What I Did For My Summer Vacation (Part 1: The Gaming Edition)
What I Did For My Summer Vacation (Part 2: Climbing - Not Cycling)
On Day Eight of our vacation we FINALLY got out and did some cycling! I'd hoped to do a bunch in Calgary on the first few days of the vacation, but that didn't seem to work out... Rain... The Sentry Box... Netflix... Our rental van being totalled... (see Part 1).
On Saturday we headed out to the Canmore Nordic Centre. We didn't actually manage to drag our asses there until after noon. Everyone was pretty sore and tired from our two previous days of rock climbing. WE really should have taken a "rest day" and did nothing... at least not anything ACTIVE!
Assembling and marshalling the bikes on the lawn by the parking lot. While I was doing this I ran into a couple of the guys from the Bike Doctor back in Saskatoon - who were parked in the very next stall!
The lot was pretty full, but we didn't run into a lot of people - there are a LOT of trails out there. (And we pretty much stuck to the Green trails...).
Heading out on "Get In" the first trail on the Green Loop.
I think The Girl was already cranky and dragging her butt at this point.
Amanda, taking it all in and staying positive in the face of crabby cusses.
I think she almost smiled there...
I ended up getting a lot of pictures of The Girl, mostly because I was leading and Finnegan was usually following so close that when I stopped to take a picture he'd be on me before I had my camera out. Not so with The Girl.
PURPLE KARATE MONKEY!
Most of the Rocky Mountains around the Banff/Canmore area are made up of sedimentary rock mostly formed during the Precambrian to Jurassic periods. In some places you can find all sorts of fossils.
I spotted this fossil near the Visitor Centre when we took a break for a very late lunch!
Lunch... mid afternoon...
After our lunch we decided to try and ride the Banff Trail - at least until the edge of the Canmore Nordic Centre. The trail continues all the way to Banff - alongside the Bow River. But it turns into single track and gets a bit more technical and climby...
Compared to the previous day, it was a bit more cool and breezy. Everyone else had put on jackets when we sat down to have our lunch and kept them on when we started out.
There are lots of bridges around the Nordic Centre. Some are smaller ones that are basically overpasses for the ski trails in the winter. Others are larger ones going over drainage gullies.
Despite the breeze, it didn't take long before everyone had to stop and shed their jackets.
The Banff trail is super wide through the Nordic Centre and passes through a couple of meadows.
It offers some spectacular views.
We didn't get terrible far - to the far side of the first meadow - before it was clear that The Girl was pooped. We decided to turn around rather than continue on and have her passing out on the way back.
So back we went.
Finnegan riding along the Banff Trail back towards the parking lot.
He's happy because we're heading home...
The Girl trailing along behind.
Amanda, probably wishing she'd listened to me and had a rest day before coming out here with the kids....
The rides kind of got broken up into three on my new bike computer...
Next Up: The Return To the Goat Creek Trail! The following day Amanda and the Girl went on a horseback ride and Finnegan and I took it easy. But the day after that we went out and rode the Goat Creek Trail into Banff and then rode back to Canmore on the Banff Legacy Trail. Stay tuned for that!
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