Shawn Bags Shadow Lake Fat Bike – Banff

Published by Shawn on

Quick Stats

  • Distance: 30.5km
  • Height Gain 555m
  • Round Trip Time 3.5h
  • Surface Type: Snow
  • Weapon of Choice: Fat Bike
  • Resources: https://shadowlakelodge.com/

Might as well start here. Maybe not the finest picture I have ever taken. But the day starts at the Red Earth Creek parking lot. Trail on the right, bathroom in the middle and a Parks Canada employee asking for my parks pass the minute I pulled in. Luckily, I had just bought a new annual pass.
Might as well start here. Maybe not the finest picture I have ever taken. But the day starts at the Red Earth Creek parking lot. Trail on the right, bathroom in the middle and a Parks Canada employee asking for my park pass the minute I pulled in. Luckily, I had just bought a new annual pass.
And away we go! The trail starts off wide and easy travel. In the winter, the trail is open to skiers, snow shoers, hikers, and fat bikes.
I had mixed weather on my trip. On occasion the clouds would break and I would quickly take a picture.
Although the majority of the trail is in the trees, it does cross 4 avalanche paths. Despite this being an official Parks Canada trail, it is still important to check the avalanche forecast and pass through the avalanche zones quickly without stopping, one person at a time. I carried my avalanche beacon for this trip… just in case something went terribly wrong, it would be easier for them to find me.
Having a tree fall across the trail isn’t that unusual. Until I got closer and realized that this was right beside an avalanche path, see the yellow warning sign ahead? A large avalanche had occurred and the snow took out these trees. It is a good reminder that even in the trees, where you normally feel pretty safe… isn’t always.
I snapped a picture of the avalanche path as I crossed one. I can ensure you, I didn’t stop and just snapped it as I quickly rode by. You really wouldn’t want to be here if the snow started to slide.
Enough doom and scary nature. At 10.5Km you are not permitted to bring bikes any further… Unless, you are on a fat bike between Dec 15 – March 15! I ignore the no bikes sign and carry on. Walking is for chumps.
Beyond the sign the trail gets significantly steeper. Maybe I am the chump after-all.
At least the scenery makes up for it.
Around the 14km mark I finally reach Shadow Lake Lodge. This was formally a luxurious back country lodge but is now more of a self serve operation. They do however have a general store that will sell you wine, beer, or snacks, even if you are just visiting for the day like I was.
I dumped the bike in a snow bank and went in for a delicious tea while soaking in the views surrounding this historic backcountry lodge.
I had a chat with the on-site person who was taking care of the lodge now. They told me Shadow lake was 800m or so in this direction, but the trail wasn’t packed down enough for fat bikes or on foot. They asked if I wanted to borrow some snowshoes to see the lake. Of course I do!
Boy am I glad I borrowed those snowshoes.
Almost at the lake now.
Shadow Lake, Banff National Park. Based on the tracks in the snow, I was the first person to visit Shadow lake in a while.
This calls for the traditional summit selfie. Is it possible that I am the only person ever to wear a bike helmet when snowshoeing? I bet I looked really cool.
As I started to leave the lake, there was some bad weather heading my way. I decided I would be faster than the weather once I was back on the fat bike. You can guess how that worked out for me.
It worked out perfectly fine actually. I managed to stay just ahead of the weather system moving in with a fast and fun ride back down from the lake to the car. I’ll be back again, this was a really fun trip.
Categories: Banff National Park BikingBiking
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2 Comments

Ted · April 5, 2026 at 4:55 pm

Great pictures!

Reply

    Shawn · April 5, 2026 at 5:15 pm

    Thank you!

    Reply

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