear. Looks like I'll have to head over to Banff. I had a closer look at the free map of Alberta I'd picked up and realised it was probably a good thing. If I'd taken Highway 93 all the way south I would have just skirted along the edge of Glacier National Park and totally missed the chance of passing through it.

I pedalled as fast as I could to Banff thinking that bike shops would be closed by 5pm on a Saturday. As soon as I got to town, I rang a bike shop for directions and found out they were open till 9pm. Unfortunately they didn't have any front chain rings for my bike but gave me the names of some good shops in Calgary. Shite.

Banff is full of Aussies, must be all ski bums I reckon. I camped at the local park and was surprised to find, even though it'd drop to -2 degrees Celsius overnight, that there were many happy campers out there in force.

Day 140: 87.23 miles, 6:17 hours, Calgary (YHA Hostel)
[ MAP ]

Last night as I was leaving the bike shop in Banff, the manager patted me on the back and laughingly said that at least I'd have a nice tailwind all the way to Calgary. Shit. Headwinds all day. It was horrible. Riding into an unforgiving headwind for an entire day was depressing. Just before I got to Canmore I got a flat tire from a small staple. After Canmore I got another flat, or maybe it was just a slow leak from my poorly-repaired first flat. I used the opportunity to change my rear tyre with the spare one that I've been carrying ever since Whitehorse. I put in a new tube but just as I got to 75psi the thing popped near the valve. What a bang. I had a ringing in my ear for an hour after.

Not only constant headwinds but constant traffic as well. Just the continual noise of cars and trucks rushing past left me dreading the thought of entering another city. It took me over an hour to find a hostel downtown, the street numbering in Calgary is ridiculous, or I'm just very dumb.