Cowboy Trail route

lori · Member

Cowboy Trail route

Psycho Mike · Guru

Any pointers for us "northern" types who don't have any idea about the topography of the route? Lots of hills, a few hills, pretty flat? It sounds like a great ride and very picturesque...but I don't know if I'd know the area if it jumped off a map and smacked me :)

LoneWolf · Veteran Member

Where's the Cowboy Trail Route?

lori · Member

I haven't been the entire way down it - but it can get hilly at times. It will be a challange at times I'm sure. It goes through Black Diamond, Turner Valley and Longview. Lots of open ranges, cattle and mountains in the distance.

Psycho Mike · Guru

LoneWolf - The Cowboy Trail is another name for Highway 22. It starts a little southwest of Calgary and heads south, pretty much parallel to the mountains.

Lori - Thanks for the info. I tried to look at it on Google Earth yesterday....There are some nice long stretches on it, but I wasn't able to get a good idea about the hills. I guess I'll have to keep building my legs for hills with the higher gearing of my CX bike.

-- Edited by Psycho Mike on Friday 17th of April 2009 04:05:27 PM

Krebs Cycle · Member

Mike, Lori -- Here's a link to a general description of the route:

http://www.darrellnoakes.com/writing/foothills-canadian-cyclist.htm

There can be very strong cross winds from the west, but I don't know about hills, road condition, etc.

Maybe someone who has been down that way recently can add more detail

-- Edited by Krebs Cycle on Saturday 18th of April 2009 03:33:22 AM

Psycho Mike · Guru

Thanks for the info Krebs :) I kinda figured winds would be an issue with Cowley being down there (it's a mecca for sailplanes and gliding). It sounds great :)

Ziggy · Newbie

The overall route is pretty "flat", but there are a couple of good hills and several smaller ones. It's a very popular road for cycling. Check out mapmyride.com to map the route and use the show elevation tool to check out the hills. This makes it seem worse then it really is, I travel this road all the time by car, but I don't thinks it's quite that hilly.

Psycho Mike · Guru

hmmm...not very user friendly... Do you need to be signed up / logged in to see more than one search page?

Ziggy · Newbie

I'm not sure the search page you are refering to, but you shouldn't have to be signed up to use anything. It's also an american site so there might not be many saved routes for around Alberta.

Psycho Mike · Guru

Yeah...not a bunch is coming up...I've tried different variants... best I could find was someone's loop that went about 1/2 way and then headed back to Calgary. Even so, it got me to a better place on Google Earth to get a feel for the terrain....doesn't look like is should be too nasty ;)

zackandcjsdad · Newbie

One of the guys I'm riding with put this map together with Spruce Meadows as the approximate starting point (not sure where the actual start will be). Hopefully the image attachment thingy works.

Morrisjo · Veteran Member

Hey Mike

I used the mapmyride and used Spruce Meadows as starting point and if youclick on this link it will show you route with elevation along with elevation data at the right side.

http://www.mapmyride.com:80/ride/canada/ab/calgary/149124036737755974

You may have to check on the elevation box to the right.

Let me know how it works for you.

enjoy

Psycho Mike · Guru

Ahhh...that was exactly what I was looking for...but nothing similar wasn't coming up on the regular search (I wasn't able to get more than the 1st search page for some reason). Thanks a bunch, Morrisjo!

Mostly 1-2% grades is not going to be bad at all :) Even the 3% doesn't look like it is that long in the scheme of things. Should be a truly enjoyable ride. Even so, I'm going to practice on a few of the local hills to build the legs in the taller gearing of the CX bike (but I'm not going to tackle the 20% grade suckers yet!!).

-- Edited by Psycho Mike on Wednesday 22nd of April 2009 04:38:32 PM

Quixote · Member

Great link Morrisjo! Interesting to see that the last 3/4 is actually a descent.

Mike, 20% in Edmonton? Where???

Psycho Mike · Guru

Quixote,

The three good, steep hills I've found are all paved and in the River Valley. The exact numbers may vary slightly...I'm pulling them off my Edge 305. None of these are super long, but they allow you to get the heart rate up.

- The 105 St. hill from the Walterdale Bridge is solid in the upper teens and lower 20% range once you get north of 98 Avenue. This is the "serious" climb up to the ATCO building downtown.

- The lower part of 106 St is 23-24% and it moderates to the mid-to-upper teens towards the top end (though you have to go up via a sidewalk as it is a one-way).

- The Old Fort Hill (across from the Kinsmen Centre in the trees...goes under the Duggan Bridge on Saskatchewan Drive) is very short but puts you to the test as it tops out at just over 30%.

Places like Walterdale Hill and Victoria Park hill only average 7-8% grades according to my Edge. Considering I can mtb mid-ring those, but the three I've listed drop me into granny gear...and the last one listed into the bottom cog of granny gear and working pretty hard... I'd say they the Edge is probably pretty close.

Morrisjo · Veteran Member

I think I will be looking forward to that last bit of downhill decent on our route. :)

Enjoy
John

Psycho Mike · Guru

Cheers John. I can't wait to put the slicks on the cyclocross bike and see what it can do...including on the downhill :)

Psycho Mike · Guru

Well, slicks on the CX bike was definitely the way to go....the bike flies along nicely. :D

I've found out that the Ride's route has special significance in terms of "my" ride. The last road trip that the co-worker I'm riding in memory took with his wife included the Cowboy Trail from Calgary to the Crow's Nest. She called me the other day and let me know...talk about a lump in the throat moment...

Morrisjo · Veteran Member

Hello all,

So it looks like we are riding from the Deerfoot Casino, corner of barlow Trail and Deerfoot Trail. So we either hit deerfoot or they will loop us out and then back in to keep to quieter streets till we hit 22X.

Enjoy
John

Krebs Cycle · Member

Hi, All --

Suspect the route from the start will be on the quieter side streets: heading west then south down Douglasdale Blvd, Mckenzie Lake Blvd, then west on 22X (Marquis of Lorne Trail).

Unless they have special permission, cycling is usually not allowed on Deerfoot.

Krebs

toyota-wish@hotmail.com · Member

yeah ., looks about the same as this one ....

Corries Pookey · Senior Member

Hi All!!!
I drove the route today.. ...lots and lots of hills... steeper and shorter hills the first day.... it is about 95 K the first day... longer and and not so sharp of steep for the second day... which is about 81 K. There are approx. 71 hills going up that is ... so I hope everyone is training for hills!
Good luck to All!

Morrisjo · Veteran Member

ok no more rides out to Chestermere for me. Way to flat for what I have ahead of me. Guess I better work on those hills.

Psycho Mike · Guru

Hehehe...I've gotta start a few more hill climbs too. The longer rides around here aren't too bad (usually the same +/-2% grade range) but I think I need to build a bit for the 3% for 1km or more.