On a snowy February weekend, we were able to check a new experience off our list: fat biking. We drove from Halifax to Truro, rented bikes at Bike Monkey in downtown and went to enjoy the trails of Victoria Park on a sunny afternoon.
Renting the fat bikes
We took a Communauto for the day and brought our own bike rack to Truro.
We stopped at Bike Monkey and rented two fat bikes for half a day, which ended up costing us $40 each + tax (we decided not to take the optional $20 bike damage insurance).
Luckily, the fat bikes fit on our bicycle rack, so we drove the 1.2km up the hill from the shop to the start of the trails. But, if you don’t have a bike rack, the staff at Bike Monkey offered to drive us and the bikes to the park in their van. It isn’t something that is advertised, but they seem to offer it if they have enough staff.
The trails
We parked next to the SEEK yurts and cabins where we could directly access The Railyard trails. We started on the Hide and Seek trail and then biked around the Reservoir and back. There were lots of trails to choose from and we literally just made it up as we went along. Our favourite was the Lepper Brook trail. It was a really windy route through the trees and we enjoyed it so much that we did it in both directions.
It took us a couple of hours with just a few stops to check the online map and have some lunch that we had picked up in downtown Truro at NovelTea.
The trails were well groomed thanks to the municipal staff and the local volunteers. They were also quite well marked, but having Trail Forks on your phone is quite helpful when you get twisted around in the woods.
A couple of times, we ventured onto less groomed trails and they were definitely more icy and challenging.
Skills required
We found that it was more difficult to bike on the snow that we expected. We thought the studded tires would give us great grip, but it was definitely still slippery. We had to start slow, stay low on the bikes, use the back brakes and be ready to put our foot down if the back wheel slipped too much. Our average speed was 7km/hr, so we definitely weren’t going anywhere quickly!
In the end it was a lot of fun and a great way to enjoy a winter day.
The park was so quiet and the walkers we met were so nice.
Definitely something we will do again!
Be Active Like V 