Resting at the springs

Albert left before I woke up and hopefully has made the 100+ mile ride he was planning by now. He liked to point out that it'll not be dark for another couple hours (I write this at 8:30pm around the 50th latitude North), but riding for more than 12 hours in a day is a lot of saddle time for anyone who isn't an ultra distance athlete. I won't be sure of when I'll hear from him since cell signal begins to be less available as soon as one starts heading east.

If you look closely, you can see radium springs (with red dot on label) and the "valley" (high pass!) that I'll be going through tomorrow, to get to the banff-windermere highway, which is the road in the foreground

There was quite a focus on food today as I only really got out of bed to eat lunch, and then kept shopping for more food and finally had a milkshake for an afternoon snack from Screamers...

Spent some time at the library working on video uploading & also the plans for the rest of the rockies riding. Pretty small town but pretty nice library! Apropos of nothing, the church here has a trail on the hillside with the stations of the cross lifesize sculptures so I checked it out. It was not a spiritual experience but the view of the valley I'll be climbing out of tomorrow was nice!

Headed back to the hot springs to relax one more time and it was even more rewarding than expected, since these goats came to visit us and hung around for a long time. About 2 dozen total and we got to watch them climb a very steep wall up and back down, as well as just graze and chill. And play in traffic :/ . I also did a minute long cold soak and that was invigorating, this was glacier-cold almost-freezing streamwater.

After springs/goats, got Subway for dinner with cholocate milk, chips, and a candy bar. Trying to get enough calories into the machine so I can be fueled for tomorrow's long day!

I feel like I'm living my best life and am at some peace, though during/after tomorrow's ride, I may be also feeling like it is too hard a life.