I'll take a pass on the ice.



Mr. Grizzly



What a day we had.  Five minutes after we left Banff we hit rain on our way to Lake Louise.  We threw on our rain suits and as usual the rain subsided.  We figure the rain suits unleash the good weather JuJu.  We saw a Grey Wolf today walking across a road and later we ran across and Grizzly Bear in a meadow.  Not a big one but fun to watch as he dug a hole looking for something.

Lake Louise

Lake Louise is beautiful and the Fairmont Hotel next to it is unbelieveable.  I have noticed however that this entire area is a draw for a very diverse group of international visitors.  The largest group of folks we saw are Hindus and other middle eastern people.  In fact we saw one woman washing her clothes in the lake by beating them on a rock, and her kids were bathing next to her.




At the Ice Fields during a break



Upon entering Canada we lost the ability to use the IPhones as a GPS.  Go figure.  So, we have to rely on old school technology, paper maps.  I KNOW!!  They still make them.  But now that the human element was introduced we got lost going to Jasper and had to back track 40 miles.  Anyway, onto Jasper.  We stopped to look at a glacier and I met a guy who left his home in Florida on April 18 on a bicycle on his way to Alaska.  ALASKA!   I thought doing a couple of laps with a beach cruiser around Hilton Head Island, that has no hills, was a big deal.  Things were going great on our way to Jasper until we started to get a few drops of rain.  We then began to climb up a pass that only God knows how high it was.  We were hit with freezing rain and wind making it really difficult to follow the road given you have no windshield wipers on the bike.  On top of that add about a thousand Pakistani cab drivers on vacation in rental cars, passing us with no regard to the situation.  This mix lead to some major pucker factor.  We eventually pulled over to the first place possible for some hot tea.  It turns out it was the Ice Fields Glacier Tours operation.  The weather eventually cleared on the backside of the pass.  The remaining 65 miles was uneventful other that some outstanding scenery.   We pulled into Jasper with a big rainbow greeting us.  It was amazing to me how quickly everything changes around here.  You have to be ready for anything at anytime.  Time for the traditional end of a days ride brew.