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bikes canada general moosling trip reports

Bikepack.ca family overnighter: Part II

A post that was split into two not because I have so much story to tell, but because there are so many photos it was getting a little overwhelming.

Before everyone started heading off on their separate ways, we got some photos. Chris and Jeremy and their daughters had arrived at dusk last night, having made it through on the Big Elbow side of the loop. The kids were absolute troopers, and were all set to head back via the Little Elbow side today.

The one hiking family set off back via Elbow Lake, and the rest of us set off on Big Elbow – which hadn’t exactly been the plan originally, but who wants to do an out and back if you have the option to do a loop? And we knew it should be technically possible to get the Chariot through, and seeing as Team Jeremy and Chris had done it… well.

The Big Elbow side of the loop is definitely more technical. Between trail that’s more singletrack in nature (and techy singletrack with rock gardens and roots), and the rebuilt post-flood trail further north, it’s definitely the harder side of the loop.

We made it though! With our vast array of bikes, skinny tyres, fat tyres, towing luggage and kids.

The reroutes built after the flood involve a few steep up and downs, on loose trail. Good hike-a-bike practice!

It’s definitely still beautiful out there though, and one of the advantages of climbing up out of the river valley occasionally are the views you get as a result.

Mike was a bit dubious about this being a Chariot-friendly trail. In my defense I never claimed it to be Chariot-“friendly”, just Chariot-doable, which is a completely different matter.  And at least Zion wasn’t in it when it flipped!

It was warming up as the day moved on. Blue skies, lovely sun, hot summer bikepacking, Canadian Rockies style. And the boy was learning the art of standing on the pedals and cranking up steep climbs.

The river made for a nice cool break by the time we reached it.

Kat and Zion had actually made it over to the far side of the river, but decided to go back and have another go at it, just for fun.  And they made it! I was convinced to try and ride across – it didn’t end so well, my legs just didn’t have enough go in them for the final push, and I scored myself a bruise on my knee that lasted a few weeks.

But a river is a good excuse to stop and snack and throw rocks, even when you don’t have to bandage up a Megan with bleeding legs.

And then onwards – the final push started to feel a bit bakingly hot and dusty, and cheering on the boy proved more challenging. His legs and spirits were beginning to fade.

But then – the suspension bridge that’s essentially the finish line. We made it!

(Oh, and don’t pay any attention to the elapsed time in the Strava thing below, I’m pretty sure it’s counting moving time only, which is only vaguely accurate for this sort of thing … from memory it took about 5 hours to ride out?)

Doug’s write up of the trip is here – his son Tadhg is Finn’s new hero after a couple of bikepacking trips together this summer. Thanks to everyone who came, I’m pretty sure it was fun, but I was so fatigued it was hard to properly enjoy it!

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bikes canada general moosling trip reports

Bikepack.ca family overnighter: Part I

A tentative booking of Tombstone campground earlier in the year turned into a crew  of seven families heading out to the campground, one way or another. In hindsight it might not have been the best option for a big family trip – the idea had been that it’s ideally placed for quick access from the Elbow Lake side, but in reality that side isn’t great for bikepacking, and access from the other side means a longer day for small kids. Oh well! Everyone needs an epic every now and again.

A few of us started from the Little Elbow campground trailhead (whatever the proper name of that trailhead is… the one at the end of the 66!)

Not sure who this cool dude is. Too cool for the likes of me, that’s for sure.

We were riding in via the Little Elbow trail, which means we got to check out the fancy new bridge a few kilometres in. And I could nap on it – my energy levels were still not super high.

After the bridge comes the turn-off to Romulus Campground, and then – the big big hill. Well, really the trail just keeps climbing until you hit the pass, but that first steep hill often feels like the worst of it.

There was a fair bit of bike pushing, but then it got a little more rideable again. If you’re sneaky, you can convince your partner to tow a Chariot with a whole lot of food in it, while you tow your son. Bikepacking in style!

Then we were over the pass and away! Nothing but downhill to go!

And down into the campsite where we  scored some camping spots overlooking the valley. And got to nap some more.

We met Doug there, and the other families started turning up, arriving from various directions and by various modes of travel.

We scored a pretty sweet spot for the tent – and yes, had left the fly at home to save weight.

Zion even learnt how to make fire! Although me, I spent most of the evening napping, and then went to bed as early as I could get away with.

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bikes canada general

Cheering squad: Alberta Rockies 700

Another in the ‘race report from the sidelines’ category, as the Alberta Rockies 700 rolled around, and the two Ryans came up with the plan to set up a neutral support station outside Rebound Cycle for all the AR700 riders  who would be rolling through Canmore.

It’s possible that some of the supporters were a little more biased than others though!

A good crew had assembled and the BBQ had been fired up with Adam and Kyle rolled in, covered in dust and looking hot and hungry. See the death stare that burger is getting?

