Sometimes you get the Bear

....but this time, we got the hare.

Even though no bears were spotted today, we took chances and got lucky every time.

Yesterday evening, we were exhausted. I was glad to hear that today's ride would be short (Lake Louise to Banff, about 40 miles). Last night, I did not think I would want to add any distance to that.

But this morning, I had new found energy! I was willing to consider the optional sidetrips, and one in particular was sorely tempting me.

First, we decided that seeing Lake Louise was a must, despite hearing that there was a steep 4K climb to get there. After all, how could we say we had been to Lake Louise without even seeing the lake?

By the way, the "town" of Lake Louise can hardly even be described as a town---it's a tiny mall.






All the more reason to make sure we saw the actual lake.

We met Jim and Dave at the lake and I really wanted to get a photo of them by the water. (Here they are, but obviously not the posed photo.)

Unfortunately, they had already had a stranger take their picture, but Dave took a snapshot of Dean and I.



The backdrop is so outrageously beautiful that it really doesn't seem real.






I had to take a photo of this cute family posing by the lake. I think it's a better picture that the one of Dean and I!










The Chateau was not that impressive; glad we didn't try to get to the "high tea" yesterday.


So once we had already made the climb up to the lake, it really wasn't hard to add on another 10K for the sidetrip that caught my attention. According to Bud, if we would follow an abandoned highway for a few miles, we would once again see the Continental Divide. I did ask a lot of questions before persuading Dean to make the trip. "How far is it? How hilly? Is the road paved?" We could not tempt anyone else in the group to come with us, so after our visit to the chateau, we set off.


We took the old Highway 1.




















Now, it is blocked off for cars and is in disrepair, but you can still hike or bike (or cross country ski, in the winter) on it. It had a lot of bumps and holes, so we went slowly. The road seemed to be mostly downhill, which was worrisome, since we anticipated climbing back up.

We saw the hare.

We got to 4 1/2 miles and thought we must have missed it. There was a steep downhill. What the hell---we've come this far, can't turn back now.

Wheeee! We got to the bottom of the hill and there were these huge arches!

This used to be a regular tourist stop ("stop of interest", as they are called in Canada), complete with paths, benches, signs, restrooms, and a picnic area. There was not another soul to be found. I guess it is now a "ghost stop of interest".

We read everything.

We took photos of each other at the spot where the waters divide.































And then we found a map on one of the display boards. It showed that if we simply continued a mile or so down the deserted road, we would get to a spot where we could connect to the new Highway 1 and head back to the town of Lake Louise. We guessed that it would be an easy ride back into town. It seemed worth a try, rather than making our way back uphill on the old road.

We headed back to British Columbia (and PST) and gained an hour. This is the end of the old highway.

In about 15 minutes, we lost the hour again.

The main highway was busy, but it was a short, mostly downhill ride back to town. In this photo, taken from the main road, you can see the old road across a lake.

Total mileage for our sidetrip: 18 miles. We had a blast. Cappuccino and food in the cafe, then we set off for our regular ride for the day.