We enjoyed the ride from Banff to Canmore and back on a beautiful, warm fall day. It parallels the highway so there is traffic noise, but it doesn't ruin the ride. It's just nice being on a trail where you don't have to worry about high speed vehicles passing. We found the majority of other cyclists we met to be very courteous. The views of the mountains along the way are beautiful! As an old road geek, I wondered if this trail followed the old highway alignment. Turns out that part of it does as we found an old stone highway mileage marker at 6 miles out of Banff. I'm assuming it was miles since Canada used miles instead of kilometers up until 1970 and this marker was much older than that.

We were visiting Canmore from the US and decided to rent mountain bikes to ride to Banff. Two adults + a 13 & 11 year old. Shortly after leaving Canmore we encountered a very aggressive cyclist who was screaming profanities at everyone he passed on the trail for being too slow or not moving over enough to the side to let him pass. He yelled at my 11 year old and then two older women who were walking their bikes up a steep hill. He was going well above the posted speed limits and was frankly a little unhinged. Maybe it was a bad luck of timing on our part, but just a warning for the casual cyclist— this trail is not for the faint of heart. Beware of the Tour de France wannabes who think they own the trail!