Canada day 3: Banff-Mosquito Creek

Since the weather forecast predicted rain today in the afternoon, I woke up early and made sure to leave Banff at eight o’clock in the morning.

The route today took me further into Banff National Park. The first part of the route was the Bow Valley Parkway from Banff to Lake Louise. I had my bear spray in the back pocket of my jersey today – just in case. And indeed after half an hour I spotted the first bear. There were cars stopping at the side of the road, which is always a sign for wildlife nearby. And there was a black bear walking further up on the hill maybe 200 metres from us.

So early in the morning, there wasn’t much traffic. So I took a look over my shoulder several times today when there were no cars at all.

I stopped for lunch in Lake Louise and then entered the highlight of the trip: the Icefields Parkway which is a 230 kilometres long scenic route between Lake Louise and Jasper. At the start of the road, there were little booths where they checked whether I had a park permit. The lady in the booth saw my bear spray and said: “Oh, you’ve got bear spray. Good! Lots of bears on the parkway.” That was reassuring…

The route was now leading higher into the mountains. The last thirty kilometres were constantly uphill, reaching 1800 metres finally. After 90 kilometres, I reached my goal today, Mosquito Creek, at 2:30. There is a campsite and a hostel here. Due to the heavy rain which was predicted for tonight, I asked to stay in the hostel. It started indeed raining one hour after I arrived here. So I think that was a good call.

Tomorrow, depending on the weather, I will either have a shorter trip to Rampart Creek. Or, if it doesn’t rain, I might actually continue and go 100 kilometres in total to Wilcox Pass, which is 2000 metres high. That would allow me to reach Jasper the day after and give me one more buffer day for the rest of the trip.