Canada 2016 - Cochrane to Calgary

Friday - June 24
Cochrane has done a nice job of honoring its heritage with art around town.

It is also a pretty bike-friendly community.

There just happens to be a heck of a hill to get out of town going east. Nice hockey rink  gave us a good excuse to stop.

Map My Ride says it is a 6% grade.

Only took us about an half hour to go the 2 miles to the top.

It is fairly flat from there and we had a slight tailwind so we now we really feel like we are sailing.

There are several of these mini-mansions on the bluff overlooking the Bow River.

We reached the Calgary city limit at 10:20. The bike route took us over freeways on these wonderful pedestrian bridges. This one crosses Stoney Trail Highway.

Bridge #1

Calgary has some very nice pocket parks.

Our lunch spot greeter.

We thought of Cafe La Matin as lunch #1 at the time since it was only a little after 11:00.

It was also our best view of the Winter Olympics complex.

Magyar Centennial Gateway, dedicated in honor of Hungarian immigrants to Canada.

School must be in session as the route to the train station was very busy.

Bridge #2

This one takes us across Highway 1A (a freeway now) and the train tracks.

Banff Trail Elementary School

The bike route took us past 3 golf courses.

Bridge #3 goes over the Deerfoot Trail highway. Notice the clouds.

View of the downtown skyline from the bridge.

Glad we aren't down there!

This class is gathered at the school garden.

Hindu Society of Calgary. We have seen a lot of diversity as we have traveled across the city.

It only took us 3 and a half hours to travel 18 miles across the city. We arrived at the motel at 1:55. A huge clap of thunder rattled the lobby at 2:00 as we were putting our bikes in the storage closet. Our room looked over the roof of the entry. It looked like this the rest of the day. Thunderstorm blessing in disguise - a pool, hot tub, and waterslide (but no lunch #2).

This is what the radar looked like when we walked to dinner. We actually wore our bike rain pants and jackets to the Peruvian fusion restaurant a block away.