Day 0 (Friday May21st) – The day finally arrives to get this journey underway. This is the day for final packing and getting to Banff to begin a long weekend bicycle tour – the Golden Triangle: Banff – Radium – Golden – Banff.
I loaded up my gear into my panniers, removed the front wheel of my touring bike and maneuvered it through the trunk into the back of my Toyota . As planned, I hit the road just after noon and drove south in the rain for an hour and a half until I reached Red Deer. After a quick lunch break at the A&W, I continued my drive towards Calgary. At the north edge of the city I took the new highway 201 which skirts around northwest Calgary avoiding the delays of the old route through the centre of town. By the time I got through Calgary the skies were mostly blue and sunny. Highway 1 took me through to Banff where I arrived around 5:30. I found the hostel, got my key and settled in.
HI Banff Alpine Centre Hostel
I spent some time that evening walking in the vicinity of the hostel taking photos with my iPhone & Nikon D80. It was a rather chilly evening (around freezing?) so I broke out my toque and was glad to have a down vest with me.
Randy in Banff near the hostel taking photos
After walking around fro an hour I headed back to my room and amused myself by creatively processing some of the iPhone photos I had taken.
tree near Banff HI hostel (after creative processing with Photoshop Mobile)
Later in the evening, 9:30ish many of the others in our cycling group arrived at the hostel, although at this point I still didn’t know most of them.
Hoping that it wouldn’t be too cold or wet in the morning, I called it a night.
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