Banff

Saturday May 30

The Trans Canada Highway out of Field went up, waaaaaay up - 10 miles up in fact. A little bump as Gio called them, Ten Mile Hill leads the way through Kicking Horse Pass and out of BC! Big milestone.
On our way down the Bow Valley toward Banff, we took a little side trip to beautiful Lake Louise. Not so surprising, there was still ice on the lake and needless to say, a chill in the air despite the clear sunny day.
Our RV of Awareness continues to attract attention -even at 100 km an hour down the highway. Often we receive honks and waves and not always because of my driving. People read the graphics and honk in support. Yeah, well same to you buddy.
There are many potential dangers to the safety of the bike riders on the route - there's speeding vehicles, slippery or gravelly road conditions, the threat of charging wild animals and of course, the dreaded Texas gates. What is a Texas gate ask the uninitiated. It's a series or metal bars embedded in the surface of a road to prevent cattle from escaping. Bikes do not travel easily over these things.Lucky Mel got a chance to inspect one up close . . . and not on purpose.
One of the goals for Harry on his time on the road with Mel was to see some wildlife along the route. I didn't want to mention it, but maybe the bear bells jingling on the handlebars scared them off. Nonetheless, today their patience was rewarded. Just inside the townsite of Banff they spotted a small family of elk.