Nelson - Bald Face Lodge riding

are the bald face trails fair game for public poaching?
not interested in staying at lodge or being guided or shuttled.
is it worth pedalling from valley to alpine with xc bikes?
wifey and i can ride most anything on our little bikes, but more mellow = mo betta.
is there just a nasty gravel road to climb or some singletrack?
are the trails all old-school dh-style (mega-braking without relief), or is it more all-mountainy (up down all around)?

fair game..yes..and you probably won't see another rider.

LONG nasty gravel road to pedal..they really are shuttle trails.

lots of rock in the trails..but a little bike would be fine

Shannon Pass is the uber dh there..but still would be little bike friendly _ especially wih your skillz :)

ps you end up MILES from your drop-off, so a dedicated shuttle driver is a must.

Clark…. Neil recently spent a week in Nelson, shuttled Baldface and Shannon. I'll ask him what it's like this year and PM you, although I don't think there's been much new trail development up there. He did mention bumping into the owner who was not too stoked on folk going up there unguided, plans to put a gate in but that won't bother you if you're pedaling up. It's a massive all road haul to Baldface - I like climbing but that would suck.

Climbing up to the top of Burn [HTML_REMOVED] Beyond is worthy, so is the pedal up Morning Mountain for Powerslave from town. New Denver is good for xc bikes as is Meadow Creek (alpine) north of Kaslo. Heard there's pedal friendly trails at Retallack too now. Sure you already know all this though.

thanks andy, didn't know most of that. kinda new to xc, so this would be a very different road trip for us.

It's crown land, the lodge owner can piss up a rope if he's not keen on unguided riders on the trails.

You've got the usual suspects in Nelson that are doable on xc bikes…. Smallwood area, Paperbag in Svoboda, Spacejunk to EliSim etc in Mountain Station.

http://kootenaymountainbiking.blogspot.com/
http://kootenaybike.com/

New Denver is better for proper xc, lots of stuff around Idaho Peak…drop into Wilds Of Canada Cycle store and grab a map. They should have info on Retallack, Meadow Creek [HTML_REMOVED] trails in Winlaw too.

I remember the shuttle up being very long and where you finish on Shannon pass is far from where you would would probably leave a car.

I remember the shuttle up being very long and where you finish on Shannon pass is far from where you would would probably leave a car.

Start is one end of the lake, finish is the other end…outside of town if I remember correctly. Super far.