Tag: gdmbr

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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

Tour Divide Dreaming

I took the day off work, and got a lift into Calgary with my road bike. My bike and I were dropped off at Diner Deluxe, so we settled ourselves down at a table outside, and waited. And then Jackie arrived!

She was in town to go ride the Tour Divide. But first, we were going to eat an enormous breakfast, and ride back to Canmore together.

We’ve known each other since we were feckless 23 year old hippies. Back then we used to go climbing together. These days we’re both more into bikes.

Wonderful breakfast eaten, I did some handy google maps navigation to get us out of town along the river trails, and then onto the 1A.

I’d never ridden it from Calgary before, but there’s actually quite a nice wide smooth shoulder up until Cochrane. And no headwind! (Note: I cannot actually guarantee that there’s never a headwind in this section)

After that, the road gets narrower, and then the shoulder disappears. But it does get increasingly beautiful, and there’s less and less traffic. And then you hit Exshaw, and the horrible headwind begins, but it’s ok because you’re nearly in Canmore!

The rest of the week, more and more Tour Divide crew showed up. I spent as much time as I could hanging out with them – in the words of Anne of Green Gables, they were most definitely all kindred spirits.

The night before the Grand Depart, I took my Australian flag along to the Aussie/Kiwi riders dinner, and got the crew there to sign it.

Then it was the morning of the Grand Depart. The offspring and I headed to Banff for breakfast with Jackie, and then to wave everyone off.

And after much nervous excitement, and waiting, and photos – they were off.

Of course, it started raining then.

The fate of those who signed the flag was varied…

Seb pulled out early due to illness, Liam and Hugh with knee issues, Rob with complications from a dog bite, and Steve made it to Pie Town before calling it.

But Brian finished 5th (16d10hr), and Gareth in 7th (17d11hr) (both rookies). Matt got ‘er done in 23 days. But Jackie finished in under 20 days, came in at 16th overall and was the first and only female to finish within race pace. Only four female racers have faster times than her – and that was with losing a chunk of time when she lost most of her crank bolts and had to ride a few hundred kilometres with her crank zip-tied on. Go Jackie go!

And yes, I’m really looking forward to next year, and finally getting to race the route.

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bikes canada general trip reports

Part 2: Riding Kananaskis Lakes to Fernie! (Or “Everything is awesome!”)

I woke around 4.30am to the sound of birds. I’m not sure why birds are always so excited about the impending sunrise, but for half an hour or so there, they just wouldn’t shut up about it. At least I wasn’t in a tent in Australia, where the birds really know how to make a convincing racket.

Some more sleep, and more sliding around in the tent, and off the short sleeping mat, and over to one side of the tent, then the other, and it was after 6am. A quick snack and then packing up and hitting the road. I was due at Elk Pass around 7am – or maybe 6.30am – to meet Kate, who would be riding to Elkford with me.

After a few kilometres on the road, I was stomping about in the misty carpark at the trailhead, eating a little more food and trying to keep warm in the cool damp air. Kate was dropped off, there was a flurry of activity and excitement, and then we set off up the frozen earth and snow of the Hydroline trail at around 7.30am.

Climbing up and up to reach the open section of trail under the powerlines at Elk Pass was basically the only steep climb of the day, and it didn’t take anywhere near so long as I was worried it might. A lot more snow had melted off in the last week, and the snow that was there was mostly solid enough to be quite rideable.

We came across our only set of bear prints there – what I think was a black bear, that had definitely been heading in the opposite direction on the trail for a while.

By the time we reached the Elk Pass picnic table, we were actually feeling awake! Then sun was out, we snacked some more, then were nearly trampled to death by an enormous herd of backpacking teenagers.

The far side of the pass was already getting muddier in the full sunlight. And there was more snow! How rude. But the valley was opening up in front of us, and there were new mountains to see!

We turned out onto the road near Elk Lakes and were astonished to find that we were in a beautiful wide open valley with a really nice well packed gravel road. The weather was looking great, the day was warming up, and the road started trending downhill. It all seemed a little too good to be true.

The route we were following was along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. Which means it is where the Tour Divide bike race travels each year. Which means this was also a little bit of a scouting mission, because I’m planning to try and race the Tour Divide next year, which is an exciting and alarming prospect.

On the gear testing side of things, my bike was holding up well, the load was easy to pedal along, and I love my Porcelain Rocket bags.

As we pedalled along, gradually losing altitude, the Elk River got bigger and bigger. And the road kept disappearing off into the distance, wonderful and car-free, with no bears, gorgeous views, and the occasional elk or squirrel.

