Bunkering Down in Calgary
It's been a couple of days since my last entry, so I have a bit of catching up to do...
We left Banff early Wednesday morning after spending our second night in a hostel with four other people in our room, which was an interesting experience to say the least! The people were really nice and our schedules worked out well enough that nobody was annoyed by the other's hours.
Once we left Banff and got on the road it looked like the sun may make an appearance, but it was extremely cold nonetheless. Heading along the Trans Canada towards Canmore we could sense that the mountains were almost finished. The first big event of the day was when the odometer reached the 1,000km mark. We stopped, took a quick picture and then continued on. We reached Canmore shortly afterwards, and then we switched over to Highway 1A, also known as the Bow Valley Trail.
This road started out to be similar to the one we had taken from Lake Louise to Banff, as there were few cars and we pretty much had the road to ourselves. Unfortunately, once we reached the Indian reserve the road conditions degraded dramatically and we found ourselves bouncing all over the potholes in the road. We did manage to see some elk and mountain sheep though, which was pretty neat.
After riding along this road for quite some time, it seemed it would be a pretty plain day, but of course as soon as you think that everything goes to hell! The first thing to go was Dave's back tire which completely blew out. As we changed the tube we noticed that the threads on the tire had completely worn out, and the wire was exposed causing a bulge to form once the tube was inflated. All we could do was cross our fingers and hope we made it to Calgary...
The next thing to happen was we biked straight into a snow storm that seemed like it was straight out of the middle of winter. Since I had no gloves, my hands began to freeze, and my shoes had gotten soaking wet causing my feet to freeze as well. Needless to say, I was not pleased!
We continued to bike through the snow until we reached Cochrane, where we pulled in for lunch. We spotted a Tim Hortons and knew it was the perfect spot to try and warm up for a bit. While eating in Tim Hortons, we were talking to a woman about our trip and she was telling us how cool she thought it was what we were doing. She also tried to give us directions to avoid the hill leaving Cochrane, bet we pretty much ignored her warning... we figured that after the Rockies we could handle anything... big mistake!
Once we finished eating and hopped back on our bikes, we headed towards Calgary and were immediately faced with a climb that rivalled most of the other climbs we had ever encountered. Throw in the fact that the wind was blowing a gale and it was snowing hard, and I didn't think we would ever make it to Calgary! Fortunately, once we reached the top of the hill we had the wind at our backs and sailed all the way to Calgary.
Following a long tour around part of north Calgary, which included several wrong turns and some incorrect directions, we managed to reach the house of the people we would be staying with. We were forced to walk at times given the fact the roads were covered in snow, and there were no sidewalks in sight. When we finally reached out destination, we were soaking wet and freezing. I quickly took off all of my wet gear and clothing and hopped into a nice warm shower.
Once we had gotten all cleaned up, we sat down for a supper of steak, which was exactly what the doctor ordered! I filled myself up on delicious Alberta beef and red wine, and then passed out cold for the night.
The following day was meant to be our "rest" day, but as is typical when we reach a city, we had a huge list of stuff to do. After a great breakfast we headed downtown to pick up some necessities. The first stop was the bike shop where we bought a new tire for Dave, as well as several tubes (more on that later!).
Next, we began to stroll around downtown Calgary to get the remaining items on our list. We stopped at MEC to replenish our food supply, and Dave was able to return his tire gauge as well as buy some additional clothing. We then headed to the mall to pick up smaller things such as postcards, Mother's Day cards and a battery for Dave's camera. Along the way, I mistakenly stumbled into a music store and walked out with Elton John's Greatest Hits album, which I had been talking about all trip.
We then had to find a pair of pants for Dave, which turned out to be quite the challenge. Since Dave had split his only pair of pants (aside from his biking pants) while stretching, he needed to replace them, and he wanted the exact same pair. From personal experience, it is impossible to replace a pair of pants with an identical pair, so we ended up going from store to store for a good two hours until he finally settled on a pair he found at Winners.
The only other shopping we did was for a cowboy hat for myself, which I have always wanted. We went into a store called Lammle's Western Wear & Tack, and it was like walking straight into an old western movie! They had everything from cowboy hats to belt buckles to leather vests. It was amazing! Dave was completely awestruck by the place. I picked out a nice black hat and we wrapped up our day of shopping.
A quick trip to the library to check email concluded our trip downtown, and we hopped on the C-Train to return home. When we arrived we were once again greeted with a delicious meal of pasta and a great vegetable and chicken sauce - and of course more red wine!
After supper we headed out to a local pub with two of the daughters of the people we were staying with, along with one of their friends. What was supposed to be an early night turned into us almost closing the bar, and when I got home I crashed hard! We did have a great time with Amanda and Shauna, the daughters, and Lee, Amanda's roommate.
Today was extended as a second rest day due to more snow in the forecast, so we ended up just sitting around the house rather bored. We cleaned off our bikes and then set out to change my back tube and replace Dave's tire. That was when we realized that the tubes we had bought had some some special type of valve that we had never seen before, and we were unable to inflate the tube with the pump we have. Also, the tire Dave had bought turned out to be a pain to get on, and it was much too skinny for the type of riding we were doing. As a result, we had to return everything we had bought at the bike shop.
When we returned to the store, the guy who had served us the day before, Corey, was surprised to see us back. As I explained the situation, he quickly grabbed an adapter for the tubes that would allow us to inflate them with our pump (which of course turned out to be useless). Also, Dave exchanged his tire for one that was a better fit (and much cheaper).
So now we have fixed up the bikes and are ready to head out following a quick trip to Canadian Tire to get tubes we can actually use. I am really looking forward to getting back on the bike. Our time in Calgary has been great, thanks to Wynn and Mary who have been amazing hosts. However, I'm eager to make progress again. Today both Dave and I were itching to be on the road... hopefully the weather will co-operate tomorrow.
In closing, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to our hosts, Wynn and Mary, for everything they have done for us over the past few days. We have been treated like kings and stuffed like pigs! They are great people and deserve all the thanks in the world! I will certainly miss the huge home cooked meals!