Quote:
Originally Posted by ranchlandsselling
Question for the board:
I'm looking for novice trail routes. I can ride a road bike. I can ride a mountain bike on the road, or on a gravel road, or a slightly bumpy road. I've bombed around edworthy a bit, not up on the Cliffs on the north side of the river below varsity estates. I followed some dude one day on my commute home and he went through the old quarry and along the cliffs. That was a bit scary for me, especially alone. Is Nose Hill pretty novice? I'm in great shape, so while I'd like "novice" I would also like a half decent workout. I'm pretty sure I could go do 200k on my road bike on a random highway day and not cry about it. Actually that's not true - but I'm going to try this weekend hehehe.
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Nose hill is a good place to start. It's pretty novice and if you get more comfortable you can take some of the single track that dips down in the trees. Nothing really tough in there.
If you like distance try elbow loop out past Bragg creek. It's 40km long. The only sketchy section is the downhill from the summit if you are going counter clockwise. If you go clockwise you have to climb it. It's not that bad, but if you're nervous of bowmount then you'd probably want to walk it. The rest is pretty easy. The views at the summit are awesome and worth the ride.
Also you can ride the Canmore Nordic centre. It's as tough as you want to make it. You could stick to the x-country ski trails to start. Also goat creek trail from Canmore to banff is easy. You start across from the base of Ha Ling and ride goat creek. You could always come back on rundle riverside, but it's quite a bit more technical, so to start maybe give goat creek a go.
Out at station flats (just past Allen Bill Pond) there is a trail called tom snow. That's a novice trail as well. You could try that as well.
Those would be the easiest off the top of my head if you have the fitness. Start there and work your way up. There is a lot out there. Also, you should go with someone if you do the longer trails, like Elbow Loop. Tom Snow is a busy trail, so you wouldn't have to worry if you had a mechanical of some sort. Someone will be along.