Despite going to bed pretty late, we woke up at normal time. By the time we got the tent all packed up, it was only 8:30. We really wanted to have cereal and milk again this morning, so we decided to wait until the store opened at 9. We headed back to the tables out front of the little restaurant we sat at for a while yesterday. It was definitely worth the wait. Cereal and milk always fills us up so much more than oatmeal (probably because we eat the whole box and drink a ton of milk to try to use up the half gallon). The entrance to Kootenay National Park was only a mile or so away from where we camped. We got there right around 10am. The lady at the booth was super nice and said "oh, you guys are working so hard, you can just go ahead through." So we didn't have to pay an entrance fee to get into the park! We were so excited because that definitely saves us a good amount of money. For the first 20 miles or so of today's ride, we were going uphill. During that ride, we saw a mountain goat standing on the side of the road munching on some grass. The first pass that we had to climb was Sinclair Pass (4,875 ft). It felt like it took us forever to get to the top, but surprisingly 90% of the climb was very gradual. Only the last mile or so was steep. When I reached the top, Joe was there waiting as usual. He mentioned that one of the park workers (who had stopped to ask us about our trip while we were having breakfast) stopped when he saw him and told Joey that there was a bear in the area. Just past the top of the pass was a pull off for a hiking trail. There was a car sitting there and the people were taking pictures. So, we went over to investigate. Sure enough, there was the bear he was talking about! He looked pretty big and we were pretty sure that he was a Grizzly. After that, we started descending down the mountain. Joe always is a bit faster than me and at one point, I came around a curve and I saw Joe stopped, which is unusual for him when he is on a descent. As he was riding along a cement barrier he saw a black bear peaking over the cement! Joe saw him in time, so he was able to move over a little bit, but he still was pretty close to him. He had stopped so that he could motion at me to stop so I didn't get too close. It was really funny because Otto, the man who invited us over yesterday, showed us a picture in the newspaper of a black bear standing with his back legs on a cement wall like that one, with his front feet on the edge of someone's car who had stopped to take pictures. In the picture, the bear was looking right in the window, probably hoping for some food. Whatever the case, that was all that I could think of when I saw the bear on the other side of the cement like that. After descending for a while, the road flattened out a bit and we had just small hills to climb. At one point, Joe was a bit ahead of me, which is normal. However, off in the distance I could see that some animal had poked itself out from the trees, but had gone away relatively quick once a car came by. Dumb cars, they always ruin that kind of thing. When Joe saw the animal he stopped and whipped out his camera (this is why I make him carry a camera too, just in case I'm not there to take the pic). I wasn't quite sure what the animal was since I was kinda far away; but when I got to where Joey was stopped, I found out it was a Moose!! I knew that it couldn't have been a deer because it seemed too dark, but whatever the case, I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get to see it up close. Joey on the other hand couldn't stop talking about it and how big it was. He was so excited and really amazed at it's size. Sometimes it takes a lot to really impress him, but I knew that he sure was this time! I'm glad that he was able to get a quick picture before it got chased away by the car. A little while later as I was riding, two deer, one after the other ran out between Joey and I (there was a pretty large gap so Joe didn't even know they ran through). I was amazed because by that time, we had already seen such a wide range of Wildlife all in one day! We stopped for lunch at a ranger station around our 35 mile make, where we made some Mac and Cheese at their picnic table. I was dreading the remainder of the days ride because I knew we had another pass to climb and that we wanted to try to make it to Lake Louise, which was another 20 miles from the top of the pass. Not to long after we started riding again after lunch, a guy driving by slowed down in the middle of the road to tell us that there were a few bears on the side of the road ahead of us. Sure enough, he was right, there was a mamma black bear and her two cubs (one was black and one was a lighter brown color). We observed from a distance, and new we were safe because we were down wind of them. Since there weren't any cars around, we crossed the road and rode along the left hand side of the road just to give some distance between them and us. It is funny the way people are in cars because they will just pull up right next to them, but we definitely can't do that because there isn't anything between us and the bears to protect us like there is in a car (and we aren't nearly as fast!). Once we got past where the bears were, we stopped again to observe. Now we were upwind of them and they knew we were there. All 3 of them stuck their noses in the air and started sniffing. The lighter brown baby even stood up on his back legs to get a better look/sniff. It was so cute, I wish I could have