Jen dropped us off in Banff at about 0900. We put the tandem together and put the bags on. We had to buy some camping gear eg gas, straps and food hanging gear. The shop did not open till 1000 so we went for a coffee and a morning sandwich whilst we waited.
The amount of interest the tandem gets in tourist places like Banff is crazy. Banff is lovely but it is defo a tourist hotspot parts of it felt a little like Disney Land. It is about ten years since I was last here and it seems pretty much the same.
After we got our supplies we headed to the trail head of the GDMBR. We set off at about 1100 so I was conscious that it was a late start and we did not want a late finish being the first day on the trail. There is a lot for us to get used to eg managing smells around camp and making noise on the trail, it always takes a couple of days to find your flow. The scenery out of Banff on the trail is just pure amazement. We stopped at fast flowing rivers to top up our water with cool pure liquid heaven.
We got to Spray Lake and it was crazy beautiful, the mountains, the lake it is unbelievable as there was only a couple of people there, they were enjoying some paddling. The lake temperature was perfect. I stripped off and got in. I could have spent the rest of the day in the lake, it was just so refreshing and temporarily took my mind off an ice cold Coke.
After the lake we had the option to continue on the GDMBR or take a gravel road to our first camp spot. As we started late and time was ticking on we decided on the gravel road. It might not have been the easy option with deep gravel in places and a strong headwind flowing through the valley.
We did have an high speed tumble in the most unlikely place. We did all the trail and single track without issue but when we got onto a gravel road we came off. We were ploughing down the road and there are piles of gravel in places that are about six inch deep. Once I was in a pile I knew we were going to go down. My options were to try and ride it out or brake, I think I went for a bit of both and the plan failed. So we both had a bit of gravel rash in the afternoon to contend with.
I have to admit, I am rubbish in heat and the temperatures are 35+ degrees. It has been the same on every hot tour I have been on. I get to a point where I just crave ice cold Coke. So I did have a slump on the miles leading in to camp. Every time I took a drink of water my mouth would be dry to the bone five minutes later.
It was a long slog to the site on the gravel road and I was really feeling the effects of the heat. It does not seem to bother Rachael and she is happy practicing her bear whistle and hard claps on the back of the tandem whist I have my head down praying for some trail magic. For people that don’t know what trail magic is, it is volunteers that support people walking, biking certain trails and have drinks and snacks to hand out. Lovely people giving back to the community.
We got to the site and saw a guy already camping. It is a biker hiker site. You write your credit card details on a card and post it in a box. It was about $31 for the night. Don’t worry I will be changing my card details on my return to the UK.
I asked the guy what the crack was with the site and he was from the Netherlands so had no idea what I was taking about. In the end he understood my northern lingo and helped us out. The site is next to a body of water. The site is called Bullers Pond. I was delirious with the heat but we set to getting the tent up, making tea and filtering the water for the next day which is a very time consuming task. Rachael had noodles and I had a cheese wrap. If I don’t go home lighter from this trip, my body is strange.
The horse flies and mosquitoes were a bit vicious, but we set to with washing our clothes in the pond and setting them out to dry on the picnic table.
We are now cosy in our tent as we are at a higher altitude once the sun goes down it is nice and cool.
We aim to be up early so we can get most of the miles done in cooler temperatures, I am hoping that something marked on the map is a place that will sell Coke!!!