Another beautiful day in Calgary! Sun is out, the bars are gearing up for another Stampede day and Ken and I have to do some work. We really need to win a lotto, invent something cool or inherit lots of money from someone so we don't have to work. Unfortunately, I don't see any of those things happening any time soon...so work it is.  

While I am finishing up some meetings, Ken goes to get our mini-van. Yes, we are going to drive a mini-van. Why? Because we are renting bikes and they just won't fit in a normal car. So, it makes perfect sense! The car rental place is only a few blocks away from the hotel, but he got stuck behind a Stampede parade with a bunch of Indians on horseback for 30 minutes. He finally got around it and got within a block of the hotel and then got stuck again with the same parade! A 5 minute drive took him almost an hour.  

We got packed up and headed towards Banff. It is a1.5 hour drive and the scenery is beautiful, with the mountains getting closer every mile. We picked up the bikes in Banff and loaded them in the mini-van, then on to Shadow Lake Lodge. They had sent a very detailed map, with instructions to park at the Red Earth Campground parking lot, 12 miles past Banff. We found it with no problem and got the bikes, backpacks and ourselves ready for the 9 miles into the lodge.  

The first part of the trail was a little steep, but doable. However, that quickly changed and within 1/2 mile we were riding up a very steep hill. The grade, plus the altitude (4,000 feet) immediately took its toll on our breathing. We made it to the top, only to see more of the same for the foreseeable future. It was 7 miles of uphill, with a few (VERY FEW) downhills mixed in. There were some rather easy parts that were not rocky, uphill or sandy (due to the severe rains, they had put sand in some areas) and we were able to enjoy the scenery for those little spurts of even terrain. After the first 30 minutes and me walking my bike at certain very steep areas, I thought  "what the hell were we thinking? I am going to be walking this blasted bike for 7 miles!". However, once I got in the groove...the walking still occurred, but at a much more limited basis.  

It took us about 2 hours to get to the 7.5 mile point, where we had to lock up the bikes and walk the rest of 1.5 miles to the lodge. The trail started out very steep, but soon leveled out beside a beautiful stream. After an hour, we finally saw the lodge! Whewhoooooo...we made it before dark! (ok, it doesn't get dark until 1030pm, but at one point I thought that was a definite concern).

We found the check-in cabin and they had afternoon snacks waiting for us...cheese, crackers, fruit, tea,cookies...double whewhooooo!! Mia, our host for the weekend went through the instructions, meal info, bathroom details (semi-outhouses) and cabin how-to's. At that point we collapsed until dinner.

At 630pm, the triangle was rung to advise it was time for dinner. There were three tables set for the 17 guests. We sat with Greg, Joey, Barb and Linda, two couples who travel frequently together from Calgary. They had a head start on us for wine, so we checked out the wine selection and ordered a red from British Columbia. Dinner started with cream of broccoli soup, then followed by orange-glazed pork tenderloin, salad, vegis roasted potatoes and ended with a really good bumbleberry crumble. We had a great time with our dinner companions and none of us worried about calorie counts!  

After dinner we went next door to the activity cabin with a fireplace and comfy chairs for one more glass of wine before bedtime. One note regarding cabin specifics: there are no bathrooms in the cabins, you have to walk to a cabin with community bathrooms. They have electricity, but no flush facilities...and frankly they weren't awful. But, this meant in the middle of the night you had better really need to go as it was pitch black and god knows what critters were out there.