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The Great Divide Ride – Banff, AB to Rooseville, MT Day One, 9-17-05: Nina’s unexpected omission from the group leaves everyone quite depressed and somber, despite the excitement of going. Suffice it to say, she was deeply missed and constantly on our mind throughout. No problems with flights into Calgary. We departed Pittsburgh around 9am and arrived into Calgary by 1pm. This was way easier than driving 2500 miles. I was thinking folks could drive, but if airfare continues to be less than $400 per person, I’m not sure the 4 days of travel (2 days each way by car) vs 1 day (half day each way) flying is worth the money to be saved. However, if 6 people made the trip, the savings would be quite substantial. The airfare even at just $400 each would be $2,400 plus bike rental or shipping which will be about $130 each for another $780, plus the cost of renting a car – another $700. That represents over $600 of potential savings per person for those who might drive. Here’s the route my map program laid out to get there:
I calculated the return trip on a different piece of mapping software. It’s shorter since we have already come south a couple hundred miles or more, but this program estimated higher hours of driving (in the mid 30s!).
Depending on how much people like to ride in a car, and if they could get off of work, this could be a good option. The suburban rides very nice for long trips, and has a DVD player in it as well. Part of my reason for picking the middle of September was
to try and “time” the fall season and turning of the leaves, yet before it got
too cold. While temperatures are running below normal right now, we did seem to
hit it right – we have lots of yellow aspen leaves giving us some beautiful
contrast to the evergreens which are the other plentiful tree here. I am also
surprised to see so much snow on the caps of ALL the mountains. Given how much
was melted in Telluride, I was not expecting to see much if any snow, but I
forgot how much further north this is, and the mountains are absolutely
breathtaking as usual. We can actually see more detail than in the winter
because the lower halves of the mountains are clear, and you can see the rock
formations better. We also are treated to some waterfalls that were not visible
in the winter. If it is not too cold riding, this could be the perfect time of
year to come.
The bike shop folks were very friendly, and seem to have pretty decent bikes for us. They are full suspension, and they have huge front packs. I actually don’t think we will need anything more than our camelback and the front pack for quite a bit of stuff. We might even be able to go with “small” front packs. It’s a lot easier packing knowing we have a support vehicle with us. We got a spare chain and some “bear spray” just to be prepared J. The Rundle Manor apartments are excellent. You could easily fit 2 couples in each 2 bedroom apartment. Actually, the living room is so large, with two pull out couches, you could conceivably have a 3rd couple stay in the living room also. There is a full kitchen and mini-dining room too. This will definitely be the place to stay for the first night. We ate at Rocky Mountain Flat Bread in Canmore last night.
I’m sure there are plenty of restaurants in Banff, but the last time Mike, Nate
and I were here, it was our favorite place hands down. They have great views
from the restaurant, have an awesome wood fired stove that they cook the pizzas
in right in front of you, and the food is great. It was a great dinner, and we
bought our snacks and water, etc for hopefully the remainder of the trip after
dinner at the Safeway in Canmore. It’s been quite a long day.
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