Trails in Canada

[yuley95]

I’ve shifted to Canada for 6 months with the family and travelling around BC a bit for the first 5 weeks. I have the chance to hit up a few bike parks and trail networks before we settle in Nelson until January.

Thought it might be interesting to write up a sort of review of different riding spots as I go. It wont be comprehensive (there are SO many places to ride) but I’ll hit a few spots and try and give you some of idea of what to expect if you head this way. I’ll put links in the OP and update as I hit different regions/trails centres.

For context, I’m an experienced rider confident and comfortable hitting black trails and double diamond black at times. I’m happy jumping but tend to take a bit of time building up to big gaps and features. I’m riding a 160mm enduro bike (Kavenz VHP160).

Here is what I’ve hit so far:

• Whistler
• Coast Gravity Park
• Big White
• Revelstoke
• Nelson - Mountain Station and Svoboda trails
• Nelson - Morning Mountain
• Nelson - 49er
• Rossland

 

[yuley95]

Whistler

I don’t have a bucket list but if I did, riding Whistler would have been close to the top. We planned 3 nights here giving me 2 full days of riding.

Booking tickets is easy and comes to about $88CAD per day. You pick up your pass from the main village. They are doing work on the Chairlift that is normally used for the bike park so had a gondola running instead. It was good but made things a bit squishy as they were trying to jam 4 people (and their bikes) into each gondola to keep the line moving at the bottom of the trails.

One weird thing to note is that people don’t really chat in whistler. One of my favourite things about mountain biking is the chats I have on shuttles or at trail heads with random people. Had a few chats at whistler but was quite surprised how little people wanted to speak. I also had a flat that I had to fix halfway down a run and about 50 people passed me without asking if I was ok (I was fine but at my local trails I would’ve had to fight people off to stop them lending a hand).

Anyway, the trails are EPIC. I didn’t want to build things up too much in my head before hand but turns out Whistler is everything you could want it to be.

I generally enjoy technical trails more than flow but still love a well built flow trail. Whistler is mostly flow but they have added a whole bunch of tech on the creek side area of the mountain.

Once you get to the top of the mountain, you can really mix and match depending on what you feel like. It’s probably been said before but tech black trails here are really a world apart from some trails that get marked black in Victoria. Even Maydena black trails are a little tamer than Whistler I think.

My favourite trails were Original Sin, Miss Fire, Spingnar, Call me Maybe, Crank it up and Blue Velvet.

The trails are so well built that you can really trust them and just go. I rode faster and jumped further than I ever have before I reckon.

I did 100km of descending over 2 days and tried to ride as much of the terrain as possible. It’s been a long and dry summer so there are definitely braking bumps etc to contend with but much of the park was holding up well.

Besides being amazing tech trials over in the creek side area, there is also some really beautiful scenery too.

Honestly, except for a weird lack of chat, Whistler is 10/10.

 

[yuley95]

Coast Gravity Park

This one was totally different but really fun. It’s located in the small town of Sechelt in the Sunshine Coast region of BC. The Sunshine Coast is part of the mainland of BC but you actually have to take a ferry to get there as it is otherwise cut off by mountains and inlets.

It’s a beautiful spot.

The park is only small with short runs and 2 trucks with trailers running shuttles. The park has a really cool ‘by riders, for riders’ vibe and it felt like about a third of the 20-30 people riding on the day I was there were locals. There was lots of chat.

The trails are pretty much all flow and jump lines. There is a little bit of tech on a couple of runs but thats not really what this place is about. I ended up combining about 3 different runs to create a lap that started with tech and ended with flow including some nice wooden features, drops and mandatory jumps.

One of the cool things about the place is there was a little shredder there who was only about 8-10yo. There was no parent in sight and he was obviously comfortable on the trails and as there were a number of locals riding, they all seemed to be keeping an eye out for him and having a chat with him. I was talking to one of the locals about a particular black trail and the little shredder said ‘follow me if you want’. I said ‘sweet, let’s go’ and tried to keep up as he blasted his way down the run including a 2 metre drop and massive step up. It was awesome.

