ROUTES

CLOSING A SINGLETRACK GAP IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES

“LAST TIME I RODE THROUGH HERE I SAW A MOMMA GRIZZLY bear with two cubs. I think they’re still around.” With that matter-offact pep talk Ryan Draper hops into the saddle and hammers onto the High Rockies Trail. Photographer Ryan Creary and I exchange nervous glances and then race to not be the last guy in line.

Draper’s giving us a locals tour of 50 miles of singletrack snaking through the Canadian Rockies, south of Canmore, Alberta, and just east of the Banff National Park border. Built in secret over the last two years, it’s an important connection not just in the local trail network but also in ‘The Great Trail,’ a Canada-wide recreation corridor. It’s also Alberta’s longest chunk of singletrack and links into additional trail on either end. Grizzly bear or not,