All the credit, no blame, goes to Brenda for this one. We asked a number of friends to join us. Most replied with something along the lines of "That should be interesting. No." Admittedly the park isn't exactly well known for its mountain biking trails. Thankfully the intrepid Gerald did join us for what turned out to be 43km and 12 hours of pushing, pulling, and occasionally riding our expensive new steeds.
The ride to Divide Lake is a grind but mostly harmless and Divide Lake itself is a beautiful spot. Things start getting more interesting on the Mountain Goat Trail.
But at least there were a few chances to actually sit on the bikes.
Wild Horse Canyon from the south parking lot is rideable for a few kilometres but then...well, things get a little weird. This was the last photo I took before giving up any hope of recording the days activities.
I'm not even going to begin to describe it. Let's just say that the trail is barely passable on foot, never mind on a mountain bike. After many, many long, hot, sweaty, thirsty hours we emerged at the Buchan Bay intersection where the trail flattens out and finally becomes practical on a bike. The last 10km of riding was easy but it was all just a blur we were so tired. Finally we emerged at the parking lot just as the sun was going down.
Animals seen: mountain blue bird (2), elk (several), owl (1), black bear (1), snakes (many), unidentified large raptor (1)
Sinkholes fallen into: 1 (Brenda)
Ditches somersaulted into: 1 (Brenda)
Other people seen: 0
What a day!
thanks for the reality check. we've done divide lake and mountain goat trail on foot and often wondered about bringing bikes in. divide lake is a sweet spot, and check out the plane crash next time you are up there.
ReplyDelete