2 Elbows And A Lake 55km
Click here for the RideWthGPS route.
High reward beginner bikepacking loop.
The Big Elbow/Little Elbow Loop is a decades old mountain biking classic ride. For mountain bikers, this ride is considered a “big day out” type ride, often being tackled in one day. The entire loop is off-pavement and predominantly on wide 2-track mountain road. The route is also suitable for modern gravel bikes too with a minimum recommended tire width of 45mm. Of special note, the route from Tombstone up to Elbow Lake is quite a bit rougher, well, a lot rougher. We wouldn’t recommend gravel bikers head up there unless Type 2 Fun (or maybe 1.7 fun) is something you’re into :)
There are 4 campgrounds on the loop: the main campground at Big Elbow/Little Elbow parking area, Romulus Backcountry about 1/4 of the way around, Tombstone Backcountry at the 1/2 way point, and Big Elbow Backcountry at the 3/4 mark. The Elbow Lake Backcountry campground is about 8kms from Tombstone and totally worth the extra effort to get up to it.
2 Elbows: Big Elbow and Little Elbow. And a lake: Elbow Lake. Makes sense, right?
