carnets

Lake Louise, it is the highest village of Canada; finally, we did not go to check, that is what we were told. It therefore stops at the camping for a few days, waiting for the Sun and stay here a bit. We didn’t come so far to guess summits and glaciers through the clouds! And here there are two mountain lakes not to miss: Lake Louise and Lake Morraine.

In addition, it has all the amenities we dreamed for some time: showers, a shelter with a wood stove, of course, but also light, a small supermarket and cafe nearby, and a candy shop. And awesome thing, the site is surrounded by an electric fence, presumably to ward off wild animals.

Now the stage is set, there's no more than ... wait. At the information centre, we are promised the sun soon ...

Meanwhile, there is the walk to Lake Louise, by foot. In the forest, there is not even an hour's climb. Still not a bear in sight, yet there are warning signs everywhere. It's berries season so they are not far away. At the top is the touristic place. Despite the weather, the parking is crowded, we must be the only ones to be mounted on foot, there is a huge castle-like hotel Disneyland, and on the lake beach, tons of tourists spilled from cars, coming for the picture, souvenir ... Nobody knows why Asians have the characteristic to get in front of all their photos (maybe to say I was there?)

Well, we also do the same, we are tourists too! Not long since it started raining again and we are eager to go hang out at the village café, warm, while the kids run to the sweet shop to spend coins they find regularly. But that's another story, maybe one day they will tell you.

Two days later, after an icy night, we wake up with a bright sun. It's now or never to go to Lake Morraine, classed World Heritage Site by Unesco. We unload our bikes and this with energy that we attack the rise of almost 14 km and 600 m in altitude. Too easy, the bikes are light, we almost fly ! Must say that the air of anything our legs are well trained. I am sure that back, it could be the Alpes d'Huez without too much trouble with bike light and empty, even Thomas. Reference to that famous mountain during the TOUR de France bike race..

Same at Lake Louise, there's so many people, there's no room in the parking crowed, but we don’t care, we park right in front of the lake, that is our advantage of us!
Then the program of the day, picnic and farniente under the sun to recharge the batteries and back down coffees and sweets! Our whole program.
Right, tomorrow we can go without remorse towards the Banff Bow Valley. One enters the Banff National Park, no one has claimed anything yet about the entrance fee, wish this will not change …
Banff is the most beautiful city in Canada. That's Jean-Raoul says, he is a park ranger who stopped to chat a bit when he saw us, we reminds him of France. We're going to see it up close.
The road is beautiful, the total height difference is negative, but anyway we still have nice climbs. Vegetation begins to change, we reach a floor below. Birch forests begin to appear in the middle of the pines, it is pretty, and it is warmer there.

We arrive late in Banff, too late to visit the city that looks very nice indeed. Too bad, we will remain a day longer; after all, we have all the time in front of us! That night we hardly reached the campsite, perched at least 3 km on top of a hill. Why nobody does think to so poor travellers to walk or bike? Sure, tomorrow we will not take the bike to back down; it will be either on foot or by bus.

We spend the late evening around the campfire with Anthony and Elizabeth Britons very nice, settled since six months in Montreal.
Then, we come back to Canmore, again with the cold, rain and snow really close. Canmore is also a beautiful town that we will not have much time to explore the campground being still far, not very practical for us.
So we go ahead, we have never been so close to Calgary, where we are expected by Ted and Mike. Two more steps and it should be.

That day, we go through an Indian reserve. Reserves or "First Nations" are areas left by the Canadian government to the North American Indigenous peoples' native Indians. They organize themselves and their government is autonomous.

We are looking for a campsite, and we find lodges which also offer tepees. It's a bit expensive, but kids are so excited to sleep among the Indians, that we are doing the exception for the month. We are alone and been got the largest tepee, with a wood stove inside. Tonight, no need to pitch the tent or out of our bush cooker, we cook outside on the campfire common for all tepees. Dinner around the campfire, stove warm inside, it's a great luxury. And ... it begins to rain and hail ... in the tipi it is open at the top! The quilts are starting to get wet when Jean-Roch remembers a cartoon, where the Indians were sleeping in a circle along the canvas. We change immediately position to protect them selves from the rain, allowing the fire more or less to dry inside. For sure we will remember this night in the Indians camp!
We start the day pedalling still in the reserve, with really felt like in Indian territories. Impression derived from films or books, certainly, but it is striking. The landscape has changed, meadows, hills, forests of birch, pine forests, horses, and people with long black hair, very typical. For children, we are at Yakari. Very calming frame.

Finally we reach Cochrane north of Calgary, where Linda and Marie-France are waiting for us. We met further north; Marie-Linda had invited us to go her home. She invites us to stay an extra day to avoid rain forecasted for the whole next day. It's really nice. We take the day to walk in the rain downtown Cochrane, typical of towns in the American West, before we warm refuge in a cafe and library. End the day with our host, time spent to discuss past trips.

Tomorrow is a very big day, about 80 kilometres to the southeast of Calgary. We are forced to bypass the city to avoid major roads three or four tracks that pass in the middle of the town.

It's late, and Calgary will be the subject of another post, see you soon then.

MC

Translated from the french by Michel

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