Day 2: Calgary AB - Grande Cache AB

Long day today, because I did not want to stay in Jasper, because it is both expensive and deeply poncy.  Hence I am in Grande Cache, which is neither.

The first part of today's route was standard-issue Prairie Provinces of Canada™ until you get past Canmore, where the Mighty Rockies rear up in your face like an over-enthusiastic Irish Wolfhound.  Because it's all National Park, you're supposed to pay to get anywhere beyond Banff, but I accidentally got in the wrong lane and by-passed the toll station, which I think you're allowed to do if you're through traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway.  Which I was not.  There being no apparent way to rectify this mistake I pressed on, hoping not to get stopped by an irate operative in a hat.  Which I wasn't.

For the second time in three years I did not stop at Lake Louise, since the area was so full you have to park three miles away and  get a shuttle bus.  And it'd probably be hidden behind a pall of smoke anyway, because in the other side of the mountains lies British Columbia, which is on fire.  Conditions varied.  Here, for eg, is the view down the valley from Sunwapta Pass:

while Bow Lake looked like this:

I also managed to get a better look at the Athabasca Glacier than the last time I was in these parts, in the rain in 2015.  This photo:

was taken from right next to this marker:

which says "The glacier was here in 1948".  Urk.

At Jasper a lot of traffic heads over the Yellowhead Pass towards Prince George, and just before Hinton most of the rest goes straight on for Edmonton, but Highway 40 - helpfully signposted something like "Alaska - Scenic Route" takes you through lots of trees and concrete like the bit of the M11 north of Stansted before they resurfaced it.  And roadworks.  For 20 km.  Arse.  It appears that most of the rufty-tufty hairy-arsed road workers are staying here, which probably accounts for:

1. The slowness of the internet connection^*
2. The power cut we had an hour or so ago

Only 400 km tomorrow, so I can in theory get up a bit later, but then if I do the rufty-tufty hairy-arsed road workers will have et all the breakfast.  Decisions...

The other day my grate frend Mrs Pingu noted that she had, cycling in the French Alps, seen some "bingly-bongly goats".  Further inquiries revealed "bingly-bongly" to be the adjective applied to goats with bells round their necks.  Alas, I know not whether these goats:

possess the bingly-bongly nature.  Sorry.

* It worked fine when downloading Amplifier's latest release, "Live At Luxor", recorded on their tour earlier this year, but that was before the rufty-tufty hairy-arsed road workers got back from road working.