Beautiful BOW

Day 5—Saturday, August 6—Mosquito Creek to Protection Mountain

25 miles; starting temp: 32°F, ending 75°F

The day started out with skin ice on the picnic table when we were packing up. As the day's ride was generally going to be downhill, we bundled up. (Molly, thanks for the cashmere cap!)

6:30 am wake up at Mosquito Creek

Icy while packing up!

Heading out

Pristine Herbert Lake

Scratches at Herbert Lake…we did not camp here!

Wildlife crossing over Trans-Canada Highway 

We rolled into Lake Louise which was overrun with tour buses, hovering touring helicopters, day cyclists tricked out in spandex, and, basically—people!  It’s always a shock coming out of the woods to tourist areas. Everything was booked so we didn’t get to the lake but heard it is full of paddlers and beautiful. It’s a small village so the bustle was contained. We grabbed a sandwich and took off. 

The Icefields Parkway concludes at this point. The remainder of the way to Banff was on the Bow Valley Parkway which was lovely, made safer by tons of bikers who passed us singly and in pelotons. Truth be told, I have not passed a single cyclist on this trip unless they are fixing a flat or stopped for lunch. I am a waddling tortoise compared to these hares (but we know how that story ended). 

Bow River

The color of the Bow River is generated by bits of rock and minerals—dislodged and ground down by glaciers—that then flow into rivers. The particles are suspended in the water reflecting sunlight…hence the green color! Crazy to think that the Bow River water eventually finds it way to a Hudson Bay!

The Bow Valley Parkway brought us to Protection Mountain and we were lucky to find a campsite on a Saturday afternoon! The trees in our campsite were decimated by disease; silver lining is views of mountains all around!

Industrialize wood product (power pole) amid its descendants

Typical forest…appear to be lodgepole pine used for building and power poles

View from my tent

This was a family or families of swallows that took over the cooking pavilion at Protection Mountain campground. I learned that these were adults and fledglings and that this was the second brood this year. If it stays warm they may have a third brood this year…up to five chicks per brood.  They were fun to watch but very protective of their roost!