Day 1 Calgary to Banff

The first day is now in the books.  I thought things were going to be more confused than they were.  I think that things came off with very little problems. Everyone was ready to ride and last minute preparations were pretty minimal. We were able to push off at 8:10.  

We rode out the back way out of town and found ourselves at the top of 12 mile coulee road and headed west on the 1a west.  It was a beautiful day. Big sky country was really living up to its name; gorgeous blue sky with the mountains framing the skyline and a vicious wind out of the west.  We were at  Seebee for lunch at 12:30 Pm.

The floods in mid-June had closed the 1A West of Seebee but they were now open with only 50 ft section where it was not paved. So four of the riders elected to take the 1A in and Ed, Liam and I took the #1 into Banff. It was still 55 kms and Liam was feeling pretty tired so we took it easy.  I was hoping to get on the Legacy Trail from the Banff Park gates into the town site the floods had washed out the trail. What was a little creek was still a raging torrent. The last climb up the road into Tunnel Mtn campground and I was glad to get out of the saddle. 135 kms into the wind up hill was a tough start day.  

A tough start day but we had these enormous burgers for super and everyone felt lots better.

Terry