Rich Rothwell

Will the real Canada please stand up?

August 9th, 2009

I’m writing this from Blighty and reflecting on my last ride of this year’s Canada trip. After two weeks of red hot weather and bone dry dusty trails, I had felt like I had ‘missed’ something on my visit… As much fun as it was, it had not been the dark, damp, and atmospheric woodland treachery fest I had imagined…

My last ride changed all this. The weather turned on the last two days of our stay. The temperature dropped from the 30s down to around 10 and there were some heavy downpours. What a shock to the system… But being a Northerner, my body works well at this temperature so I set off to string together a loop of my favourite bits (it doesn’t take long to build up an extensive list in the Canadian Rockies…). The character of the riding had changed as dramatically as the weather… Rattley but fast singletrack trails had been transformed into labyrinths of super slippery roots. It was as if some one had smashed a whole load of icicles on the trail and placed them at impossibly tricky angles…

Roots Manoeuvre.

After following a particularly rooty trail along the Bow River to Banff, I began the climb up the Goat Creek Trail. I’d ridden it time trial style the opposite way a couple of days previously, I hadn’t realised what a climb it was on the returm leg… and it also rose to around 1700m. It got very cold. Even at a stiff climbing pace.

I was well and truly caught out!

My feet were like blocks of ice. My hands were starting to loose sensation. I was at the top of ‘Riders of Rohan’, a proper downhill trail. Over I went. Sketchy, steep and rocky. Chilled to the bone. A bit like your average ride in the Lakes actually…

Riders of Rohan

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