Drumheller mission

Keith wanted to do a lap of about 180km of goodness out by Drumheller this weekend. The plan was to start about 30km north of Drumheller near Morin, at Gary Chambers farm. Tori, Keith, Craig and I showed up at Gary's place a little before 10, and by 10:30 we were rolling out. Having Tori along was fun, it was nice weather out and we don't ride together too much, so might as well get in as much as possible during one day.

We rode south on gravel roads to Munson, then pavement into Drumheller. From there, we spent some time looking through the suburbs for a trail, road, or anything that would let us climb out of the town, but to no avail. Apparently mapmyride.com doesn't have a very extensive inventory of 1914 cow trails worn into the coulees.



I'm glad we at least stopped to fill water bottles in Drumheller, as the roads we chose to proceed south were gravel, but more like freshly laid pit run that hadn't been compacted yet, so it was tough, slow going. We kept pulling out the map and "navigating" at various gravel road intersections that were so seldom used the didn't even have township and range signs.

Everyone was getting tired, and by the 3 hour 30 minute mark we hadn't made it to halfway on the ride, and couldn't find any point on the map that looked like it matched where we might be. We were standing at a 4 way gravel intersection, with no signs on any corner, yet the map showed no such intersections near where we thought we were. We saw the glint of sun on a car traveling along a highway to the west of us and decided to go find that stretch of pavement. Turns out we had overshot south by more than a few kilometers, so we pacelined north along the highway until we came to Rosebud at about the 4 hour mark. This was our intended lunch place and "half way point" on the ride.

We inventoried the town's amenities, and were approached by a local lady who was helpful in pointing us in the right direction for services. There was a museum/curio shop/convenience store, and a beautiful old prairie house hotel that had changed hands a week ago, and "might" have the kitchen running already.

We decided to try the hotel first, but as it turns out, the new owners didn't have the kitchen running yet. All they could guarantee us is fresh pie and coffee. With that in mind, we "reserved" a table to make sure we had our place in line... or whatever... then headed down to the convenience store to find some food.

Food consisted of cleaning them out of all their gatorade, some drink called Fuze, and some green tea drink... plus 3 frozen burritos, a microwavable philly cheese steak sandwich, a microwavable burger, and a plethora of other quick to eat goodies, including my new mid ride favorite, a can of creamed corn. Fortunately the guy working the counter let me just pull the cardboard off a can opener on the wall, as long as I didn't rip the cardboard, instead of forcing me to buy it.

With all that being digested, we made our way back to the hotel for pie and coffee, which was delicious. The hotel overlooks a beautiful coulee, and as we sat on the warm patio sipping coffee, we thought how nice it was to be done instead of "half way". We did our best to talk Keith out of sticking to the original route and instead attempting to find our way back along a more direct route.

With our meals settling, we slowly ramped up the pace on the way back. Tori started finding it harder, and coincidentally Craig and Keith were on the front pushing our pace along onto these gentle false flat uphills. Earlier in the day, once Tori had decided to tough it out for the whole day with us, I held back a little during the first half, expecting a little extra work on the second half. I pushed her along to stay in the draft as best I could, which is a good way of frying legs quickly.

After a half hour of that, we hung a left off the pavement again back onto gravel roads, still on the west side of the Red Deer river. The road led us the "back way" down the coulee into Nacmine, Alberta. Two things of note here - Craig descended the steep, switchback gravel road on non-knobby tires faster than all of us (maybe he just prays for traction?), and we debated our route home at the bottom of the hill, which became posthumously known as the "Bunnin Corner".

We had three choices home from Nacmine - south through Drumheller, back on the dinosaur trail on pavement (the easy route), through Drumheller, then up through the east coulees and home on gravel (middle, plus retracing some of the way we came), or north, which was more like 50km rather than 30km, fit in two larger coulee climbs, and was 100% new terrain on the way back. It was 5pm at this point. We opted for the long way home. Any bike rider knows short ways home are for times when it's raining, or hailing, not for the first warm days of the year.

We rode up the west side of the river until the first coulee climb, where we tested what was left of our legs. Through my bleary eyes I saw Craig crest about 30m ahead of me. He spun back down to help push Tori up the hill with Keith, Gary and I soft pedaled along the highway to let our sweat evaporate in the afternoon sun. Once we regrouped, we went past the ferry turnoff, then west and north on 837 toward number 27 which would be our straight east shot back to Munson. This part again had Tori fading and a lot of pushing assistance, along with some northbound slopes that had Keith and I doing double duty.

We tucked for all we were worth down into the river valley for the last time, then again raced up the other side. No surprise Craig was the first to the top again by about 30m, we then looped back down to relieve Keith of pushing duty to help Tori up the last hill.

From there it was a relaxed pace back the last 10km, except for Keith and Craig who sprinted into Gary's driveway.

All in it was 187km and about 7 hours, pretty big day. Warm weather, shorts with no knee covers, arms out in the sun, no wind to speak of just random breeze... felt like a summer day. Awesome hill climbing and scenery. Drumheller is a good spot to base a few rides out of for sure.

I have a feeling Tori will be asleep on the plane today, that was a draining effort on her part yesterday to pound out a long ride with the crew that's been riding all winter. When we start up the 230km spring Alberta Roubaix gravel race, better make sure there's a women's category.

Attached is my version of the map. I've combined Keith's high tech approach, everything I've learned from Tori's mapping on napkins and other scraps of paper, and blended it in a mildly high tech way with paintbrush.

The important part in all of this is how much fun was had. Weekend riding is doesn't qualify as adventurous if you know where you are, where you're going, or where you're going to eat with too much precision. This ride made my weekend. And also thanks go out to Gary for the steaks and hospitality!