Arrived in Canada! The trip was pretty uneventful. I was a bit anxious about my bike and gear getting here with me, but no problems! The TSA didn’t even inspect my boxes (something else I was concerned with just because I know how I packed everything. My bike weighed in at 19 pounds (excluding seat post, saddle and pedals) but packed in a card board bike box with all the tubes wrapped in plastic. The other box with all my gear and food weighed in at 40.5 pounds.
So, with water I’m probably looking at 60 pounds-ish. Bit heavy, but I know I have everything I need.
The customs line was short so I had plenty of time to get to the Banff Airporter shuttle. I met up with three other TD riders while we were waiting for out oversized bike boxes at baggage claim. Leaving the airport the area kind of reminded me of Kansas with big rolling hills, but as we moved to the other side of town, it was more like the front range around Denver with mountains in the distance. The drive to Banff was quite scenic.
They had a large space near check-in at the hotel to un-box your bike and put it back together, so I did that after checking in. I still need to pack and put on my bike bags, but I’ll do that in the morning.
Sunrise in Banff is 5:30am, sunset is at 10pm, but it doesn’t really start to get dark until after 11pm. So I went into town for a late dinner (venison sausage). The picture below is the view from my room at 9:30pm.
Tomorrow morning I’ll finish setting up my bike and packing my bags. Then I’ll ride through town and get the obligatory picture of my bike next to the “Welcome to Banff” sign. I need to hit Safeway and an outdoor shop to get the last minute things that I couldn’t travel with (like denatured alcohol for my stove). Great trip so far!
