Calgary to Okotoks (Oak a toques)

Friday - July 19 - Breakfast brought us more information. The motel clerk called her colleague in High River and confirmed that there is NOTHING available there. All the motels south of here are filled with displaced flood victims and/or relief workers and are not taking anyone else. She also confirmed that the campground in Okotoks was damaged by the flood and is still closed. 

We went back to our room and fired up the laptop and the smartphone. We finally found a bed and breakfast that was available in Okotoks and was close to our new route south.

We got on the road about 9:30. Calgary has done a fine job signing their bike routes.

Looks like we are headed to downtown as we cross the Bow River.

Yep...right into the heart of the highrises.

The route took us right by the Canadian REI. We didn't stop as it would be too tempting to oogle and we really didn't need anything or have space for more stuff.

Does a Tim Horton's goodie at this gas station count for breakfast #2?

Doug's GPS on/off button broke several days ago. It was fortunate that Donna figured out how to get the bike route on her phone and available offline and that it had GPS. Otherwise we might have wandered around Calgary for many hours or until another Angel of the Road showed up.

Another bike/pedestrian bridge over a busy 6 lane thoroughfare. Hurray for Calgary!

Still in Calgary. The route took us through many very pleasant older quiet neighborhoods. This was not a part of Calgary we saw when we came through by car several years ago. It gave us a much better sense of the city as a whole.

Finally after 20.5 miles and 4 and half hours later we have reached the Calgary city limits.

Highway 2A is our route south for today.

A local guy flagged us down just outside of town because he was concerned about us having a place to stay. He was glad to hear we had accomodations for the night. It was 3:30 and we stopped for a Blizzard and to pick up a dinner since the B&B was about 4 miles out of town. A very loud and wet thunderstorm kept us hunkered down in the store until it blew over.

What our host did NOT show on the map was the very steep hill that we zoomed down into the coulee before going up to their place. Their 3 Appaloosa horses greeted us as we walked our bikes UP the driveway. The guest room is on the bottom floor of the house. This is the view out our patio door.

What you can't see is the shower that can become a sauna. This was way more luxury than we ever expected. We also had a small kitchen at our disposal and they let us use their computer to print out some maps of our new route. About 11 another thunderstorm struck and we were glad that we weren't camping tonight. In the end, sometimes things really do just work out for the best!

Bow Valley PP to Calgary

Thursday - July 18 - A day filled with Angels

Donna discovered that hot chocolate mix makes a very tasty substitute for milk in her cereal.

A little added protein. Doug's coffee was so strong that the mosquito didn't stand a chance.

We all put our faces to the sun on this cool July morning.

The Bow River, which has been our companion for several days.

Bow Valley Provencial Park is in the transition between the mountains and the prairie.

Five miles later we are back where we were yesterday afternoon.

When we looked behind us, we were surprised at how far away the mountains seemed to be.

The carpet of wildflowers is one plus side to all the rain this area has had this past month. 

Ghost Lake was a swarm of activity.

A World War II memorial dedicated the partnership between Canada and the United States.

That is a big sky!

This was our route decision point. Before the flood, we thought we would turn south on Highway 22 at Cochrane. After talking to locals the last few days, we have decided to go all the way into Calgary so made reservations at a motel. The stampede ended a couple of days ago and we have seen a lot of T-shirts. We neglected to get a picture but the logo was catchy......."Calgary Stampede, Come Hell or High Water".

Don and Pam took a break from their ride to give us detailed turn by turn instructions for a bike-friendly route through Calgary to our motel. They even offered their home to us but it was too late to cancel without monetary penalty. Thank you so much for your Calgary help and hospitality.

They also told us how to avoid part of this major climb out of town. That big grin is because we are at the top and it is all downhill to Calgary. Thanks again, Don and Pam!!

Now those mountains really look far away. The rapeseed is blooming too.

Coming up, Calgary, city of 1.1 million souls. Did you know it was that big?? We knew it was big but not that big.

Looks like the houses are spreading like a prairie fire.

We were standing at the light at our first turn off 1A when Peter rode up.  We told him our route and he offered to draw a map for a more direct, also bike-friendly route to our motel. After several minutes of chatting and trying to start the map, he finally said, "I'll just lead you there....it's too complicated to draw the map and I commute that way every day." He had gotten off work early and was only a couple miles from his home. After 45 minutes of following him down roads, paths, through cul de sacs, and a college campus, we could see our motel. He saved us HOURS and gave us a bit of a narrated tour of his city. Thank you so much for your time, offer of a camp spot for tomorrow night and your follow-up email. Another Angel of the Road just when we needed one.

Our 61 mile day made us so hungry, after checking in, we went to DQ for a Blizzard so we would have energy for a shower. Luck was also with us as the restaurant that was within sight of our motel was showing the Tour de France! Logistics took the rest of the evening as the flood seems to have affected most of the campgrounds we were considering on Highway 22. We finally decided that things were just too iffy on that route and will take Highway 2A and 2 south.

Banff to Bow Valley Provincial Park - The Mountains Meet the Plains

Wednesday - July 17 - The Alberta Flood of 2013 becomes real.

The first thing we found out was that the very nice bike path that parallels the Trans Canada Highway to Canmore was closed due to flood damage.

Fortunately, the highway has a wide shoulder and traffic was relatively light. The path sure did look tempting though.

The water moved a LOT of gravel.

Who knows how tall these trees were before the flood!

We made a stop for breakfast #2, the post office and visited the local quilt shop. It was a good thing we were on bikes or Donna would have had a hard time leaving without a bunch of fabric.

From Canmore we started following the Bow Valley Trail. In this part of Alberta many roads are called "Trails". This one parallels the Trans Canadian on the other side of the Bow River. This grass is called Foxtail Barley and it really is pink (i.e., no photoshop manipulation at all) and danced so gracefully in the wind.

This section had several large plants hidden in the hills. This one makes cement. According to a local, one of their giant off-road dump trucks was buried by gravel from the flood.

A month after the flood they are still dealing with its aftermath.

Our lunch stop. Weariness was evident in many of the patrons and employees of this cafe in the little town of Exshaw. We had a little rain right after lunch but it didn't last very long. The rain jackets stayed on though because all those clouds kept it a little on the cool side.

Seems like all of a sudden that we are seeing the eastern edge of the Rockies after being surrounded by mountains since we left Vancouver 3 weeks ago.

Our destination for the night.

Home, sweet home......except for the mosquitos...and there were a LOT OF THEM. We were right across the road from the river. There weren't any bear boxes in the campsites so we had to take showers in shifts. Doug didn't really need to bother as he got caught in a thunderstorm downpour on his way back to the tent site.

Fortunately, the camp store had ONE bear box which they kindly brought to our site after dinner so we didn't have to post a guard all night :) We guess they didn't want to have any cyclists eaten either. Actually all the parks and campgrounds in B.C. and Alberta have a very vigorous "Clean Campsite" policy which has been very successful in minimizing bear/human interactions.