🍌 Three Bananas, One Flat Tire, and a Coffee Worth 100km | Road to Nepal & Diamond Valley

🚴 110 km through the foothills southwest of Calgary on the ride everyone calls the "Road to Nepal" — a name nobody can explain and nobody needs to, once you've hit the third hill on 112 Street. What I didn't expect: three whole, unpeeled bananas scattered across the route like someone was running a very slow experiment. And a front flat 20 km from home, because of course. 📍 THE ROUTE 🌲 Shannon Terrace, Fish Creek → south through the city to Spruce Meadows Green 🌾 96 Street West → 226 Avenue West ⛰️ 112 Street West past Granary Road — the three hills that earned the name 🐄 South past Ironstone Farms ⚠️ West on Hwy 549 — two lanes, 100 km/h traffic, shoulder sold separately 🛣️ South on Hwy 22 to Diamond Valley ☕ Black Sheep Coffee — the turnaround, and the entire justification 🔁 North on 22 → 22X → Spruce Meadows Green → home 📊 THE NUMBERS 📏 Distance: 110 km ⛰️ Elevation: 1,050 m ⏱️ Moving time: ~3.5 hrs 🔧 Flats: 1 (front) 🍌 Roadside bananas: 3 (unpeeled, unexplained) ☕ Coffees: 1 (transcendent, possibly for physiological reasons) 🚲 Bike: Cervélo Soloist ⚡ THE VERDICT Not Nepal. Very good anyway. The scenery does more work than the climbing, the three hills on 112 do more than you expect, and Hwy 549 is short enough to survive and sketchy enough to make Highway 22 feel like a gift. Bring the legs. Bring the mirror. Bring a spare tube. The bananas, apparently, are provided. ⚠️ One honest note on Hwy 549: narrow, fast, and the shoulder is theoretical. Thousands ride it every year without issue, but ride it in good light with your head up — or cut the loop short before it if that's not your thing. 🔔 More Rockies scrambles, foothills rides, and Canadian Rockies adventures → explor8ion.com #RoadToNepal #CalgaryCycling #DiamondValley #Highway22 #AlbertaCycling #RoadCycling #FoothillsCycling #FishCreek #SpruceMeadows #Cervelo #BlackSheepCoffee #CanadianRockies