midtoad's blog

Mountain biking from Canmore to Banff, and back

Today I went for a little ride on the Cannondale hard-tail, which I picked up at Bow Cycle on the way out of town. I started out in downtown Canmore, and rode to Banff on the wild west side of the Bow River, then back again on the highway side. I found a little adventure along the way.

Starting at a neighbourhood in W Canmore, I rode the river trails and crossed the Bow on the old railway bridge, hiked up some trails, then climbed the road to the Nordic Cente, and got a little lost in the mess of trails. All of the junctions have maps, but none of the maps have a "you are here" dot, so they're all completely useless. I saw at least 5 or 6 signs at different junctions that looked exactly like this:

Eventually found my way to the Banff trail and rode it to Banff. It's forested and pretty rooty for most of the distance; sure was wishing I had a softtail instead of a hardtail. Only once did I find an open spot with a view of the mountains I was riding below:

Further along, though, the trail drops down to the river's edge, and I could see ahead to Mt. Cascade:

and back along the Bow River:

and across the valley to the Fairholme Range:

Near the end, I found some boulders in the woods and did some bouldering:

Then I ran into the road along the golf course near Banff, and found a much bigger climbing area called Rundle Rock. The guy on the way told me that yesterday he climbed to the top without a rope (or a brain):

Before town I put in my earplugs so I wouldn't have to hear and bustle and noise, and it was a nice quiet ride through town. Rode up Tunnel Mountain past Buffalo Mtn lodge and found a nice single-track trail paralleling the road with some nice roller-coasters (nearly skidded off the trail and down the hill at a turn that was gravelly and sloped off-camber). The road takes you past some hoodoos:

and a nice view of Mt. Rundle:

Past the Tunnel Mtn campground the road is closed, so I got on that and continued on down to the S end and dropped down to the Cascade R. Bummer, the old bridge has been taken out.

I could see the TransCanada on the other side of the river, so close, just a 15m wide crossing, OR I could ride all the way back up and over Tunnel Mountain, then out to the airport and around. Too tempting! I put the bike on my shoulder and waded into the water. As I got out into it, the current got stronger and stronger, and I had to hoist the bike higher since every time the wheels touched the water the current tried to knock me down. The deepest spot of that cold river was 2/3 of the way across, about mid-thigh. I was sure that if I got knocked over I'd lose the bike, not to mention ruin all of my electronic gadgets in my pack and get carried some distance downstream before being able to swim ashore, so I went as slowly as I could on the rounded river-bottom rocks.

Finally reaching the far side after a full 10 min. or more, I looked back. The crossing didn't look as scary from the far shore as it did from the middle of the river!

I found there was no gate in the 8' fence separating me from the highway, so I thought I'd just ride down the railway tracks a couple of km to where I know there's a gate. I hadn't gone more than half a km though when I noticed a black smudge on the tracks. Sure was wishing I was wearing my prescription glasses instead of some shades. When the black smudge started moving, I realized it was a black bear, only about 200m away! Ok, I guess I'll go scale that 8' fence after all, now. Too bad the shortest line to the fence went through a thicket of rose bushes that were 'caressing' my bare legs.

After riding the TCH for a km or two, I climbed the hill up to the bench where you can turn out to a picnic area overlooking the Bow R. But long before that, I found a gate in the fence and got off the road. After riding along in the woods on the edge of the river bluffs for half a km, I came to a section where they'd decided to run the fence along the side of the bluff. So I had to carry the bike a ways. Finally I got back on the top of the bluff, passed the picnic area, and continued on some great single-track right on the edge of the bluff for a good km.

Then the trail dropped down into the river valley as the bluff came to an end (creek crossing, I guess).

Next thing you know I'm pushing the bike through a swamp and the trail has died out. Back on the shoulder goes the bike as I thrash my way up the far-side bluff and finally found a weaker trail along the bluff-edge to close to the park gates, where once more it was up and over an 8' fence with the bike. Sure glad I got a light xc bike!

By now it was getting close to dusk. As the last rays of sun sparked a glow on the top of the Three Sisters, the moon was already up:

Good thing I was close to home now. Just past the park gates I got off the TCH and back on a hidden dirt track beside the railway tracks that eventually led me around the edge of the golf course and into Canmore.

25-30 km total distance. 2 hours out and 2 hours back.