I’m going to be on vacation with the family next week.
I was thinking about doing a ride from Canmore to the Columbia Icefields leaving early before my family and having them meet me for lunch at the icefields (I think the ride is ~ 160K). If I recall correctly from a 1989, there is a stretch between Banff and Lake Louise where you are off the main trans Canada drag on a quiet road. Do you guys know if I have this option all the way to the Icefields, or do I get on the main highway and if so, does it have a shoulder…I recall riding by the Icefields back in 1991 and my memory of the riding included a reasonably wide shoulder.
Also how long would a Canmore to Jasper ride take? Is this a ~ 10-12 hour ride? I’ll be in Canmore/Banff area from next Tue-Thu (Aug7-8-9) if anyone wants to hook up for riding.
You take the 1a from Banff to Lake Louise, then a short stint… about 5-10k(?) on the main highway before you reach the Icefields Parkway.
There is a shoulder all the way to Jasper.
My friends did Banff-Jasper in about 12 hours with stops. Canmore is only an extra 20k. I was going to do Banff-Jasper in June, but didn’t have the time.
OK, a few more questions. What is the road like from Golden to Lake Louise over Kicking Horse Pass? I understand that lots of people do this as part of the “Golden Triangle” Banff-Radium-Golden-Banff ride (or is it the other way) and it looks like a nice solid 3000 ft net climb.
I’m all for adventure, but I don’ t want my wife having a heart attack as she drives over the pass 3 hours after I have left the hotel, wondering if I went flying into a ravine when I got squeezed by a transport. Is there a shoulder…if memory serves me correctly, there is non. Its best when mothers and spouses don’t get too worried when I ride on what they perceive as “risky terrain”. Better to just do those rides when they don’t get to see the route by car
Yup, but if I remember right, part of that road is closed during certain parts of the year because the wildlife needs some privacy to get it on. That’s only on the Bow Valley route though.
Banff to Golden has a shoulder the whole way. There is a lot of construction near Golden at the moment… but that should slow people down and make the descent into Golden safer.
Golden to Radium… a bit dodgy in spots… there is only about 2 feet of paved shoulder…
It’s pretty heavy traffic this time of year too… caravans, tourists, etc.
Radium to Golden… paved shoulder the whole distance as well.
I’m thinking that if I hit the road at 6 am from Golden I can be sitting in Lake Louise by 10 am with a coffee and bagel when my family pulls up in the rental van…they can sleep in till 8 am, hit the road at 9 am we’d be synched up by 10 am. Good to hear that there is shoulder. Nothing like tractor trailers squeezing bicycles off the road on both ascents and descents.
Its not quite the same as riding all the way across Canada, (obviously), but riding over the continental divide over Kicking Horse, on the path cut by the original railroad guys is something that I have wanted to do for some time.
I’ve done the Golden Triangle on the May long weekend. We did it in the counter-clockwise direction - 330km total. The route from Radium to Banff is on the 93, which turns off Hwy 1 at Castle Junction. Personally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable on this ride in the July-August timeframe. Too many folks in rental RVs. Not only are you at risk of being buzzed by them, the wind gusts can be an issue.
I’m generally comfortable on the bike and on decents. I recall being on Hwy 22 south of Cochrane on the Monday of a long weekend a couple of years ago. Decending at 60kph, with a 30kph cross-wind alongside a stream of RVs was not my idea of fun. The wind gusts were terrible and this was not an enjoyable experience. My guess that with the hills and traffic, you’d risk a similar situation on that road.
Plus, there is massive construction of an overpass outside Golden right now.
Hopefully someone else has some input on the GT during the summer months because I’m just speculating here.
If you’re looking for a fun climb, you may also want to look at going the other direction out of Canmore and heading up Highwood Pass on Hwy 40. K-Country doesn’t tend to be as busy. Plus the RV drivers are local so they actually own their units and tend to be better drivers.
Make sure to check the highways report. There have been intermittent closures this year.
The dodgiest part is the ascent from Golden for about the first 20km.
I’m riding Salmo to Creston tomorrow… one of the hardest passes to cycle in BC… woo!
Your legs must be bouncing back just fine after IMLP. I did the ride from Lake Louise to Canmore back in 1999 when we drove out to Pentiction and stayed in Canmore for two days. I remember that there were good paved shoulders and that I was really fast travelling to Canmore with the overall downhill effect … you’ll be working on the ride going the other way Have a great trip!
