i am so on the fence because im betting there are about 48 other people assuming the same thing 

There are thousands of people visiting Banff that go out walking in the woods. I'm sure the several outdoor stores or the visitor center will be able to provide you with some. I bought mine in Banff last year the day before the start and there was absolutely no shortage! There might be 100+ tdr racers but that's still a small number of people compared to the number of visitors Banff sees throughout the year and I guess the locals use it too. I'm sure you'll be fine getting it there. If you are worried about not getting one, you could just phone a store to have one put aside for you.

Most of the setups you will see here are used for off-road biking. When riding gravel/dirt/fire roads then racks and panniers are still ok but when you are riding more technical stuff, singletrack or rougher tracks, then racks/panniers tend to get pushed to their limits.
It's not uncommon to break racks and panniers tend to get in the way when walking/pushing along side the bike on steep climbs (it happens to all of us at some point). Also racks don't do well with full suspension bikes and most modern mountainbikes don't come with eyelets for racks anyway.
That said, a lot of us started bikepacking with racks and panniers and did just fine, most of the time. 
On the other hand, if racks and panniers are what you have, by all means enjoy the adventures! 

I will ride some of it on the SS.  The rest I will walk 

That's another way to put it. Awesome!

nice! 

Is there any public transportation in Banff that can get you to the interesting 'tourist' spots?

I would assume you'll have a bike, no?

I have a older Garmin Vista HCx, and it's great. But if I were buying a new GPS, I'd get a Garmin eTrex 20 or 30.

Same here. Visate has all the functions I need and the etrex 20 or 30 is it's replacement I think.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the scandal was equipped with SLX 9-speed components, BB7 mechanical brakes, specialized saddle, Rock Shox Recon gold fork or On-One carbon rigid fork,... As you can see, nothing fancy but never had any problem with any of those components.
On the Inbred, I run all the same gear except that I run a surly singlespeed chainring, surly singlespeed cog and an 8 speed chain.

I ride On-one's. Started with an aluminium scandal 29er which I raced the Tour Divide with and many thousands of miles more before that. I was really sad to see that it arrived damaged after the flight over back from the US last summer. Bike rode lovely with or without bags on it. I rode it rigid during a lot of my training and added sus forks for the race, bike handled pretty well both ways. I'm no geometry expert but I'd say they've got it pretty dialed in.
The airline insurance money was used to buy a myself a steel 29er inbred with the swapout dropouts. I've used that bike for a couple of thousand more miles but only singlespeed. Did a few multi-day rides with bags on it and it handles just like the Scandall which I think had an identical geometry.
The scandal had no rack mounts, the inbred does. The latest inbred models come with only 1 waterbottle mount which I think sucks. They might also have a different geo but I'm not sure. Like those frames, especially for the price you can sometimes buy them for.

So I can just edit that page and put my name on top? Cool!

Also, now that I've sacrificed my traditional bottle cage locations for a framebag,  what are folks thoughts on mounting cages on suspension fork? This would be in addition to a bladder in the framebag and/or pack when max capacity is needed.

I (and many others) ran waterbottles on my forks during TDR. I also used a waterbottle under the downtube and never lost a bottle. I ran some precautions though. The waterbottle under the downtube had a valve cover to protect it from nasty spray picked up along the way and was secured with a piece of string. All three bottles were kept inside specialized plastic cages which seem to keep bottles better then rigid alu/tita ones.
The bottles on the forks where placed in a way that I could also use them safely while riding!

Really nice bike, what is it?
Oh, great work on the framebag too.

Question for Euro-vets:

What documentation did you need at the US border - just your passport, or did you also have to show evidence of a flight ticket home?  (or even a US visa!?)

Getting across the US border took me like 15 minutes (being from Belgium). You don't need the ESTA form filled in if you are crossing into the US over land, which is your case (unless you fly to the US before heading out to Banff of course). I don't know if it's the normal procedure for someone entering the country but I was fingerprinted, photographed and had to pay a fee to get in (relatively small amount).
I did not mind having to stay in the border office for that long because I was soaked to the bones and freezing cold when I got there. I remember having problems writing my name and sign because my body was shaking from the cold.
All in all, it was pretty straight forward and much faster then standing in line at the airport to get into the country.

Bikepacking The Colorado Trail Presentation, REI Denver, Tuesday, March 13, 6:30pm

Brothers share their trip and tips.

I don't suppose someone could film this and post it on here.
I'd love to be there but am a few thousand miles and many timezones away.

Any other tire recommendations?

WTB Nano's, WTB Vulpines, Continental Race King,...

For the moment I'm running the Maxxis Ardent tires on my mountainbike and find that they roll pretty well on roads too, for a 'real' mountainbike tire that is. I went on a road overnighter the other weekend and couldn't even be bothered to change them over to the slicks I have laying around, just added some air. Speed is never my priority though...

I like Mike's bike setup. He's opted for the disc brake and carbon route. He's using an On-one dirty disco carbon frame and has gone for Reynolds Assault Carbon Disc wheels with a mostly Ultegra group.

I wonder why he didn't opt to put some wider tires on though. He has room to spare and I would think something wider would be more comfortable over such a long distance without slowing him down.

We're excited to be having a few bags made by him for our tandem.

When you get the bags, can you please post some pics of the tandem with the bags on it? I'd love to see that, as a fellow tandem-rider.

Thanks for all the info and inspiration! It was really useful in planning a recent tour.

http://whileoutriding.com/2012/02/15/back-in-the-chihuahuan-desert-bikepacking-in-big-bend/

That looks like a nice adventure. LOVE those pictures!

Maybe there is already a thread on what fork has made it through the TD without an oil change?

I ran a 29er RS Recon gold without any problems in the 2011 TD. Why do you think you would need an oil change after only 3 or weeks of riding? 

Nice job! 

I'm looking at the first picture and my brain plays tricks on me. Is one of those waterbottles photoshopped on there? Somehow I feel like they shouldn't be touching but it seems like they do. Did you lower one of them or something?

Anyway, great work. If you don't protect the frame where the bag/straps rub, eventually (over time), the paint will get a little rough. It's a lovely bike, try to keep it that way.

What makes a bike comfortable to ride for 10 hours on trails?

I think that accepting that there will always be some degree of discomfort after 10 hours in the saddle is the first step to being more comfortable on the bike.