Day 7 (day 3 of biking) Bear Crossing

52.1 miles covered today. 

We prepared to hit the road early today, but 10 am is as close to early as we got. We got some breakfast and hit the road knowing our first 23 miles would be uphill covering 2 big climbs. I even found this new boyfriend outside the restaurant. Jk. Scruffy Mike is way better 😘. 

The first climb was not terrible. The best part about going up is the beautiful views.

 So I guess it's all worth it in the end. The second climb was a little steeper and I would say longer although Mike disagrees that it was longer.  We made it up though. We were literally on top of a mountain. It is so cool looking around and seeing peaks that used to be way high up in the sky and are now right next to you.

Note how the peaks are much closer than the last photo. 

Finishing the last climb of the day... Or so I thought.

We basically regained all the elevation we came flying down yesterday. 

The next half hour was amazing. It was a downhill ride into Bow Lake where we would have lunch. My Achilles started bothering me so Mike was some distance away from me. Pretty close to the lake there was a large field in which I spotted a large brown rock, or so I thought until the rock started moving. It was a grizzly. I tried yelling for Mike since it was clear he didn't see it, I tried ringing my bell. He couldn't hear me with the wind as he was cruising downhill. So I peddled my little legs super fast to catch up to him and told him. Since the bear was a ways off the road we reversed course so he could see the bear. By that time tons of cars had stopped, but I was the first person to spot it.  Seeing the bear was pretty cool, mostly because he was far away 😉. 

Then we road down to Bow Lake which is absolutely stunning. We had hoped to spend a night at their lodge but they were booked up. Lunch was delicious, and I think we would say so if we hadn't just biked 24 miles up a mountain. I had bison chili and a delicious sandwich.

I jumped so high I touched a mountain top!

Then we went for a walk near, and in Mike's case, in the lake. It really was beautiful. We were headed on to Lake Louise which everyone says is beautiful, but it's hard to imagine a place more beautiful than this. 

Mike skipping rocks. 

We knew the next half of our journey would be mostly downhill which I was especially excited about as my Achilles was aching. We were cruising down this big hill going about 20 mph with fresh pavement visible ahead!  The roads have been pretty good, but today was quite bumpy. I think we had both gotten used to the bumps on our butts until the fresh pavement.  While flying down the hill something black catches my eye. Yup, that's a black bear, yup it's really close to the road, now it's looking at me. I definitely jumped out of my saddle a bit, and it's good to know my bear instinct kicked in.  I thought, black bear act big. I had my hand claw and roar ready to go, but seeing as I was flying by him I didn't need it.  So once again I peddled fast to catch up to Miguel and started yelling at him.  Nope, he missed that bear too.  I don't know what he was looking at. It was so close to the road. Apparently his bear spotting abilities are similar to his chasing dog spotting abilities...aka not good.  We didn't go back to see that bear though because it was uphill and he was close to the road. No one wants to encounter a bear that close when going 5 mph!  This then sparked a conversation about what should one do if you do see a bear that close while going uphill. Hopefully that doesn't happen though. 

We got to enjoy the fresh pavement all the way to Lake Louise basically. It was really nice and made for faster travel!  We got rained on a bit today, but we had our rain coats on, and the showers didn't last long. It didn't take too long to dry out either while zooming down the mountainside. 

We offically finished biking the Icefields Parkway today! This meant we had to get off our nice road though. We got onto highway 1 for a short distance, which really felt like an interstate. And then we exited for Lake Louise. No one told me this was up a mountain.  The lake itself is off the route provided on the Adventure Cylcing maps so we had no idea.  However, someone somewhere along the way could have mentioned that when they asked where we were headed. Oh yeh that's a serious climb to the lake. Nope.  Anyway. We made it after taking a few breaks and arrived at our lodging at Paradise Bungalows. Mike does an excellent job of picking out places to stay on our honeymoon (rated no. 1 place to stay in the area). Our cabin was amazing. Quaint on the outside and gorgeous on the inside. Complimentary tea (which Mike loved), granola bars which we devoured, and oatmeal for breakfast. I may move in. 

And did I mention the claw foot tub?!

We got settled.  I iced my Achilles, and Mike iced his knee.  We got cleaned up and walked to Lake Louise (about a mile uphill). The lake was beautiful with the Victoria Glacier behind it.

We had dinner up there (you can tell we are biking again as we both devoured our huge plates of food) and headed back to our home for the night.

The privacy bear to hang outside your cabin.