At some point in the middle of the night I woke up (I’ve got my reasons), flipped over, and opened the back curtain of my campervan. I was greeted with a breathtaking sight. The northern lights were exploding in a kaleidoscope of colour in the star-flecked sky.
Wave after wave drifting and shifting overhead; a solar show gone wild. I stayed up, wide-eyed, for 20 minutes, or so, thrilled by the spectacle. And for the next three days, “thrills” – thanks to my “Kootenay Dirt” mountain biking adventure – were just par for the course.
I am, admittedly, a mountain-biking junkie. I live for loam. I’m a cyclopath.
Ya, I’ll ride anything. But, most of all, I love the dirt. Specifically, Kootenay dirt.
Mountain biking and the Kootenay Rockies go together like beer and wings, wine and cheese, cake and ice cream. You get the idea. It’s a perfect match.
So good in fact, that nine of the best mountain biking communities in the region have banded together to form the “Kootenay Dirt” consortium. Not surprisingly, the organization is getting plenty of, ahem, traction. (Check out the various communities, trails, trip planning suggestions, etc.
at ). “The Kootenay Rockies is one of the premier mountain biking destinations in North America,” says Christine Grimble, an avid cyclist and the media/travel trade manager of Tourism Fernie. “There are over 680 trails, and counting, within the region.
There is incredible variety. Everything from epic ridgetop rides to famil.