Best of the Canadian Rockies Singletrack

March 16, 2022

Have you been dream­ing of rid­ing the incred­i­ble sin­gle­track of the Cana­di­an Rock­ies? If not, we encour­age you to start. We have four unfor­get­table tours lined up for you—they all have some­thing unique to offer and vary in length, loca­tion, and difficulty.

• Rocky Moun­tain Rambler
• Rocky Moun­tain Singletrack
• West Koote­nay Round-Up
• Rocky Moun­tain Bring-Your-Part­ner (with a new and Improved Itinerary)

In the words of our BC Ride Direc­tor, Ryan, here is what makes each of these tours unique:

Rocky Mountain Rambler

It’s the best 5‑day rid­ing expe­ri­ence you can have land­ing and depart­ing from Cal­gary. This is a mas­ter­ful­ly craft­ed itin­er­ary that offers a lot of high­lights from our longer trips in a short action-packed tour that strikes the per­fect tones of rid­ing hard and relax­ing hard. We break up the dri­ving and take spe­cial care of every­one, so it all feels easy and reward­ing. Your legs, lungs, and soul will thank you.

Learn more about the Rocky Moun­tain Rambler.

Rocky Mountain Singletrack

It’s a clas­sic! 3 days of Fer­nie, then Inver­mere, Nipi­ka, Can­more and Kananask­is. A well-round­ed route that hits all the sweet spots cre­at­ing the per­fect week of rid­ing at a nice steady pace. It fea­tures a wide vari­ety of trail styles and dif­fer­ent land­scapes that show­case a good size chunk of the Cana­di­an Rock­ies. We push you hard in Fer­nie, then cruise some flowy cross-coun­try style in Inver­mere. Hit all kinds of tech­ni­cal woods rid­ing at Nipi­ka, then sam­ple the rocky/rooty ter­rain of Can­more and fin­ish with an epic view of the prairies in K‑country. We haven’t changed this trip in a long time because it’s per­fect, come and see for yourself.

Learn more about the Rocky Moun­tain Singletrack.

West Kootenay Round-Up

This is our newest cre­ation. Designed with the inten­tion to wel­come back any rid­er who’s already expe­ri­enced the east, or to any­one who’s heard about all the goods in the West Koote­nays. This tour cross­es the heart of low­er inte­ri­or BC and takes us through some mag­i­cal spots. It’s my favorite road trip of the sum­mer mak­ing our way from the Sev­en Sum­mits of Ross­land, up through the Slo­can Val­ley to the awe­some MacPher­son trail sys­tem of Rev­el­stoke, then east over to Gold­en, which is the up and com­ing ‘rough around the edges’ Koote­nay town that has won my heart over. You must ride it to understand.

Learn more about the West Koote­nay Round-Up

Rocky Mountain Bring-Your-Partner

We are real­ly excit­ed about the redesign of this tour. By far the coolest way for cou­ples to expe­ri­ence a well-bal­anced bike-based vaca­tion when their rid­ing lev­el is lit­tle unbal­anced. We have weaved the days togeth­er to allow advanced rid­ers as well as the new or casu­al rid­er to hit the trails they crave. Most days you will see your part­ner at break­fast, lunch and rejoin in the evening for a fan­tas­tic meal and some well-deserved rest and relax­ation. Aside from the world class rid­ing of the BC Rock­ies, your week will also include hik­ing, yoga, hot springs, raft­ing options, camp­fires, and end­less pho­to­genic views to keep your friends at home jeal­ous. Jen­na and Dylan will work with you to sharp­en your skills and dial in your rid­ing to impress your part­ner when you hit the trail togeth­er. This is a bril­liant pack­age of fun for everyone! 

Learn more about the Rocky Moun­tain Bring-Your-Partner

What can you expect on our BC Tours?

You can expect vast vis­tas and wide-open spaces. From the Alber­ta foothills to the Colum­bia Val­ley. You’re pret­ty much star­ing at gigan­tic moun­tains the entire time. Expect to do a fair amount of climb­ing and descend­ing through this ter­rain. BC trails are phys­i­cal­ly chal­leng­ing, but not nec­es­sar­i­ly very tech­ni­cal. We try to bal­ance our itin­er­aries with a good amount of fun and flowy descents. We pace our rides to aim for that ‘hap­py zone’ where we enjoy the ped­al to the top with a few breaks and then blast the descents in a few big sec­tions so every­one can go at a pace their com­fort­able. If you’re not used to 600-meter down­hills, you’ll be feel­ing the pump!