While we waited for riders to turn up, the kids entertained themselves. Puddles can keep you happy for hours.

Then Kyle and Adam rolled out…

And Kat rolled in, looking magically less dusty than the guys.

Richard wasn’t too far behind her…

Followed by Dean…

Then Katrina headed off, accompanied by Zion – or perhaps she was just going to stock up on food while she waited for some of the guys to keep her company on the 1A out of town.

And then Tim, who was in and out in no time (ok fine, he stopped to chat to Ryan for a bit)

Greg was the first of the riders to take up the offer of a free beer, generously supplied by the Canmore Brewing Company.

As the evening wore on, more supporters wandered by to visit, and the riders coming through seemed more inclined to settle than to push on.

I headed home after 10pm, meaning to just lie down on the sofa for a bit, and then go back out to say hello to the next bunch on in-bound riders. But when I opened my eyes again, it was morning.

I went in hunt of riders, and managed to find Richard outside Rusticana…

And then Brian, with tales of roadside stealth camping, conservation officers, and breakfast beer.

The morning crew was a little more sociable than the evening crew, and there was a lot of standing around and chatting going on.

Then the lanterne rouge crew, Guy, Penny and Tracy rolled into town. Also covered in dust, but still in good spirits.

And so the riders kept heading north towards Hinton along the 40, and the support station packed up for the year. The final results? Adam in first, followed by Dean on his single speed, then Richard and Kyle riding together, Katrina in fifth, followed closely by Tim in sixth. And more still behind them :)

 

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bikes canada general snow trip reports

Lake Minnewanka bikepack overnighter

Last October I attended (and presented at) the Canmore Bikepack Summit – which I still need to write about, but that’s another story. But that led to meeting a lot of very awesome folks who were keen to get out bikepacking, and to me volunteering to host a couple of local Bikepack.ca overnighters, throwing the invite open to whoever wanted to come.

And that is how I came to be preparing to go bikepacking when there was a snowfall warning, threats of 20cm or more of snow, and a likely overnight temperature in the vicinity of -20oC.  Despite the weather forecast, it looked like the five others who’d registered an interest were still keen. We kicked around the idea of shortening the ride, camping somewhere else, but in the end, decided to just go ahead with it.

On Saturday morning Kat and I accepted the very kind offer from Guy for a lift up to the Goat Creek trailhead. Lazy? Yes. Cheating? Sure. But we’d both been feeling a bit like we were coming down with colds, it was very snowy, and the road up the pass can be very busy on a Saturday morning. That’s our story and we’re sticking with it.

This was Kat’s second time on a fatbike – but what better way to learn how to ride one?

And so Team Canmore set off at around 10.15am from the Goat Creek trailhead.  We’d meet the Banff guys up ahead, and Dean was going to be chasing after us from downtown Canmore (after finishing his second breakfast).

There was quite a bit of snow, and it just kept coming down! It was pretty light and fluffy though, and although riding conditions weren’t fast, they were still pretty good.

At one point, miracle of miracles, it even stopped snowing! And there was blue sky! This wasn’t to last though.

Likewise, the freshly groomed perfect corduroy also only lasted a few kilometres. We definitely enjoyed it while it lasted though!

We found Neil while out pedalling the fresh corduroy, and headed on together on the east side of the Spray River.

And then we were five! Rounding up Jeff not too long before getting to Banff Springs Hotel. Well, not that we actually went up there. We cut across below, past Bow Falls and then over the new(ish) pedestrian bridge and into town.

And to Wild Flour Bakery! I swear I need to get a sponsorship from this place. It’s amazing. We refuelled, warmed up, and waited for Dean. Then wandered down to the bike store, browsed, then returned to Wild Flour for our second visit, this time with Dean. There were six of us then, and we were ready to roll!

Biking out of Banff towards Lake Minnewanka, the stretch with all the traffic isn’t the most fun, especially when the shoulders are coated in slushy snow. But before long we were onto the Minnewanka road, the traffic died down, and riding conditions improved.

I was even feeling pretty good about the speed we were moving along at, until a runner starting overtaking us. It was just on the uphills though. Mostly.

But finally, we’d made it! We were at Lake Minnewanka, with over two hours until sunset up our sleeves. (And I clambered up a snowy bank to take the below photo, post-holing through snow up to my thighs, and narrowly avoiding slipping to my doom).

The good thing about being overtaken by a runner, is that you can then accost him and demand request politely that he take a group photo of the bunch of mad fatbikepackers.

Thanks to some very lovely snowshoers (we didn’t actually meet them, but they could have done their own grandmother in for the life insurance and I’d still think they were lovely, snowshoers do such a wonderful job of packing down trails)… but as I was saying, thanks to some very lovely snowshoers, we had nicely packed trail to ride for the first few kilometres.

Although things got a little wobbly on the descent down to the lake. Well, I wasn’t paying attention, pedal struck on a rock and fell down the hill a bit. Snow is wonderfully soft though. Although whatever banged my knee? Not so soft.

