Burnaby Mountain 2013

The access road to the water tower. I believe there are plans to carry it on to the bottom. It's a great alternative to get to the top, even at this point. I'm a bit surprised people are riding it down? It's a bit of a 'bridge to nowhere'. I think it's a great climb, and adds a nice alternative to riders' XC loopage. Whatever they've done to deal with the drainage, it works…it's bone dry in the heaviest of rain. The lower section and upper section are a nice width. It is a bit wide in some of the center sections, but in time it should be nice.

Ok, so it's same as last I eye-balled it except open to ride.

It'll be swell when they get that punched through the bush right down to where everbody parks on Gaglardi.

This is a multi-use trail. Not sure how many hikers it will get early on, as it sort of goes nowhere right now, but adds a great additional riding loop, but up and down. Not a pinner trail for sure with grade reversals and switchbacks. Great climbing trail. It will also be nice to do with kids in both directions. The finished trail will indeed provide a phenomenal climb back up from Nicole's, making this a nice all mountain loop. Imagine parking at North Road, climbing up North Road Trails, down Pandora, up TCT, over to Naheno park, down Nicole's, up Sidewinder, up Watermain, along the road to Gear Jammer, down Gear Jammer to Lower Snake, up to North Road Trails, back to car.

The following is a link to the up-dated Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area trail map.
http://www.burnaby.ca/Assets/New+Things+To+Do/Explore+The+Outdoors/Parks/Burnaby+Mountain.pdf

How come that trail that goes from South Campus Road (starting by the bee hives) down to Uni Dr. E never gets plotted in these official maps?

Is it not a legit trail? It looks quite well-maintained and groomed. It is not exactly secretly located either.

And by the way, Pandora is pedestrian only designated. Stay off if you are on your bike.

It's not that much fun up or down anyways.

I wonder what made them decide to move ahead with the portion of trail from Sidewinder to the intersection this year before linking up Sidewinder to the bottom? It's a great climbing trail at the moment accessed by riding up the Formula one track :-) The upper section will however, will add a nice addition to Mel's

How come that trail that goes from South Campus Road (starting by the bee hives) down to Uni Dr. E never gets plotted in these official maps?

Is it not a legit trail? It looks quite well-maintained and groomed. It is not exactly secretly located either.

you mean in naheeno? nothing is mapped in those areas, that property belongs to SFU

And by the way, Pandora is pedestrian only designated. Stay off if you are on your bike.

It's not that much fun up or down anyways.

Pandora is only pedestrian only when it's paved at the top near Horizons restaurant. The dirt part of the climb is multi-use:
http://www.bmba.ca/gallery/v/trail_maps/trailmap2008.pdf.html

Pandora is only pedestrian only when it's paved at the top near Horizons restaurant. The dirt part of the climb is multi-use:
http://www.bmba.ca/gallery/v/trail_maps/trailmap2008.pdf.html

It looks like the newest revision of the map Whitehonkey references, shows it closed to bikes from the Velodrome up. Out of the dozens of times I've climbed up Pandora over the last year or two I've never seen a rider coming down (they do, but aren't frequent), and I can count the hikers on one hand.

It looks like the newest revision of the map Whitehonkey references, shows it closed to bikes from the Velodrome up. Out of the dozens of times I've climbed up Pandora over the last year or two I've never seen a rider coming down (they do, but aren't frequent), and I can count the hikers on one hand.

I'm hoping that's a mistake as it would render that side of the mountain totally useless to bikes, and Gnomes Home would become derelict. I frequently ride the TCT along Barnet, into Mountain Air, Drummond's Walk and up Gnomes and Pandora. With the change on that map, it leaves the only trail option as the TCT, which totally sucks.

It looks like the newest revision of the map Whitehonkey references, shows it closed to bikes from the Velodrome up. Out of the dozens of times I've climbed up Pandora over the last year or two I've never seen a rider coming down (they do, but aren't frequent), and I can count the hikers on one hand.

That would suck. Pandora is a good climb. I frequently climb up it and occasionally ride down it as well. And while I don't see people (riders or hikers) on it every time, it isn't uncommon.

I'm hoping that's a mistake as it would render that side of the mountain totally useless to bikes, and Gnomes Home would become derelict. I frequently ride the TCT along Barnet, into Mountain Air, Drummond's Walk and up Gnomes and Pandora. With the change on that map, it leaves the only trail option as the TCT, which totally sucks.

I agree. One of my routes from Hastings is Burntwood to Gnomes Home, up Pandora, then traverse the clearing to TCT. The only time I've ever used the lower part of TCT (that intersects Burntwood) is if I've been caught by the dark, and I've forgotten my lights and I want to avoid the road:-)

I agree. One of my routes from Hastings is Burntwood to Gnomes Home, up Pandora, then traverse the clearing to TCT. The only time I've ever used the lower part of TCT (that intersects Burntwood) is if I've been caught by the dark, and I've forgotten my lights and I want to avoid the road:-)

Good catch on Pandora's. That is indeed troubling. Let's hope this is a graphical error. The question has been asked.

Lady Gravity is right, Naheeno Trail is a bit unique in that it is not within the Burnaby Mtn Conservation Area. It was on City of Burnaby land a long time ago. It ran through Naheeno Park (incl. the kid's adventure playground) and was an official trail. The larger bridges and the steps down to the ring road were built then. It eventually ended up as SFU land and like Naheeno Park in general was left for the forest to reclaim. From what I have learned, SFU would like to pretend it doesn't exist: they don't want responsibility and probably don't want trouble when UniverCity eventually expands and wipes out most of that whole forest save for a few small parklets.

Because they ignore it, the trail has actually seen a decent amount of care over the years and is a fun little flat out run. Over the years, when structures have been damaged or simply fell apart, SFU has not responded. Except Surprise, when the tree came down this winter and damaged the topmost bridge, it was not only cut up but the bridge itself was repaired. This may have been done by a citizen rider, but the bridge work looks like "parks/maintenance department" construction. If SFU did it, it is an odd occurrence.

Another bit of news: a new trail-bed of crush is being laid down (North to South) along the second creek (longer bridge without 1/2 of its railing) after the cut where they just laid a pipe line of some kind (at the new wide mud crossing). There is no indication as to where it is heading. It's odd how close they are putting it to the creek.

Nice to see the updated map. It will be great when those trails are all linked up, but for now it seems like the least useful piece was built first.

I went to SFU full time for 16 months and would often bring a bike with me on the bus, bring it in to class, then rip a single Pandora descent and hop back on the 135 to come home. RARELY saw anyone else on that trail – climbing or descending – and still enjoy riding it and Gnome's Home.