The Missing Link

Closing a singletrack gap in the Canadian Rockies

- Ryan Stuart

“LAST TIME I RODE THROUGH HERE I SAW A MOMMA GRIZZLY bear with two cubs. I think they’re still around.” With that matter-of-fact 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, I’ll take my chances to put tread to this exciting link.

Even with ursus motivation, catching up to Draper is no easy feat. He’s an endurance racer, coach, general manager at Canmore’s Rebound Cycles and one of the most dedicated and knowledgeable local riders. But he’s going easy on us today and soon we grab onto his back wheel. Thoughts of grizzly bears disappear as we twist and turn through the pine forest, Draper chatting away as I suck wind trying to keep up.

“The High Rockies Trail opens up all kinds of possibilities,” he says over his shoulder. “It’s going to change how people bike around here.”