Still, it was mostly lovely riding through the forest after that, getting gradually less travelled the further along we rode. The last few kilometres to camp required a lot more concentration to stay balanced on that thin white line, and we were leaving bootprints in the loose snow beneath the bottom of our pedal stroke as the pedals spun around.

Only a couple of deadfall trees to lift the bikes over, and then, the bridge of peril.

After watching Jeff walk his bike across, Dean was considering it dubiously. The bridge never feels terribly solid at the best of times. But in the meantime, Kat happily wandered across the frozen creek below the bridge, and we all followed her lead instead of risking it.

After a final push through deep snow to get down close to the shore, we were clearing tent pads in the forest at the LM8 campground. There was not much more than a few inches of unconsolidated snow there, which was easy to clear. However it was not so easy to drive tent pegs into the frozen ground. And if you could get them in, it was in some cases damn near impossible to pull them out again afterwards!

My little Macpac tent finally got it’s first proper outing in snow in Canada, after being accustomed to lots of ridiculous Australian snow adventures. And our little bikepacking village in the snow was finally set up.

We then spent what seemed like hours melting snow to rehydrate dinners, make tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and prep water for the following day. There was talk of creating a fire, but we were lazy/perspicacious cavepeople and decided the warmest course of action would be to retreat to our tents.

At which point I realised that the patchy cell reception I’d been using entirely disappeared at ground level. After giving up on futile attempts to gain reception by holding my phone to the roof of the tent, I set my phone into airplane mode and settled in for the night.

I was in an old Kathmandu Rumdoodle sleeping bag. I’ve no idea what temperature it was supposed to be rated to. I think Kathmandu was always cagey on that kind of thing, and just called it a snow bag. Well it’s enormous, and very warm if not necessarily very light, and it’s stood me in good stead on a lot of snow camping trips. This one was no exception. I had my Thermarest Ridgerest, and Thermarest Neoair, then the Rumdoodle, and a whole pile of layers of clothes on, and one handwarmer clutched in my hands, and I was cozy and warm sharing the tent with Kat. A small window of skin was exposed to the tent air, and I could feel the cold biting at my nose, but the rest of me was snug and warm. And so I laid and read, and then daydreamed, then slept, then listened to a podcast or two, and somehow it was morning, and I’d had a lovely night’s sleep.

Hearing the others starting to get up, I reluctantly emerged from my sleeping bag, and started the morning routine and the packing up of camp… after first eating the two bars I’d shoved in my sleeping bag so they’d be nice and warm for breakfast (they were).

Eventually we’d all had hot drinks, packed up, and somehow convinced frozen tents to reattach themselves to our bikes. It definitely wasn’t a warm morning, around -22oC according to group thermometers. I was glad there was no wind. Even gladder we managed to avoid having any mechanical issues. There are few things less fun than having to fix a bike at those temperatures.

After the initial push up from camp at LM8 to the main trail, we found it was basically rideable most of the way out. Six idiots had ridden their bikes along the trail yesterday and packed it all down for us.

It was a beautiful still morning, and I was actually feeling nice and warm, without even using any hand/toe warmers. Maybe I’m finally getting the hang of layering for fatbiking?

The one part of the ride that of course wasn’t rideable – that final climb up towards the end of the lake.

It was very definitely not rideable. Not for us, not that morning.

But it wasn’t a very long push, then we were back on our bikes and cruising downhill, flying along and maybe giggling just a little.

The ride out was pretty uneventful (thankfully?) – things went smoothly, no wolves, no mechanicals, no freezing to death. And then we were all back in Banff! And it was time to eat lots of food, and then have a lovely warm shower.

Thanks crew – it was a great weekend!

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bikes canada general trip reports

S24O

S24O stands for sub 24-hour overnight bike camping trip, for those of you out there who aren’t into all the cool acronyms the kids use these days.

After getting the Moosling to bed on Saturday night, I loaded up my bike, and headed out for a solo overnight adventure in the snow – just for fun!

Packing took a while – I’d never packed for an overnight snow camping bike trip before, so it took a little organising to get everything onto the bike. It did fairly simplify things to not really need any food or water (I did bring a thermos of tea though).

I took a fairly direct route, but it was still about 45 minutes of biking to get to my campsite, and then 15 minutes or so to get myself sorted and set up in my bivy in the snow.

But then I was glorious and snug in my warm bivy, and fell asleep to the sound of crackling ice and the distant noise of the highway.

In the morning I was rudely awoken by my alarm at 7.40, with the beginnings of dawn light beginning to show in the sky, but otherwise no difference to falling asleep nine hours earlier.

Twenty minutes to pack up, then I was on the road, and cycling away from a beautiful sunrise.

Successfully back home at 8.50am to be ready to head out skiing for the day at 9am. Brilliant! Must do this again.