It’s been an exciting couple of decades for Golden, a small mountain town in eastern British Columbia. The local economy, which once relied heavily on logging and mining, has shifted to embrace adventure tourism with a strong focus on hiking, climbing, mountain biking, and other adrenaline-chasing pursuits.
Sandwiched between BC’s Purcell Mountains and the Canadian Rockies, there’s no denying that the town’s setting is a major blessing. Golden sits between six of the country's most stunning national parks: Yoho, Glacier, Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Mount Revelstoke, and is handsomely endowed with fast-flowing rivers, sheer granite crags, and a winter deluge of dry, powdery snow.
If you’re unfamiliar with the region, rope access technician and avid outdoor sports enthusiast, Logan Hurd, delves into some reasons to get better acquainted.
“Kicking Horse is a steep, gnarly mountain in the Purcell range,” explains Logan, who works in and around Golden on slope stabilisation and developing new tourism projects.
To warm up your mountain legs, Logan recommends heading out on a short hike to Gorman Lake. “If you’re feeling more adventurous, you can always continue further along alpine ridges to other lakes or even climb to the top of Kicking Horse Mountain resort,” he adds.
An hour's drive away and slightly further afield, Kootenay National Park is a wilderness area refreshingly free of gondolas and ski resorts. Located southeast of Golden, the park flanks Hwy 93, a sweeping mountain road dotted with intriguing trailheads. The eight-mile round-trip to Stanley Glacier cuts through forest to a scree-strewn valley flanked by craggy cliffs and embellished by tall, slender waterfalls.
Alternatively, for a simpler walk head to Yoho National Park, where you can stroll around aptly-named Emerald Lake on a three-mile trail under the watchful gaze of Mount Burgess and Wapta Mountain.
When the big thaw arrives in spring, and snow comes streaming off the mountains, Kicking Horse ski runs become serious mountain bike descents that complement a web of sinuous single-track that fans out across the region.
“A ton of work has been put into building up a mountain biking trail network around Golden in recent years,” says Logan. “You can bike a new trail every day and go the whole summer without biking the same trail twice.”
Golden has three distinct cross-country mountain biking networks with over 100 miles of singletrack trails, and there are routes for every kind of rider. Word has quickly spread. Plus, unlike some of the more famous mountain towns in Canada, Golden doesn’t have to wrestle with national park restrictions. Its open and free-spirited nature is part of its appeal.
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