Category: trip reports

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canada general hiking moosling trip reports

Ribbon Lake camping

Camping at Ribbon Lake was another cunning plan of Tanya’s, come to fruition while my mother was visiting.  A bunch of us had booked camping sites up at Ribbon Lake, and four families gathered in the parking lot to hike in together.

The Ribbon Creek bridge is much further away when you’re hiking instead of riding the High Rockies trail.

There were four kids along in our group hiking in. All good little hikers, but enjoying the stops to check out the river and throw rocks into them.

Our lunch stop was at the scenic circular waterfall.

After a break to feed the starving masses, we wandered up through the burnt trees, gradually chatting and get to know each other. We knew Tanya & Mark of course, but hadn’t met the other two families before.

Almost everyone was in photo approved colours though!

As we climbing up above the treeline, we found a patch of snow! This also had to be played with.

And then a boulder for the kids to play on…

Goofballs hamming it up on top of the boulder…

The way up and over South Buller Pass was still a little snow bound, but easy to hop across, especially when you weigh under 25kg.

I always seem to end up dragging Mum out into snow, no matter how hard she tries to come in the middle of summer when there can’t possibly be any snow.  She’s a very good sport about my attempts to drag her about on mad adventures though.

The final section of scree up to the pass was clear though, and there was some scrambling on the rocks instead of walking on the trail.

We didn’t hang out for too long at the pass – it was windy! But down below we could see Ribbon Lake. We started descending steeply.

More snow! We didn’t do much glissading, but it was tempting.

This part of the descent was a little spicy. There was a steeply angled strip of snow that led into the creek. A slip would have led to coldness, wetness and possible injury. We took it carefully.

No-one slid into the snowmelt creek though! And we were marching across the bridge and along the final stretch through the trees.

We set up at camp, finding some empty tent pads, and then the boy got another lesson on tying the laces on his new shoes.

We met up with the other family there, and started cooking dinner and playing games.

Then we sent the menfolk to go and wash the dishes in the cold cold lake so we could take photos of them.

Sitting around the campfire, we read stories, ate dinner, and played Catchphrase with a neat little electronic gadget someone had brought along.

I ended up in bed fairly early – I started off there trying to get the boy to sleep, but I think I fell asleep before him.

The next morning the kids were up building forts out of the campfire wood collection – or really, just inhabiting the forts that had already been built.

Meanwhile the smaller kids brought in an engineering consult as they tried to construct a smaller house out of wood. The big bad wolf would have had them in no time.

Then it was time to say goodbye. Three families were headed onwards, to descend the chains below Ribbon Lake, pick up cars and start a lengthy car shuttle. We were headed over North Buller Pass, and another crew were headed over South Buller Pass. But no matter where we were all going, we could rest safely in the knowledge that we were all so lovely and brightly coloured that we were sure to scare off any predators that were trying to eat us.

Another fun camping weekend! And it didn’t rain that much, woo!

Distance in to Ribbon Lake via South Buller Pass: 10.5km
Elevation gain: 630m

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bikes canada general trip reports

Methadone

After a couple of days riding down to Fernie, my legs were still feeling overexcitable. So after a fun night staying with Katya and her family (thanks guys!), catching up and spending some quality time stalking Jackie in her Tour Divide attempt, I set off from Fernie along the Old Stumpy trail. From there I diverted onto a trail that ran mostly under the powerline right-of-way, through an active logging operation, and finally out onto the highway just outside of Sparwood.

Far slower than riding the highway, with lots of up and down, but it was nice to be off the road. From Sparwood I jumped onto the Tour Divide route, having fun following the line on my gps, pretending I was racing. I started to run into some of the guys we’d met yesterday and the day before. They were all folks whose races weren’t necessarily going according to plan. The rain and mud and cold had conspired to make things challenging, and a few mechanicals in the mix hadn’t helped.

After turning off the highway, I was presently surprised by the Corbin mine road. It was deserted! A perfect sealed road, with a car every half an hour or so. The uphill gradient was so minimal I wasn’t even sure I was actually climbing – until I turned and looked behind me. A moose, a few deer, and plenty of rodents were scampering about.

After a few fun encounters, and riding along and chatting with Tour Dividers, I finally hit my turn around point. I had to be back in Sparwood to meet Kate and get a ride home. So I sadly said goodbye to the GDMBR, and turned my bike back downhill.

Hanging out in Sparwood, I napped by the giant green truck. I hope everything comes together for next year, I’m really looking forward to racing this route.

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bikes canada general trip reports

Megan and Kate’s excellent adventure

After waving off Jackie and the rest of the Tour Divide crew in Banff, I was on a mission. I had to get back to Canmore and get my bike packed and ready to cycle out of the house by the time Kate arrived.

Thankfully, Kate was running late, as I had done the bare minimum when it comes to prior preparation.

Less thankfully, it was starting to rain.

I helped Kate with the logistics of getting her bike packed and ready for her first overnight bikepacking adventure, and then we set off into the dubious weather outside.

Leaving Canmore, we stopped at the top of the pass for photos, and to say our last farewells to phone reception. Turning south, the soggy wilderness beckoned.

The rain was pretty relentless. Spray Lake Road holds up pretty well to rain though, and we generally didn’t have to ride in actual mud, although we were being liberally coated with a fine layer of grit.

We were looking forward to reaching Engadine Lodge, where we would start meeting up with the Tour Divide racers who had set off that morning. Sure enough, not long after reaching the lodge we ran into a man stopped at the side of the road. It was Michael Row from Vermont, not having the best time in the rain, and happy for a chat.

