Most
semi-serious Edmonton road cyclists know Halicz-Glidehurst—even if they don’t
recognize the unwieldy name. It’s a 20-km zig-zag paved road that runs through
a quiet rural area southwest of Devon, Alberta. The noteworthy feature of H-G
(as I call it) is that it is the only paved back road in the area. It is
surrounded by a grid of gravel. I’m not sure why H-G is paved; apart from being
a back-door route to Devon, it doesn’t seem to connect anything to anything.
But it’s an exquisite piece of asphalt for skinny-tired cycling, an unlikely
but pleasant respite from truck-infested highways 19 and 60, and the kind of
road you can ride down the middle of, most of its length, almost any time.