I knew from the start that Day Six wouldn't be easy because it'd pretty much involve a constant uphill from Lake Louise all the way to the Bow Summit over 25km away.

At least it gained altitude over a long distance as opposed a mountain pass.

The day started off with a flat tire as Dave noticed that his rear tire was completely deflated as he recovered his bike - the first flat of the trip. This was no problem since we brought a total of 4 inner tubes along with a spare tire.

A quick tube swap and we were on our way.

Here's Dave with Mt. Temple in the distance. The weather was great as usual.

The Icefields Parkway is an obvious haven for cyclists. We must have met at least 30 to 40 this day alone including another group of cyclists on a guided tour.

After around 5km of riding, Dave noticed that his rear tire was losing air once again.

A thorough inspection of the tire revealed a small wire which was protruding through the tire and into the tube.

During the 8 days of this journey, we only had a total of 2 flats - all on this particular day. My tires were fine. In fact, I didn't even fill my tires with air during the entire trip.

Some typical terrain along the Icefields Parkway on day 6. Bow Summit can be seen in the far distance.

Here's a shot of Bow Lake with Bow Glacier rising above.

We decided to pull into the rest area just before the Num Ti Jah lodge and cook up some ramen for lunch.

After filtering some more water from a nearby stream, we were on our way once again.

Here's a look back at Bow Lake. The Wapta Icefield can be seen to the right.

Here's a sight for sore eyes (and legs) !

After what seemed like an eternity of uphill climbing, we finally reached the Bow Summit. We weren't in the mood to hike up to the Peyto Lake lookout so we decided to move onwards.

The downhill run from the Bow Summit was simply amazing. We must have covered close to 10km without a single pedal stroke.

Mt. Chephren sticks out like a sore thumb.

It's truly amazing how massive this mountain is. We were actually able to see it from the road in front of our youth hostel at Rampart Creek - over 30km away.

Here's another view of Mt. Chephren with Waterfowl lake in the foreground.

Shortly after I took this picture, we encountered some road construction which created a small traffic jam.

After we cleared that, we had another great downhill run to the Saskatchewn river.

Here's a shot of the bridge over the Saskatchewn River.

Shortly afterwards, we pulled in the Saskatchewan Crossing where we took a short break. Dave helped himself to a huge ice cream cone while I had my Pepsi.

Ten kilometers later, we finally pulled into the Rampart Creek hostel.

The Rampart Creek hostel is a rustic hostel with no flush toilets, showers or running water. However, it did have a full functioning kitchen with a refrigerator along with heated cabins. The lighting was in the form of flourescent lights powered by solar cells.

Thanks to a cache of supplies I left over a week earlier, Dave and I immediately helped ourselves to a mountain sized Kokanee upon our arrival. Dinner was in the form of Vacuum packed Korean curry on rice.

I knew that the following day would be short but intense so I jumped into bed by 10pm.