Any Canadians out there??

[BazB]

Wondering if there are any fellow Canadians or peeps in Canada out there beyond the computer screen??
I'm in Guelph, southern Ontario right now. Thinking about riding this year. It would be nice to meet up with others here who are into trips. My personal preference is the more singletrack the better, but all sorts of rides are fun for me. The chance to share ideas and route info here in Canada would be great, additionally it would be cool to have info available for those thinking of making it over to Canada.
Funny thing is I moved to Canada from Scotland a few years back and now i find myself thinking about coast to coast/ highland & island trips in Scotland all the time.
Scotland is pretty good country for bike adventures .... I'll be back later this year hopefully so I might try for a longer adventure before winter sets in.
My current bike set up is a 2011 fargo with a manitou fork. Its proving to be a wicked bike. Its being used as a commuter and singletrack beast right now and i should be doing overnights soon as my revelate goodies show up. My previous touring rig is/was a 90's steel Kona, either rigid or hardtail and a bobtrailer. I really like the fargo, drops are awesome to ride in. On the road i'm mostly on the hoods, super comfy on and off road. The apex doubletap are really good. Not so much discussion about that but for fast singletrack the doubletap works super well in the drops and from the hoods on the road. Any folks with q's on this bike feel free to pm me.
I'll try to post info from trips taken here if i can....
best to all!
BazB 

[nick]

I'm from BC in North Vancouver. If you are ever this way, I'm always game.

[BazB]

Right On Nick... I'll give you a shout if i come out that way. I'm 50:50 on doing some orchard work in the Okanagan to fund a trip this year.
Used to live in the Kootenays until a few years ago... actually made it to your area around Van last summer. Took a mini trip around some of the southern gulf islands, would have been fun if I'd had the bike with me. Nice part of the world for sure.
Managed some hiking in the Coast Mountains (Stein Valley) and in the Bugaboos a few years ago...love the country, I'd like to move back one day!  Watched the film 'A Simple Curve" last night with my roomies, made me all nostalgic.... nice BC movie if you haven't seen it before...
Daydreaming about alpine singletrack routes or managing north a bit to explore Haida Gwaii.
if you're into some alpine or adventurous multiday and your stuck for fellow activists let me know... a good idea for a trip would swing that 50:50 the right way and I'd be west in a flash 

cheers
BazB

[sportsman]

Hi Nick

I'm Scott, also in North Van... we're always looking for people that like to spend ridiculously long period pedaling their bikes....

[nick]

Hey, I'm heading this weekend to Pemberton for the Nimby Fifty race (even if your not a racer it's a pretty cool event).  If you'r game there's still some spots and I have room in my car. I'll be at the north shore bike fest as well all three days the weekend after (this time as a timing tech) come say hi if you are in the hood. Anyway if you want we can hook up for an evening ride after work. See ya

[sportsman]

I'll be there on Saturday... Red singlespeed...  uncommitted to the NSBF

[Adam Alphabet]

Hi guys, I live in Van. Will be at Nimby this weekend on a red cove hardtail with red rims, and will be doing the XC at NSBF.

Sportsman, I think I rode with you and your wife briefly at the capitol forest 100 last summer, what a great event, great blog by the way. I've got a tonne of questions about 29ers on our local trails if you've got some time to chat. I'm looking to set one up this summer.

BazB, I hiked from Tlell to Tow Hill in Naikoon provincial park on Haida Gwaii a number of years ago, it was an amazing walk. I've recently been dreaming of redoing this route on a fat bike, that would be a peaceful ride. Haida Gwaii is an incredible place, please go if you get the chance.

[Esportsman]

Addy,

Where you wearing a Cove jersey during the Capitol Forest? 
Em

[nick]

I'll be there on Saturday... Red singlespeed...  uncommitted to the NSBF

So you'r one of those crazy singlespeeders. I find hard on a geared bike can't imagine doing it with one gear! I'll be the one in a super cool ford escort wagon with a sweet ti frame frame in the back.

[sportsman]

Is there still space available in your super cool ford escort wagon?  even for a steel frame with only gear? 

My wife won't be going tomorrow, so carpooling is suddenly a very attractive option....

[nick]

check your pm

[Adam Alphabet]

Hi Em yes I was. I'll be wearing the same one tomorrow morning.