gotten a picture of it! They could definitely smell the food we had, so we decided we better get going just to be safe. After seeing the bears, our day went from great to not so great. I was getting really tired and to add to that it began to rain. It rained for quite a while, but was on and off from time to time. We stopped at a gift shop/gas station in the park to fill up on water before continuing on. Pretty much from there on out we were climbing until we reached the top of Vermillion Pass at an elevation of 5, 415 ft. This one, like the other one was a pretty gradual climb. When we reached the top, I actually didn't realize that's where we were until I saw the Continental Divide sign. It was weird because usually at the top of the pass it is very obvious that you are at the top, but not this time. Not only were we crossing the divide at the top, but we were also at the border for BC and AB (and from Kootenay National Park into Banff National Park)! Luckily it stopped raining long enough to get a picture by the continental divide sign, but was pouring by the time we got just a little down the road to the Welcome to Alberta sign. We figured we would just catch it on the way out. It continued to pour harder and harder, just in time for us to begin the descent. In comparison to the climb we had done, the other side was much steeper and shorter. It was a really cold descent and a little tricky because it was raining so hard. When we reached the bottom, I was already shivering and didn't really want to go any further. We had already done over 60 miles and climbed 2 passes, I was exhausted. But we decided that we would still try to make it to Lake Louise. Our adventure cycling map took us down more of a back road on the other side of the river, but we decided to just take the Trans Can rt. 1 because we figured it would be graded better and have less hills (we were ready to be done with any kind of climbing!). Luckily the road had a huge shoulder and even though it was two lanes both ways, the traffic wasn't heavy and most of the cars and trucks gave us a full lane on top of the huge shoulder. After riding for about 10 miles on that road it stopped pouring. I was so happy but at the same time still shivering because it was still really cold and I was soaked. About 4 miles outside of Lake Louise, we saw a man walking along the top of a cement barrier. We couldn't figure out what he was doing, and especially on a 2 lane divided highway that we were on. When we got closer, we figured out that he was a tour bus driver who had an empty bus on the way to Banff. He had seen a bear walking on the inside of the fence, stopped the bus, put on the flashers, and walked with video camera in hand across the road. We chit chatted with him for a few minutes while waiting for and watching the bear. It made us happy to see someone since we were both exhausted and a miserable. A short while later, we made it into Lake Louise. When we got there we got a little worried because it was clearly a tourist resort town, and didn't resemble a "normal" town at all. Our map didn't indicate this at all, otherwise we might have stayed back at Castle Junction which was right after we came down the second pass. Since there were no churches or places suitable to "camp anywhere" like we normally do, and we were so tired and cold, we figured we would check the 3 or 4 hotels in the area, just by chance they had a reasonable rate for a room. We knew it was probably not going to happen, but it didn't hurt to check. The hotel that might have had a room for a reasonable rate was almost completely full, except for executive suits, which are no where near where out budget would allow. All of the other hotels, including the hostel, were insanely priced. The one hotel had rooms starting at 275! We couldn't believe it. So we headed to the campground. By the time we found a site and stopped riding for the day it was already after 10 (which wasn't a big deal because it was still light out). We both had to pee so we started to look around a bit. It turns out the National Forest Campgrounds in Canada all have "community buildings" that are equipped with a stove in the middle to warm it up. After being invited into the shelter by a few Canadians, we were finally WARM! We talked with them for a little while, they inquired about our travels, I stood as close as I could get to the stove, and we also found out that there were HOT showers in the campground! Even though I was so tired I could barely move, I was super happy. We moved our bikes from our original camp site to one that was closer to the shelter and to the showers. After setting up our tent as quick as we could, we changed out of our wet cycling clothes and then headed to the shelter to make some ramen noodles for dinner. We almost skipped dinner because we were so tired, but we were almost just as hungry as tired and there was a warm spot to sit, so we decided to go ahead and eat. There were a ton of people in the shelter, as well as an older man who was playing the guitar, harmonica and singing! It was a very nice treat after riding for a little over 10 hours! By the time we went to bed it was probably after 12. We were too exhausted to take our shower's tonight so they would have to wait until morning. We rode 85.33 miles; although it wasn't the longest day miles wise, I think it felt like the longest day of the trip so far. But the good news is that we saw a ton of wildlife today!
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