Ale Trails - Season 3: Episode 1 – Vancouver’s North Shore

Vancouver’s North Shore has a taste for the avant-garde. As an early adopter of both craft beer and mountain biking, North Van has had a global influence in shaping these once-fringe pursuits.

In 1982, the North Shore was Ground Zero for the craft beer revolution when Canada’s first microbrewery opened in Horseshoe Bay. From there, a few brewpubs and small breweries slowly filed into the industrial spaces, but it wasn’t until the early 2010s that North Vancouver really came into its own with multiple breweries opening over the span of a few years! 

The city now boasts 11 active breweries (with more on the way) — most of which reside in the very walkable Shipyards Brewery District. From light lagers to Triple IPAs so hazy that you can almost stand a fork in them, each brewery has its own unique vibe and experimental offerings. With patio views up to the North Shore mountains, some patrons are oblivious that those mountains are where mountain bike trail riding was conceived.

Concealed beneath the dense temperate rainforest, the early 1990s ushered in a two-wheeled revolution. The perfect combination of steep mountainous geography, creative trail builders conjuring circus-like ladder bridges and “skinnies” for a few unhinged locals to test the strength of their bikes and bones catalyzed into what modern mountain biking is today. Oh, and the dirt. 

“When you’ve been riding as long as I have, you become a sommelier of dirt,” says mountain bike Olympian and North Shore local Andreas Hestler. And the North Shore mountains have been concocting the perfect blend for millennia.

The Bike Mecca affectionately known as “The Shore” is in a constant state of reinvention. Beginning as a truly hard-core, locals-only network of secrets and rumours, The Shore has aged gracefully into a broad network of trails over three mountains: from accessible entry-level green flow trails to the original double-black technical gnar from which its legendary status was garnered, and everything in between. The rich history remains important to the identity of The Shore and while some older trails are being modernized to accommodate modern bike design and riding style, the character remains the same and there will always be elevated skinnies for those who want them.

As the revolution continues in both beer and bikes, nowhere else can boast more profoundly that there is truly something for everyone. Local photographer Dave Smith sums it up perfectly: “The more things change, the more they stay the same. The Shore is still The Shore, mountain biking is still mountain biking, and there are few things better than enjoying a beer after a ride.”

Check out the North Shore trails on Trailforks.com and find all the North Shore breweries on BCAleTrail.ca.

'Ale Trails' is a doc-style mini-series looking at the intersection between mountain biking and local craft breweries, and how both work to support and enhance their community. 'Ale Trails' is a collaboration between Mountain Biking BC and the BC Ale Trail, and produced by adventure filmmakers, Ben Haggar and Mike Gamble / Cold Salt Collective.

Special thanks to Vancouver's North Shore Tourism Association, Bridge Brewing, Black Kettle Brewing, North Point Brewing, Shaketown Brewing, Wildeye Brewing, and Endless Biking for their help in making the film and to the North Shore Mountain Bike Association for keeping the trails so awesome!

We acknowledge the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples - Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam First Nations. And we support these nation's efforts to reclaim and revitalize their territories.