Canada mountain biking holiday

country:	Canada
location:	Canadian Rockies, Alberta, British Columbia, Kootenay National Park
trip type:	Adventurous / challenging mountain biking holidays
departures:	2008: 18 Jul, 8 Aug, 5 Sep
price:	From CA $2295 (12 days) excluding flights & bike rental. Price includes 12 days guided riding, land transportation, accommodation in hotels and lodges, meals as per itinerary, and extra activities such as hotsprings

Mountain biking holidays

Canada holidays

the amazing things you'll be doing

Have you always dreamed about mountain biking in Canada? Want to experience some of the best trails in the world?

This one-of-a-kind trip will take us to some of the best mountain biking trails in interior British Columbia and Alberta (and consequently, the world), with spectacular scenery, experienced guides, comfortable lodges and full van support for intermediate to advanced mountain bikers. We'll visit Fernie, Rossland, Nelson, Kootenay Lake, Revelstoke, Golden, Invermere and Kananaskis - a true singletrack feast!

This tour features 12 nights lodging in hotels and lodges, and includes 1 rest/other activity days.

day-by-day itinerary

Day 1-2:	Fernie, BC. The first 2 days will be spent acquainting ourselves with the incredible trail network in Fernie. With over 70 trails to choose from, we won't have a problem getting enough singletrack for the first course of the feast! We'll have all our meals at our deluxe lodge on the banks of the Elk River, and enjoy evening barbecues on the deck overlooking the spectacular Lizard Range
Day 3:	Rest day, Fernie, BC. Sleep in, enjoy the sights of Fernie, and rest up your legs for another 4 days of riding. There's plenty of optional activities in Fernie, including fly fishing, horseback riding, hiking, swimming, and more! For the hardcore, we'll have an optional afternoon ride.
Day 4-5:	Rossland, BC. Scenic 3-hour drive brings us to the mountain bike capital of Canada... one ride on any of the trails in Rossland and you'll understand why. Home of the annual 'Rubberhead' mountain bike festival, this town of 4000 people is surrounded by one of the best mountain bike trail networks in the world. A myriad of shuttle (ie. our van) drop opportunities will allow us to do up to 7 trails in this mountain bike paradise. Trails like the 11-mile long Dewdney trail on Record Ridge, 15-mile-long Rubberhead (part of the festival course) and the 16-mile-long Smuggler's have justified this region's claim as the 'mountain bike capital of Canada'.
Day 6:	Nelson, BC. Nelson, BC is Canada's #1 Small Arts Community, one of Canada's prettiest towns, and also home to some of the best mountain biking on the planet. Full of hardcore mountain bike fanatics who love nothing more than building and riding singletrack, there is a massive network of challenging singletrack in the area, much of it van accessible. For flat-out fun, Placenta Descenta is tops, and trails such as 49er, Bedframe and Goldmember will keep you coming back for more. When we're done ridin', we'll head to our lodge on Kootenay Lake for dinner and stories by the campfire. Optional evening paraglide.
Day 7:	REST DAY - Kootenay Lake, BC. After gorging ourselves on West Kootenay singletrack, we'll treat our legs to a refreshing soak in Ainsworth Hot Springs, then stop at nearby Cody Caves for some deep spelunking action, before hopping in the van for the drive to Revelstoke.
Day 8:	Revelstoke, BC. Revelstoke is situated next to stunning Glacier National Park, and the riding is equally as euphoric. We'll spend the day riding local gems, then hop in the van for a spectacular drive through Roger's Pass, arriving at our backcountry lodge at Sander Lake near Golden.
Day 9-10:	Golden, BC. We'll explore the Moonraker trail network, including the stunning Canyon Creek Trail. This trail follows the edge of a massive canyon whose walls drop 1,500 feet below - your full attention will be required! On day 10, we'll hop in the van for the 45-minute drive to the top of Mount 7. Mount 7 is the local mecca for mountain bikers, and van access to all of the trailheads means a full feast of singletrack! First stop is the hang-glider launch, 15 kilometres up the road and 4300 feet above the valley floor. Numerous trails wind their way down the mountain, over ridges and through thick forest and narrow gullies. There's lots of fast, smooth singletrack as well as steeps, and plenty of B.C. stunt-riding. We'll gorge on a smorgasbord of each before heading back to our lodge. Optional evening paraglide.
Day 11:	Kananaskis, AB. After breakfast at the lodge, we'll hop in the van for a 2-hour drive through world-famous Banff National Park, arriving at Barrier Lake, and the bottom of the challenging Prairie View trail. 2,00 vertical feet of climbing later, and we'll have stunning views of the Rockies on one side and the prairies on the other, with a thrilling descent to finish with.
Day 12:	Kananaskis, AB. The pot of gold ride - the incredible, amazing, scintillating, spectacular (is that enough adjectives yet?) JumpingPound/Cox Hill ride. Rated in several guidebooks as one of the best rides in North America, this incredible trail will live on in your dreams for years after you ride it. Imagine a challenging, switchbacking singletrack climb up the side of a mountain, followed by lunch at the top of a mountain. Then a ridge ride at 7,000 feet surrounded by massive Rocky Mountains. Another challenging singletrack climb, then the icing on the cake: 7 kilometres of incredibly sweet singletrack, and almost 3000 feet of vertical descent. The standard response of our guests after riding this piece of singletrack heaven: "that was the best %*#@ trail I have ever ridden!'. After you wipe the drool off your chin and the tears out of your eyes, we'll hop in the van for a quick ride to our hotel in Canmore, and our tearful yet always entertaining farewell dinner.

how this holiday makes a difference

By riding with local guides, you will get a true feel for the unique flavour of interior British Columbia. You’ll ride the same trails the locals do, and visit that secret hotspring or waterfall that only a select few know about.

All of our staff is hired locally and has been since our inception. We work, whenever possible, with local suppliers and local stores. All of our sponsors are from either our local area, or from Canada. We invest in local community initiatives, such as local races and programs for youth.

We educate all of our clients on proper riding technique, and backcountry and camping etiquette before every tour. We provide guests with guidelines that encourage the reduction of water usage, systems for collecting, recycling or safe disposal of litter and relevant suggestions to minimise damage to the environment and wildlife ecosystems. All of our guides receive training every spring in environmental sustainability issues.

We work with every community that we ride in to develop shared trail use agreements, and every spring our staff visit each community to put in 2 days of trail maintenance and buidling. We are in constant contact with local landowners and land use organizations to work out responsible land use policies. We have our own non-profit organization, Bicycles Without Borders, which distributes bicycles to needy families in the developing world and we were named one of the '2006 Top 8 Eco-Tourism companies' by Organic Earth magazine.

Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people.

We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel.

'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left).

We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've lead the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays.

We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism.

This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards.