Biketrip through BC

Look SQuidy. You feed my wife beer (I don't drink) and I show you trails that make the stuff that poseur Ross rides look like paved trails. I have a soft spot for Swiss riders as your country is gorgeous. I'll continue my list of places to ride in a bit.

Okai yeah I think for me it's just important to go step by step. First some easy tracks to get into the riding again. (I haven't been riding for like 4 or 5 months now).

I just don't want to push to hard at the beginning and end up with injuries, you know. Everything step by step as I have a bad knee (ACL…I think) too. So no stupid risks =)

About the high alpine stuff…you are pretty good with your intention. I mainly like to ride trails in the rainforest, some n1 berms, roots, rocks. Maybe check out this to get an idea what I like:

http://knollybikes.com/media/video

Ross Measures - Video 1
May 5, 2008

Knolly team rider Ross rips it up in the legendary coastal BC rainforest!

This is exactly what I like to ride. I already got in touch with Ross but unfortunately, the trail is a secret one. He told me that I should spend some time in Squamish as the trails there are similar to the one in the video…

It's funny that you should say that as a trail called Made In The Shade in Squamish always reminds me of riding in the Alps, albeit with a lot more trees and less exposure. But yes, there's no shortage of the sort of riding in the video around here.

"Poseur Ross"???

Bwaaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!

Oh wait - I'm not done laughing yet!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: !!!!

Sorry Lee, but I'm not sure that poseur is the first word that comes to mind when talking about Ross' riding ability…

:)

Hello SQuidy!

It is often difficult for sponsored riders to disclose locations because there is a lot of pressure on them to film and photograph in unique places, so you'll have to forgive Ross for not being candid about all of his riding locations.

However, I think Ross is correct and that Squamish, Whistler (once the snow's gone!), the Sunshine Coast, and even a few North Shore locations have some of this kind of riding. Also, if you're going to be riding around in the interior (and depending upon your budget), you might want to contact Johnny Smoke at www.bushpilotbiking.com as there are few people who know the BC interior trails as well as he does. And, yes, Lee can also take you on one of his many death marches :)

Also, something that might be worth while (depending upon how long you're going to be around the city of Vancouver for), might be hooking up with NS Ride (www.nsride.com): they lead rides several times a week of various abilities and at the least, this would be a good way to get a really good feel for the main trails on North Shore, and also potentially the Sunshine Coast, Squamish and Whistler.

Oh - one other quick edit: Lee mentioned Sooke in his list and I have to say that Harbourview Mountain is one of the coolest places that I've ridden in BC and easily worth a day or two of your time (especially, since you can head up island and hit the other locations that he mentioned). The view up top is stunning, and I was super impressed with the quality of the trail building and I've heard that it's only improved since I rode there last year. A brilliant technical climb leads to some great descents and the mandatory climb keeps the number of riders on the trails lower than shuttle trails. Additionally, The section where you ride 500m on an old water main suspended 6 feet in the air is very, very unique.

Cheers!

wicked post lee. even for people living in bc and who have traveled a bit that is a great list to aim for or work from.

HEAVILY EDITED Sorry just saw this map

I'm going to throw a lot of information at you. You should do a google search or NSMB or MTBR search for information and articles. I'm not very patient with people who can't search; think they are retarded and blow them off as dumbfucks so please be warned. Search terms are in quotations etc. "Seven Summits"

June to August. You should start in the warmer areas then work your way to areas that lose snow later in the year. Leave the Kootenays to last

I would go through this order. I'm not going to suggest specific trails. If you want rainforest, semi-technical BC riding then some trail suggestions are in brackets. Otherwise do the search listed above. Here are search hints. In the Nelson area Danksi knows his stuff. In Sea to Sky, Revelstoke, Salmon Arm, Panorama look for my suggestions. In Kelowna, Penticton, Oliver etc look for Smokes. I don't know who covers Kamloops, Fernie, Golden. For South island look for stuff from kperras or strahan. For Hornby Island look for thebigchin.

Start with this loop

- Merritt
- Kamloops
- Kelowna/Westbank
- Pentiction
- Oliver

The above should take about 2 weeks or so. You can find camp spots at most areas. Buy a "Backroads Mapbook" Okanagan edition for these areas.

Then I would head back to the Coast. I would hit these areas.

- Sunshine Coast (Gibsons, Sechelt)
- Powell River (I don't know the trails but here they are fun)
- Nanaimo
- Duncan
- Sooke

Then back to the North island

- Comox
- Campbell River

That will take you another 2 weeks or so. Backroads Mapbooks for the Island would cover this.

