Doing it With Kids in Canada (Kicking Horse Mountain, Golden)

Just an hours drive from Lake Louise, the Trans-Canada Highway 1 delivers you to Golden and Kicking Horse Mountain which in the summer months transforms from a ski resort to a bike park ... and how. The Golden Eagle Eye Express gondola takes you to 2,347 metre for an amazing 1,128 metres of downhill descent heaven. To be honest I was somewhat nervous as we loaded our bikes for the first ascent. Was I being a responsible parent bring a 10 and 13 year old on such an adventure but then why should the grown ups have all the fun! We had already hired our bikes in Banff ... not the serious downhill variety; and brought our cycling kit from home ... not the body armour and full face helmets; but hey we were ready to rock.

Heights always make me nervous, despite having done my share of rock climbing in the past, so just the ride up got the adrenaline going. It was pretty chilly at the top, I guess that's what you get if you go high enough up a mountain. It was certainly cold enough to eliminate any prevarication about route choice and we quickly decided to go for the easiest 'green' trails on our first descent as opposed to sections like the 'Spiral Tap' shown below with its jumps over gaping holes.

We actually saw someone take this jump too slowly and topple into the gap - didn't know whether to laugh or call an ambulance. On reflection we decided to give this one a miss, however, after our first descent we were buzzing and feeling a bit more adventurous so we decided to move it up a gear and include some of the more difficult 'blue' trails such as 'Northern Lights', 'Dirt Devil', 'Buffalo Jump' and 'Dust Buster'. Confidence was really building by now and we opted for an all 'blue' third descent finishing with the 'Super Berm'. Wow what an experience but the concentration required was immense the trails flinging you out wide or up high if you let your attention waiver for a moment. We probably could have squeezed in a fourth descent but decided to stop while the going was good, arms and legs were getting tired and we just wanted to avoid that big off and a trip to the hospital if at all possible. As luck would have it we didn't manage to avoid the latter despite our best attempts as later in the trip Mark decided to come down with appendicitis and he left the country with one organ less than he arrived with ... the best laid plans ...

Further research since we returned from Canada has revealed that there is a lot of great mountain biking to be had in this area of the Kootenay Rockies so who knows perhaps a return trip will be necessary one day. The final days of our holiday were based in Kananaskis where we ditched the tent and stayed in a tipi at Sundance Lodge again there is some great mountain biking to be done in this very picturesque region but the fact that one of us was actually a resident of Canmore Hospital meant we weren't able to make the most of it. The February 2010 issue of Singletrack has a great article about mountain biking in this area called 'Finding New Nowheres' but remember even with kids in tow there's lots of adventures to be had out there.

A windy C2C training ride

No honestly, I'm not complaining again. It was extremely windy on Friday. The sort of day when if you stopped pedalling you would be going backwards down the road, but it suited me just fine. It had been a frustrating week and the battling wind matched my mood perfectly - 'bring it on - do your worst' - my legs felt strong and ready to go. I was probably in the minority but then I hadn't done a 40 mile ride the day before and neither was I anticipating a houseful of 11 year olds sleeping over that night. It was oh so simple, I just wanted to keep cycling until I was satisfyingly tired. 

The route was familiar to start with. We headed out of Stokesley, through Busby, Carlton and Faceby before skirting Potto and Hutton Rudby and then detouring from our usual roads to cross the A19 to East Rounton and a most agreeable pot of tea and scones at Roots Farm Shop. One of the pluses of cycling with new people is that you discover new routes and also new places to stop for refreshments - this cafe was definitely one to be revisited. 

At this point the group split in two with Ruth and Caroline returning the way we had come while Fee and I pressed on, continuing our struggle against the wind to East Harsley and eventually back across the A19 to Osmotherley. Somewhere along the way the wind dropped and the Fee conquered the climb through Osmotherley with relative ease; as with so much in life, the obstacle proving to be much harder to contemplate than to actually do. We felt like we were on the home straight as we pedalled past Cod Beck Reservoir and Scarth Wood Moor before blasting down into Swainby and then retracing our wheels through Faceby and those other villages on the way back to Stokesley. One cycle ride nearer to the real thing Fee!