I only did a half day and it was probably enough for me. You could definitely have a fun full day but don’t really need to spend 8 hours repeating the same runs over and over.

 

[yuley95]

Big White

This one probably needs some context. I travelled to Big White from Kelowna while my family hung out and a fire raged just a few km’s away on the other side of a ridge. There was no threat of the fire reaching Kelowna (and no alerts or warnings issues) but the smoke was thick in the air and I felt uneasy the whole morning and wanted to get back to them. I didn’t really enjoy Big White that much and it was undoubtedly influenced by my mood.

That said, Big White still falls short of the other parks I’ve ridden in Canada.

On the plus side, Big White is cheap. Normal prices were $59CAD for the day but Thursdays in late August appear to be half price so I only paid $30 for access to the chairlift all day. As it turned out, I only stayed for about 3 hours but felt comfortable leaving early as it was so cheap.

The terrain is unlike anything else I’ve ridden. It is VERY rocky and the rocks are sharp edged and run all different directions. Being late summer (and a drought) what dirt there was, was very lose and dusty.

The tech trails were very tech and a step up from Whistler (in terms of difficulty). I have a feeling the trails have degraded a bit since they were initially built and graded meaning they are harder now than originally. It was a good challenge but given I was feeling a bit ‘off’, I found myself riding more ‘flow’ trails than normal.

Some of the flow and jump trails were good but there was generally something a little off about the building. I often found myself hitting the lip of a tabletop aiming straight, only to crest the lip and find I should have been angled left or right then landing on a shitty line and ruining the flow.

Or I would hit 3 jumps in a row at a good trail speed then hold the same speed for the fourth but find myself jumping to flat. Or, because of the rocks, I would get to a lip and notice the landing was going to eat my rim for breakfast so I would have to make a late change and pull up harder or try and head a little left or right and often be thrown off my game a bit.

I watched a video of Sam Pilgram riding the same trails and of course, he makes it look easy and awesome but I also noticed he only showed parts of trails and also every now and then exclaimed at a weird rock trying to kill him or a jump that is too short etc.

Anyway, I guess the takeaway is that these are good trails but they are up against great trails in so many parts of canada - including another close by park called Silverstar which i didn't get to but has a really good reputation.

 

[Dozer]

Cool thread! I'm watching your progress, what a good time you're having.
I was in Whistler in July. My go-to lap's were:
-Missfire into Delayed Fuse then onto BC's Trail. I did it dry, wet and semi sorta kinda wet & dry. That is an amazing bunch of trails.
-Freight Train into either Side Track or the radness of the Duff trails onto lower A Line is a helluva combo.
-The Spingnar and Call me Maybe are some of the best technical Blue's I've done on earth, they were amazing to ride. Creekside is really good!
Hey @yuley95 When riding Missfire, did you find the big holes in some of the spots you're grabbing the brakes actually slowed you down enough to not bother braking? There was some weird withcraft stuff going on for me where I felt like I could ride most of it at rolling speed even though it had some steeper bits. I totally loved that trail.
I had many altercation's with dickhead arrogant Mexican people in my two weeks there. Everyone except for those pricks respected the courtesy of the pull-out areas and waited their turn but not these c#$ts. They'd ride to the front of the line wearing their motocross kit, tinted fucking ski goggles and visor's down low then drop into the black stuff only to fuck everyone else up later who comes across them walking down the trails. Dickheads, I had so many times I'd yell at these fuckheads to ride somewhere else. One guy got the nerve to speak up so I pushed him off a trail into a pile of logs for continually blocking the trails. Not sure of he got up, don't care. I waited for their group at the next area to punch n but they must have been giving him CPR.
I was able to do a bunch of ride-ups on Blackcomb too. If you ever have the chance, look those trails up. They are natural beauties! I rode a heap of the XC ish Lost Lake stuff too and few times down Comfortably Numb. What a cool place to ride bikes, sleep in, eat dinner in daylight at 9pm and chat with bears eating berries off the bush in front of my apartment.

