Day 8

Day 8 Golden to Banff, km 799 to 942, 143 km today.
Left Golden via the eastern access road at 7:45 MDT; this was the steepest hill of the day as it turned out. Temperature 9 C and overcast when we left. It didn't rain until about 2 today. The first hill out of Golden is called 10 mile hill for a good reason; it is 16 km long and gave us the largest vertical of the day. They were working on the road- part of the project to make it 4 lanes all the way through. This is a massive undertaking 10 Mile hill is actually a hill up then down and up again. The Upper part has been moved well above the old road with a few large rock cuts and two bridges. As we approached the first bridge, there was a single sheep standing by the road. We stopped and saw a flock of about 8 or 9 including one lamb. Later on I saw a cow elk by the road. We stopped in Field to pickup an accommodations guide for Alberta and a map. The mountains are just beautiful. Then we went up the big hill as far as the spiral tunnels viewpoint. It was perfect timing because long freight train came along very soon thereafter allowing us to watch it enter the lower tunnel. Our next stop was at the continental divide which was not marked well. At the Jasper interchange, we had to wait about 30 min because they are blasting for the new road. The road the rest of the way into Banff was an easy, albeit wet, ride. We arrived in Banff 5-6 pm; we were wet and hungry but not tired like on other days. We should have taken pictures on our arrival but the rain and cold made us postpone them until later in the evening. The views of the mountains from downtown are just spectacular.