I see you put in a Kootenay loop

- Nelson
- Rossland
- Fernie
- Revelstoke
- Golden
- Panorama
- Salmon Arm

Leave these as a separate loop. Leave them for good weather and for later in the year so snow can melt. That should take 3 weeks. Backroads Mapbook for Kootenay will cover you

You want to hit up Sea to Sky which you can do anytime as its close to Vancouver. Again lots of camping and lots of things to see and cheap if you do it right. Personally I find the Whistler bike park overrated, full of gaping tourons, and over-testosteroned tattooed freetards and Brits with poor bikehandling skills and bad teeth bwdik.

- Whistler
- Squamish
- Pemberton

This whole area should take 2 weeks to do properly. Whistler Mountain Bike Guidebook and various maps sold in bike shops for these areas should do the trick

I haven't covered local areas close to Vancouver properly but you should obviously hit up

- North Shore
- Burke
- Eagle
- Vedder
- Sumas/Abbotsford
- Mission

Maps from gutsploder might help here. You'd be best off with locals to show you around

I've ignored areas that are further such as Lilloett, Chilcotins, Williams Lk/Cariboo etc. That might be outside your scope

Now noel - you know i know ross and he's more then able to take anything that old one eye can throw his way. that was a really nice video btw

Now noel - you know i know ross and he's more then able to take anything that old one eye can throw his way. that was a really nice video btw

And Lee, you know that there are very few people in the world that I enjoy taking the piss out of more than you! Probably from all those times you yelled "You're going to crash!" at me when we were riding Starfish a dozen years ago!

:)

Ya, Ross' talents are ridiculous. I mean look at him riding the triple rock section of Cam***… in his second video: for most of us that is a very, very serious combination of moves and I've seen a lot of really good riders eat it hard there. People who've never ridden that trail have no idea how complicated and tricky that section is and he makes it look easy in that video.

I remember watching him ride the "Stairs of Death" on 5th H last year: we were with a couple of other pro riders who walked around it and he just flowed it like it was a regular part of the trail.

Absolutely sick…

And thanks for the compliments on the video, but Ross deserves them all as the video was his project! Hopefully we'll see some more from him once our nuclear winter ends :P

Awesome guys…thx you very much for all this infos. Now I can do some research on the mentioned areas. If anyone has other things…don't hesitate =)

No problem Noel…I totally understand that Ross can't tell me the location of the trail. Btw: Is it possible to visit your company?

Edit:

Another thing I'm curious about…I planned to buy a bigger van with bed and space for my bike in the back, so I don't have to spend a lot of money for hostels and accomodations and can just stop where ever it looks nice. Recently, I thought about other things…energy, water, shower, laundry, food, FRIENDS! Would you recommend me this kind of trip or should I spend less money on the car and safe some for hostels? I'm very social and like to have people around me but I can also enjoy some time alone by myself. But yeah I think it's important to get in touch with some guys to go out for a ride…also in terms of injuries, wild animals it is dangerous to discover everything alone, isn't it?

Let me know when your bike arrives and will do some laps at burnaby…

Let me know when your bike arrives and will do some laps at burnaby…

Sounds great!

How tall are you? My wife has an extra Santa Cruz Bullit (size small) you can borrow if the weather gets better before your bike gets here…

Ehm I'm around 178 cm…normally I ride medium frames and for me, they are more on the smaller side I think (especially for uphills). An other problem is all the other stuff (clothing, protection) but yeah let's see how it goes. Hopefully I get my stuff in the next two weeks.

At the rate things are going your gear will arrive before decent weather :(
If we get a good day in the interim I will post here and we can sort something out. I've got enough extra gear and helmets that I can outfit you if required - we're about the same height… In all reality though we only need helmets and gloves for burnaby mountain.

Okai yeah just give me a hint when you go out there.

Edit:

Another thing I'm curious about…I planned to buy a bigger van with bed and space for my bike in the back, so I don't have to spend a lot of money for hostels and accomodations and can just stop where ever it looks nice. Recently, I thought about other things…energy, water, shower, laundry, food, FRIENDS! Would you recommend me this kind of trip or should I spend less money on the car and safe some for hostels? I'm very social and like to have people around me but I can also enjoy some time alone by myself. But yeah I think it's important to get in touch with some guys to go out for a ride…also in terms of injuries, wild animals it is dangerous to discover everything alone, isn't it?

Squidy just dirtbag it. Spend the money on beer. You will meet people. You're doing your homework in advance and that's smart. Go to a few trail days too and you'll meet lots of people, Screw the hostels. Its summer. Just be smart about bears particularly grizzlies and you'll be fine