 Mountain biking, Mount Washington Alpine Resort photo
If you're looking for an easy-to-moderate ride with lots of gorgeous scenery, take the Cowichan Valley Rail Trail. Spend up to several days enjoying incredible views and frequent wildlife sightings while you roll over trestles bridges and dirt track wide enough for two. Cumberland is a popular area that has produced a number of champion riders. It was once coal mining country and charming reminders of that bygone era are everywhere. Mount Washington Bike Park contains the only designated mountain biking area on the Island. Lush and moist in the lowlands, dry and rocky in the alpine, it has something for every kind of rider.
Highlights
Cowichan Valley Rail Trail:A breathtakingly beautiful ride.
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Cumberland:Fun rides through old coal mining country.
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Mount Washington Bike Park:Varied, expansive terrain and panoramic, alpine-to-ocean views.
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Also see Mountain Biking in:
Victoria.
Cowichan Valley Rail Trail
The Cowichan Valley Rail Trail is the most scenic route of the Trans Canada Trail on Vancouver Island. Built on a converted rail bed, it’s a near-level ride that takes in some of the island’s most breathtaking scenery. If you ride the entire length of it, from Shawnigan Lake to Cowichan Lake, you’ll see rivers, valleys, forests, canyons and farmland and pass over several trestles. The 70-m (230-ft) high, 300 m (984 ft) in length Kinsol Trestle, a marvel of engineering, is said to be the largest wooden rail bridge in the British Commonwealth.* The Marie Canyon/99 Mile Trestle is one of the trail’s best viewpoints. Plant life on the trail is lush and varied. Look for Western hemlock, Broadleaf maple, arbutus, Pacific dogwood and Douglas fir in the forest and salal, Oregon grape, red huckleberry, dwarf rose, Saskatoon berry and false boxwood elsewhere. There’s also a wealth of wildlife to see along this route. Native species include cougar, Black-tail deer, Pileated woodpecker, salmon and trout.
In addition to a wonderful biking experience, this trail provides access to many, small Cowichan Valley communities, freshwater lakes, bed & breakfasts, wineries, agricultural attractions, harvest festivals and other events.
The trail has multiple access points but the main ones are at the south end of Shawnigan Lake and the northwest end of Lake Cowichan. Shawnigan Lake is a 35-minute drive north of Victoria via Highway 1. Cowichan Lake is about 25 minutes west of Duncan via Highway 18. The trail is open year round but the best weather for cycling occurs from March through October.
* The trail currently by-passes the Kinsol Trestle, which is undergoing restorative work. Development and upgrading of this trail is under review. At times, there may be parts of the trail that are inaccessible.
Note: Use extreme caution when using the Kinsol Trestle By-pass Trail. The trail is a rough, single track route that is unsuitable for most cyclists and equestrians.
A word or two on your excursion:
- Level of difficulty: easy to moderate
- Length: 47 km (29 mi)
- Time required: half-day to multi-day
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Cumberland
Cumberland used to produce a lot of coal; now it produces a lot of elite mountain bikers! Kiara Bisaro, Geoff Rabush, Leon May and Darcy Turenne all cut their teeth on Cumberland trails. What makes the area such a great training ground? Trails with an ideal combination of natural and man-made obstacles, technical riding and speed.
Notable rides include China Town Trail (easy), a converted rail bed that runs through old Chinatown and past beautiful, bird-friendly marshes; Buggered Pig (intermediate), a fast single-track with logs and roots but no dangerous stunts; and Bucket of Blood (difficult), which, after a hard initial climb, features log ride bridges, boardwalks and big drops. Non-experts can ride Bucket of Blood if they stick to the trail's "Chicken Lines." Mount Washington, just 30 minutes away from Cumberland, offers chairlift access to its downhill trails from late June to early October.
Cumberland is located in the Comox Valley, on the east coast of Vancouver Island.
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Mount Washington Bike Park
Mount Washington is considered one of Vancouver Island’s premier destinations for mountain biking. Its bike park is renowned for 502 m (1650 ft) of gravity-defying vertical, made all the more exhilarating thanks to astounding, 360-degree, alpine-to-ocean views. Two high-speed chairs lift riders to a network of 16 trails that access 35 km (22 mi) of terrain, which range from smooth and easy novice tracks to steep and wicked expert grades. Instruction runs the gamut from novice learn-to-ride clinics to pro-rider camps and private, guided rides.
Mount Washington Alpine Resort is easily accessible from Vancouver by car via the Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo ferry route. The Comox Valley and Campbell River airports are both serviced daily from Vancouver. There's also a daily bus shuttle from Nanaimo, Parksville and Qualicum. While some restaurants and accommodations in the resort's pedestrian village are open year-round, most riders make day trips to the mountain.
A word or two on your excursion:
- Mount Washington Bike Park is open from approximately mid-July to late-September
- Helmets are mandatory while in the park; body armour is recommended
- Rentals and repairs are conveniently available at the mountain
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