Today we spent the early morning doing a quick tour of Banff. We got a quick photo of Bowl Falls and a drive by of the Banff Springs hotel. We then had a brief breakfast, gathered up our stuff and headed over to the train station to meet up with our tour.
The tour actually begins in Jasper and we were driven in a van from Banff. We stopped along the way at the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Ice Fields. We were able to view parts of the ice fields on our drive today and will pass by them again when we cycle back to Banff, in hopefully much better weather. Note - The Athabasca Glacier has receded significantly since its greatest modern-era extent in 1844. During the summer months visitors to the area can travel onto the glacier in the comfort of large "snowcoaches". We saw some of them doing that today off in the distance.
Our lunch stop was at the Saskatchewan RIver Crossing. This gave us some relaxed time to get better acquainted with our group. Everyone seems very friendly and I look forward to getting to know them even more over the coming days.
When we arrived at our hotel in Jasper we did a pretty short ride, but did get a chance to ride up to the Jasper lodge and surrounding lake area. And yes, these are REAL photos - just glorious scenery. You can see the lodge in the distance.
The sun is coming out tomorrow and we are looking forward to much better weather. We will ride approximately 60 miles from Jasper up to Maligne Lake and back. Looks like one big climb up and one big downhill back. Here's to sunshine! More tomorrow.
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BOB'S UPDATE
Bob reports that he sadly packed up and had to leave Sherpaville today. There were lots of great friendships made and some wonderful shared experiences. Some of which he will share a bit later. It is a bit difficult for him to write because he is just carrying an iPhone. However, he does have a camera so I hope he takes a few more pictures on his adventure home.
He put in over 350 road miles today landing in the lap of luxury at a Hilton Inn in Westerville, Ohio. While he seriously misses his tent, porta-potties and shower trucks he says he will tough it out at this elegant hotel. I think after chatting with Bob today that while he truly enjoyed his camping experience he has had enough roughing it for quite some time to come.
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