Guest post via Greg Lynch of Scenic Travel Canada:
Hiking in Kananaskis (Alberta, Canada)
Tucked in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada, are a collection of provincial parks that few international hikers ever experience. Kananaskis Country is an uncrowded wilderness area one hour west of Calgary, the gateway to the Canadian Rockies. Adventure-seekers looking for a lesser known mountain paradise can get their high-altitude thrills in Alberta’s unspoiled backyard.
Millions of visitors unwittingly pass K-Country on their way to the more popular Banff National Park says Greg Lynch, an avid hiker & adventure seeker with Scenic Travel Canada. Outdoor-lovers can hike, bike, kayak and canoe over hundreds of miles in undeveloped territory in the Front Range.î
There are plenty of things to do in Kananaskis Country, Alberta including:
Take a road trip from Calgary on the highest paved highway in Canada. Highway 40 is open from June 15 to December 1 and winds through the pristine wilderness along the Highwood Pass. From your vehicle, youíll get mile panoramic views of snowy peaks and endless valleys.
In spring, prior to the opening of Highway 40 to traffic, many cyclists enjoy the open road all to themselves as they ride 95 kilometers from end-to-end. The best time to go is one month prior to opening (June 15). Any earlier, the road is still covered with snow.
Take a mountain bike excursion to the Alberta-BC border. Carnarvon Lake is a small turquoise lake along the Continental Divide. You’ll follow an old logging road, ford rivers, scale a rock-wall and even take a chilly dip in the cold, colourful water.
Saunter around Upper & Lower Kananaskis Lake and enjoy a classic Canadian mountain scene. A small boat launch is available for anglers, kayakers & canoeists. Hiking trails wind around the shore and deep into the surrounding canyons. You may recognize this picturesque location from movies such as X-Men & Brokeback Mountain.
Slow down and enjoy a picnic at one of the many family recreation sites such as the Mount Lorette Picnic area. The green-water ponds are stocked with fish to introduce little anglers to the solitude & thrill of fishing.
Take a bike tour around the only hotel in the area, which hosted the G8 summit meeting of world leaders in 2003. Paved trails wind through thick forests and along the immaculate Kananaskis River.
There are lots of mountain adventures for thrill-seekers just outside of Calgary and Banff, Alberta.. On your next trip to the Canadian Rockies, head off the beaten path and enjoy the undeveloped and wild places of Kananaskis Country.
I’m happy to give K Country this shout out. I post too infrequently on my own backyard. (I live less than an hour away in Calgary.)
… Brokeback Mountain and the G8 Summit site are unlikely tourist attractions, I’ll admit.
One of my favourite EASY cycling adventures, by the way, is to start at high Highwood Pass. And coast on down into Peter Lougheed Provincial Park.
… literally hundreds of climbers have stood on top of the mountain, but not a single mountain biker has ever managed to conquer it. One man hopes to change all that this year.
… Goldstein knows that his task won’t be an easy one. He’ll have to navigate through the dreaded Khumbu Icefall, riding his Huffy across ladders precariously placed over crevasses in the glacier. Once on the other side, he’ll start the long, slow, grueling climb up the South Col and eventually to the top. “I’m pretty sure I’ll only be using the first three gears,” he says. …
Mike Kloser, a Vail, Colo., athlete and a former world-champion mountain biker, is something of a god in the sport of adventure racing. As the captain of Team Nike, Kloser dominated AR for years, including multiple world-champ titles and victories at banner events like the Eco Challenge and Primal Quest under his belt.
Last year, Kloser launched a gear company, Out There USA, and he designed a backpack. After years of racing — as well as living a consummate outdoors existence working and training in Colorado — Kloser put his knowledge toward making his company’s AS-1 Pack something of an ultimate multi-sport tool. …
Of the 7 excellent films we saw last night, one stood out for originality and attention to detail.
Life Cycles tells a spectacular story of the bike, from its creation to its eventual demise. A visually stunning journey, with thought provoking narration, Life Cycles uses Ultra HD to document the many stories surrounding the mountain bike and its culture. …
In Rome I bought Lonely Planet Hiking in Italy, difficult to find, actually.
(… later I wished I’d bought Lonely Planet Cycling in Italy, instead.)
Of the Tuscany hikes listed in LP, I chose the Tuscan Hill Crests out of gorgeous San Gimignano.
loop, 7hrs, easy, 20km (12.4mi)
the medieval Manhattan
Sounded great:
Low rolling hills, fields full of barley, elegant cypresses and silvery green olives, vines ripening in the late summer sun, an old ruined monastery, a priest careering downhill in a rusty Fiat 500, potted geraniums, cyclists in multi-coloured jerseys, a rustic farmhouse reborn as an agriturismo …
Not my usual wilderness adventure, … but any excuse to travel to Tuscany. Right?
Departing Porta San Giovanni:
This is a “hike”?
I love Lonely Planet trail descriptions: terse. But in a populated region like Tuscany, landmarks change often. By about half way round the circuit — entirely on roads — I was lost.
I relaxed snacking on both white and red grapes fresh off the vine …
October is grape harvest.
… I pondered my options. Should I backtrack?
Never.
Happily I stumbled upon this monk:
He’s the icon of the Via Francigena, a pilgrims path from Canterbury, UK to Rome.
… one of three great medieval pilgrims’ routes (the others were the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain and the long route East to Jerusalem) …
The good monk led me back to San Gimignano on small footpaths over private property. This is the kind of hiking I wanted in Tuscany.
I soothed my disappointment in not finishing my intended hike with a Gorgonzola gelato in the Piazza Duomo.
besthike.com 