Goat Creek by bike; Canmore to Banff

Goat Creek at 4.3K

This was a momentous and highly-celebrated bike ride for me. After five months of dormancy(recovering from shoulder-replacement surgery), it was wonderful to be riding my bike on Goat Creek again. 

I met other bikers on the trail. This is at the Goat Creek bridge.

The trail is in great shape for biking with only one mud puddle to splash through. There were about 10 places with standing water but were easily skirted except for the aforementioned one which is at 7.3K(just a bit past the Goat Creek bridge).

The Spray River at 9K

Goat Creek and Spray River West trails are relatively smooth and easy with the occasional rocky section. I took it pretty easy, not wanting to jolt my shoulder unnecessarily. The fast downhills on the first 7K of Goat Creek were where I had to be deliberate and go a little slower to avoid getting jostled too much. 

Goat Creek, looking back towards Ha-Ling peak

I always enjoy the spectacular scenery on this ride and today was magnificent with the bright sun and beautiful blue sky. Everything looks the same except for the signage at the Banff boundary. There are new trail markers for the High Rockies trail which starts at the Banff boundary, 900 metres from the Goat Creek trailhead.

As for skiing news, it’s great to see all the bridge work being completed on the West Bragg Creek ski trails. In my previous post I talked about the new bridge over the Sundog ice flow. I’ll have some more updates in the coming days. 

It’s hard to believe, but Frozen Thunder at the Canmore Nordic Centre will open in six weeks!

5 Comments:

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  1. Good on ya Bob! Easy does it. I suspect that trail is rock-skiable this am -albeit temporarily! Looking forward to the feed of your’s & others skinny-ski adventures again this winter.

  2. hopefully some good larch viewing weather as a warm up to the ski season. So far they are just starting to show signs of turning. This weeks weather should get things going and perhaps a creamy topping on the peaks as a precursor to our favourite season. Welcome back bob and congrats on the healing milestone.

  3. Glad to hear things are going well Bob – will see you on the skiis but hopefully not too soon. Love that trail too. We were out on the 7th as well and thoroughly enjoyed the High Rockies from Goat Creek parking lot to Driftwood (rtn). Great flow along the lake.

  4. So good to hear that your recovery seems to be going well. It’s been a great mountain bike season, with hopefully another month and a half of good riding to go- as I’m not quite ready for winter, yet. See you on the trails!

  5. Congratulations on your successful surgery and and ongoing recovery. I hope to see you all out on the ski trails this winter once I recover from my foot surgery early last month 🙂

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