During discussion this morning at breakfast in Kleefeld (not Bothwell!), it was suggested that some riders would be interested in doing an adventure ride (mountain bike) along the Trans Canada Trail in the Whiteshell Provincial Park. You could not ride your road bike along the trail, so you would have to find a mountain bike or cross-trainer type (fat tires are better, though). The trail winds through the beautiful provincial park forest from Falcon Lake to Westhawk Lake and then on to Caddy Lake and back again on the same trail. Many sections of the trail are fairly challenging, but not technical. The distance would be approximately 50 – 60kms. There are great eats at both Westhawk Lake and Falcon Lake (my preference is Westhawk, but that would mean riding the last 15 – 20kms with a full tummy). We could still meet at the tower in Steinbach and then drive together to Falcon Lake and disembark there. Check out the map of the trail (http://www.mrta.mb.ca/gfx/tcSouthWhiteshell.pdf).
Mennonites in Tights
MIT chain noise
So what exactly does “challenging but not that technical” mean for a pure roadie like me? I have wanted to do some mountain biking but am very, very novice (have a nice bike I bought off Pat though! 🙂 ). Can I do it without killing myself do you think???
Val, the climbs can be a little steep in places, but everything is doable and fun. The trail is mostly hard-packed with crushed limestone as a surface. The section of trail from Westhawk to Caddy lake is the harder section, but you can easily do it. Helmut and I rode it all last year.