Trip Report - GDMBR - Day 2 - June 28th 2025
We started a bit late from Spray Lakes CG after a rainy night. I blame myself for not recruiting more child labor for water collection and purification. I had everyone’s bottles, but only my filter. It took a while. Suzanne eventually came to help, and the picture of her bike at the water pump area
Once we were off and riding the weather was pure manic. We started off in the cold rain and then the sunshine would blast through. Rinse and repeat until it settled down later in the day with perfect temperatures (mid-60s Freedomheight) and sun. We played the on and off game with rain gear and worshiped our pogies for the first but not the last time.
Terrain for the day was mostly a wide open champagne-gravel road that we shared with rental Kia K4s and minivans. If we didn’t get the rain I’m guessing it would have been epically dusty, but we had it good; easy pedaling and no choking on rental car dust. We had drivers pull over and warn us of a Grizzly ahead, but never saw a big brown snuggle buddy.
We initially planned to camp at the Canyon Campground, but it was full. The Canada Day Holiday was tough camping competition. We met up with the British father/son duo and they offered to let us camp with them, but that was too many tents on one site :( The camp hosts directed us to an alternative, Pocoterra Hut, that had NO ONE there, but was clearly setup for cyclists (bike tools, pump, stand, …) and camping (bear bins, water, pit toilets). We got to finish the night setup in a little stand of trees that were perfect for tents and a wind-down-while-unpacking rainbow.
By the numbers - 32.7mi, 3,169ft up, 2,241ft down.
Trip Report - GDMBR - Day 1 - June 27th 2025
The family started off on our Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) tour. We started a little off route, from Canmore, AB. Canada hooked us up with a bike path connecting to Banff National Park. Nice, Canada! Rainy, but still beautiful way to start.
We transitioned from bike path to Banff’s peak tourism to the legendary trailhead just past the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel. Past the hotel we were away from crowds and immediately into nature. We had a mix of single and doubletrack with amazing views.
We met (as they passed us) quite a few Europeans. A father and son duo, the son beast-modeing a jury rigged single speed that we’d meet again, and a young Polish man who was astounded Henry would love to visit Poland.
We camped at Spray Lakes West CG.
By the numbers - 35.1mi, 2,667ft up, 1,385ft down.
