Originally Posted by
DropBarFan
Hey Ty, great to hear you're in biking shape again.
In re other Short Tour posters, I'm a bit surprised how popular "gravel" touring is but OTOH off-road short tours have a lot of pluses like better scenery, no cars, perhaps free camping etc. Back in the 70's medium-long distance rural bike trails were very rare, now they're all over the place. I'm planning to do the GAP--just now I read that GAP was only completed in 2013!
I'm leaving in a week and a half for a mixed paved/gravel trip through the Rockies from Calgary to Jasper. Initially I planned to continue the ride from Jasper back down to Vancouver but found a cheap one way train ticket from Jasper to home so I have a lot of time to explore some off the beaten path places I haven't seen before. It's also my first "sort of" bikepacking trip so kinda keen to see how that all works. Some off pavement areas include the Smith Dorrien trail, the Lake O'Hara road and the Lake Kinney trail below Mt Robson.