Just bike

It was a glorious day. Winter was still refusing to die and there were frost pockets and stubborn scoops of snow in the shady hollows yet spring was in the air. The sun was hot on black lycra, extra layers were soon stashed in the backpack, and the sky was an endless vista of blue who wouldn't want to bike on such a day.

We were three at the start and I took the opportunity to ride ahead and try to capture the feel of the ride on camera. We were following familiar routes and enjoying the anticipation of favourite speedy descents and tricky crossings but the going was definitely soggy. We took the high track through Park Wood which was a mud bath but it was one of those days when it was just great to be biking anywhere, anyhow.

Later after a very tired boy was escorted home by his Dad I got to carry on alone ... I just didn't want to stop as the route unwound by Clitherbecks, Oakley Side, Danby Castle and then along Little Fryup Dale before going vertical up Danby Rigg. The descent was tricky, it's always a challenge to see if you can do a clear run with no dabs but this winter has wreaked havoc on the terrain and good lines just disappear into yawning chasms with zero notice. My riding might not have been perfect but it was a perfect ride.

That was two weeks ago now and since then there have been yet more great rides in all shapes and sizes - both road rides and XC rides with a variety of family and friends. Rides that were planned and others that were unexpected extras. Next week the clocks change and six months of longer days and better weather beckon, what a feeling to anticipate all those bike rides to come.

Doing it With Kids in Canada (Ross Lake, Lake Louise)

I live in such a beautiful part of the UK that nowhere else can really compare; however once in a while I need to  satisfy my sense of discovery and adventure and just confirm that there really is no place quite like home. Last summer I set my heart on going somewhere I'd never been before, somewhere far, far away ... but safe enough to take my kids, although as it happened it really needed to be safe enough to take my husband. And so it was that a plan to go to the Canadian Rockies was hatched.

First and foremost I needed to sort out the practicalities but in this modern world it just took at bit of internet research and bingo tent hire and bike hire was organised. Of course we needed a seriously large pickup to transport it all and then there was campground reservations, backcountry reservations and shelters to think about - Banff National Park was the website to sort all that out on. Planning the details is a bit of a pain but it's worth it for that sense of amazement when things all go to plan later on ... how weird is it when you arrive in a country, thousands of miles away from where you live to find someone has put a tent up for to spend your very first very jet lagged night in?

To cut to the chase the biking was also worth the effort. The kids loved the idea of bike hire particularly as they got upgraded from their usual mounts while we got downgraded. We took our own helmets, cycling shorts etc some of us even took our own pedals. In fact the only thing we really forgot was winter bike gloves .... well it was August and I didn't think we would need them. Never under estimate the ability for snow to fall in Canada, even our mosquito repellent froze! It all added to the sense of adventure, if we had been camping in the UK in such low temperatures it would have been a pain but in Canada it was part of the adventure, the unexpected, a test of our versatility. That's what we told the kids anyway.

To be continued ....

Banff National Park has closed many of its trails to cyclists but there are still some great routes to do if you look hard enough. The photos on this blog were taken on a singletrack route from Lake Louise to Ross Lake. As you can see the trail crosses a creek, two in fact, as it wends its way through subalpine forest and leads you a merry dance over rocks and roots galore. Every once in a while you can look out over the peaks of Bow Valley and Kicking Horse Pass and indulge that sense of isolated wilderness before picking up the pace again and swooping through another series of climbs and descents. Our youngest son had an off as he got somewhat over confident with his bunnyhops down a particularly steep and rocky section but if you don't fall off once in a while your're not really trying. Lake Ross itself is an example of Canada's natural beauty at its best, unspoilt by anyone or anything else ... even a teenager could not help but be impressed by nature's paint pallet of glacial blues and verdant greens with an unforgiving mountainous backdrop ...

We chose to return via the Great Divide bike path which is reached by a 1.3 km trail (riders are required to dismount and walk this section) down along Ross Creek to the Great Divide Road. The former 1A Highway is permanently closed to vehicles now and provided a wide gravel expanse of easy cycling for the return route. But there was plenty of fun to be had in the form of more jump practice on the frost heaves covering the many culverts which run under the road. The large quantities of bear pooh were also quite disturbing; still no need to tell the kids to make lots of noise cos they do anyhow.