Planning on a couple of weeks in BC in the summer- what’s the best place to spend a few days riding?

Looking for more XC stuff than DH. Blues rather than Blacks.

Cheers,

Paul

Where in BC? It’s a big place and there’s lots of choice….

Good point. We are flying into Vancouver, and then will hire a car…

If you can get over to Vancouver Island, check out Island Rides in Cumberland. I actually enjoyed my riding here more than I did at Whistler. All the trails linked seamlessly and were great fun.

Me and GF out for couple weeks last year – Squamish was favourite but also loved Revelstoke and Rossland.

What is XC these days, does that mean you peddle up? Or does it mean no jumping and drops? Or does it mean you do it all, but with a seat post/saddle hitting your ass? Those XC WC riders are pretty full on.

Squamish, Northshore & Pemberton you have to cycle up and they are well worth a visit. If you don’t want to ride Northshore, don’t go to Northshore 😉

There are some great trails around Whistler that require a fair amount of peddling, but they are mainly Red n Black, thats a Whistler Red n Black BTW, which is like our Black & Double Black.

+1 for Cumberland.

I visited with a 140mm travel Specialized Pitch but you could get away with less depending on the trails, perhaps not Forbidden Plateau but the trails just outside of town.

That said, I think the trails on Hornby Island might be the most XC, and by all accounts the island riding is beautiful. Island Rides will get you there and back and offer laid back guiding and accommodation also.

Mt Seymour has a lot of trails low down which are quite tech but not too bruising if you’re on a hardtail. Plus a lot of the upper trails have apparently been smoothed out so wouldn’t give you too much of a kicking, Forever After springs to mind but I think there is also a new climbing trail, rather than just winching up fire road.

Mt Fromme is classic North Shore (for me anyway, I never made it to Cypress…). There are two or three trails there which would be good XC trails, Seventh Secret to Leopard then back up to Expresso (skipping the original entrance) would give you an excellent taste of the mountain without punishing you too much if you were on a lightweight hardtail. If you’re feeling adventurous, stop at the Upper Oil Can trailhead and follow the faint trail into the trees on the right to find a little piece of North Shore history 8)

Man I miss the North Shore now, when I lived there I spent most of my time without a bike (stolen) or injured.

I actually pine most for the days when it was warm but pouring with rain, really evocative.

Do yourself a favour and fit some chunky soft rubber, I ran UST Conti Trail Kings with tubes, couldn’t be assed with tubeless faff but the fatter sidewalls still shrugged off roots and rocks at 30psi

Squamish is great, or the Chilcotins are wild and amazing. If you’ve got the time and brass, do a float plane trip to Warner Lake and pedal back. Overall one of the best things I’ve done in my travelling/biking life.

There’s a lot to choose from! As above… kind of depends what you’re definition of XC is. Either way I’d bring a dropper post. Probably the easiest way to link stuff together is to follow some routes from the local XCM series.

Squamish has some great flowy XC stuff and is just up the road from Vancouver. Check out Test of Metal course map for a classic XC monster loop, or JABR/Sakwus50 course maps for a little more techy xc.

Sunshine coast also has some great flow XC trails. I’d check out the ‘Sunshine Coaster’ course, nothing crazy technical there. http://sunshinecoaster.net/category/maps/

In Pemberton, check out the NImby50 course (some pretty techy descents.
http://www.nimbyfifty.com/race-details/course

Also worth checking out is Vedder which is about 1hr east of Vancouver. It’s a really great up and coming trail network (check out ‘Vedder Mountain Classic’ for course).

Hope that helps 🙂

Depends which direction your heading ofr the rest of your two weeks.

If you’re only going to be riding for a couple of days, I recommend getting a local guide. BC is a fantastic place for biking- but it is vast and it’s easy to miss the trailhead for the ‘killer trail’. As above Cumberland is great if you decide to go over to the island but I don’t think you would be disappointed with trails in Squamish, Pemberton, Whistler, North Shore, Williams Lake or there’s some cracking stuff in the Fraser Valley

How much driving can you tolerate? Or put it another way, do you want to spend your two weeks riding or driving/sight-seeing?

Assuming the priority is riding, I’d concentrate on the Sea to Sky corridor and maybe a couple of days on Vancouver Island rather than spending the best part of a day driving place to place in the interior.

Sea to Sky covers the North Shore to Pemberton via Squamish and Whistler.

If you’ve never been here (BC) before, there’s enough to keep you occupied for two weeks.

I wouldn’t bother with Hornby Island though, its just too small – there’s a decent number of trails but they’re short and crammed into a small space, so you’ll be stopping at junctions constantly.

Cumberland on Vancouver Island is definitely worth a couple of days.

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