With Calgary weather forecast predicting rain and snow starting Wednesday, we decided to go geobiking in Nose Hill Park this morning. The weather was just about perfect – warm (but not too warm), sunny (but with just enough cloud to prevent glare) – except it was tough going riding into the winds blowing from the west. We pulled into the Edgemont Blvd parking area at 10 o’clock, unloaded the bikes and hit the trails, riding a clockwise loop across the park, down the eastern perimeter, across the south end (with a brief detour across John Laurie Blvd to nab a geocache) and then back up the western edge of the park. Total distance = 15 km on mostly single track trails. The trails were in great condition, with no snow and very few muddy patches.

View to west – sun illuminates the snow-capped Rockies under a chinook arch

A few of the thousands of crocus blossoms heralding spring in the Park

We ended up finding 9 geocaches in the Park today (plus the one just south of John Laurie Blvd), which means we have no more traditionals to find in this particular park – at least for now. Putting in the coordinates for the center of the Park generates a whole page of puzzle caches though – Mrs. GeoK better get busy solving. It would be great to get in another geobiking trip through the park this year.

If you’re considering a similar outing, be sure you’ve downloaded Calgary trail maps from Calgary Area Trail Mapping Project. This volunteer project has created a trail map set you can load into your GPSr to help you stick to the pathways. Nose Hill Park is Calgary’s largest natural environment park and the City has spent quite a bit of money creating an official pathway system with the aim of helping with the conservation of the fescue grasslands throughout the park.