2009 Summer Motorcycle Trip: Day 5 - Brooks to Lake Louise AB

Tuesday morning is cool and clear. About 9C... going to bundle up before hitting the road. Plans are to ride the Kanninaskis hwy from Longview to Banff area and maybe further. See what transpires. I also will try to meet up with David of AdMoreLighting (www.admorelighting.com) near Calgary. I will call him shortly to set something up. Admore Lighting provided the LED lighting for my Givi E55 topcase, and I am the Beta customer for this particular product. An awesome lighting product it is too!
Today, if there is a riding heaven.. this was close to it. A real pleasant day. I started out at 9:10 am and headed west on the THC for about half the distance to Calgary, or maybe 45 minutes to an hour. I located the road that headed west and would bring me to the south side of Calgary. My attempts to contact David at AdMore Lighting went to voice mail only for the company. Evidentially I stored his office number rather than his cel phone number. DOH! I would have liked to meet up with him... but not to be.
I made my way down to Longview AB for lunch and the southern end start of the Kanninaskis Hwy. Lunch was at a local diner. Across the street is a school and a young Grade 6 girl named Kamela walked over dressed in Canada Day celebration clothes. She was wearing a flag, her face was painted in the flag red and white with a maple leaf and small flags in her hair. Wonderful. I took a photo of her. There were more also dressed similar evidentially as her class was celebrating Canada Day a week early.
The ride up the hwy was nice..... 90 km zone... barely wanted to ride that fast. The scenery and wildlife was great. Saw a goat standing on the road... followed soon after by 2 on a rocky cliff close to the hwy, then later a whole herd of Mountain goats I believe on the side of the road. Photo time for sure. The mountains are close and spectacular. AB did themselves proud building that road. The road is closed on winter. Opens end of April.. and closes in November I believe. Traffic was light.... and pulling over often was not a worry to take photos. As I said and very nice ride. There was a few periods of rain... and one time I was at 7700 feet elevation which surprised me. It was a cold rain at that time. Finally, 148 kms after it began... I was back at the TCH and headed for Banff. A stop in Banff downtown for an hour to reminisce about my previous visit there and back on the road to find old route 1A to Lake Louise instead of the TCH. That was also a nice ride... mostly a tunnel of trees but the road was interestingly curvy. It’s only 60 kms to Lake Louise, where I found a campsite surrounded by a electric bear fence. Made camp, then took a ride looking for dinner and gas...but found the lake first. Met 3 riders... one from Edmonton with 2 fellows from South Africa. They seem very interested in my trip plans. After a while I found gas, then a nice cafe attached to a Hostel where I met a father/ daughter couple. They were from Barrie Ontario. The daughter was a recent grad from McMaster University (very near my home) and had just completed an immersion course in Vancouver in French. Her father had flown to Vancouver for a few days, and together they they flew to Calgary today, rented a car and were staying at the hostel. They educated me on travelling and staying in hostels.. though they were both new at it too. I now have literature and a map where they are located... good alternative to camping. They cost $35 per night... but that compared favourably to this campsite at $27.40 and I have to walk to a shower and washrooms... and lots more space, but maybe less privacy as the rooms are shared with up to 4 in a room in bunk beds. There would be some people to talk to though.. this campground is not very crowded and people are separated well... though it may be nice to speak to someone for a bit.
No bugs, no rain here.. hooray. Not warm though.... chilly is the word. Has been all day. I am tired now.. the beer at dinner is flagging me. Time is 10 pm.. I have been awake since 4:30 so I may turn in soon. Still good light though. I called Norris in Grande Prairie and told him to expect me tomorrow, or the day after latest. Most likely tomorrow... it looks to be 6 hours of riding plus scenic stops which there will be many for half the trip up the Icefields Parkway. This is one big highlight of the trip. See what the morning will bring.