It's hard to think back to the beginning of the day. The first hill from Radium to the hot spring pools ended with an 11% grade. That part of the hill was very short, only a half of a kilometer. I almost made it, but I ended up walking the very top of it when my legs and knees complained loudly. I'm sure I would have been able to ride the full hill if I didn't have all of my gear on the bike. It really wasn't as bad as I'd expected. I think I let the "11%" freak me out. The first pass, Sinclair Pass, was shorter than Logan Pass, only about 7 miles - but it was pretty tough. The grade ranged up to 8%. It took me an hour and 25 minutes to ride the first 8 miles today. After that was a whale of a downhill - for 20 miles! I stopped at Vermillion Crossing for lunch - had a hot dog and an ice cream sandwich. My diet has definitely been different on this trip, especially since I tend to lean toward a fish and vegetarian-style diet. But what I'm eating seems to be working from an energy standpoint.
Another day of beautiful scenery and a quiet road.
I stopped at the Paint Pots trail and talked to some backpackers for a while. Then I walked out to the Paint Pots. It was fascinating seeing the red soil (ochre) there. (In fact, after I had my pictures developed I almost thought the shots there must have been from a totally different trip!).
I pulled into Marble Canyon campground at about 4:30 do discover that the water there needed to be boiled. It's too hot to be boiling water for drinking, and I need too much water to keep hydrated, so I decided to push on. (I didn't bring a water filter with me because I believed that there was drinking water in all of the campgrounds. This was the only night that wasn't true.)
From Marble Canyon, I knew I was only four miles from the pass, and I figured there had to be a fair amount of downhill after that. No problem with daylight, since it stays light quite late here. It turns out that Vermillion Pass was sort of a "non-pass". There weren't any steep sections - the only surprise was that the uphill continued for 2 miles after I crossed the Continental Divide back into Alberta. Just past the divide I passed a family of mountain goats eating on the side of the trail. They didn't even budge as I went past. Seeing animals like that on the side of the road makes me glad that a bicycle is such a quiet mode of transportation.
I came flying down hill, again hit close to 40mph. I did use the brakes at times, based on the curves and road surface, and I had to stop once to let the rims cool down. But so far the only downhill that sort of freaked me out was Logan Pass, and I think a good part of that was the poor road surface, and the traffic.
I stopped at the gas station / store in Castle Junction to get something cold to drink. The woman working there told me that Johnson campground was full - which of course was where I was hoping to stay. I didn't really want to go all the way into Banff, which would have added another 20 miles to my ride today. She told me about another campground, and also told me about the hostel across the way. I went over to check out the hostel and ended up staying there. There was a very nice common area with sofas and window seats around a central fireplace, along with a well-equipped kitchen. The dorms are typical hostel dorms (with bunk beds stacked 3 high!), and there is a washer and dryer. Clean clothes! It was novel to cook dinner on a regular stove and to eat from a plate instead of from the pot.
I'm going to head into Banff in the morning, then play it by ear. I haven't decided yet whether to take an easy day tomorrow then head for Kananaskis on Wednesday morning, or whether to go there tomorrow.
