Category: canada

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bikes canada general

Epic bike date

The kind offer of a Moosling-sitter led to a cunning plan to check out some now-snow-free trails. We left the list of where we planned to go, and headed out the door.

A casual start up Quaite, and the awful steep rocky section didn’t seem so awful as I remember it being. Maybe not hammering up the start helps a little there. The trail was quiet, and we were starting in the morning cool. The descent down from Jewell Pass was a bit mucky in spots, but still fun, and no bears.

Riding across the boring fire trail sections to get to Mount Baldy, we started to hit the weekend crowds, out to hike the trails in this lovely weather. Unfortunately then the boring fire trail continued, as we climbed up to Baldy Pass. And it’s not even all climbing! The slightly tedious trail winds up and down before settling into a proper climb and some single track towards the pass.

After a brief pause for photos at the pass (for Alex to catch up, and for some photos), we headed down. Cautiously, as there were quite a few hikers out, plus one pile of avalanche debris to hike-a-bike over. Before long the trail had spat us out onto the road and we were heading back to Barrier Lake for a quick lunch stop.

Thankfully the hiking crowds had thinned a little by the time we were biking up Prairie View trail, which although wide and easy to pass on, is always a little painful. Apparently everyone was up having lunch at the summit, all the lookout points were absolutely swarming with people – who were fascinated by the fat tyres on Alex’s Moonlander, you can’t take him anywhere these days. We opted to continue on, and through a crowd of asian tourists (“Well done! Well done!” as I biked downhill past them), we finally made it to the Razor’s Edge turn off.

From there things started to go a little downhill (literally and figuratively), as Alex’s occasional leg cramps became pretty persistent, and he couldn’t really pedal much at all. I was completely unhelpful, with nothing to offer except suggestions that apparently pickle juice fixes cramps instantly. Not that we had any. The lack of flow didn’t do the trail any favours. Being quite technical, I find it hard to ride in a start-stop fashion, and ended up walking far too many sections that I possibly could have ridden. Nonetheless we did eventually make it back to the car in decent time, and have decided it’s a good little 50km loop close to home. We were both expecting the total elevation gain to be a little higher though, I could have sworn it felt like twice that amount!

Distance: 46km
Elevation gain: 1640m
Time: Around 5 hours

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canada general moosling

The winter adventures video

Just a short one, with some of the fun we had in the snow over winter… Filming locations include Canmore Nordic Centre, Lake Windermere (Invermere), Chester Lake (Kananaskis) and Goat Creek Trail.


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bikes canada general moosling

Return to Lake Minnewanka

A return to Minnewanka with the Tout, because it’s a nice cruisy place for a family ride…. and this time it was actually sunny.

This time we dragged Joel along too

A couple of places are a bit tricky with the Singletrailer, and it needs some assistance

Flat and mossy forest makes for relaxing Singletrailer terrain

Unbelievable but true, Alex does sometimes smile when he’s out riding

Moosling grins by the beach at the Warden’s Cabin

Playing around by the shore at the Warden’s Cabin

Alex’s obsession with fat tyres continues unabated. Now he’s selling off all his normal bikes so he can buy another bike with fat tyres.

The Moosling discovers Joel’s scroggin! At least he asked for permission before raiding it for M&Ms

Trail running for 1.5km on the way back to the trailhead. People certainly give you some odd looks when you’re biking along while your toddler runs in front of you.

Distance: 30.5km
Elevation gain: 400m

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bikes canada general moosling trip reports

The traditional early season family epic up Skogan Pass

It was around the time of the year when we start getting impatient to do longer rides. The trails in town are dry. Surely some of the trails further out of town are dry too? And so we set off up Skogan Pass, hoping the snow at the top would have cleared.

We didn’t get away super early, despite the threat of worsening weather in the afternoon. The scenic powerline trail was as scenic as ever, as we pedalled from downtown Canmore towards the Skogan Pass trailhead. The Tout Singletrailer has been making everything easier, even wide double track like this. The start of Skogan Pass was clear. Half-way was still totally fine. But then at that fateful bend to the south, just two kilometres from the summit, and the snow began.

After some silly antics to push the bikes through the snow, we gave in and walked. A kind grizzly had left tracks through the snow for us, so we didn’t have to do our own post-holing. Vicious sharp crystals in the snow tore at our legs though, rubbing them raw, red and angry.

At the pass it started to snow, so we briefly admired the view and then started the trek back downhill. The snow turned to rain, and for a while things got quite miserable , but the weather improved as we reached the bottom of the trail to the pass, and the sun started to dry out our soaking wet clothes. Once we hit Canmore the weather was downright lovely again.

Distance: 45km
Elevation gain: 1100m

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bikes canada general moosling

The Tout goes on a local adventure

There aren’t many dry trails around here yet, but the Lake Minnewanka trail is pretty close. The first kilometre or two has a lot of mud and ice, but once you round the hill, the trail was bone dry. Until it started raining anyway.

We gambled on the weather and lost. Actually, the rain was a bit of a foregone conclusion, and it wasn’t so bad for the first half of the trip. After a short lunch at the Warden’s Cabin, the return trip just got wetter and wetter though.

The single trailer experiment was a success though. Apart from a few fallen trees that haven’t been removed by Parks yet, the trail was great for the Tout… actually, great may be a wee exaggeration for the enormous hill climb at the end, I don’t think that was particularly enjoyable. Apart from the enormous hill, the trail was great for the Tout.

Now we’re just waiting for more warm weather to clear some more trails for us.