Golden, BC: Mountain biking destination!

I've spent the past two days mountain biking in Golden, British Columbia.

I'd heard about the mountain bike trails here in Golden from a guy who was fishing on "my" pond while I was kamping in the Kootenays. He noticed that I had a "cross-country" mountain bike, and suggested I give the Moonraker system of trails a try. (Brief aside: I think it's funny how my bike, a Santa Cruz Blur LT2, is immediately identified as an XC bike out here. In my "home" trails in New Jersey/New York, it's often mistaken for a downhill bike. Just goes to show what the standard is west of the Rockies.) So after leaving Canmore - not a bad place for XC riding itself - I wandered over to Golden with the explicit intention of riding Moonraker. I eventually got to those trails, but in a bit of a roundabout way.

My first ride in Golden turned out to be a full day of downhilling at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. I hadn't actually intended to ride there - I was actually there to see if I could ride the gondola up to take sunset pictures from the mountain top. Well, one thing led to another, and I found myself encased in a full-face helmet, dressed in body armor, waiting in the chairlift line with another guy and our guide/instructor. Oh yeah, the instructor: never having done any lift-accessed riding before, I thought it prudent to have someone along who knew what he was doing, so I tagged along with this guy from Calgary who had signed up for a full day of guided riding at the Resort. Tom, our guide, quickly assessed our skill level, and after our first run on intermediate trails, it was nothing but black diamond runs for the rest of the day. Oh yeah, did I mention I'd never done downhill before? Turns out that a decade of regular riding in locations like Ottawa, New Jersey, and New York, combined with a couple of years of racing early in my career counts for something! I learned a lot in those hours and before too long I was flowing (as opposed to bouncing pinball-like!) down the trails. Alas, something I ate at lunch didn't agree with me, and towards the end of the day my stomach was churning, my concentration was shot, and despite the experience of several clean runs, on my last trip down the mountain I ended up falling more than I had in the past two years of riding. All the padding I was wearing certainly did its job! All I ended up with was a bruised knee.

Day two started with a bonus - an unanticipated shuttle up Mount 7. This guy in the hostel had nothing to do until his afternoon rafting trip, so he offered to drive me to the top of the mountain that had formerly hosted the Psychosis downhill race, also a launch point for para- and hangliders. I put my newly earned downhill skills to good use and railled all the intermediate runs to the bottom of the mountain. Note that I stayed off the black diamond runs this time: as mentioned above, unlike what some East Coast riders may think, my own personal bike is *not* a downhill bike! The bottom half of the mountain was especially fun and flowy, culminating in a sweet half-pipe. And that was just the start of the day...

I *finally* made it to the Moonraker trails - my reason for being in Golden at all - in the afternoon. Long story short: WOW! All kinds of flowy, fun, singletrack goodness threading through pine forest. The CBT Mainline trail, which actually connects the trail system to the town of Golden, is especially not to be missed.

There may be another Golden mountain biking day in my future...

Update Sept 6, 2011:
I did manage to do another day of mountain biking in Golden. I'd headed up the CBT Mainline trail for another XC ride in the Moonraker trails, but at the top of CBT I decided to turn around since my knee had started giving me problems from all the crashing I'd done on my first downhill experience. On my way back to the Dreamcatcher, I rode by this cute downhiller girl I'd spoken to a few times on the trails; she was loading a bunch of bikes into her pickup truck. "Wanna go for a ride?" she asked. "Sure!" I replied. (Really, what else could I say?)  She and her friends took me to a little-used downhill trail that only locals go to. Let's just say that while I'm a pretty good descender for an East Coast XC rider, I got nothin' on real honest-to-goodness Rocky Mountain downhillers.

The aftermath

"Beauty Creek" is Aptly Named

The old Banff-Jasper highway

The walk wasn't so promising to begin with; maybe the flat, straight crumbling remnant pavement of the old Banff-Jasper Parkway route deters would-be sightseers form continuing further. Or maybe it's because there's only a little tiny symbol of a hiker at the trailhead that indicates that there's anything interesting beyond. Either way, people on this trail were few and far between, which I see as a good thing. Once you're on the trail proper, you're off the old asphalt and it becomes a bit more rugged, more rooty, more interesting - but is still very easy as far as walks in the Rockies go. Regardless of the inauspicious start, taking the next few steps along this trail was very worthwhile. In seemingly no time at all, the first falls appeared.

