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.
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