Kamloops can always boast of a ton of riding opportunities for all genres and disciplines, and you’re guaranteed to find something to enjoy in and around the ‘Loops. Flip through a bike magazine or watch some of the major mountain biking movies, and you’ll often see a Kamloops film seggy or one of our many pro riders hitting some massive booter jump into nothingness with a backlight of golden hues and suspended dust. If it’s more like solo peace and quiet, and cleats sweat and gears that you’re after then our hundreds of KM’s of singletrack won’t dissapoint.
We’ll touch on a few of the major riding areas, but as always… visit the local shops or hookup with the locals at a trailhead parking lot and we’ll show you in person. You can even email us with specific questions if you like, but we might be out riding so no guarantees on a lightning fast response if our dirt is tacky at the time!!
Kamloops Bike Ranch
The Kamloops Bike Ranch is a huge municipal park right that was one of the first of its kind in Canada back in 2005, and continues to set the mark today as a very progressive riding scene. Downhill trails, race courses for DH, Dual Slalom, and XC, dirt jumps, a foam pit, and large natural steeps and drops… there’s something for everyone once again.
The park was originally built by KBRA and the City of Kamloops, and is now maintained and managed better than ever by the crew of the Kamloops Performance Cycling Center.
http://www.kamloopsbikeranch.com/ or http://www.kamloops.ca/bikeranch/index.shtml for more info
Harper Mountain
We hate labels… but we’ll use All Mountain/Freeride/Downhill playground of woodwork and stunts to describe the scene at Harper Mountain. You can pedal up to earn your vert, or shuttle up in 2WD on a rustic but generally dry but bumpy road through everything but the shoulder seasons of spring and fall. Trucks recommended, vans with good clearance, and even disposable cars will work just fine too.
Shuttle time up – 20 to 30 minutes with loading and unloading
Time to rip down – 15 minutes at race pace or 45 to 60 minutes of casual fun or sessioning of drops, skinnies, and massive booters.
Kenna Cartwright Park
The trails in KC Park are the perfect example of Kamloops flow and easy going fun. This is all about cross country riding through pine trees and sagebrush on completely buffed trails that means your fitness level and enthusiasm are the only things to limit your speeds. (Please ride responsibly at all times and watch out for other riders, hikers, dogs, bears, dear, small furry rodents and trees that suddenly uproot themselves and jump into your path without warning, cough… cough…)
The trails in this park are draped over and around a hilltop that overlooks all but the highest parts of the city so there are tons of opportunities and routes to get your sweat on and then cruise along sidehills or float back down to the trailheads and parking lots. Nothing technical or worrying in this park, and all the trails are well marked at intersections, with maps on sign boards at the 3 major entrances to the park. Paper maps you can bring with you are often available at the trailheads too (as supplies last.)
http://www.kamloops.ca/parks/kenna.shtml
Sun Peaks Resort
What can we say about our fantastic lift access bike park… let’s just let the mountain itself do the talking here so this author has more chance to put rubber to dirt!
http://www.sunpeaksresort.com/summer/bike-park/ for more info and just search your favorite video hosting sites for Sun Peaks biking.
More details still to come on:
Jamieson Creek
Rio
Batchelor Hills
and hmmm… how much more should we share??
Need a tour guide to find these areas in style and comfort? Meet our good friends of KBRA:
Dylan http://www.mostlymentalshuttles.ca/ and Monique http://www.toursbyq.com/