First, a few photos of scenes from along the way…

Morning started with barely adequate showers at Centennial Park – no temperature control and you had to hit the button constantly to maintain water flow.  But at least it was cheap – and the sites were roomy.

Then on the road to Banff.  We ate lunch in the RV parking area in the town of Banff.  The town is very arty and touristy – something we really didn’t want to enjoy for long, but we did walk to a river that was very blue – apparently due to being fed by a glacier or snow or something.  Scott’s knees were hurting, so Tom walked back to the parking lot, retrieved Polo, drove back, and picked Scott up.

From there rode in the Polo to Surprise Corner where we had great views of the iconic Fairmont Banff Springs lodge across the valley. 

Then we drove back, hitched up Polo, and drove to our next scenic spot – Lake Louise.  And things started to go wrong.

Upon arriving at Lake Louise we heeded signs that said the parking was full – you had to park in a remote spot and take a shuttle.  So we get to the lot, and Tom – ever mindful of Scott’s aching knees – suggests he get out at the intersection with the nice lady flagger while he parks the rig and returns.  Scott starts to text Tom that he will start to walk to the lodge and meet Tom – who walks much faster – there.  The nice flagger lady asks Scott if we have shuttle tickets.  When he replies that he does not, she points out that the Parks Canada shuttle tickets are all sold out, and those that are available from the commercial vultures are over $100 each.  Ouch!

Scott called Tom and we decide to bail on Lake Louise – though the nice flagger lady attempts to get us close parking.  Tom had done his research and we decided to go to Peyto Lake instead – a very nice glacial lake with much better parking.  What could go wrong?

On the way to Peyto Lake we see a sign saying no cellular service for the next 230 km.  Then Tom notices the “reserve fuel” light is on, and we learn to our horror that we have 54 miles of fuel left – no where near enough to make it to Peyto Lake and back, even if Diesel is available at Lake Louise (something we could not check because, well, we had no internet.) We had commented earlier that when we reached Banff, we would have 100 miles of range. Lake Louise was about 50 miles, so we should have filled up in Banff before leaving there. Neither of us were on the ball. and we’ll need to write a new policy to avoid that from ever happening again.

Scott and Tom have made a pact to never, ever discuss the process of turning around.  Suffice it to say it did not go well and we will be paying the price.  But we did make it back to Lake Louise.  And they did have Diesel. And we filled up, and headed back to Peyto Lake.

We made it to Peyto Lake, and discovered once again that there was a long walk to the lake from the parking lot.  However, we couldn’t find any signs that said you couldn’t ride bikes (though the paths were full of bus passengers, which made it a bit difficult.)  We got our bikes out of Polo, and luckily Scott’s bike had air in the tires.  So we rode to the lake lookout spot, saw and took pictures of the beautiful lake and surrounding mountains and glacier, then headed to the campsite. We have never seen water with such a brilliant turquoise blue color! We learned the color comes from the glacial runoff.

Tonight’s campsite is on the Western side of the divide. Most of the way from Banff was fairly flat, until the end. Just before the end there were many warning signs for truckers to check their brakes at the top of the Ten Mile Hill. It was appropriately named – long and steep. It led us right into Golden where we are staying at the Thousand Peaks Resort for two nights.

Scott had another meeting with lawyers, and was tired and confused by time zones and the multiple adventures.  It turns out he would have made the meeting, but since he thought we were in Pacific time zone (we had passed a sign to that effect, then apparently moved back to Mountain without a sign,) the meeting was an hour later than he thought.  But we got the Starlink working and he made the meeting.

Another long day which will start with another meeting for Scott tomorrow fairly early.