6th
July 2016
More work on
Troopie, and some great bike rides.
Well, I left you
in a coffee shop this morning while Banff Diesel worked on Troopie. I was hoping for a 100% cure, but have to be
satisfied now with about an 80% cure. But the day was excellent for many other
reasons.
After I had
finished my coffee and the rain had cleared away, I set off on my bike to find
a couple of trails that were well marked on the local map. First, as it was
closest to town, was Fenland Trail, just a 2.1 km trail through a wooded area
along the side of the Bow River. I passed an area where the Banff Canoe Club
hire out canoes for people to paddle up the river (you can’t go down the river
– There is a waterfall !), and immediately passed that spot, I saw a movement
in the bushes………….It was a big elk with a full rack of antlers, still covered
in their velvet !
I have left a
series of photos in there because you can then see how a sighting
develops. First you see a movement in
the corner of your eye, and then as you look closer you see more, and the whole
moment develops in front of your eyes.
That is what I love in this part of the world – even in downtown,
touristy Banff – You can have incredible wildlife moments that you rarely get
anywhere else. I stopped and got off my
bike and just stood there and watched as the elk slowly came up onto the path, munching
the local flora as he came, almost totally oblivious of me. He slowly turned and walked down the path
away from me, while a couple who were coming the other way quickly got off to
the side of the path behind some bushes and waited as he came towards
them. He was magnificent.
As he sauntered
along the path, I eventually got to the other couple and even though they were
locals, they were speechless – He had come almost right up to them before
veering slowly off to the right.
Eventually he walked out of the bushes and just crossed the main road
right into the carpark of a local hotel where there was some delicious looking
grass right outside the front doors – The hotel visitors couldn’t believe their
luck ! It was some 30 minutes between
when I first spotted him to when he went into the hotel carpark, and it was
just a great half hour.
After that I
continued along the pathway next to the river, with people in canoes passing me
and having lots of fun. Eventually I
completed the loop and ended up back a the Canoe rental place, where, on
listening to one of the guys talk, I said “Where are you from ?”. Darwin !!!
Darren (or was it Darryl ? Sorry
– my memory is getting so bad and I know he’ll read this ! Email me !!) from Darwin !
Such a nice lad, has been in Banff for a couple of years, working the
snowfields in the winter, but starting to get the itch to move on. So in
between him getting families into canoes and on their way upstream we chatted
for a while and passed a very pleasant half hour or so, Wherever you end up going, mate, just enjoy
it.
I never realized
it, but the Bow River actually starts up north of Lake Louise at the Bow
Glacier, and then, after flowing through Banff flows NE across all of
Saskatchewan and then across Manitoba, and eventually empties into Hudson Bay
as the Nelson River right there in Churchill where I went looking for polar
bears 2 years ago !! So I have seen both
ends of the river !
After leaving the
canoeing I headed in the other direction, following the river down towards the
Bow Falls, which are right underneath the Fairmont Banff Springs, set in a
beautiful position in the trees. It was
quite a steep ride on the bike up to the lookout over the falls, and as I
hadn’t ridden the bike since ????? Newfoundland ???, I was feeling quite weary
by now, having probably covered some 20 kms or so since leaving the car at the
workshop this morning. But I felt so
good for doing it. I should have done it yesterday.
By about 1 pm I
was feeling decidedly puckish, especially since I had had a minimal breakfast
this morning because I had forgotten to get milk for my cereal last night
!! And I had been very good at the
coffee shop earlier, not succumbing to any of the tasty offerings on display
! So I decided to go back to the bar
where I had had an excellent burger yesterday, but today I had the elk burger
instead of the beef, at the bar man’s suggestion. It was very good, but I think cow has got it
over the elk any day !! Just IMHO ! Maybe I was still feeling a bit close to the
elk I had spent time with this morning !!
After lunch, I
decided to cycle back out to Banff Diesel and see how they were getting on. It seemed much further going back out there
after all the cycling I had done, plus it started to rain quite heavily on the
way ! When I got there it was good and
bad news. They had found a LOT of gunk
in the engine – Just build up over the many kilometres of particulates and
other stuff that gets left behind in the combustion process – I think they were
rather surprised how bat it was ! They
had cleaned it as much as they could,
and certainly the smoke (of unburnt fuel)
coming out of the exhaust pipe when you accelerate is a lot less, but
unfortunately the engine error light is still on. This means that there is still something
wrong in there, and, more annoyingly, while the light remains on, the engine is
in “limp home” mode, which means I have very little power down low, or when
climbing hills. We tried all sorts of
things to get the light out, and I even went back to the garage who helped me
yesterday, and they managed to get it out – For about 5 minutes ! Then as soon as you rev the engine at all,
the light comes back on.
So, after a quick
shop (for milk and a few other things !), it was already past 4 pm so instead
of heading up through the park tonight, I decided to have one more night in the
Tunnel Mountain Campground, and leave early in the morning and see how Troopie
handles a day on the road…… We shall
see.
Other pics (some of Calgary a couple of days ago) here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/6304588855152452337?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ76gpHz8sWWKw
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