Favorite trails out of the city

[Boosted131]

I am looking for some more trails to try out , preferably ones that aren't paved the whole way through . What are your favorite trails around ? I am scoping out the goat trail between Canmore /banff and the trails in Bragg creek .

[RickDaTuner]

When I was younger I used to do the loop behind the Banff springs Hotel daily, its a good open fire trail with a few challenging climbs. I would turn back around at the Bridge about 7-8kms in, then come back on the Goat Creek Trail from Canmore to Banff. I actually think I'm going to do that loop this afternoon.

[Penguin_Racecar]

Assuming mountain bike:
Depending on your ability level I'd start with West Bragg Creek's Bragging Rights to Merlin View Loop. The downhill of Merlin is like a rollercoaster. Fairly long climb but it's not super steep.
Ranger Summit to Strange Brew is also a good loop, but the climb is steeper and the down is more technical.

Canmore Nordic Centre has an amazing trail network for all ability levels, with the benefit of being able to fill water bottles after an hour or two and head out for another loop.

Goat Creek Trail is OK for beginners. The climbs are easy, it's not technical at all.

If you're a pretty capable rider - Jumping Pound to Cox Hill is a classic.

Take a look on Trailforks (there's a phone app also that is amazing) for trail descriptions / locations. West Bragg Creek has incredibly good trails. Moose Mountain (also bragg creek) has anything from cross country to proper downhill/freeride. Nordic Centre is awesome - you could spend a week riding there and not hit all the trails.

Another option if you want to do a Canmore to Banff loop with practically no pavement is the following:
- Park at the Canmore Nordic Centre
- Take the Banff Trail to the end of the Nordic Centre, where it turns into the Rundle Riverside Trail
- Follow Rundle Riverside trail until it spits you out onto the Banff golf course
- Take the paved road into Banff - it'll spit you out by the Banff Springs hotel
- Hop on the Spray River Trail by the hotel
- Connect to the Goat Creek Trail (don't miss the left turn to go down the hill / over the bridge)
- Ride Goat Creek Trail to connect to Spray Lakes Road at Whiteman's Gap.
- Bomb down Spray Lakes Road to the Nordic centre

If I recall correctly it's about 50km. Nordic Centre to Banff is relatively flat. Banff to Whiteman's Gap is gradual uphill. Whiteman's Gap to Nordic centre is ~70km/hr downhill on gravel

Let me know if you want a ridewithgps or gmap-pedometer route of that loop.

[Boosted131]

I will have to check some of those out for sure. I did goat creek into banff and back today (41 km round trip) with the gf. She's just getting into riding so it was a good trail for her. Any others around the same distance that would be good for a beginner ?

[ExtraSlow]

Is that goat creek trail pretty smooth/boring? been looking for some mountain trails that don't require technical skillz but are more interesting than the banff-canmore beside-the-highway trail.

[Boosted131]

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Is that goat creek trail pretty smooth/boring? been looking for some mountain trails that don't require technical skillz but are more interesting than the banff-canmore beside-the-highway trail.

Not boring since it has a great view the whole time, and not that smooth either as it's all offroad with rock/some gravel. My gf did fine on it

[ExtraSlow]

I meant boring in a good way. I'm really looking for a "path" somewhere. This doesn't' sound like my thing.

[Boosted131]

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I meant boring in a good way. I'm really looking for a "path" somewhere. This doesn't' sound like my thing.

I wouldn't go through with a road bike, but any decent hard tail is fine. I don't think there is any other paths that are nicer. Are you wanting like a woodchip style path or what?

[Penguin_Racecar]

Sounds like you're looking for pavement? If you want to go out of the city then maybe riding up to Lake Minnewanka and completing the loop via Two-Jack.
In town I'd recommend Fish Creek. You can connect the Bow River Pathway to Fish Creek and head North on the pathway to Glenmore Reservoir if you want to do a massive mostly bike path loop.

[Boosted131]

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Sounds like you're looking for pavement? If you want to go out of the city then maybe riding up to Lake Minnewanka and completing the loop via Two-Jack.
In town I'd recommend Fish Creek. You can connect the Bow River Pathway to Fish Creek and head North on the pathway to Glenmore Reservoir if you want to do a massive mostly bike path loop.

Can you recommend any other trails for me to take the gf on?

[Penguin_Racecar]

Trails? Or Pathways?

[GreyFox]

+1 for exactly what Penguin said - excellent advice in his post.

My only other recommendation is the Lake Minnewanka trail (also on trail forks). Excellent beginner - intermediate ride with not much elevation gain and not super technical but still fun enough for the more experienced rider of the group. Excellent views and it's an out and back so you can make it as long or as short as you'd like. Most common is to the ranger cabin which is 15k out and 15k back. The start of it gets super busy with hikers but if you go early you can avoid the rush. Even if you start with the masses, you just have to get through the first 1km of the trail to get past the crowds and then it's free sailing from there.

Trail is closed to bikers starting July 15 (I think that's the exact date, might want to double check) through to mid-Sept so there's a limited window to bike it.

[Boosted131]

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Trails? Or Pathways?

Trails. Pathways get boring after a while, and there's enough around the city haha

[g-m]

Project 9 in Fernie. Lots of ways to go, different every time

[dimi]

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+1 for exactly what Penguin said - excellent advice in his post.

My only other recommendation is the Lake Minnewanka trail (also on trail forks). Excellent beginner - intermediate ride with not much elevation gain and not super technical but still fun enough for the more experienced rider of the group. Excellent views and it's an out and back so you can make it as long or as short as you'd like. Most common is to the ranger cabin which is 15k out and 15k back. The start of it gets super busy with hikers but if you go early you can avoid the rush. Even if you start with the masses, you just have to get through the first 1km of the trail to get past the crowds and then it's free sailing from there.

Trail is closed to bikers starting July 15 (I think that's the exact date, might want to double check) through to mid-Sept so there's a limited window to bike it.

Great one and one of my favorites for a flowly single track, with a nice beach at the end which is perfect for a cool off dip.

You're going to run into a lot of Canada 150 traffic though. It was closed about a month ago. A bunch of hikers I ran into that day saw a bear, freaked out and just absolutely lost their shit. They were yelling all the way back to the car for 8 kms, bear spray and bangers in hand. Reported the bear was aggressive etc. Trail closed. Think it's reopened now.

Prairie view - Jewell Pass is also a great one.