Vacation 2011 Days 1 – 3

I may have mentioned that I was taking my summer vacation at the Copperstone Resort in Canmore to do some mountain biking. My posts are going to be a little more “wordy” for my vacation as some family and friends are following and want to be kept up to date. I am on day 3 and wondering if I can still call it a vacation.  I arrived a little early on Sunday and ended up going to the gym before checking in. I spent the evening relaxing and planning out what trails I would be trying.
On the second day I decided to take the Cascade Trail . It was rated as moderate and just under 30 KM. This is the description of the trail:

Cascade
14 km one way, elevation gain 180 m, moderate
Trailhead: Upper Bankhead Parking Lot
Formerly a fire road, this gravel trail leads into the
wild Cascade valley and runs through prime bear
habitat. The cycling trail ends at Stoney Creek
primitive campground—buy a Wilderness Pass and
try backcountry bicycle camping.

I figured that if I can do 30KM in the city and stop for beer and wings all in 3 hours this shouldn’t be bad at all. Well let me say that I would not consider this moderate at all. It was a tough ride to the end at the primitive campground. Over about 90 minutes I battled mostly uphill and I didn’t see a soul. About 10 minutes in I checked my Blackberry to see the GPS coordinates and I had no service. All alone in the wilderness and totally off the grid kind of spooked me. My mind started playing tricks on me. I was hearing noises and concerned about having a fall or my bike failing.  I had ridden for what seemed like forever with no concept of how far I had gone. Yes, I am way to reliant on technology. I was considering turning back, but was hell bent on reaching the goal. I stopped about 80 minutes into the ride for a snack and set my alarm on my phone for 20 minutes. I would be turning back when it went off regardless if I reached the goal or not.

About 10 minutes later there was a fork in the path. It was obvious which one was more traveled, but I was wondering where the secondary path went. I went down it about 10 feet and saw a Canadian Flag in the distance. What a relief. I had reached my destination. I wandered down and found the Stoney Ranger Station. After eating, looking around and taking some photos I began my journey back.
I am not sure if the trip back seemed so easy because it was more downhill or the fact that I was on my way back. It only took 60 minutes to get back. At times I was going so fast on the declines that my eyes watered even with my glasses on. I just held on for dear life. It was invigorating, but makes it hard to concentrate on the terrain when you can’t see. Although I enjoyed the speed, common sense got the best of me and I slowed down. It felt good to get back to my truck.
Once back in the Banff Town site I went to get some information on other trails and I made the mistake of asking if the Ranger Station was the same as the primitive campground. Apparently they are not the same. If I would have continued another 50 – 100 meters along the main trail I would have made it. I was not impressed.I had a burger and a couple beer in Banff and headed back to my room. A soak in the hot tub, BBQ dinner and a relaxing night of reading before heading to bed finished my day.
This morning I did some business and then planned on riding Lower Stoney Squaw Trail. It is e described like this:

Lower Stoney Squaw
5.2 km one way, elevation loss 170 m, moderate
Trailhead: Mt. Norquay Ski Area Parking Lot
Ride past the day lodge and down the ski area
service road for 1.4 km. Watch closely on the right
for a sign indicating the trail. The trail features rough
and rocky sections and drops almost continuously to
the highway. Combine with Mt. Norquay Rd. (#12)
for a challenging 15 km loop from Banff. Please
watch for bears and horse users on this fast,
downhill ride.

Ok, I will fully admit I did not read this properly or plan properly for this train. I did not fully realize the elevation drop.

Bears Near Road

Once on the Mount Norquay road I had to stop because 2 momma bears and 4 cubs were too close to the road. This was only a five minute wait and they let me pass. I had a short discussion with the Park Rangers about my safety while biking with the bears around and he told me it should be ok. He asked if I had bear spray and when I showed it him strapped to my backpack he suggested that it be more accessible. He told me that bear attacks can happy quite quickly. I moved the spray to the front shoulder strap of the pack and thought about his words, “It should be ok.” I then took the long windy road up the mountain.
I got to the parking lot for the ski resort and unloaded my bike. After a minor error in directions I got myself on the path. It started easy enough but got more difficult as I continued on. It was far from the old fire road I was on the previous day. Roots, rocks, and steep declines kept me on my toes. There was some fear as I reached speeds I was not comfortable with and on a couple of occasions I just rode it out because it was so rough I didn’t want to loosen my grip on the handle bars to brake. The problem with that is I was less than a meter from very sharp, long drops.

I guess it was inevitable; I was on a steep incline when I hit the brakes and apparently the momentum was enough to toss me over the handle bars and off the trail. I was lucky to be stopped by a tree, because it was a long way down. As I lay there I felt pain in different places. I got myself up and evaluated. I had some scrapes and “road rash” the worse being a cut on the side of my calf and the blood running down to my sock. When I got back to the resort I realized that the blood was not running down, but the cut / scrape was actually 6 inches long. I straightened my seat, brushed myself off and got back on my bike.
I continued on a little more cautiously and only fell one more time. No damage that time though. Again I found myself all alone on this path but now I did have cell service should a mishap occur. As I was riding I keep a watchful eye out for bears, but realistically at times I was going so fast that I would have crashed right into a bear if it was on the path. Not a good situation.
The challenges continued until I got to the bottom of the path. That is when I remembered that this is the path that ends and I have to turn around and go back. That was not an option, luckily the path ended right near the highway. Then it occurred to me that I had just biked down to pretty much same place where I started driving up the mountain. The whole ride had taken less than an hour and there was not a lot of pedalling to do. It was hard work though traversing the rocky terrain. There was no way I wanted to ride back up the trail.
I took the highway a few hundred meters to the turn off to the ski resort and I was not looking forward to the assent on my bike. I bumped into a set of Park Rangers and explained my situation hoping I could throw my bike in the back of their pickup and no have to pedal all the way up. No such luck.
I started heading up the road and ran into the same Park Rangers that were doing traffic control for the bears earlier. He was nice enough to tell me that I couldn’t ride my bike past the bears because they were still only a few meters from the road and it would not be safe. Would I have to go back up the mountain on that path? I don’t think I had it in me.  Luckily a pick up truck had been stopped by the Park Ranger as well and he was nice enough to drive me and my bike up the mountain to my truck. Although it was a fairly short ride I was done for the day. A short drive back to the Banff Town site for some food and a beer was in order.  I sat in the sun and enjoyed my meal and then headed back to the resort.

Ouch!

I hopped right into the shower and the is when I realized I was more banged up than I thought. Hot tub, nap, eat, hot tub and typing this up concluded my day.
For the next trails I am going to have to read the descriptions thoroughly and plan better. Today was definitely and experience though.

*** this will be better editted when I have reliable internet  ***