An exciting round up of a random selection of trips that now get crammed into one post thanks to the fact that it’s now a month after the fact and I’ve almost forgotten what happened. Welcome to the exciting world of me having an un-injured knee again! (For a while) (It’s actually hurting again right now and I’m not sure why, but am attempting to pretend it’s fine, and that I’m not worried) (I’m actually a bit worried)
Adventure 1 was a fatbike trip from Canmore to Banff, via Goat Creek. With little snow and lots of warm days, Goat Creek was getting glazed and fast, easy riding conditions, and perfect for towing the trail-a-bike along.
We’ve actually hacked up our Tout Streamliner now so that it has a 2.4″ on it instead of the skinny tires it came with – downside is less gears available, as we had to remove half of the cluster to get the tire to fit.
As most of February has been, it was a gorgeous day, and nice and warm. There wasn’t much other traffic about, either on the road, or on the trail.
And so we rode our bikes, and mosied along, and the trip was uneventfully peaceful and pleasant. We may have sung Bohemian Rhapsody (or as the boy calls it, “the Mamalayo song”), and Everything is Awesome. Loudly, and with little regard for accuracy or tunefulness.
Not pictured is the end of the trip, where we arrived in Banff and descended on the Wildflour Cafe like a plague of locusts. And from there headed to the Roam bus stop, and the very friendly bus driver helped us load our ungainly pile of bikes onto the bus for the ride back to Canmore. Success!
The next random adventure was me deciding to ski the Cookie Race in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. I’d signed up a couple of months earlier, back when the snow was still good, and the promise of 42km worth of cookies seemed like a good deal. The shorter 24km race costs the same amount, but there are obviously less aid stations to pass through, and thus less home made cookies. I am not silly, and so opted to maximise my cookies.
When the day came, waxing conditions for classic skis were verging on ludicrous, and I set off hopefully with a couple of sticks of borrowed wax, hoping I wouldn’t have to double pole the whole course. On the plus side I opted to wear my rainbow fur gaiters and unicorn rainbow leggings, which at least made the suffering more entertaining. I definitely had a lot more conversations out on the course as a result, and received a lot of cheering on from random by-passers.
But in short – it was warm, waxing was terrible, I survived. I finished the 42km and came second in my category through virtue of the fact there were only two in my category. I did however win the most awesome outfit category, so there is that (note for accuracy – there was no such category). The cookies were great though!
Adventure number three was a ride of the High Rockies Trail. We started at Driftwood, rather than riding the section from Goat Creek which I’ve done a few times now. Starting at Driftwood and heading south provides some glorious well packed single track, and it was in great condition.
Pictured above is me concentrating furiously on not falling off the bridge and down into the precipice of imminent peril. Certain doom awaited.
Incredibly fun trail, highly recommended winter fat bike ride, and much more moderate than some of the epic climbs that are required on the trails around Canmore.
And so that was February!