 

[yuley95]

Cool thread! I'm watching your progress, what a good time you're having.
I was in Whistler in July. My go-to lap's were:
-Missfire into Delayed Fuse then onto BC's Trail. I did it dry, wet and semi sorta kinda wet & dry. That is an amazing bunch of trails.
-Freight Train into either Side Track or the radness of the Duff trails onto lower A Line is a helluva combo.
-The Spingnar and Call me Maybe are some of the best technical Blue's I've done on earth, they were amazing to ride. Creekside is really good!
Hey @yuley95 When riding Missfire, did you find the big holes in some of the spots you're grabbing the brakes actually slowed you down enough to not bother braking? There was some weird withcraft stuff going on for me where I felt like I could ride most of it at rolling speed even though it had some steeper bits. I totally loved that trail.
I had many altercation's with dickhead arrogant Mexican people in my two weeks there. Everyone except for those pricks respected the courtesy of the pull-out areas and waited their turn but not these c#$ts. They'd ride to the front of the line wearing their motocross kit, tinted fucking ski goggles and visor's down low then drop into the black stuff only to fuck everyone else up later who comes across them walking down the trails. Dickheads, I had so many times I'd yell at these fuckheads to ride somewhere else. One guy got the nerve to speak up so I pushed him off a trail into a pile of logs for continually blocking the trails. Not sure of he got up, don't care. I waited for their group at the next area to punch n but they must have been giving him CPR.
I was able to do a bunch of ride-ups on Blackcomb too. If you ever have the chance, look those trails up. They are natural beauties! I rode a heap of the XC ish Lost Lake stuff too and few times down Comfortably Numb. What a cool place to ride bikes, sleep in, eat dinner in daylight at 9pm and chat with bears eating berries off the bush in front of my apartment.

Hey @Dozer - you‘re making me wish I spent more time at Whistler. I fucking loved the Creekside trails and just the whole area with the bridges they’ve built and the creeks etc. Missfire was an absolute cracker of a trail. Not sure about not braking but even in the steep and loose sections, I always felt like i could just let it run through the chunkiest stuff and pull it up again at the next corner. Really well built.

Thats crap to hear about the other riders. I never had to deal with anything that bad but definitely found the worst trail manners/lack of forethought/courtesy at Whistler. I was sitting at a break in the Original Sin trail - It’s only black but it’s pretty challenging in parts - and this kid comes down behind me, crashing as he finished the section of trail. Picks himself up and his dad comes along too. His dad tells me they’ve ridden gravel trails before but nothing like this (they were on rentals). I said ‘good luck’ and rode off before getting stuck behind them. Why the fuck they thought they could tackle black trails at Whistler is beyond me but hopefully they didnt get injured.

I was staying at the base of Blackcomb but didn't have time to ride any of those trails which is a shame. I’ll just have to go back one day!

 

[birddog69]

Glad your lovin' the riding in Canada. Have had some grrrrreat times there. Don't know how far your traveling: perhaps to Whitehorse? Yvonne and I were there last July and the riding was pretty good. Lots of new tracks on Grey Mountain. Not as spectacular as Southern BC but different with stunning views. Long days as @Dozer says. Finish riding at 9 pm, have a meal and ride back to our digs in the day light at 10 pm.
Keep the posts coming so we can enjoy your rides, even just vicariously.

 

[Dozer]

I was staying at the base of Blackcomb but didn't have time to ride any of those trails which is a shame. I’ll just have to go back one day!

I had such a good apartment at the Aspens; the place at the very base of the slope. I had a few bears visit our balcony eating the berries off the plants; an amazing thing to sit back and watch. He was two feet from me just doing his thing. I had a family
of squirrels eat brekky with me everyday on my balcony too. Then you have the nosey 'Mericans tell you off about getting too close to a bear claiming they'll now need to shoot it because it has been humanized. I said you need to not make it okay to sell bulletproof backpacks to schoolkids and get your heads out of your arses with your ridiculousadmiration for guns you wankers. She shut up.

I saw the same stuff with the Super Dad's shoving the kids down the black stuff. Its so dumb and you really want to hope those kids survived.

