Getting to Canada was only the beginning of the beginning. In fact, my trade for getting my wife to come with me on the ride was to go with her to the Glenwood days. This is a yearly event celebrating the Pioneer arrival both in Salt Lake and in the Glenwood area of Southern Alberta. To make it even more fun we had a family reunion and celebrated Gloria’s mom’s 90th birthday. The pounds, forgive me, kilograms, of food we ate was only surpassed by the number of family members attending, and that just barely. Actually, it really was quite fun and especially enjoyed Camp kitchen her brother Ben built down on the River Bottom. Our grandkids had a great time playing on the rope swing, zipline, riding horses, and swimming in the river.
When it was finally all over we headed to Canmore on Monday morning. In Canmore we had a great reunion with our good friend Gordon Murray.
He was going to spend the first day of our ride with us. Bringing an e-bike like Gloria, basically meant that he would be spending the first day of the ride on a date with Gloria while I lagged all alone behind.
The first day was filled with one minor rainstorm, two beautiful bucks in velvet – not ten feet from the trail, and a mother bear with her two Cubs. I should have kept riding past the bear, but I couldn’t keep myself from stopping and really taking a look. Besides, once Gordon stopped next to me I figured I could push him in front of me if an attack occurred.The photo doesn’t do the bear or the two Cubs to the left justice, but they were not more than 50 feet off the side of the road.
For that matter, the pictures don’t do the day justice as the ride from Canmore to Banff and then Banff to Lake Louise was beyond spectacular.
It was an amazing day. Of course, we couldn’t end it without a truly Canadian dish: poutine.
I love the time with Gloria and with Gordon. Here are the rest of the photos if you are interested:
Grumpy Grandpa's Great Bicycling Adventures 