The OH and I have started scoping out some bucket list type destinations for a mix of riding/sightseeing holiday. New Zealand is a bit of a favourite, but we’ve also wondered about British Colombia. We’ve got to be realistic though, neither of us is into riding stuff like ALine.

The last time we went to the Alps, I spent a couple of uplift days, but (shock horror) came to the realisation that I no longer enjoy it.

I don’t mind some lift assisted type stuff, where it’s followed by a long natural steadily descending and/or undulating trail – but no longer into bike park DH type stuff. We are getting a bit old and creaky, and definitely more into XC trail type riding now. I’ve really got back into riding at a more relaxed pace with my OH – stopping to look at views, sunbathe, eat cake, drink tea etc etc. I seem to remember reading an article a few years ago, entitled XC at Whistler (or BC), that I think was about the less extreme natural riding in the area. I’m guessing that the area is so massive, that there’s bound to be stuff to cater for all tastes(?).

Does anyone have any experience of ‘trail riding for mortals’ over in BC? If so, what do you think of it? Any other areas or National Parks over that way that you can think of?

There is a wealth of non lift assisted riding in the Whistler valley. We have commercial tenure to guide these trails from wedge to the north to Brandywine to the south.
If you are blue level riders then there are trails available but relatively limited unless you are prepared to push your envelope a little and tackle some technical trail riding.
There’s at least 2 good riding days at green/blue level available before you need to delve into anything with more challenging terrain.
Squamish has an increasing inventory of blue trails with 2 new blues opening, 1 tomorrow, 1 mid summer. There’s a good 2 or 3 days in squamish before things get challenging.
We offer guided accommodation packages in Whistler with squamish trail riding days available. Drop us a line if you have any questions.

Squamish and Whistler both have good single track trails.

BearBack +1. There is plenty of XC riding and some of it is more gentle stuff. Personally I think Squamish has more in that range than Whistler as even stuff like Half Nelson and Pseudo-Tsuga are a lot of fun.

Take a look on Trailforks but keep in mind not all BC blues are created equal.

If you have access to transport you are sorted (or if BB do guiding beyond Whistler too – sick free lawn mower yesterday BTW, if I had a lawn I’d have wheeled it home after my ride LOL etc….)
Pemberton too.
There’s also plenty of more ‘normal’ trails in Whistler Bike Park. Haven’t been for years as too many other options around here, but stuff like Top Of The World is a cool experience.

Cheers for the replies guys. I think we would be looking at hiring a car or van thats big enough to throw our two bikes in; so although we would be mobile, we’d like plenty of time to do some riding and sightseeing, rather than having to loose days on end getting between places. (Reckon we’ll only have three weeks holiday)

Skills & ability wise, I’d say my OH likes to ride Scottish trail centre blue routes, and/or easy English trail centre red routes – although she’s ridden a lot of natural trails all over the UK, she’s not happy riding very technical rocky stuff, and is not bothered about having to walk bits (she says it gives her more time to look at the view!:) I, on the other hand, quite like a bit of technical natural riding, and like the challenge of riding stuff without walking:) It would be great if we could find locations and/or accomodation where its possible to hire a guide for occasional guided day rides.

I’ve previously done this in places like the Dolomites, Spain and Austria. We do easy rides as a couple, then I can go off to do a few guided rides while my OH has a day of relaxing.

Here’s some pics of our last trip to the Austrian/Italian border.

Having re-read the OP.

As above and based on your recent post Whistler would be perfect as there’s plenty to do off the bike as well. I’m not sure but I think the only riding above treeline in the Alpine is fairly technical (Top of the World) but loads to do lower down that is easier.

Another place that springs to mind is Revelstoke. Assuming it’s been rebuilt by then Frisby ridge would be the perfect green route with fantastic scenery… here is sweamrs at 4 months pregnant.

A bit tougher is Keystone Standard and there is also a range of trails at Mount Macpherson. Then if you fancy some more technical guided trails there is Martha Creek and boulder mountain. Days off from riding could involve Glacier National Park.

Of course if you’ve gone as far as Revelstoke it’s full on road trip time and you may as well do some of the other sweet spots as well.
http://kootenaydirt.com/

Oh yeah, I like the look of Revelstoke and Kootenay National Park – the XC riding video on the kootenaydirt website is spot on – thanks for the suggestion. Hmm…looks like I’ll be having an eBay selling frenzy to raise some more funds;)

Re. not wanting to travel too much in terms of wasting time, if you were in Whistler, then neither Pemberton or Squamish are far away. Easy to do a day trip to either.

You’d have to do some research for suitable trails for your wife though. This area isn’t known for easy trails! Nice views in Squamish on the way up to Half Nelson. Pseudo-Tsuga in the same area has quite a British feel and is largely mellow grade. Rupert is fun and has ride-arounds for the harder stuff. Next to Rupert as of tomorrow will be a trail called Leave Of Absence which is meant to be fairly easy. Cliffs Corners, Robs Corners, and Man Boobs(!), are also fairly cruisy.

Stayed with Bearback last Summer, cool chalet, good food and guides.
We were mainly Park rats but did a cracking day XC with Johnny on rented SC Bronsons (delivered to the chalet, set up and really good value).

https://www.trailforks.com/trails/map/?lat=50.123202&lon=-122.951774&z=12&m=trailforks

I’d add that a lot of the North Shore stuff in Vancouver is perfectly do-able, it’s not all skinny planks in the trees. Any tricky bits are easily walked. Various bike rental options in the area too.

There’s no reason you wouldn’t fit into our catered and guided accommodation package just fine (if its something that woudl work for your schedule)
The benefit of multiple days with our guides is that they get to figure you out and put you into the trails that work best for your progression. You will leave us as more confident and better riders.
Just been out and sampled squamish’s newest blue. absolutely fills a gap in our local trail inventory and its a solid build that will be ridden in nicely by the summer..
lots of KOM hunters out today for opening day 😉

Thanks BearBack. Like the look of the options on offer on your website – just the sort of thing we’re after, and similar to the sort of accommodation and guiding we’ve done in North Italy (where I can go off with a guide on the occasional All Mountain type ride:)) …… and then have a couple of recovery days in a hot tub!

We’ll have a proper browse of your website tonight.