Adventure Cycling Association

We’ll meet in the late afternoon for our orientation meeting before eating dinner together. You’ll find this a great opportunity to prepare your gear, meet your fellow riders, and share the excitement of the journey ahead. We will head to bed under the starry sky, ready to head out early in the morning for Banff, Alberta.

After loading our gear in Whitefish, Montana, we’ll shuttle northward to the bustling national park community of Banff, Alberta, the starting point of our ride. Here we’ll have dinner and explore the town. Perhaps you’ll take a gondola ride to the summit of Sulphur Mountain, or enjoy a pre-adventure soak in the Upper Banff Hot Springs.

Our morning ride begins on the gorgeous Banff Legacy Trail as we head through Canmore. Considering the area is teeming with crowds, you may be surprised by how quickly we get into wild and remote country. Soon we’ll intersect with the rough and tumble Goat Creek Trail, which will deliver us to our campsite on the Spray Lakes Reservoir.

Entering the vast expanse of terrain known as Kananaskis Country, we’ll skirt the northern flank of Mount Shark. This wild inland region is home to plenty of grizzly bears and other wildlife. We’ll set up camp near Lower Kananaskis Lake.

From spectacular Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, we’ll make the steep climb over Elk Pass and the Continental Divide. Here we’ll also leave Alberta and enter British Columbia. To give you an idea of the ruggedness of this largely roadless region, it’s a six-mile mountain bike ride from trailhead to trailhead, but to drive from one to the other, you’d have to travel almost 200 miles! From Elk Lakes Provincial Park, we’ll follow the Elk River downstream on a hard-packed dirt road through 40 miles of wilderness to Elkford. Make sure to keep a sharp eye out for moose along the way!

From Elkford we’ll head to the resort village of Fernie, following the Elk River with spectacular scenery at every turn along the route. Although we’ll be riding on pavement for part of the day, we’ll also have great sections of the Elk Valley Trail to keep things exciting. Our rewards will be bountiful, with spectacular views of Mount Fernie and the Three Sisters, the center of which is the highest peak in the area.

After several days of off-pavement travel, we’ll take a well-deserved day of rest amid the civilized niceties of Fernie. Once a rough and tumble mining town, Fernie is now known for its skiing and other outdoor pursuits. Take the day to explore the village, tackle some of the area’s singletrack trails, or enjoy a hike in Mount Fernie Provincial Park.

Today we’ll continue through the Elk River valley on a series of scenic, rural gravel roads to Elko. Here we’ll say goodbye to the river we’ve snaked alongside for several days and head southwest toward Kikomun Creek Provincial Park, where we’ll spend our last night in Canada.

Today’s ride will take us through less mountainous countryside via a series of low-traffic gravel and paved roads winding through the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa, or Kootenay, First Nations People. We’ll earn a memorable view of Lake Koocanusa, an immense body of water shared by Canada and the U.S. After crossing the international border at Roosville, Montana, we’ll continue on through the town of Eureka, where we’ll briefly share a paved section with the Northern Tier Route before making the short ascent on gravel to our campsite for the night on Grave Creek.

We’ll start the morning with a climb up and over the Whitefish Divide, after which we’ll be rewarded with stunning views of nearby Glacier National Park and a beautiful descent into the valley of the North Fork of the Flathead River. We’ll overnight in the eclectic town of Polebridge, located just outside the western border of Glacier National Park. Here, we’ll have our celebratory dinner together before tackling one final day on the Divide.

If timing permits, perhaps you’ll want to grab a huckleberry bear claw at the historic Polebridge Mercantile before hitting the trail. We’ll start our last day’s ride with a climb back into the Whitefish Range and over Red Meadow Pass, zipping past a series of scenic backcountry lakes. Then comes our ultimate reward: a big descent down to Whitefish Lake and into the town itself. After this long and unforgettable ride, you may want to stop and celebrate at the centrally located Great Northern Brewery and perhaps take a few days to explore Glacier National Park before heading home.