BC/PNW MTB road trip recommendations

Posted by: fun-house

Last summer we did this, and it was awesome. Camped the whole way, and it was actually an extremely cheap trip. Ferries are costly I guess, but you don't need ot burn yourself out driving, and you don't pay $1.60 for gas on those portions. We also chose this route because of the fires raging in the interior:

Day 0: Depart Vancouver and ferry over to Nanaimo. Not enough time/daylight to get a proper ride in, but we checked out the Stevie Smith bike park. Bring lights and ride Nanaimo's trails if you want. We then drove to Cumberland where we were staying.

Day 1: Rode Cumberland: https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/1675210/ (there is a climbing trail you could take to shorten that big loop on the road)

Day 2: Wake early, first ferry to Powell River, ride Civil Disobedience. Wow.

Day 3: Wake early, ferry to Sechelt, Coast Gravity Park. Finish your day with Huggies to get back into town. Did an evening ride at B&K afterwards.

Day 4: B&K/Robert's Creek: https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/2854059/ (Just one lap for me, because my friend destroyed his wheel), ferry to HSB in the evening.

We did the same trip last year but the other direction. Civil disobedience trail was great. Did u guys pedal all the way up? We parked half way up the logging road but getting back to the truck at the end of the ride was an adventure....

Posted by: Bull_Dozer

Posted by: Brocklanders

The mice is on private property so its fenced in at the north and south end.

Do you have to hop a fence to ride the trails or is it just kind of like the situation with British Properties on Cypress?

No the area is private but mtb is encouraged. Its all signed etc, a couple cattle gates to go thru but all good to go. Riding there this coming weeknd, super stoked.

It has a couple sketchy sections. Some old rotten stunts. But for the most part old school single track. I’m on devinci Troy. No problems

Posted by: Brocklanders

Posted by: fun-house

Last summer we did this, and it was awesome. Camped the whole way, and it was actually an extremely cheap trip. Ferries are costly I guess, but you don't need ot burn yourself out driving, and you don't pay $1.60 for gas on those portions. We also chose this route because of the fires raging in the interior:

Day 0: Depart Vancouver and ferry over to Nanaimo. Not enough time/daylight to get a proper ride in, but we checked out the Stevie Smith bike park. Bring lights and ride Nanaimo's trails if you want. We then drove to Cumberland where we were staying.

Day 1: Rode Cumberland: https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/1675210/ (there is a climbing trail you could take to shorten that big loop on the road)

Day 2: Wake early, first ferry to Powell River, ride Civil Disobedience. Wow.

Day 3: Wake early, ferry to Sechelt, Coast Gravity Park. Finish your day with Huggies to get back into town. Did an evening ride at B&K afterwards.

Day 4: B&K/Robert's Creek: https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/2854059/ (Just one lap for me, because my friend destroyed his wheel), ferry to HSB in the evening.

We did the same trip last year but the other direction. Civil disobedience trail was great. Did u guys pedal all the way up? We parked half way up the logging road but getting back to the truck at the end of the ride was an adventure....

Yeah we pedaled (and occasionally pushed) the whole from our campsite which was just down the road. Took 3.5 hours for 21km and 1000m of elevation gain: https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/1695962/

Oh! I just remembered that I forgot to mention that on the second half of our day in Cumberland we rode Mt Washington. It's like $25 on Thursday evenings.

Did the Freedom bike shop ride on thursday night. Was probably the best long lap I have done in the mice trails to date. Thx to Josh and Johnny Smoke leading the way... Still buzzing.

Posted by: Brocklanders

Did the Freedom bike shop ride on thursday night. Was probably the best long lap I have done in the mice trails to date. Thx to Josh and Johnny Smoke leading the way... Still buzzing.

Which trails did you ride? Are you able to share the route?

I didnt strava it. Wish i did. Fast group so wasnt really paying attention to the exact route.

Starting from the reservior. Shuttle or pedal up from riddle road. 

Sidewinder to gopher to boneyard to white rabbit. Check out ashtray lookout first. Then down white rabbit,  narnia to fred to deadhorse to the new gaps and table tops before finishing up on sweet tsu.

My personal fave is rainbow, bronco, black bear, deadhorse extension, rollercoaster, sweet tsu. 

Also like doing the whole fred trail. And also rusty muffler, marmot right across the contour has its moments but more xc. 

Hope this helps.

Thanks Brocklanders, that helps a lot.

Will be up there may 31- june 2

Will be riding solo if u happen to be there a riding buddy is good

Cheers

Thanks for the offer. I am actually up there before those dates and also going with a buddy. Appreciate your help. Really looking forward to checking out some different terrain because like 99% of my riding has been in the North Shore/Squamish/Whistler area.

OP here - ended up riding Kalamalka Lake and Three Blind Mice. Kalamalka - climbed all the way to the top of the Pali Gap trail. Man that was a big climb! Pretty cool to climb all the way up to the top of the mountain and then ride along Tombstone, then we dropped into Big Ed, etc. Three Blind Mice was a super cool area - tons of nice views, nice trees/landscape, and the trails were awesome too. Drops A Lot was a really fun trail. Also though Tsweet Tsue was a really cool/unique trail. Never rode anything like that before.

Nice to get out of the Lower Mainland and ride some totally different terrain. Seems like there is tons of great riding in the Okanagan. Would like to go back and explore some more trails/areas.

Nice! Is Tsweet Tsue the halfpipe-like trail in a gully? I also thought that was pretty cool.

I also noticed on Trailforks there is a new black trail near Predator Ridge that can connects to the Ellison trail system:

https://www.trailforks.com/trails/granite-51416/

Really need to get back there soon.