I’m off to Canada for a couple of weeks and hiring an RV to drive down from Calgary to Rossland to see family via Banff, Jasper and Revelstoke, and then back from Rossland to Calgary via Cranbrook, Fernie and Crowsnest Pass.

Any recommendations on great mountain biking please? Will be doing a bit in Rossland including the “Seven Summits” route.
Is Jasper worth the visit (it seems long way out of our way)?
Oh and anyone imported a bike frame from the USA to Canada – what were the customs charges like please? 😉

Thanks in advance! 🙂

Revelstoke is awesome, as is Golden and I see they are both directly on your route!! banff is bound to have some fantastic riding….we only passed through really.

Jasper is stunning and not THAT far away time wise (prob looks it on the map but the roads are clear and easy)? We did a stunning loop from the RV park in Jasper including swimming in the bluest lake (1 of 5 of them)EVER!!!! Also if you went up that way you would see Lake Louise (v busy) and Moraine lake (not sooo busy).

I believe Silver Star and Kamloops are also fantastic but we just didn’t have the time and I see they are a way out west for your route….how long have you got and what sort of riding are you after?!

Can’t help on the bike importing – we took ours at £20 each way 😀

More general advice, take a credit card. It seems the Canadian banking system has just crawled into the 70s. At Toronto airport we could ONLY pay by credit card (debit card/cash not allowed) for taking our bikes on the plane home.

Getting re-excited now….so Golden and Revelstoke Trails:

Golden
We are not really into uplifting so cycled up to the toppy top of the Moonraker trails and just headed on down hitting the Canyon Creek trail which is ACE!
Moonraker-canyon-creek-and-cbt-trails-network

Revelstoke
Again sticking the to ridey trails we just messed around for 2 days in:
Mt MacPherson area
ending up on
Flowdown

But if you are uplifty then there is plenty to do. The main website is full of info:

Mountain Biking BC

Pretty sure you can’t import from the US to Canada, that was the word on the street whilst I was there re bikes and snow boards. You have to border hop and collect.

Edit you can. It’s the duty that kills it.

Clareymorris brilliant. Its only a 2 week visit and we are spending the last three days in Toronto for my Uncles 90th. We have the RV for 9 days, so time limited. I’ll have a read of those links and thanks! 🙂

wysiwyg – Rossland is only 6 miles from the border so thinking of driving over to collect a frame from a town just south of the border 😉

Fernie was awesome when I was there but that was 14 years ago. Believe the trails have been developed a lot since then. I still dream of moving there one day….

How big is your RV?

Reason I ask is that some of the best trails in Revelstoke require long drags up forest service roads to access (eg Keystone Standard Basin, Frisby Ridge and Martha Creek/Sale Mountain)

BTW: there’s loads of great riding in Rossland, Nelson & Fernie – what type of riding are you most interested? XC or DH?

Re:wysiwhg’s post – there’s NAFTA agreement between US, Canada & Mexico which means (some?) US made goods should be duty free into Canada but it depends what you are buying and where it was manufactured. You may still have to pay GST rather than duty…

Oh yeah, should have asked – what time of year are you visiting?

Flying out in a couple of weeks.

Riding big country XC preferred. Happy to ride most stuff so long as its wheels on the ground. Planning on 3 days riding around Rossland. It is a big RV – 28′ I think.

Frame is made in Portland so should qualify for NAFTA so expecting 12% HST at the border.

It is a big RV – 28′ I think.

– I think most North Americans would consider this compact… 🙂

However, it’s still potentially going to be your limiting factor as the insurance may well be invalid “off road” and, from memory, all three rides I mention above require fairly rough forest service roads (particularly Martha Creek which is more DH, though still wheels on the ground, riding)

For Revelstoke, you may want to consider using this shuttle company to get to the goods.

Fernie is a great area to ride – I can’t remember which trails I rode but I’ve got a guide book at home and there’s a couple of good bike shops in town. The ski hill has a mountain bike park but it will probably be closed as of this weekend

I’ve ridden Rossland a couple of times but mostly with locals in pickups so my knowledge is a bit rusty, though, just as a FYI, 7 Summits is usually done as a shuttle (though it’s all tarmac so your RV is not going to have problems).

Kananaskis (between Calgary & Banff) is supposed to have some epic xc riding though I’ve never ridden there – get googling

Canadian Rockies epic riding – I’m just gonna post this up for anyone to see.

If you want the beta of any trail in western Canada (and lots of the areas of the uS as well), chances are Lee and Sharon have ridden there. Their website is my first port of call for inspiration, though Lee’s rides are invariably at the epic end of the scale and may involve lots (and lots, and lots) of hike-a-bike, wading through rivers or adventures such as over-turning your car just to get to the trailhead…

Flying out in a couple of weeks.

Take warm clothes…

You are NOT going to get up to Keystone-Standard Basin in an RV. No chance.

My advice would be to check out the local bike shops for shuttles etc. There’s the bike park in Fernie, and at Kicking Horse, and as mentioned the Moonraker Trails are great. If you can sort out some runs on Mt 7, do it.

Almost everywhere you go there is incredible riding on offer, the challenge is identifying stuff in time to organise the logistics. We did a days shuttling in Rossland, but I can’t remember the name of the company. IIRC Flume and Whiskey were excellent.

If you can spend some time in Nelson, the riding is great.

Brilliant – thanks guys – time to stick my head in a map. Going with Sister & Bro-in law who don’t bike. Advantage: shuttle driver. Disadvantage; compromise, compromise, compromise 🙁

You are NOT going to get up to Keystone-Standard Basin in an RV. No chance.

I tend to agree, but I’ll check for sure when I’m over there next weekend! 8)

The Rockies are awe inspiring

Beautiful country, odd people

i did a XC MTB trip out to cananda back in 2008 – check out my trip report here, which may give you a few ideas

http://www.mtb-hol.com/Canada2008/Canada_2008_MTB.html

regarding importing from US to Canada – no duty on bike parts, only complete bikes. As a canadian you have an $800 duty free limit after 48 hours out of the county. As a Brit, Canada won’t care as the bike is not staying in the country, you are exporting to the UK.

massively jealous. Fantastic part of the world. Enjoy!

There’s a ton of great riding throughout that journey.
I lived in Calgary about 10 years ago and have been back a couple of times since so I know some of the local riding well. Our favourite area was Kananaskis which has some fabulous epic XC rides within easy reach of Calgary. We also found great trails all around Banff and Canmore. I’ve only ever skied at Fernie but I would guess the biking is awesome.
I would strongly recommend Doug Eastcott’s book, Back Country Biking in the Canadian Rockies. This will give you lots of the best local XC rides.
Think this link will take you to it on Amazon:
Back Country Biking
Enjoy the trip. I’m very envious – it’s my favourite place in the World and I haven’t been able to get back for the last few years.