For those that don't know; Whistler HATES Ebikes. Hates them with a passion. It was only recently that it was sorta kinda okay to ride up a climb trail on a pedal assisted ebike. It isn't until you get there to see why and understand they have a really short summer, the trails that you may want to ride up will get destroyed pretty quickly if you're doing ten times the amount of laps. I get it, I'm cool with it, most ebikes riders in Australia are totally new to bike riding and are instant heroes. I can do without that in my day too. Don't get me wrong; skilled bike riders on ebikes is cool but noobs claiming to be the greatest black trail rider on earth are cockspanners. In two weeks in Whistler, I saw two ebikes on the trails. One was at the top of a climb (he was a wanker) and the other was an older dude getting it loaded into the gondola. He wasn't a wanker and loved bikes.

 

[Mattyp]

For those that don't know; Whistler HATES Ebikes. Hates them with a passion. It was only recently that it was sorta kinda okay to ride up a climb trail on a pedal assisted ebike. It isn't until you get there to see why and understand they have a really short summer, the trails that you may want to ride up will get destroyed pretty quickly if you're doing ten times the amount of laps. I get it, I'm cool with it, most ebikes riders in Australia are totally new to bike riding and are instant heroes. I can do without that in my day too. Don't get me wrong; skilled bike riders on ebikes is cool but noobs claiming to be the greatest black trail rider on earth are cockspanners. In two weeks in Whistler, I saw two ebikes on the trails. One was at the top of a climb (he was a wanker) and the other was an older dude getting it loaded into the gondola. He wasn't a wanker and loved bikes.

It's funny because I saw more ebikes in 1 day at the You Yangs doing a 130vm climb up a road, than in the whole 3weeks of riding in NZ earlier this year..
People have really lost the plot over here.

 

[kten]

Aren't there chairlifts everywhere in Whistler? Guessing that may have something to do with the attitude towards battery assisted devices.

Bring a Canadian to (pick anywhere without a lift) and they'll be screaming for an ebike lol.

 

[Dozer]

It's funny because I saw more ebikes in 1 day at the You Yangs doing a 130vm climb up a road, than in the whole 3weeks of riding in NZ earlier this year..
People have really lost the plot over here.

I've been pretty vocal about this lately. Sorry to hijack your thread Yuley but Australian trail building is being dictated by entry level riders and government grants handing out funds to build trails for adaptive stuff. We've got enough of that already, there's no legal hard trails getting built. Long live the guys that build tons of hard trails that stay secret.

 

[Dozer]

Aren't there chairlifts everywhere in Whistler? Guessing that may have something to do with the attitude towards battery assisted devices.

Bring a Canadian to (pick anywhere without a lift) and they'll be screaming for an ebike lol.

Only on one hill (Whistler mountain). There's tons of trails in Whistler Bike Park but there's way more in the surrounding mountains that you have to ride to get to. And they can climb on a bike man, I watched guys ride past me chatting away while I'm battlin' to crawl up. There are mountain bike riders in Canada that would tear our race scene apart that have never seen an ebike, it's quite impressive.

 

[kten]

Only on one hill (Whistler mountain). There's tons of trails in Whistler Bike Park but there's way more in the surrounding mountains that you have to ride to get to. And they can climb on a bike man, I watched guys ride past me chatting away while I'm battlin' to crawl up. There are mountain bike riders in Canada that would tear our race scene apart that have never seen an ebike, it's quite impressive.

Well that's my bubble burst lol.

 

[beeb]

It's funny because I saw more ebikes in 1 day at the You Yangs doing a 130vm climb up a road, than in the whole 3weeks of riding in NZ earlier this year..
People have really lost the plot over here.

It's weird talking with non-riders too. They express quite a bit of interest in eBike MTBing, but then you say you ride unassisted and they're like "Oh god, no - I wouldn't want to have to do that...". I don't get it - It's the same hobby, just one version is easier to get to go up the hill.