Between there and Boulton Creek shop we ran into a few riders, but at the little shop, we hit a huge cluster of wet and slightly dispirited riders. Quite a few were talking about stopping for the night. It was almost easy to get sucked into the idea – people were talking about how wet and cold they were, the need to dry out, the danger of bears. But Kate and I had plans to make it to Fernie tomorrow, and so we resisted the urge to stay with the pack, and kept moving.

Leaving the warm store in soaking wet gear was a good way to start feeling really chilled. Thankfully there was some good solid climbing ahead of us to get over Elk Pass.

As we got closer to the top of Elk Pass the rain even lightened a little. For a while, we even suspected it might not be raining, but careful examination of the air confirmed that it was indeed still full of water.

The descent to Elk Pass was not too tricky, and we were soon down the other side, rolling past the Elk Lakes Cabin and eyeing the warm and jolly interior wistfully. But it was only a couple of kilometres further to the campsite. And then the rain stopped!

We had the campsite all to ourselves and enjoyed sitting on the ground in warm clothes, eating a cold dinner. With the exhaustion of a long day behind us, we retired to the tent early – the night was largely dry and uneventful, and I actually slept pretty well.

The morning dawned fairly clear and rain-free, making it easy to get organised and packed and out of camp in good time. As we drew near the cabin we rolled past some of the inhabitants, out collecting water from the creek. I caught a glimpse of one of them, and had one of those ‘Hey, that person is familiar, why are they familiar?’ moments. The question was immediately resolved when I spotted my friend Tanya a few seconds later. The hut was full of families I knew! Tanya and Mark, and Suzanne and Paul from our Elizabeth Parker hut trip, as well as another family I hadn’t met. We chatted, lamented the fact we hadn’t thought to stop in at the cabin the night before, they topped up our water, and then we set off towards Fernie.

The road from Elk Lakes to Elkford is fairly straightforward. Big rollers, a beautiful wide open valley, and on this day it had sprinklings of Tour Divide riders, as well as sprinklings of rain. The weather never really got properly nice, with rain squalls constantly blowing across.

For someone who has never ridden a bike as far as 136km in a day, let alone a loaded down mountain bike, Kate remained remarkably cheerful. But by the time we hit the final 20km leg into Fernie, she was fading. A massive day behind us, we made the final crawl into Fernie and rode straight to a pub for a 9 pm dinner of burgers. It was hard to decide which was more delightful – the food, the warmth, or being able to sit on something that wasn’t a bike seat.

Thanks for the adventure Kate, you rock!

Day 1: 87km, 1267m gain
Day 2: 136km, 794m gain

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bikes canada general trip reports

Thank you Sir, may I have another!

This is as much of a warning as anything. Do this ride if you’re up for some old-school mountain bike suffering, Kananaskis style. Glory at the deadfall you have to lift your bike over, revel in the fall line climbs, exalt at the loose fall line descents.

It’s all even better if you do it on a warm day, underestimate how long it will take, and don’t bring enough water.

We started from the based of Powderface Ridge, rode up Ford Knoll then along Ford Creek – this took a long time, and involved being beaten by a large amount of overhanging shrubbery. Then Prairie Creek, which had a lot of hikers. Then up Powderface Creek (with stops to splash water on ourselves and cool down), and then up onto Powderface Ridge – success!

Oh wait, no, it’s still a long way to get down again. And oh. God. What is this descent? It goes forever at the same angle. It’s ok, I love baby head rocks. Why would they do this to us? What is this trail? I don’t think my hands will be able to hold my breaks for much longer. Oh, there’s the car. Thank God. And Felix has cold beers in the esky – he’s a genius!

Distance: 42km
Elevation gain: 1900m

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bikes canada general trip reports

Salty Dog – solo once more

For the last couple of years I’ve raced the Salty Dog* in a pair. This year I was worried about my knee, and rather than risking letting down a team mate, I decided to just sign up solo again.

I was really looking forward to the drive all the way back out to Salmon Arm after we just drove back from Squamish six days earlier (Note – I was not actually looking forward to this). But at least I had a road trip buddy! Kat and I were racing in the same category, as I had managed to convince her to sign up for the race without her actually realising what she was signing up for (she trusts me?)

We’d arrived in Salmon Arm, checked into the Podollan (because we were being fancy, and not camping for once), and were cleaning our bikes. And that was when I realised the back wheel was wiggling about in a way that didn’t seem good to me.

I borrowed a cluster tool from some of the other Salty Dog racers milling about the place, it failed to help, and Kat phoned up Skookum Cycles for me – they were technically closed, but would try and help me out if we could get there within five minutes. We threw the bike in the van and hurtled downtown.

The lovely bike mechanic dismantled my wheel, said something about some threads being a bit stripped, cleaned it out and re-assembled it, saying “It should be good for tomorrow, but you should get it fixed afterwards.” Phew!

The race summary basically goes: It was warm and dusty, I did seven laps. My rear wheel had been getting a bit loose, and I’d been re-tightening the thru-axle thingy every couple of laps. But on the sixth lap the lever on the thru-axle flew off and I couldn’t find it. I took the descent easy, then had another hunt for the lever on my seventh lap. I still couldn’t find it, and my rear wheel was starting to feel a bit off. My gears were skipping a little. I was remembering that time in Singletrack6 when my wheel actually fell off.

When I made it back to the tents, I took everything into account, and decided not to try for an eighth lap. I found out afterwards that I’d passed the leader in my category (Sport <40 women) at the top of my last lap, and clinched the victory on the descent. Woo! Meanwhile, Kat had polished off six laps in her first MTB race, ending up in third.

This really means that I’ll have to sign up in the Expert instead of Sport class next time I do something like this – although now I’ve finally mastered one-finger breaking, I’m closer to feeling like less of a fraud if I call myself an expert (now, to just master turning with my feet in the right place)

*Mountain bike race where you ride laps of an 11km course for six hours, commonly ridden by many Canmore folk as a season starter.