[Groundshine]

Prince Edward Island ( a couple weeks of the year anyway)  and then not quite Canadian (except in the blood) just 100 km south of Quebec in Vermont the rest of the year.  I've been trying to make the off road/ on dirt commute between the two on the Trans Canada Trail for a few years now with limited success.  https://picasaweb.google.com/parisbrestparis/TransCanadaTrail

[Mario]

Hey there fellow Canadian, Mario from Whitehorse, Yukon. Lots of good long trails up here, almost 700 km of trails within city limits and more in every direction.

[taprider]

Good Day Eh!

I'm also a Canadian from North Van

I've been piecing together a route from Williams Lake through Churn Creek, to Yalakom, to Shulaps, to Spruce Lake, to Goldbridge, to Pemberton, to Whistler to Squamish.  Have done many portions (but some in the wrong direction).
Do you think it would make a good bike packing race route? 
It would be fairly technical for a bike with 15 to 20lb of extra gear.
Figure 4 to 5 days racing, and 7 days touring.  Churn Creek to the Yalakom would be very remote, but mainly ranch roads with some horse trails (haven't figured out a creek/canyon crossing yet).

Also could do Yukon to Vancouver. 
There is a railbed (never any rails) from Dease Lake to Fort St. James.  not sure of the state of bridges or washouts, but heard at least part of it is a 4x4 or ATV route.  Likely 3 to 5 days without supply for that portion.

[lukey]

Wondering if there are any fellow Canadians or peeps in Canada out there beyond the computer screen??
I'm in Guelph, southern Ontario right now.

Hey BazB!  I'm also in Southern Ontario (Hamilton).  I guess we're pretty close to one another.  I have been doing / working on a few new ideas for local Ontario routes.  Can you PM me?

[BazB]

Right on Lukey, pm'd you....

[lukey]

Just thought I would share a few route ideas.  My tastes run towards techy single track, so be aware that these routes are all contain fairly difficult riding for loaded bikes.

All of these routes are loops, and can be started and finished at any place around the route.

1. Guelph -> Guelph loop ( via Brantford - Hamilton - Hilton Falls ).
Some road, Cambridge Rail Trail, Grand Valley Trail, Hamilton - Brantford Rail Trail, Dundas Trail system, Waterdown -> Hilton via Bruce Trail thru Mt. Nemo, Kelso, Hilton Falls, Limehouse, Guelph Radial Trail.  This is a huge loop...like 250km, half being really rocky trail with lots of hike-a-bike.   I have ridden all of it, and it's really challenging.  Never did it all together....yet.

2. Guelph -> Guelph loop ( via Limehouse - Caledon)
Guelph Radial Trail, Bruce Trail, Rail-trail, singletrack, rail,trail, road.  It's a 1-night.  About 200km.

3. Beaver Valley -> Kolapore -> 3-Stage -> Blue -> Loree Forest -> Beaver Valley
Almost continuous singletrack, huge amounts of climbing.  1-overnight.  Probably 150KM with over 10,000' of climbing.  Sweet trail.

As a further brainstorm, there are several long-distance trails that look interesting.  One in particular that has intrigued me for a couple of years is this:

4. Wilderness section of the Ganaraska Trail, return loop via road:
http://ganaraskawilderness.wetpaint.com/
Big question mark on this one.  It's wet (beaver dams) and about 60km through the wilderness, with a return by road.  The most remote and committed of the options here.  Chance of bears.

Also, these links may inspire someone:
http://www.oakridgestrail.org/
http://www.ganaraska-hiking-trail.ca/

I have copious amounts of mapping and tons of experience on most areas on these routes, so please let me know if I should elaborate on the route details.

[doesnotcompute]

Hi All,
I'm in the GTA and really starting to get interested in bikepacking.  Does anyone have any gps routes they can share?

[lukey]

A great, fairly comprehensive resource for GPS mapping is the "Ontario Trails Project"
http://trailmaps.torontogeocaching.com/

The trails are not well-described at all, but it's a decent source for finding out some of the basic locations of things and seeing how things can be connected.

It won't tell you if the route is good for biking or which directions are the most fun, or what to expect in terms of the terrain.  That will take additional resources...but you will find there's a lot of info out on the web in blog, photo and website formats...if you initially know what trail names to search for, you can start to find the extra details elsewhere.

By the way, some of the bike trail systems as shown within the OTP map set are horribly incomplete.  Last I looked at network-y trail systems like Hilton, Copeland, Mansfield, Durham...the map barely shows 1/10th of the trails.  But in terms of bike-packing, a lot of the long-distance routes are very well covered, eg. The Bruce, Grand River, Trans-Canada, Ganaraska, Oak Ridges and so on.  Everything I've personally ridden has checked out pretty much entirely.  The maps are highly complete and accurate.