Bikepacking in Southern AB/BC Rockies

[Dave Walter]

Another photo.

[Dave Walter]

Mountain view.

[Dave Walter]

Another mountain view.

[float5]

Splendid photos.

[maurerl]

NOW I can see the photos . . . and I'm envious. Can hardly wait to hit the road, er, gravel, er, path, er, trail.

[Brian B-P]

Looks like a great adventure, Dave.

[Jim Bennett]

Looks like fun, and something I would love to do. My brother has talked lots about doing the entire Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, but I am good with just doing sections of it. Even the Banff to Montana part is over 400 km. A section like you did is more my speed.

Great photos too, always love to see this stuff.

This has been a bad year for me an biking. We did a 60 km road ride last weekend, and have done a couple MTB rides (in the mountains) this year, and other than a few 20-30 km rides around town, that's it. Man, I need to retire......

[Dave Walter]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

Looks like fun, and something I would love to do. My brother has talked lots about doing the entire Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, but I am good with just doing sections of it. Even the Banff to Montana part is over 400 km. A section like you did is more my speed.

Great photos too, always love to see this stuff.

This has been a bad year for me an biking. We did a 60 km road ride last weekend, and have done a couple MTB rides (in the mountains) this year, and other than a few 20-30 km rides around town, that's it. Man, I need to retire......

We had originally thought that we could put in some big mileage days and do the full Canadian section of the route in the short time we had. However, after getting in to the ride, we realized how gruelling the climbs really are, and scaled back our expectations somewhat to more appropriate daily mileages for two semi fit 50-55 yr old non endurance riders under those conditions. Rather than continue north of Sparwood towards Kananaskis and Banff, we spent more time heading west and finished up in Fernie.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by ice-breaker

We had originally thought that we could put in some big mileage days and do the full Canadian section of the route in the short time we had. However, after getting in to the ride, we realized how gruelling the climbs really are, and scaled back our expectations somewhat to more appropriate daily mileages for two semi fit 50-55 yr old non endurance riders under those conditions. Rather than continue north of Sparwood towards Kananaskis and Banff, we spent more time heading west and finished up in Fernie.

So your initial intent was to do the full route to Banff? How many days did you give yourselves to do it? I do want to do it, but it will likely be next year. I will be a semi-fit 59 year old, while my brother is a very fit 57 year old. Not too worried about the ride, I can make it, it is just allowing enough time.

The nice thing of heading towards Sparwood, is you get a lot of downhill. I loves me some downhill.

[Dave Walter]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

So your initial intent was to do the full route to Banff? How many days did you give yourselves to do it? I do want to do it, but it will likely be next year. I will be a semi-fit 59 year old, while my brother is a very fit 57 year old. Not too worried about the ride, I can make it, it is just allowing enough time.

The nice thing of heading towards Sparwood, is you get a lot of downhill. I loves me some downhill.

Our initial intent was to start at the border and work our way back to Banff in five days. My wife was to drop us off and camp in Banff (in our Escape) while we rode back to Banff. Unfortunately we did not allow for any margin of error for slower than expected riding times. When we approached Sparwood, we realized that we would likely be a day slower than we had thought getting to Banff, so instead of continuing north, we extended the southern portion of the ride and ended up in Fernie instead, where we arranged for my wife to drive down and collect us.

If I was to do this again, I would start in Banff and work my way south, arranging for pickup at the border. Our original plan of 80 km days (average) is certainly workable, but starting in Banff allows you to start smaller on the hill climbs and work your way up to the bigger ones. Starting at the border, you are immediately faced with a 1000m climb over the first 15km.