The ele­va­tion of Fer­nie is 1010m, Gold­en 800m, Rev­el­stoke 535m and the oth­er towns in the Koote­nays are all sim­i­lar. Can­more is up at 1309m and the high­est point we ped­al is up to 1860m or 6100ft on the Jew­el Pass/Prarie View ride. If you live at sea lev­el this may be high enough that you will notice the slight­ly thin­ner air, but you’re breath­ing is more rel­a­tive to your lev­el of fit­ness than the ele­va­tion we ride. Hon­est­ly, any­one can do one of our tours if they have a decent base line and some endurance for longer days. We under­stand the typ­i­cal lev­el of the week­end war­rior from Toron­to, San Fran­cis­co, or Flori­da. We host these folks all the time and they tend to do real­ly well. The num­bers might look intim­i­dat­ing, but any­one doing a lit­tle pre-trip train­ing should be fine. Pac­ing and group man­age­ment is key, not to men­tion, there’s always a tail guide and a plan ‘B’.

Who are our BC Guides?

We at Sacred Rides have always turned to pas­sion­ate locals to work with us. Skilled rid­ers bring­ing a wide range of knowl­edge, skill, and expe­ri­ence. Peo­ple who live a life of bikes; ded­i­cat­ed, soft-natured, and ready to pro­vide a mind-blow­ing experience. 

Ryan Kikau­ka, British Colum­bia Ride Direc­tor and Lead Guide. He’s been with us for 11 years, includ­ing 5 years in Utah and is proud to be part of this team. He’s hon­ored to work in the indus­try for all these years. Part of his time is spent orga­niz­ing MTB road trips and the best part of it is liv­ing them! “What a ride it’s been, so many great expe­ri­ences with so many fan­tas­tic, amaz­ing, inspir­ing peo­ple. Win­ter is for shred­ding pow and clear­ing my mind (and get­ting some office work done) so I can ride bikes all sum­mer long, and spring, and fall, and dirt bikes, I love bikes, I want an e‑bike so I can ride even more. Come to BC and ride with ME!!”

Dylan Bai­ley and Jena Greas­er, a friend­ly cou­ple well known in the town of Fer­nie for their pro­fes­sion­al cross-coun­try rac­ing endeav­ors. When not busy train­ing, Dylan is often found in the shop at Gear Hub and Jena out coach­ing on the local trails. They are a cou­ple of crush­ers with out­stand­ing cre­den­tials. Check Jena’s social media for some great con­tent and insight into her career as a pro­fes­sion­al athlete. 

Aidan Jones who’s been with us for 7 years. He’s lethal on a down­hill bike, win­ning the leg­endary Dirt Dig­gler race last year. He’s raced the enduro world series and can jump any­thing you put in front of him. Also, a wicked ski­er, pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­ph­er and all round capa­ble and help­ful human. 

Matt Atyeo is a cross coun­try rac­er who burst onto the scene win­ning an Alber­ta Cup in Can­more last fall. He assist­ed on a pri­vate trip last sum­mer and tru­ly shined on his first tour with us. He is also an incred­i­ble pho­tog­ra­ph­er. He eats and breathes bik­ing and puts more miles on the Gold­en trails than any­one else in this town. 

Occa­sion­al­ly, we are lucky enough to have the exper­tise and knowl­edge of guides Aubrey Dem­chuk and Johan­na Wein­trager. Aubrey, a neu­ro­sci­en­tist and all-round badass. Johan­na, an intre­pid trav­el­er, climber, yogie wiz­ard, and one of the longest work­ing guides at Sacred rides (20 years). Two absolute gems; it’s a treat any time either of these ladies are on board, as they bring good ener­gy and fun vibes every­where they go.

A personal note from Ryan: 

“I wish to sin­cere­ly thank the guests from past tours and wel­come any rid­ers con­sid­er­ing a BC moun­tain bike adven­ture with us in their near future! Things have been slow for a cou­ple years, so we’ve been groom­ing trails, hon­ing skills, build­ing new fea­tures, test­ing tire pres­sure and send­ing it. But we miss you! Our val­ued guests, you are our life­line, and we depend on YOU! Our busi­ness is shar­ing what we have to offer and I’m telling you, it’s worth the trip. Moun­tain bike tourism in south-east­ern BC and the Rock­ies of Alber­ta is world class; the towns, the trails, the atmos­phere and scenery, it’ll leave you in a state of awe and won­der (like, I won­der how I can come back and do it again?). Our ducks are all lined up and ready to shred, please, come join us on a well-refined BC tour”.