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Local rides & my first Thanksgiving

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Sunday I popped over to Banff to ride with a mate, Dale, I met construction temping at the Banff Center.  Dale was just back from some time in England visiting friends & family & was keen to hit some local trails.  I, of course, was up for that & we first rode part way around & up Tunnel Mountain to check out a new trail – Star Warz.  It’s not a particularly long trail, but its all downhill & the local MTB organisation had built a lot of structures on the top half (they are still working on the bottom half).  Dale managed to quite spectacularly stack it on the first, & easiest, trail feature – a flat low bridge like structure.  It was a quite a sight, unfortunately I didn’t have the camera out.  This was followed by a series of tight berms that I couldn’t quite get right, but fun all the same.  Further down the trail, as we passed a group of riders pushing their big DH bikes up the trail, I popped over a little jump on the side of the trail & was immediately confronted by a stump that my front wheel was determined to make its acquaintance with.  Somehow I managed to jump off the side & down the bank & grab on to a small tree with only my pride injured.

Straight after these little incidents there was a nice wall ride that we rode a few times – it doesn’t require a lot of speed to get up high, but I’m not sure that I ever got the line completely right.  It was quite fun to able to ride the same feature a few times as we traded my camera & tried to get decent photos.

Here is Dale

And here is me

Shortly after leaving the wall we found this jump.  For those with sufficient skills, it was pretty easy to clear and land on the other side – while I could still get a little air and land on the horizontal platform.  Here’s Dale showing me how it’s done:

And here I am getting about the amount of air I am comfortable with (that said, we both had some rather interesting landings).

From here we rode through a few berms that had just been built the day before – they were pretty soft & loose, as one would expect.  Then it was time turn up the hill back to the road that would take us back to town.  Riding through some sort of holiday camp, I was amused by this sign:

Is this for obese children that spend all day in the living room playing video games?  I’m still unsure.

Cruising back down the hill to Dale’s place we loaded up his car, jump-started it & drove up to Norquay to ride Lower Stoney Squaw.  We rode both the Upper & Lower trails back at the end of August – this time due to time, fitness & motivational constraints we bypassed the steep climb to the summit & rolled in to one of our favourite downhill trail sections around Banff & Canmore.  Dale, with his big DH, bike was pushing on the slightest hint of a climb – suits me, finally someone taking photos, on my camera, of me riding trails.

I had a lot of trouble remembering any of the trail, even though it was only about six weeks since I first rode it – due in part from joining the trail from a different direction.  Nonetheless, it was a blast riding down here & there were plenty of little rises to launch off – although, I did, somehow, keep landing right before rocks I would’ve preferred not to hit.  Just before the end of the trail there is a nice easy jump that one can get a little or a lot of air off – compulsory photos stop.

Crossing the TCH, we battled a headwind back in to Banff & I split quickly to get back for my first Thanksgiving dinner – I was quietly excited by this prospect.  We had enough people around in the evening to take a fair chunk out of two turkeys & all the other food our guests brought.  Steve had some how managed to wangle himself a complimentary rotisserie for the barbecue – so one turkey went on there, while the other, wrapped in bacon & stuffed with pork sausages went in the oven.

James sniffing & trying his best, I think, not to lick this turkey

Steve basting this bird of goodness – I think mostly with beer; whatever, it was brilliant.

Thanksgiving didn’t disappoint my preconceptions – masses of great food with good friends & (pseudo-) family (that’s you Alex & Megan [& Finnian – although I suppose he can’t quite comprehend it yet] – thanks, I’m pretty sure Canmore wouldn’t be what it is to me without you).  For some reason, I’d scheduled (yet) another ride on Monday morning with a random on the forums at mtbr.com – so it was an earlyish night for me.

Dragging myself out of bed, breaking the fast, loading & de-icing the car I headed out to meet Jeff at the trailhead at nine o’clock (he came in from Calgary) so I could show him Razor’s Edge.  The first bit of the trail along the highway was good fun & in nice condition with no other users around – it was bloody cold though, the clear skies lulled me in to a full sense of warmth.  What was I thinking riding in short sleeves?  The ride up to the pass warmed us up a bit – I was particularly pleased to finally clear a steep, rocky section in which you have to choose your line carefully as the rocks are loose & send you in directions you really don’t want to go.  This photo doesn’t show just how much difficulty I have had in clearing it the previous half-dozen times (it’s steep, I promise you – & it comes in the middle of a tough, long climb).