Eventually, we did start standing up on our pedals a little more often. Behinds that aren’t used to long days in the saddle do eventually complain. My knees got a little sore. And we finally saw a couple of cars. But then somehow it was 3pm, and we were in Elkford!

There isn’t an awful lot in Elkford. Kate wasn’t due to be picked up for a while yet, so we decided to just keep riding together on the highway to Sparwood. It’s a small highway, with a lot of mine traffic (there are mines in both Elkford and Sparwood), but everyone was very polite, and gave us lots of room. Which was good, because we were beginning to feel the distance at that point. And once you’re back in civilisation, it’s hard to re-gain the “cycling forever through an isolated wonderland” feeling. So 35km couldn’t be over quick enough – although it was interrupted at one point by Alex, who found us, offered to take a couple of my bags, and to give Kate a lift to Sparwood if she wanted – tempting, but no, we kept riding.

And we made it!

The Sparwood truck is an awesome landmark, and everything is awesome.

But I still wasn’t done – my friend Kat met me in Sparwood, and after farewelling Kate, we set off towards Fernie. Thankfully Kat is a strong rider, experienced cycle tourer, and apparently also a super-domestique. She pulled me along to Fernie easily, and I nearly collapsed with relief when I saw the Fernie welcome sign. Not too soon though, because we were staying in the provincial campground – out the other side of town and up an enormous hill!

But I made it!

Distance: 154km
Elevation gain: 1123m

And in honour of the song that was stuck in our heads all day… now it can be stuck in your head too:

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bikes canada general trip reports

Part 1: Riding Canmore to Kananaskis Lakes – solo!

My very first solo overnight trip! For all that I’ve done plenty of solo daytrip adventuring, I’ve never headed out to sleep alone somewhere. Because the night is dark and scary, and full of wolves and axe murderers.

The plan was to ride my bike on Thursday evening from Canmore to Kananaskis Lakes – about 70km, mainly on dirt roads.

I left work early, with my gear nearly all organised, and got on the road around 5pm. Of course, then my bike bags started rubbing and misbehaving, so I spent some time organising them and redistributing my load. And then riding up the enormous hill of enormousness. It’s much smaller and easier when you’re on an unloaded bike, with friends, on a still and sunny day with clear blue skies. This day was not still and sunny. The wind kept gusting up, and there were dark patches of threatening weather lurking around the mountains. The weather forecast had been threatening showers, and before I left, people had been making helpful suggestions like “Why don’t you put it off for a day?”.

But I made it to the top! This was goodbye to cell reception for the next 20 hours, so with farewell messages and photos of myself looking slightly concerned, I rode up and over the pass, and into the relative wilds of the well-travelled roads of K-Country.

With a dubious forecast and threatening clouds, I had all of my rain gear handy. This conveniently seemed to repel the worst of the weather. I was caught in a couple of brief snow-showers, but they never lasted long, and were very much in the ‘easy to brush the snow off and forget about’ category. Obviously my weather girl powers have not yet failed me entirely.

Soon enough I hit the Spray Lakes Reservoir, and it was snack and photo time. Travel was fast and easy, and there was very little traffic around to throw dust in my eyes. I hadn’t seen any bears, and the whole thing was starting to settle into standard bike riding rhythm, instead of panicked “Help, I’m alone and going to be eaten by a bear” rhythm.

The clouds that had been atmospherically winding themselves around the mountain tops began to dissipate, and the patches of blue sky were multiplying. It was actually turning into a nice evening!

I even managed to take a photo of myself riding without dropping the camera. Still looking worried, but that’s mainly because I was concentrating on not dropping the camera.

Then, my 70km nearly complete, I arrived at the final hill which would drop me down to Kananaskis Lakes. Still with plenty of daylight to spare! I’d seen an elk (my designated spirit animal of the trip), a few deers, and a few squirrels, but no bears. So I carefully picked my way down the stony road, keeping an eye on the speed to avoid silly crashes within a couple of kilometres of finishing for the night.

I pulled onto the asphalt of Kananaskis Lakes after safely negotiating the loose and stony hill of doom. Winding my way into the complex of campsites there, I tried riding the cyclist pathway for a while. The still-closed campsites towards the northern end of the lakes were a bit spooky though, so I opted to pick my way a few kilometres further south, into the relative civilization of the handful of other campers who were about.

After wolfing down some cold leftovers (quiche, mmmm) I put up my little tent, and dived in for a good nights sleep. Phase one of Mission Ride To Fernie was a success!