Golden Triangle Cycling Tour - Day 2

The next day we had breakfast at a bakery in Radium Hot Springs, before heading north on Hwy 93 towards Castle Junction and Lake Louise. The first part of Hwy 93 cuts a steep, narrow, twisting path through a canyon, and I stopped to take a hero shot at the 11% grade ahead sign. Sarah stopped just in front of me while I was composing the shot, which gave me a perfect view of the near disaster which developed.

Approaching, in the oncoming lane, was a convoy of vehicles, including an 18-wheeler. In my mirror, I could see another 18-wheeler coming up from behind. Because of the traffic in the oncoming lane, the truck coming from behind had nowhere to go, and was forced to stay totally within the lane. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, but because of the narrow shoulder and very bending road in this section, the trailer of the semi was forced closer, and closer, and closer to us. Finally, as things got worse and worse, Sarah, who was still half clipped in, fell over sideways to avoid being decapitated by a load of California lettuce and landed hard on the pavement. As soon as I could, I rushed forward, and we pulled all the bikes and personnel as far off the road as was possible while I patched up Sarah's wounds. Luckily, her injuries were minor, but it was definitely could have gone way, way, worse. By the time this photo was taken, we'd both managed to calm down, and Sarah was even smiling again.

After a scary start to the day, the 11km climb out of Radium Hot Springs was a relief, with the bonus being the equally long descent down the other side.

After the pass, Highway 93 travels up the Kootenay river and we got our first view of the Rockies. Numa Falls was a great tourist stop along the way, and the descent from Vermillion pass down to Castle Junction was nothing short of epic.

We spent the night at one of the Castle Mountain "chalets", operated by Decore Hotels. It was a reasonably nice-ish cabin, but not in a $260/night kind of way. Really, this hotel kind of epitomized some of the many issues I have with the national mountain parks. For whatever reason, if your hotel is in the National Parks, it's okay to charge $260/night and trust that the guests won't notice that your exclusively teenaged staff replaced the toilet paper with cut-grade sandpaper from Home Depot in the middle of the night. Oh well. At least I was clean.

Back to Day 1

Golden Triangle Cycling Tour Photo Album

Golden Triangle Cycling Tour - Day 1

As part of our honeymoon, Sarah and I decided to ride the Golden Triangle route in BC. This route crosses the continental divide twice as it travels between Golden, Radium Hot Springs and Castle Junction inside of Banff National Park.

Day 1

We started the tour at the Kicking Horse River Lodge in Golden. The lodge itself is a bit of an odd duck - it's a hostel, built using enormous logs (the last supply?) fitted together with dovetail construction. The exterior is stunning. The interior is furnished with a mixture of custom log/dovetail beds and the cheapest Ikea furnishings that money can buy. Private rooms are available, but interior walls are somewhat thin, which means that noise is sometimes an issue. Overall, however, it's a friendly, reasonably priced lodge that also serves a pretty good breakfast. We stashed our car here, and headed out onto the road.

Although the route is usually done in a clockwise direction, we did it in reverse, hoping to save the hardest day until last. Highway 95 from Golden to Radium Hot Springs makes a gradual ascent along the Kootenay River. It was a beautiful ride in gently rolling hills to Radium Hot Springs. The Columbia Wetlands along the route provided views of beaver dams, herons and other waterfowl, and a solitary osprey that flew away as I juggled lenses to photograph its nest.

After arriving at Radium we had dinner at the local pizza joint and stayed the night at the Mountain Springs motel. The room was clean, pleasant, and reasonably priced, which was a combination that we'd be hard pressed to find later on the trip.

Radium Hot Springs itself is a bit of a strange town. The hot springs seem to gather enough tourists that there's a unhealthy population of overpriced restaurants and an oversupply of motels. However, it's isolated enough that the locals haven't been completely overrun. This, combined with the sawmill down the road means that the small interior resource town is never that far away from the surface.

Forward to Day 2

Golden Triangle Cycling Tour Photo Album

Just Married!

Sarah and I tied the knot on Sarah's Birthday, August 25th at the Sequoia Grill in Vancouver. The weather report was threatening, but in the end the rain held off just enough for photos and the ceremony.

Our thanks to everyone who came and made it a great time!

We're back from our honeymoon in the Rockies now, and will post some photos from our trip soon.