After somehow missing the unsigned turnoff, we were finally on the new trail.  There is lots of cool moss & general undisturbed growth.  The first half was OK, but being a new loose & moist trail it became increasingly difficult to get any sort of rhythm to make the climb to saddle.

Before long we were riding along what I assume the trail is named after – the exposed jagged rock on the ridge line that you have to transverse.  Sometimes, it’s difficult to see how one could ever get the front tire to negotiate such a narrow path; but you do know that if you can, it will grip like crazy.  Unfortunately for Jeff, he had left his helmet behind – so he had to walk a lot of obstacles that he would have otherwise ridden.  There are no man made features on this trail, but the rock provides more than enough great drops & drop-offs.  I was pleased to ride things that I avoided last time I was up here – & perhaps even more pleased to have a willing photographer to capture me pushing my limits.  As always – I assure you it’s steeper & trickier than it looks (at least for me, especially the first feature [the next two images])

Just before the annoying hike-a-bike section up a hill & after negotiating more of the jagged rock there is this cool wall ride (I suppose about a forty-five degree angle) that is so grippy that it doesn’t really matter how much you stuff up the entry (I should know – damn chain dropping a ring on bumpy descents), you can still ride along this slope with a lot of confidence.

Getting back on the bikes after the push up through the trees we were on dirt for a change – a very steep plunge had us walking briefly before blasting down (stopping briefly to look out over towards the prairies) & then a short little climb before on the slick rock.  It can be quite difficult to spot the trail as you drop many metres towards the road – & this particular spot is a wind funnel.  For the second time in as many days I was struggling to negotiate tricky trail with the wind buffeting me incessantly.  Still, it was greatly challenging & very fun.  Down one part with particularly loose rock & then a sharp drop off my front tire & some rocks decided it was time I had a little rest – I firmly planted my butt on a very hard rock.  Shortly after we turned the hard left to avoid riding off the cutting on to the highway & were heading back to the parking lot.

Four great rides in one long weekend & a lot of turkey – I love it.  Although, the end of the riding season can’t come soon enough for that big buy up – my rear tyre & drive train are decidedly sub-par.

around home, bikes, Canada, friends, MTB

Jumpingpound Ridge & Cox Hill

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Yesterday we finally got the chance to ride a loop that I had wanted to do for quite some months.  Billed by the local guidebook as “probably the only legal world-class ride in the Canadian Rockies”, we were all set early Saturday morning to try our hands (& legs) at the Jumpingpound Ridge & Cox Hill combo.  We’d put it off so long trying to avoid eighteen kilometres of gravel to make it a loop by organising enough riders & cars to shuttle.  This never happened, so we bit the bullet & parked at the Dawson Trailhead & proceeded to hit the road south.  The morning was quite overcast & breezy, so we all started off in long sleeves – these were ditched after a couple of climbs.  Another blessing of the early hour was that there was much less traffic than we have previously seen on this road on busy weekends (this particular weekend being Thanksgiving) – so with a little moisture on the road as well, we didn’t choke in a cloud of dust every time a car drove past.  It took about ninety minutes before we got to Canyon Creek & the Jumpingpound Ridge trailhead.  Pleasingly, there was a long big-ring descent as the last section of road – it was fun to have the wheels slewing around a bit in the loose gravel at speed.

Approaching the high point of the road part – Gerry trying to stretch out a week’s worth of roofing.

We then hit six hundred vertical metres of climbing.  It started off flattish for all too short a period, & then hit some steep technical switchbacks – this turned out to be one long climb in the granny ring.  I was pretty pleased with how I climbed – there was only one really rooty steep section that I had to walk.  It must be said that I did have a lot of rests to catch my breath as we dropped Gerry pretty quickly – he was much slower than last weekend, after a hard week’s work.

Riding out of the gully we had been switchbacking our way up, we were on to the end of the ridge & could actually see out to the road & beyond.

For the start of the ridge it was a little easier to ride, but then we hit a pile more roots & rocks that were rather difficult to negotiate – I was well pleased to be able to ride the whole way up, with just the one dab.

During our ascent on to the ridge the cloud was starting to burn off & blow away.  There was a brief side trail up to the lookout – we mostly walked up here.  The summit didn’t look too much higher than where we were, but was a kilometre or so off & as it wasn’t part of the trail the possibility of going over there was not even mentioned.  The lookout afforded us a 360º panorama – including a few of the places that Alex & I have ridden in the last few months: Moose Mountain, Elbow Loop, Barrier Mountain and Mt Baldy (I think Powderface was obscured).  Also off in the distance was Calgary sitting on the edge of the prairies.

