Calgarians that dualsport

[Sapper33]

How was the Road to the Sun? The girlfriend and I are looking at heading down to Polson MT, via Glacier National Park in the next few weeks (as soon as the ATF sends me my form 6 back!). Any really bad patches you found? I don't mind on my Dakar, but the bent on the missis's F800ST is not so gravel friendly

[cdnarcher]

Originally Posted by Sapper33

How was the Road to the Sun? The girlfriend and I are looking at heading down to Polson MT, via Glacier National Park in the next few weeks (as soon as the ATF sends me my form 6 back!). Any really bad patches you found? I don't mind on my Dakar, but the bent on the missis's F800ST is not so gravel friendly

There is one section just west of Logan Pass that they are repaving and currently is hard packed gravel (a couple of miles). It was wet, but not slimy or greasy at all. She should be OK. Everything from Rockets to Cruisers to Adventure Bikes passing through there.

The rest of the road is new or good condition asphalt.

[rockyrider]

Originally Posted by Pine Sol

i once had the idea of this, and the surprise was on me.......

Hadn't thought of that, all the more reason to get there.

and then again... the surprise will be on her, when you show up with "company"

Hadn't thought of that either.

[rockyrider]

Anyone riding tonight? Looking for some dirt, gravel, big dual sport fun.

[XSoCal]

Great thread...I'm new to Dual Sport (after many years on sport bikes) and relatively new to Calgary (after many years in SoCal). I've tried some trails in Waiparous/Ghost River, but was a bit surprised at how ripped up many areas are. The staging areas to the trails I tried to get to had such massive ruts and holes everywhere that I had to ride at like 1 kph to cross them, and never did find the good part of the trail. Or do most people just fly through these areas and I really am just a n00b? I did find Waiparous Valley Road, which was a great run...are there some trails there that people would recommend for a beginner (off the road) that are more like that one? I have a XR650R, which seems so far to be pretty capable, even if I'm not yet.

What I would really like to find around here are fire/logging roads or cut lines that get some altitude going. Does anyone know of routes that take you up mountains (anywhere in AB)? I'd love to find some awesome remote viewpoints. Anyways it's good to see there are a lot of dualsport riders here,

Mike

[rokdktr]

Originally Posted by XSoCal

Great thread...I'm new to Dual Sport (after many years on sport bikes) and relatively new to Calgary (after many years in SoCal). I've tried some trails in Waiparous/Ghost River, but was a bit surprised at how ripped up many areas are. The staging areas to the trails I tried to get to had such massive ruts and holes everywhere that I had to ride at like 1 kph to cross them, and never did find the good part of the trail. Or do most people just fly through these areas and I really am just a n00b? I did find Waiparous Valley Road, which was a great run...are there some trails there that people would recommend for a beginner (off the road) that are more like that one? I have a XR650R, which seems so far to be pretty capable, even if I'm not yet.

What I would really like to find around here are fire/logging roads or cut lines that get some altitude going. Does anyone know of routes that take you up mountains (anywhere in AB)? I'd love to find some awesome remote viewpoints. Anyways it's good to see there a


re a lot of dualsport riders here,

Mike

My kind of riding exactly, but I'm with you about the trailheads ripped up everywhere and then not finding the great runs. Frustrating by yourself and I e done it a lot. Exploring is fun, but can be fruitless if you waste a day finding mud hole after mud hole and no nice trails. Now that I'm back into ds well have to hook up a nice run, even if it is fire roads north of cochrane off The trunk road.

[RED CAT]

All Off Road vehicles of any type get to play in that huge 25 sq mile area called McLean Creek. So in most cases its just one mud hole after another. It'll only get worse then it will be closed down completely cause all the green freaks will freak when they take a trip out there and see all the destruction you have done to this pristine area. Oh, by the way, Clear Cut is OK though. So is Drilling. Wiaprous was awesome at one time but again fallen victim to the green freaks. Hate to burst your bubble but you missed the good old days. Like to ride dirt? Go to BC. They still have lots of good stuff: for now.
The PNW is awesome too. Alberta sucks, mostly. When you get tired of mud, get yourself a big Adventure Bike and play on Alberta/BC dirt roads. Lots of them and still wide open and usuaslly Fuzz Free.

[Lav1200]

There is still a bunch of stunning single track to ride out at McLean (although I'm sure there was tons more "back in the day") - with no quad or 4x4 ruts. If you want to experience the high alpine single track, join the RMDRA and get out to a few of their Wed night guided rides to learn where the good stuff is. An XR650R might be a handful on some of the tighter stuff, be would still be fun.

[alberta bob]

What I would really like to find around here are fire/logging roads or cut lines that get some altitude going. Does anyone know of routes that take you up mountains (anywhere in AB)? I'd love to find some awesome remote viewpoints. Anyways it's good to see there are a lot of dualsport riders here,

Mike[/QUOTE]

try exploring the forestry trunk road 2 hours south of cowtown .

[rokdktr]

I am going to do some rideing / scouting / exploring the roads from Cochrane-Forestry Trunk - Burnt Timber Gas Plant - Bergen - and back again, see if there is a fun route, might be some nice play areas in the Fallen Timber / Burnt Timber areas, then west of the trunk into forestry land to find some nice access roads, as long as they are open. We found nice single track up in BearBerry but it was to skinny for the family buggy, but I would like to scout some on the bike.

Need friends now.

