This morning was an omelette kind of morning. The scent of Dad cooking bacon wafted under the door at 8, so of course... I hit the gym first, and encountered some other guests groaning their way through crazy workouts.
Our plan was to bike from Canmore (the town just down the hill from the condo) to Banff... and back. The first idea was to just rent three bikes, and half of us go one way, and half go the other way. Everyone was excited about both ways, so we headed out at 10 to rent bikes.
The first shop we went to had four bikes. But Sports Experts let us call around, and we found Valerie and Ben bikes at the Ramada nearby.
Originally, we were all going to bike along a trail that started near the Nordic Center - but it was "rooty and rutty", so the only options were Goat Creek Trail, at the top of a dusty gravel road past Grassi Lake, or riding along the highway.
Valerie, Ben, Deanne, and I all were excited about Goat Creek (and I think Dad was too, but sadly, someone had to drive, so he sacrificed for us kids), so we drove a Jeep full of bikes and a Subaru full of people up, then Mom and Dad drove them back down to the bike shop, where we would all end up this afternoon.
In the process of getting the bikes in and out, my back wheel "quick released" itself. We had another bike to model it after, so assembled it with a few minutes of work. Ben attempted to make football stripe grease stains on Val's cheeks - I was just content with wiping as much off on a bandana as possible.
The first hill of the trail was one of the steepest we encountered. Then, the biggest puddle of the entire trail had me and Deanne walking our bikes through the woods around it to avoid getting mud splashed.
(I later got splashed a bit; black pants with pretty dust polka dots were my ensemble by the end. The idea of cleanliness became over-rated.)
Most sweeping views were blocked by trees, but the trail was calm, save the gravel spewing out from under our tires
The trail to Banff along Goat Creek was about 19 kilometers. That's nearly 13 miles. We chugged along, and found a few rolling hills that were really starting to take the wind out of our sails. The last straw was the sign that said "Banff - 9.9 kilometers". All that, and we weren't even halfway?
There were only three more big hills before the great downhill came. The pro was that each of the uphills started as a downhill toward a cute little bridge and some babbling brook. I started to hate bridges by the end though - it was just an indicator of sweat on the way back up.
We hopped out at Fairmount Hotel. It's a castle. From a website:
But that wasn't the only log cabin we were seeing that day! It was Open Doors Banff! Once a year, a dozen or so of the historic houses, some now private residences, invite guests in to hear about their history. We poked into a few, learning about the Luxtons, the Whytes, and this guy named Wilson who did everything from put Lake Louise on a map to help found the Canadian Alpine Society. The latter one we learned while at a graveyard tour.
But, we had a return trip to make, and Val and Ben's bikes had to be back by 6pm. At 4:15, we took off. #bikeselfie!
The trail was so smooth compared to bouncing down gravel. It was a bit longer, at 22km or so. At 5pm, we stopped for a group picture at a little over the halfway point, then Ben, Valerie, and I continued on to Canmore, sit-bones aching, to turn in their bikes and grab groceries for dinner.
After we served a blueberry-walnut salad with chicken and chive risotto with a side of grilled eggplant and zucchini, Dad said to not expect food that quality on their cooking night.
It should also probably not be in that quantity either. The bag of risotto rice seemed small enough, and doubling it to use it up seemed like a good idea, but now there's a blender-full of puffy rice using up some limited fridge space (and one of our limited containers as well).
Well, our second meal will probably also be risotto - glad everyone enjoyed it! And tomorrow - Lake Louise! (And sore tuckuses...)
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