Alberta Recreation

Web Links

• 2010-Oct-25: The Calgary Nordic Training Group is a Nordic style ski training group in the Calgary area. [9432]
• 2009-Jul-16: Weather Modification inc. is seeding storm clouds in the Calgary to Red Deer region of Alberta to reduce the damage caused by summer hail storms. They have some current radar information about what the recent conditions are and what they are doing about it. [8279]
• The Calgary Area Cachers home page. [4549]
• The Alberta Motor Association has reports on current road conditions in Alberta. [4548]

Places to Stay in Alberta

• B and B United States also has Canadian Listings if you are looking for bead and breakfast type accommodation
  

Hiking in Alberta

• Trail reports for Kananaskis Country hiking and biking trails.
• Bow Valley Provincial Park, about 80km west of Calgary has a number of trails suitable for young children
• Big Hill Springs Provincial Park, about 10km north of Cochrane, a pleasant oasis in the prairie
• The Alberta Bed and Breakfast Association has a good web site of places to stay in Alberta
• Alldrive Canada rents trailers and motor homes in Calgary and Vancouver
• CruiseAmerica rents motor homes and has an office in Calgary
• CanaDream.com has RV rentals and sales in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and some other cities.

Running in Alberta

• The Calgary Road Runners have a good schedule of runs
• The Melissa's Road Race, an annual event in Banff National Park. Because it is in a national park the number of participants is limited, and as this is a very popular run you need to register very early (maybe even in a former life!).
• Athletics Alberta has a list of sanctioned time races
• The Running Room has a good listing of races across Canada, plus they have an online registration system for many of the events.
• The 5 Peaks trail running series in 2007 has events in Alberta, BC and Ontario.
• The Forzani Group's Mother's Day Run and Walk is a 5km and 10km event at a number of places in Western Canada, the Calgary event is very popular and has a fast, mostly flat (except for about one hill just after half way) course. Timing is done with timing chips.
• The HBC Run for Canada takes place on Canada Day and in Calgary its a nice, flat, loop east of downtown near the zoo and around the river. Timing is done with timing chips.
• The Dino Dash is a smaller 5/10km event help by the University of Calgary Track and Field and Cross Country teams, its about the last warm weather 10km event of the season in Calgary. Typically held on labour day weekend. In 2006 and 2007 timing was half-done with timing chips, they only used the sensor mats at the end of the race.

Cross Country Skiing

• Ski Here! is a site that is publishing reports about the recent conditions of cross country ski trails in Alberta.
• My page on Waxing Cross Country Skis.
• A Wikipedia article on waxing cross country skis
• Cross Country Ski Waxing 101
• Canada Olympic Park (formerly Paskapoo) has a short (2km) cross country skiing track.
• Kananaskis Country ski reports, sometimes they update the summer page instead.
• The Canmore Nordic Centre is a good spot for cross country ski training and hosts a number of competitions throughout the winter. A day pass is about $7.50, but that gets you access to well groomed trails and a shorter drive from Calgary (so you might save that much in gas). They have a webcam here so you can check on the snow conditions directly.
• The Kananaskis ski marathon, an annual event organized by Foothills Nordic Ski Club, the next will be Feb 27, 2010. The 24km event takes this route:

  

  the 42km event takes this route:

  

• The Pocaterra Trail in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park
• The Weather Network's report for Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, and the other parks in Alberta
• Environment Canada's forecast page for Kananaskis and Banff

Pocaterra Creek on a Snowy Day