Daylight has left as we rolled the clocks back last weekend. It’s amazing what a one hr shift can do to your days. For the next 4 months we’ll be living in a world of dark afternoons and riding by lights. Of course you say there is weekends, and alas these weekends seem to be eternally rainy here on soggy Vancouver Island. We do live in a rain forest, so I guess you can’t really complain too much with the greenery all around.

A bit of rock and fresh dirt in a former soft spot

Fall becomes a great time of year to give back for the many fabulous days of riding through the summer. Time to put the trails to bed, work in a few new lines and fix a few bridges. It’s trail work time.

Over the last couple of months we have had the unfortunate vantage of seeing great trails lost to the saw blade head of a feller buncher.

While there is sadness in losing a favorite trail, we can rebuild and in the long run forestry will take a back seat to other sustainable uses of our natural greenspaces.

So come join us, grab a shovel, some gloves and give thanks!

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Snowden Demonstration Forest is a network of trails just north of Campbell River, BC on the Gold River highway. Flowy singletrack through second growth forest ranges from overgrown railbeds to rocky and rooty technical trail. Recent funding initiatives by the federal government has provided for a trail crew which has been clearing back overgrown trails, improving drainage, rebuilding bridges and creating for a much need upgrade to this longstanding trail network.

Each Labour Day weekend, this network is home to the Campbell River 50k challenge, with each loop consisting of over 25km’s of singletrack. To put it simply, if you’re looking for endless singletrack for your xc rig, this is a top location on Vancouver Island.

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Some great old school Comox Valley Mountain Bike trails. Harder to find and a bit far from town, but you will be richly rewarded by loamy goodness and great fun trails.

Kahona Cruncher

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The many views of The kootenays

As resource industries fade and regions need to find other forms of economic stimulus, tourism has become a strong component of revitalization. From historic tours to recreation sites, rails to trails, summer chairlift operations and bike parks, many communities are diversifying.

Our recent trip to the Kootenays showed these changes in spades. We often saw views of quiet sawmills, mining sites, equipment and empty buildings. We also saw many tourists, people enjoying outdoor recreation and great heritage and tourism related sites.

The Kootenays have been so enthralled by the opportunity for mountain biking that they have created a great guide and websites for your travel planning.

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“They copied our idea!”

Well not really, but upon our arrival home we checked out the interweb to find that the Pinkbike Crew had embarked on a trip called “Hurtin’ for Vert”

They honestly had way more mileage on the bikes and some awesome photographers along with them. So I thought I’d hook up some links to their articles so you can see just how great mountain biking in the Kootenay’s of BC really is! Read the rest of this entry »

“Um yeah, really everything in Nelson is steep” – staff member at The Sacred Ride

The Queen's City

Not really what we wanted to hear, but somewhat what we expected after driving into town. Nelson BC is located at the tip of Kootenay Lake and is flanked on both sides by steep hills and mountains. The streets remind one of the view in San Francisco, but the upper reaches of the streets merge into more forest rather than the sky above. Historically termed the “Queen’s City” Nelson is blessed with many very beautiful heritage buildings and homes, grand oak trees and great views. What it doesn’t boast is easy fireroad climbs to cross country trails. Bring your DH bike! Read the rest of this entry »