 

[birddog69]

I had such a good apartment at the Aspens; the place at the very base of the slope. I had a few bears visit our balcony eating the berries off the plants; an amazing thing to sit back and watch. He was two feet from me just doing his thing. I had a family
of squirrels eat brekky with me everyday on my balcony too. Then you have the nosey 'Mericans tell you off about getting too close to a bear claiming they'll now need to shoot it because it has been humanized. I said you need to not make it okay to sell bulletproof backpacks to schoolkids and get your heads out of your arses with your ridiculousadmiration for guns you wankers. She shut up.
View attachment 402038

I saw the same stuff with the Super Dad's shoving the kids down the black stuff. Its so dumb and you really want to hope those kids survived.

For those that don't know; Whistler HATES Ebikes. Hates them with a passion. It was only recently that it was sorta kinda okay to ride up a climb trail on a pedal assisted ebike. It isn't until you get there to see why and understand they have a really short summer, the trails that you may want to ride up will get destroyed pretty quickly if you're doing ten times the amount of laps. I get it, I'm cool with it, most ebikes riders in Australia are totally new to bike riding and are instant heroes. I can do without that in my day too. Don't get me wrong; skilled bike riders on ebikes is cool but noobs claiming to be the greatest black trail rider on earth are cockspanners. In two weeks in Whistler, I saw two ebikes on the trails. One was at the top of a climb (he was a wanker) and the other was an older dude getting it loaded into the gondola. He wasn't a wanker and loved bikes.

This photo is from Moab taken last September. These are at nearly every trail head and all over Eastern Colorado as well. Enough on that!
Bring on more story tellin' about riding in Canada. BTW, wwe carried bear spray and had bells on our bikes in the Yukon. Seemed to work; didn't see any bears till Pink Mountain in Northern BC. Another story for another day.

 

[yuley95]

Don't know how far your traveling: perhaps to Whitehorse? Yvonne and I were there last July and the riding was pretty good. Lots of new tracks on Grey Mountain. Not as spectacular as Southern BC but different with stunning views.

Whitehorse looks amazing but we wont get that far north unfortunately. It will just be BC I think.

BTW, wwe carried bear spray and had bells on our bikes in the Yukon. Seemed to work; didn't see any bears till Pink Mountain in Northern BC. Another story for another day.

We’ve seen a couple of bears around Sechelt and I should def get some bear spray but so far I’ve stuck to bike parks with lots of traffic. Once i get to Nelson in a few days, I’ll get spray as I’ll be out on trails by myself.

Saw a deer in Revelstoke that I somehow startled as I came around a corner (thought it should have heard or smelt me much earlier than that). It was pretty big but scadadled pretty quick.

 

[pink poodle]

If you get back over Kelowna way, silverstar has a bike park. I'm not sure what your family are going to do in Vernon while you ride though. It's a bit of a yawn.

 

[fjohn860]

Great thread topic @yuley95. So fkn jealous haha.

Definitely would love to get over to Canada one day.

I'm kind of regretting not somehow making time to hire a bike on a Denver work trip back in 2019 now.

It's weird talking with non-riders too. They express quite a bit of interest in eBike MTBing, but then you say you ride unassisted and they're like "Oh god, no - I wouldn't want to have to do that...". I don't get it - It's the same hobby, just one version is easier to get to go up the hill.

Don't forget the "superior fun complex".

 

[yuley95]

If you get back over Kelowna way, silverstar has a bike park. I'm not sure what your family are going to do in Vernon while you ride though. It's a bit of a yawn.

I should have gone to Silver Star instead of Big White to be honest. We were considering living in Vernon but got in touch with a local and sensitively enquired about the culture/vibe of the place. We picked up pretty quickly that it wasn’t for us. We know Nelson and know we dig it there. Lots of trails around too.

 

[pink poodle]

I should have gone to Silver Star instead of Big White to be honest. We were considering living in Vernon but got in touch with a local and sensitively enquired about the culture/vibe of the place. We picked up pretty quickly that it wasn’t for us. We know Nelson and know we dig it there. Lots of trails around too.

I describe it as being like Maitland, but not as good. And anyone that knows Maitland knows that is not a compliment. There was a lot of marijuana vendors there, a coffee roaster (that didn't have an espresso bar???), a good distillery, and 1 nice restaurant. But it was close to silverstar and a lot cheaper than staying on snow.