You don't have to go too far anywhere in Banff to see some wildlife. He doesn't look quite as impressive without his horns - they loose them at the end of the winter - you can see his new ones just starting to grow. I could lie and say I saw this elk while out riding one day - I actually took this walking from the work bus to our house, but hey - I could just have easily been heading out of the door on one of my evening rides...
...like these guys I cycled past on my first ride around Tunnel Mountain. This was the only time I've seen such a large group. The mountain in the background is Mount Rundle - a nice Saturday afternoon tour can be had biking around it!!
Bob negotiates a couple of very short lived rooty sections around the back of Tunnel Mountain - the Bow River and Banff Springs Golf Course are down to Bob's right. This is fairly typical of the rides close to town - non too testing, but nice enough if you can hit them with a little pace and keep cranking.
I've managed to make my Tunnel ride into a loop using a network of trails around an area called Hidden Ridge I believe. You get some great views from the Ridge as you weave through the trees. This shot is of Cascade Mountain with the Trans Canada Highway passing below - must be a bit of a shock to the system if you are coming from the East after days of driving across nothingness.
My early rides kept me out almost till dark - not a problem now with the nights drawing right out. This shot has Tunnel Mountain and Hidden Ridge in silhouette with part of the Massive Range in the background - The prominent peak on the left is Mount Bourgeau which overshadows the Sunshine Base Area.
From Tunnel Mountain rambles and photo sessions to a four and a half hour slog (purely a slog due to my fitness!!) The Rundle River and Goat Creek Trail's combine nicely to form the Rundle Loop. Many of the trails in the Park have interpretive signs along the way. This one had a nice map with a "You are here" marker on it - as if I needed to know how far I had to ride home.
The gravel road from the Canmore Nordic Centre up to Whiteman's Gap was a real grind - especially with the dust created by the tourists hooning down under the misapprehension it was a WRC stage.
Slowly working my way up I had a constant view of Ha Ling Peak - it was round the back of here that Tom went for a little tumble only a few weeks before - not much snow left in there now.
A backside view of Rundle - crossing either Goat Creek or the Spray River - by this point I wasn't paying much attention other than to avoiding more cramp...
I was certainly paying attention as the ride ended!! I've cropped quite a lot from this shot - from where I hit the brakes I would normally have ridden on another 20 odd metres and swung right. I really didn't feel inclined to get any closer to bear 66 and her 3 cubs - although she was far more interested in the lush new grass on the golf course. I opted for carrying the bike across the corner of the course, and less solo riding in the future!