[XSoCal]

Originally Posted by rokdktr

My kind of riding exactly, but I'm with you about the trailheads ripped up everywhere and then not finding the great runs. Frustrating by yourself and I e done it a lot. Exploring is fun, but can be fruitless if you waste a day finding mud hole after mud hole and no nice trails. Now that I'm back into ds well have to hook up a nice run, even if it is fire roads north of cochrane off The trunk road.

Originally Posted by rokdktr

I am going to do some rideing / scouting / exploring the roads from Cochrane-Forestry Trunk - Burnt Timber Gas Plant - Bergen - and back again, see if there is a fun route, might be some nice play areas in the Fallen Timber / Burnt Timber areas, then west of the trunk into forestry land to find some nice access roads, as long as they are open. We found nice single track up in BearBerry but it was to skinny for the family buggy, but I would like to scout some on the bike.

Sounds great! I went out today for a short ride, and I'm sure there are a lot of great runs. I'm going to go over some maps and try and do some research before hand, and as I find things post them here. I also ride with a GPS, and maybe we can make a library of DS tracks for the region. I have a Garmin, and I should look into how you make up map sets and stuff. Anyway, good to hear all this feedback, thanks guys!

[XSoCal]

Originally Posted by RED CAT

All Off Road vehicles of any type get to play in that huge 25 sq mile area called McLean Creek. So in most cases its just one mud hole after another. It'll only get worse then it will be closed down completely cause all the green freaks will freak when they take a trip out there and see all the destruction you have done to this pristine area. Oh, by the way, Clear Cut is OK though. So is Drilling. Wiaprous was awesome at one time but again fallen victim to the green freaks. Hate to burst your bubble but you missed the good old days. Like to ride dirt? Go to BC. They still have lots of good stuff: for now.
The PNW is awesome too. Alberta sucks, mostly. When you get tired of mud, get yourself a big Adventure Bike and play on Alberta/BC dirt roads. Lots of them and still wide open and usuaslly Fuzz Free.

I'm getting the picture here...as I'm reading about all these things, the whole clear cutting versus drilling versus OHV use seems to be a big issue here, with many sides to the coin. But the main side seems to be that the government really doesn't care what happens as long as they are making money. Getting time to ride is hard for me, so I'll have to stick with exploring here for a while, but yeah BC sounds great. And I want to plan a trip to Alaska at some point.

You mean my XR650R isn't an Adventure Bike ?! You know, the reason I bought this is I spent so long trying to decide between the KTM and BMW like everyone else, and I just said hell with it, get this for half the price now and actually go riding, and then figure out what I really want. And it was a good idea I think...I like off better than on road, I don't mind the weight and height, and I really don't mind being on the highway for a long time on it (never did like windscreens). So I think what I really need is to mod a 950 Super Enduro for distance. Although with the Acerbis tank I can go well past 300 km, so it'll be good to practice on. Coming from an R1, it's like being on a bicycle. And the engine always sounds like it is running on only one cylinder...

[XSoCal]

Originally Posted by Lav1200

There is still a bunch of stunning single track to ride out at McLean (although I'm sure there was tons more "back in the day") - with no quad or 4x4 ruts. If you want to experience the high alpine single track, join the RMDRA and get out to a few of their Wed night guided rides to learn where the good stuff is. An XR650R might be a handful on some of the tighter stuff, be would still be fun.

Thanks for the info on the RMDRA, I hadn't looked at their site in detail...I'll probably need to practice a bit more before going out. Slow and tight stuff is going OK on the XRR, it's actually the faster parts that I have to get use to. How fast do you ride on that loose, graded gravel? I'm so used to the R1 on the road feeling like a train on rails right up to 290kph, but it seems like the XRR on gravel is surfing and sliding at 70kph! I'm sure you just get used to...today I rode Powderface trail for the first time, I didn't think I'd like it much but it turned out to be a nice ride, and a good place to practice going downhill at speed on gravel. I just still have to find the limits of the bike.


McLean is pretty close for me, I'm going to explore it more for sure.

[XSoCal]

Originally Posted by alberta bob

try exploring the forestry trunk road 2 hours south of cowtown .

Thanks...you mean like where 40 cuts out from the mountains and back toward Longview and High River area?

[superfunkomatic]

It's highway 532 that goes from just past Longview over to the junction at 740/40 and over to Coleman. I was just there yesterday. The road is in good shape and there is a good view from the side closest to highway 22 (Longview).

You can also sneak up a ways on the Cataract Creek road. Really good views of the western slopes of the Rockies on the Fernie side - it is closed where it wraps around to the forestry trunk road but is actually open on the west side. I found out it was closed when I went all the way around to the gate (south to north) and snuck past the gate to get out.

Powderface trail goes from the end of highway 66 (stop at Elbow Falls - quite pretty) all the way to highway 68 and you can head into Kananaskis. Pretty easy going with a few nice views along the way.

The Spray Lake Road goes from Kananaskis over into Canmore - quite scenic, good fishing.

The Backroads Alberta Book is pretty helpful for finding gravel roads. I'm sure others have plenty of suggestions of places to ride as well.

Originally Posted by XSoCal

Thanks...you mean like where 40 cuts out from the mountains and back toward Longview and High River area?

Originally Posted by XSoCal

What I would really like to find around here are fire/logging roads or cut lines that get some altitude going. Does anyone know of routes that take you up mountains (anywhere in AB)? I'd love to find some awesome remote viewpoints.