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By Glen Petrie
Particular to the Calgary Herald
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“Biker down,” stated my information into her two-way radio as I out of the blue discovered myself within the snow, nonetheless straddling my e-bike. How embarrassing. I’d let my eyes drift off the path to soak up a view of snow-capped peaks and drifted onto the mushy shoulder.
“You OK?” Solely injured satisfaction. The surroundings, I spotted, must look forward to the subsequent picture cease.
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I used to be using with a small group alongside Banff’s Brewster Creek Path, led with cheerleader gusto by Clare McCann, founding father of Bikescape Excursions. In summer season, it’s a horse path, however our steeds have been battery-powered fats bikes. It was essentially the most enjoyable I’ve had in winter with out skis on my toes.
“Our purpose is to provide you a ridiculously enjoyable, critically secure journey,” Clare says. “With fats tire e-bikes, it’s such an accessible and distinctive backcountry expertise.”
Bikescape provides two- and four-hour excursions on the again roads and trails across the city of Banff, however Clare’s specialty is bespoke journeys, no pun meant. Drawing on her information of native trails and circumstances, she’ll devise an journey to swimsuit anybody’s objectives and health degree.
“You simply need to know learn how to trip a motorcycle,” Clare says. Bikescape offers bikes, helmets and snacks.
Our tour to the off-grid Sundance Lodge was certainly one of Clare’s customized concepts. The journey might be executed in a day however we’d organized an in a single day lodge keep.
Nobody in my group had any fats tire e-bike expertise, but after a fast lesson within the car parking zone all of us traversed the path with out issues, my careless spill however. The bulbous tires of the bikes are made for winter. The resistance of snow is definitely compensated with battery energy, even on the uphill. With a flick of a swap and a contact of the pedals, my 30-kg steed rocketed up the path as if being pushed from behind. The trip felt like a sluggish curler coaster I piloted myself.
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“I wouldn’t take individuals right here on an analog bike,” Clare says. It’s 11 kilometres with an elevation acquire of 173 metres and the snow might be mushy, making for a tough slog aboard a push-bike.
We rolled up and down by way of towering lodgepole pines, alongside ravines and throughout picket bridges over Healy Creek. We paused for snacks amidst a winter mountain scene that appeared straight out of a vacation greeting card.
Bikescape is the birthchild of the pandemic. Clare, an skilled information, took her children on fats bike rides as a socially distanced exercise. Quickly her mates and neighbours requested if she’d take their children alongside as effectively. A brand new enterprise concept was hatched.
McCann and her employees are the park’s solely licensed bike guides. “You must know the place to go,” she says. “I do know when a path goes to be icy or slushy, however a customer from out of city will not be going to know that.”
In an hour or so we reached the comfortable, 10-room Sundance Lodge, constructed and maintained beneath a park licence by Jonathan Welsh, proprietor of Uncover Banff Excursions. We have been welcomed into the standard log cabin by a crackling fireplace and connoisseur charcuterie board. Massive, comfortable armchairs make it too simple to go to sleep. The proficient employees serves meals that may put a few of Banff’s finer eating places to disgrace. In actual fact, a few of the Sundance cooks additionally work at well-liked eating places on the town. (The lodge requires advance discover to arrange for a gaggle.)
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Photo voltaic-powered lights and fuel stoves belie the very fact there is no such thing as a electrical energy. No mobile service both; Sundance is the right place to go darkish. Actually. With no gentle air pollution, galaxies of stars crowd the evening sky.
Whereas we stood within the deafening silence, necks craned towards the evening sky, I requested Jonathan if there’s wildlife within the space. “Oh certain, bears – grizzlies however principally black bear. Coyotes, wolves, bighorn sheep, elk. A marmot lives beneath the cabin out again.”
The lodge is open Thursday to Sunday in January and February and might be reserved on-line for people who make the journey on their very own bike, or on snowshoes or Nordic skis.
Bikescape will take teams of two or extra to the lodge and again on a half-day trip, and guides might be booked to accompany an in a single day journey. The lodge is roomy sufficient to accommodate guides in addition to visitors, or guides can escort the group in and return the subsequent day to steer them out. Usually, households, teams or firms will reserve all the lodge.
“Six individuals is an effective quantity to divide the price of the lodge and guides,” says Jonathan.
The trip out the subsequent day was much more enjoyable as a result of it was principally downhill. Plenty of thrills and no spills.
Should you go
Bikescape’s two-hour Style of the Trails Winter Tour is $169 per particular person. A four-hour intermediate tour is $239. Bespoke journeys might be quoted. https://bikescape.ca
Sundance Lodge is $259 per particular person, per evening, together with meals. Unique lodge rental is $3,365. https://horseback.com/sundance-lodge
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