Greetings,
On November 18th, myself and about a dozen ACCers headed to the Elk Lakes Hut on a cold and snowless (ha! we thought…) trip.
I understand that this trip is usually done on skis, however, Mother Nature decided to put our plans for skiing in on hold. With the understanding that there wasn’t enough snow to ski in, the group had agreed to walk into the hut. However, a comment made by a fellow trip member stated the obvious…why not BIKE in? Yes, that is right! Why not bike the 12km approach to the hut?!
It all made sense. Biking seemed like the greatest idea! So, without any hesitation, I got ahold of a fat bike (thanks LifeSport Calgary!) and became overly excited on the idea of doing this trip with a fat bike, while everyone else walked in… smart, I thought.
Leaving Calgary on Friday night was uneventful, we all met up in the school and made the drive towards K-Country. Instantly after arriving at the trailhead, the trip leader kindly approached me and said: “Felipe, there has been bear sights in the trail, please do not bike ahead of everyone, stay with the group”. I agreed, the last thing I wanted was get eaten by a bear in the dark, that seemed like an awful way to ruin the fun.
I’d say that 10 minutes after leaving the trailhead, it became quite clear that I wasn’t going to be biking ahead of anyone, rather, I’d be carrying the thing up to the hut the ENTIRE way. It turned out that Mother Nature had, indeed, blessed us with enough snow to make fat biking and skiing impossible – that sweet spot 🙂
Thanks to the entire group, I was able to get the bike into the hut after a lot of pushing and swearing. Good times, good times.
Friday night was a blast – there was singing, joy, happiness, and even a pull-up competition…what a night!
Saturday morning was the “not-so-fun” part, we all woke up fairly tired…must have been because of the fat biking pushing.
Throughout the day, the group spread out and everyone found something to do! Some did hiking, some went out to find ice climbing routes that were “in”, and myself and a Kristine went out for some photographing with the Fat Bike.
Saturday night was one of those nights I will never forget, everyone in the hut telling stories, playing games, enjoying the amazing atmosphere that only a backcountry can provide :). We ate, we sang, we did more pull-ups, and eventually we all went to sleep.
Overall, this was a GREAT trip. I had the opportunity to meet and learn from new and old friends.
10/10 will join this trip again next year!
I’d like to thank everyone for the good time, Phil and Katherine for organizing this, and everyone in the group for helping me push the bike.
See you guys next time!
Cheers,
Felipe.
Here are some photos from the weekend:
Winter has arrived!
The beautiful hut
Fat Biking around the hut
A bit cold, but so happy!
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