The Nutbrown Century

This was mostly the idea of Erik. Collective inspiration was drawn from our winter pursuits off the beaten path‎, and the need to have a bit of a housewarming for Jon at his new place down south. 

So with a little map staring, a loop of 160km ‎was born to link together some of the oldest established Kananaskis country trail & backroads, crossing into territory that these days is seldom traveled, or even decommissioned.

All in the day would take 8 hours to complete a loop that included Ware Creek, Gorge Creek Trail, Sheep River Road & Trail, Little Elbow as its backcountry essence. ‎Along the way I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, the vista's, and the enjoyment of rolling your tires accross terrain that I had never experienced (and is sledom experienced by many these days). Within the bounds of K-country, the historical efforts that have gone into contracting these trails is impressive. To see them lying dormant is equally so.

The impact of the 2013 flood is impossible to ignore, having devastated ‎vast swaths of trail and mountainside. Being amongst it drove home the incredible magnitude of the rainfall - even at high elevation, large sections of trail that have stood for almost 100 years are completely gone. Even the drainage in muchof the area has permanently changed, with creeks sprouting out from the forest where they have forced themselves over land.

We hit the worst of the trail devastation on the Sheep River Trail, where water had turned trail into a 5-foot deep chasm for kilometers. This was the slowest going, where two hours covered a distance of only 10km. The only thing keeping me going was knowledge that the trail's summit was near... and so was lunch.

I chose to test Tori's Apidura bags today - not an overnight trip but I figured it was close enough. Plus, the top-tube bag appeared conspicuously baggette-sized... after france trip I used it to full advantage for just that. we may have been remote, but our combined Summit-picnic was well deserved and impressively delicious!

Lunch also marked a literal and figurative summit for us, as it was downhill from there in elevation and the improving trail conditions all the way to Little Elbow. Again I could enjoy the quite backcountry trails. 

Finally (and almost sadly) we arrived back at the asphalt of HWY66 where a tailwind pushed us and our long shadows back towards our starting point. A long day‎ and a well earned BBQ with Jon & Kelley was our reward. Long ride for the Long Weekend in the bag.