I dusted off my bike today, filled the tires with air and headed up the Spray Lakes road to Goat Creek. Unlike my skis, my bike doesn’t get much respect. The gears are stripped and it shifts as poorly as the old ’49 Ford truck we had on the farm.
The trail starts out in Kananaskis, but 900 metres in you’ll come to the Banff boundary
The last time I was on Goat Creek was on March 12 on some of the best snow of the winter: Edelweiss conditions on Goat Creek
Most readers of this blog will be aware that Goat Creek is a favourite trail of mine in the winter but it’s also a great bike ride.
SkierBob on Goat Creek. Okay, BikerBob
Being my first bike trip of the spring, I only went as far as the bridge at 7K(14K return). I thought the trail was in good early-season condition with no standing water and my tires didn’t pick up any mud. There are two stream crossings with running water which were easy to cross. The Banff trail report indicates there are some wash-outs, which I did see, but they are also easy to navigate.
The bears seem to like this trail too. I’ve encountered two bears on this trail in the past.
I saw indications that a bear had been down the trail a few days ago.
Ervin and Britt from San Francisco(originally from Switzerland) at the Goat Creek trailhead
I had a wonderful conversation at the trailhead with two hikers from San Francisco who had just finished doing EEOR(East end of Rundle). Britt and Ervin are originally from Switzerland where they have the Alps but they were mighty impressed with our magnificent Rockies. They told us some things to do in Grindelwald, other then hiking. While we were gabbing, a Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep scrambled up a steep slope on the other side of the road, laid down on a ledge, and watched us from way above.
It was raining when I left the trailhead around 6:15 pm, so no guarantees what the trail will be like tomorrow, but 300 metres lower in Canmore, the rain was short-lived.
Thanks for the update Bob! Can’t wait to ride it!