It was a little demoralising to see a helicopter sitting on the ridge – when we had worked so hard to get up there, but we were quickly past it as we snaked our way quickly down through the meadows & north along the ridge.

Alex was interested to see how the chopper would go taking off in such high winds – so we had a rest stop sheltered behind some trees in the sun.  In the end, the take off was uneventful – but there were some nice clouds around.

We rode along the ridge for a little, dropping altitude gently, but at speed, before we reached a junction – straight ahead would have taken us to the road.  As for many of the rides around here – I was constantly in that wonderful dilemma of not know which to pay more attention to: the wonderful scenery or the great singletrack.

We went right & plunged down through about three hundred metres of great trail to the bottom of the gully before another brutal climb up on to Cox Hill.

Through the trees it was quite steep again, particularly some of the switchback corners.  The legs were starting to feel a little weary, but not overly so.  Coming out of the trees we could see the trail snaking its way up well in to the distance to the summit.  We were by now back exposed to the very strong wind – the terrain itself was challenging enough, but never before have I had to walk the last ten metres because it was too windy.

Once again, the views were quite something, but we weren’t so keen on hanging around for too long as the huge downhill that we had been earning all day was awaiting us.

It started off with a little of the descent on the ridge before dropping off the left hand side on to some big banked corners that lead through loose rocks & a gnarly couple of chutes.  We started to meet a few hikers climbing – we must have been making a bit of noise as they all cleared well out of way, very nice of them.  Back in to the trees the trail would switch from bumpy roots, to flowing smooth trail & then to rocks quite quickly.  Gerry had picked up his pace a bit now that we were on the fun stuff & we all took turns leading as I tried to get in front & get some photos.  As always I was having too much fun on the best part of the trail to stop & get photos – but here are couple on some of the flatter sections.

We were back at the car five and a quarter hours after leaving – not too bad considering the wind & all the climbing we did (I think about 1400 m).  I was pretty stoked – I’m definitely rating that as the best ride I’ve done since I’ve been here (I’m nearing sixty for the total number of Canadian rides so far).  I have definitely earned my first Thanksgiving feast.

around home, bikes, Canada, friends, MTB

Moraine Lake

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The run of beautiful fall weather continued, & perhaps climaxed (hopefully not, but that will be hard to beat) with a gloriously sunny & warm day yesterday.  For the second week in a row I was sans-Alex my big weekend ride as other things called.  I was keen to head out to the Lake Louise area as I haven’t seen it snow- & ice-less & it apparently is beautiful all thawed out.  It didn’t take much persuading to get Gerry to come along & check out the Moraine Lake trail – reputed to be a great ride with awesome scenery.  Parking on the shoulder of the road, we were straight in to a steep, rooty climb – this was a quite the wake-up call.  After about a kilometre, things slackened off a bit & we were riding up beside a small river.

Gerry shamelessly trying to plug mexicomtb.com – he failed, so I’m doing it.

After crossing the river, there was another steepish climb that once again mellowed out.  Gerry & I took turns leading as we were a similar pace.  My stubbornness at staying the middle-ring wasn’t always helping & my much worn rear tyre was starting slip on a few of the roots on tricky step-ups.  I’m looking forward to getting a Crossmark back on the bike when I get around to the big end of season parts buy-up.

We joined on to the Highline part of the trail & rode along the side of the ridge above the road for the rest of the way to the lake.  This part of the trail had good variety, in some parts it flowed really nicely both up & downhill.  While in other parts, mostly across avalanche paths, it got rocky & much more technically demanding – all the more satisfying when you manage to weave through, & sometimes over, big rocks.  It was a nice mellow downhill that spat us out at the rather packed parking lot at the end of the lake.

We climbed what was effectively a big pile of rocks to get a better vantage point:

Proof I was actually there

Here are a few shots of the ride back.  I led most of the way as the climb was gentler & the middle-ring is always good for a bit more pace when climbing – also perhaps Gerry was a little worn out from the Ha Ling hide-a-bike the previous day.

Gerry conquering the corner where he’d just had a good go at emasculating himself a few minutes before (it’s steeper than it looks).

On returning to the car, I chalked up a first.  After opening the car, I hit the central locking button & threw the keys on the seat before shutting the door to prevent it being swiped off.  On going around to the passenger side I found that I had managed to lock all the doors & the keys were, of course, now sitting on the front seat mocking me.  Why lock is pressing the button up & unlock pressing the button down on this particular car is something that I have never understood or intuitively remembered – this time I was well & proper caught out.  Also, I’ve never really seen the point here in having buttons on each of the front doors to operate the central locks – it’s much simpler just to have all the locks operate when you move the actual door lock.  Never mind, it turns out that tyre levers & an assortment of sticks, along with a lot of patience is all that it takes to get back in to the car – eventually.