First set of waterfalls at Beauty Creek

Then the next, and the next, and the next - all in quick succession. Apparently there's five in all, but I didn't count. Stopping at each set to take pictures, usually from multiple angles, time just flew by, and despite the short length of my walk (1.6 km distance, 200m in altitude gained), two hours had gone by. I actually could have gone further but I hadn't prepared to do so and my stomach was reminding me that it was dinner time.

A waterfall at Beauty Creek

Hard-core hikers will be less than impressed with this walk. "Where is the elevation? Where are the epic views?" they will ask. But that's ok. As Kathy and Craig Copeland hinted at in their wonderful book, Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies, this is a walk for the small wonders: "And hikers, after being overawed by grand mountains, are charmed by the human-scale beauty of this intimate chasm." And wonders there are indeed. I found this walk every bit as scenic as - and with the solitude, far more enchanting than - the crowded, sanitized, Disney-fied Johnston Canyon walk. At Beauty Creek, you can get right down to the water, scramble across rock slabs, and even perch precariously above cascades.

Beauty Creek waterfall from above

One thing that I don't understand is how kayakers could possibly manage this creek! According to the second edition of the Canadian Rockies Backroads Mapbook, Beauty Creek is one of the paddling opportunities in the Rockies:

Beauty Creek exists for one reason: to show off, preferably in front of a camera. If you are looking for an exhilarating ride down a wild white river, there are other places wilder and whiter. If you are looking for a great picture of you dropping off a 12 metrre high waterfall... well, here's your chance.

That I would like to see!

A Beauty Creek waterfall

Definitely a worthwhile stop, and even a potential for repeated visits to witness the changing light and seasons. But only if you appreciate waterfalls...

Overnight Backpack on Mill Brook Ridge, Catskills

Misty Alder Lake

Note: This hike was actually done in August 2010 but for some reason I didn't hit "Publish Post" on this entry.

I went on an impromptu overnight backpacking trip in the Catskills. My intention was to hike from Alder Lake, along the Mill Brook Ridge to the Balsam Lake Mountain trailhead, and continue along the Neversink-Hardenburgh Trail to spend the night at a campsite just past Vly Pond. Essentially, completing the Mill Brook Ridge and part of the Fall Brook sections of the Finger Lakes Trail. You know the saying, "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy"? Well, none of my plans survive contact with... well... me.

Spent Friday night at a campsite at Alder Lake. Experimented a bit with taking nighttime shots with my new camera, and then just lay down on a picnic table to catch the tail end of the Perseid meteor shower.

Saturday dawned bright and clear, and after a quick breakfast I hit the trail. Given my previous Catskills hiking experience, I made sure that I was carrying enough water to last me the two days. My backpack (Gregory Z55) wasn't really designed to take this kind of weight and the way it was distributed (5L in bladders in the pouch inside the pack, another 2L in bottles in the exterior pouch) so it wasn't long before it - and my shoulders - started complaining. Off to a great start...

This trail doesn't seem to get a lot of use and the ferns and other plants grow quite close to the path, so for much of the time there wasn't enough room to place my hiking poles. I do like this kind of terrain though, and the greenness is very refreshing. With the many streams along the way, it's quickly becoming obvious that I needn't have worried about the water situation. Just as well, since my hydration pack bladder sprang a leak and emptied itself overnight.

Directions to the spring

The two scenic lookouts (at Mill Brook Ridge and at the Balsam Lake Mountain Fire Tower) revealed nice enough views, but nothing really to write home about.

By the time I got to the Balsam Lake Mountain Fire Tower, my chronic plantar fasciitis was acting up in a big way. Rather than continuing on to the Neversink-Hardenburgh Trail, I decided to make camp at the Balsam Lake lean-to, thinking that I was better off knowing I could make my way back, rather than suffering through an extra 10 miles of up- and downhill hiking. Turned out to be the right decision.

Catskill Mists