With the best part of an hour wasted, we weren’t particularly keen to ride another, shorter, trail to Ross Lake – so just went & walked around with all the tourists at Lake Louise.  Which is much different to how I remember it in January.  Unfortunately, by the late afternoon the sun was at the end of the lake thus making the photos a little less spectacular – but it was still very beautiful.

around home, bikes, Canada, friends, hiking, MTB

Gusty Ha Ling & shuttles at Moose Mountain

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More great weather on Saturday with clear skies; however a Chinook came to town & it was super windy.  Here are some of many yellow leaves around town – this taken from our driveway.

Straight after lunch it was time for Finnian’s first ex utero hike up Ha Ling.  The road up to the Goat Creek parking lot seemed markedly better than the previous week & we were hiking by five to one.  All the snow that I hiked through last week was all gone & there were heaps of people & dogs on the trail.  As we got above the tree line the wind started to get up a bit.

Megan, Finn hiding, Gill & Alex – looking down Goat Creek (Banff is around the corner to the right)

We started the last zag of all the zig-zags up to the summit as we layered up a bit.  The wind kept getting stronger & stronger.  About a hundred metres from the top there were some really big gusts that came close to blowing some of us over.  The biggest of all the gusts ripped my sunnies off my face & I last saw them disappearing towards the edge of the cliff.  None of us valued getting to the top over not-being blown a few hundred metres down to Canmore, so we decided to turn around.

Playing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Finn – isn’t the summit close?

A short photo stop on the edge of the ridge – the wind had great fun messing up the girls’ hair.

As was the case last Saturday, after getting home after the hike/stroll I was still itching for a ride in the sun.  This time I went up to the Nordic Center & was pleased to get all around the Orange Trail, Coal Chutes & the exit trails without unclipping.  The trails were in sublime condition & being early evening there was no-one around – the only life I had to share the trail with was a curious deer.

Alex bailed on our planned Sunday epic to do a Jumpingpound loop, claiming sickness.  Thankfully I had a back up plan – free shuttles at Moose Mountain.  The drive down was fantastic – there are even more yellow trees down beside the highway near the Cochrane turnoff & around Bragg Creek.  Arriving around eleven, I got on the first shuttle up the hill with five or six others – I definitely had the most puny bike.  I followed them all down Race of Spades – it wasn’t too steep & I could easily ride all of the trail & keep up with the group.  There were some pretty big structures & I didn’t hit any of the gaps, but could ride most of the rest – there was a neat bridge up two metres in the trees that wound its way around for a while.  Halfway down there was a really steep climb that had all in front off & pushing straight away – I waited for quite some time at the top.  Moving off, the second half back to the parking lot was just as fun – if not quite as rocky & rooty.  I decided to do one more run to see if I could go any faster – we had a smaller group & it was faster.  I rode a few more structures than the first time – one I was told was rollable, it sort of was – but a lot steeper & taller than I was expecting.  It was the first time I remember bottoming out my forks so conclusively – quite a loud thunk.

I was too busy having fun riding down to take many photos – here is some typical trail.

Back at the car, it was time for lunch before heading out to do a XC loop.  The shuttle driver gave me some good tips on how to find the new Ridgeback trail.  Once I found the trailhead, it wasn’t too difficult as the signage was superb.

This was a one-trail, ridden there & back mostly climbing out.  The first section, being so new was really muddy & I met a couple of younger guys riding up.  One was on a rather large Scott Ransom while the other was on a hardtail with a broken derailleur (enforced singlespeeding) – this guy was rather strangely riding in white socks & sandals.  They showed me the way & half way up we ditched the Ridgeback for the older Tom Snow trail – it turned out that there were some massive mud bogs in.  The only consolation of having an almost bald XC tyre on the rear was that I got very little mud up my back – mud seemed to go almost everywhere else.  The other guys had to turn around at three o’clock to get back to Calgary to work – so I continued up to the end of the trail to get a bit more climbing in & of course more downhill.

Riding through the beech trees

Looking out from the top of the ride

On the way down I chose the parts of the two trails that I hadn’t already been on.  For the first half this was the Ridgeback – & it was fantastic (& mostly dry) & flowy.  There was a nice big climb for a while, before riding along the ridge & more great down.  I was, & still am,  quite tired after such a great day’s riding.