Building on the past
In the mountain bike-rich Cowichan Valley, a new trail network rides on the shoulders of decades of hard work and lessons learned
Fairservice Fun may be the newest trail network on Vancouver Island, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have lessons to teach. And I am about to get schooled.
A couple of locals are guiding me, and photographer Dave Silver, through the maze of rambling singletrack and logging roads to the top of the trail network. After catching our breath and soaking in the misty views, we turn onto Upper Steam Donkey, a double black diamond that follows the intricacies of a rock outcrop to plunge down an imposingly steep hillside.
We creep along a crest of rock, slip down a root chute and regain our control on a brief balcony. Ahead lies a tricky move from a slanting ledge over a rock hump and onto a long, slippery rock slab. I watch as the technical transition hangs up the locals. After a couple failed attempts, I think I’ve got the line figured out.
I come in lower and faster. The commitment is enough to get me on the slab and then I just have to hang on as I slide down the rock, ricochet into a gully and bounce down to a bench. I skid to a stop, adrenaline pulsing and feeling lucky. When the rest of the group catches up I demure and let others go first again.
I may be the laggard, but in Lake Cowichan I’m learning, that if you’re willing to learn, being last provides plenty of benefits.
“I think we have a real success story of what you can accomplish when you do things the right way,” says Bob Day, the former mayor of Lake Cowichan and one of the architects of the Fairservice Fun trail network.
Lake Cowichan is a cute small town upriver from the city of Duncan. Surrounded by some of the most productive forest lands in the country, it has long been a hub for the logging industry. But it’s also blessed with hot summers, an expansive lake and the lazy, warm waters of the Cowichan River. Come July and August, tourists and cottagers inundate the area to boat, float and swim. But not mountain bike.
The forestlands around the town are privately owned, mostly by Mosaic, a large forest land management company. Trail building was illegal and locals found it difficult to access the forests to recreate. Mountain bikers drove 20 to 30 minutes to three zones of world class trails in North Cowichan.
Mount Prevost is home to some of the best downhills in the region – top DH riders often choose to go to university in nearby Victoria so they can train on the steep, sustained hillside. Maple Mountain has an old school, all-mountain feel with long climbs and even longer descents. And Mount Tzouhalem is the most popular network with a plethora of modern blue trails rambling over a summit right in town.
Views from the summit of Mount Prevost
At each area, mountain bikers and land owners had waged the familiar tug of war over trail building and bike access versus liability and user conflicts. After years of hard work to gain trust, the Cowichan Trail Stewardship Society is now responsible for maintaining the trail networks in North Cowichan.
Meanwhile, in Lake Cowichan a downturn in logging left the community searching for an alternative economic driver—something to draw tourists to town outside of the busy summer season. The surrounding forest and mountains presented an obvious possibility.
“Anyone can see it: why don’t we have more hiking and biking trails here?” says Cathy Robertson, the general manager of Community Futures Cowichan (CFC), a federal government-funded organization with the mandate of business and economic development.
There was interest in trail building, but on their own it would take volunteers a decade or more to build a trail network, convince funders to doll out grants and develop a trusting relationship with the land owner. Having CFC behind them gave the grassroots club legitimacy and professionalism from the start, along with the organization’s paid staff, product development experience and grant writing skills.
In 2018, Robertson helped local hikers and bikers form the Cowichan Lake Trail Blazers Society. They were immediately taken seriously by businesses, land owners, the community and funding bodies.
The timing was fortuitous. The provincial government had grants available to develop new economic opportunities in smaller rural communities. With CFC’s help the Trail Blazers used the money to run trail building courses, hire a planner and build trails.
But none of that was possible without the support of Mosaic. CFC, the Trail Blazers and Mosaic entered the “ground floor” of trail development together, says Robertson. By starting with creating a shared vision to enable non-motorized access, a land access agreement came easy.
“The unique thing about the agreement is that it was intentional from the beginning,” says Pam Jorgensen, from Mosaic. “It feels like a true partnership. Because of that everything is easy and flows so smoothly.”
Mosaic looked around its properties for the right place to host a trail network. It had to be close to the community with little logging activity planned in the near future, away from busy industrial corridors and suitable for biking. The block they settled on backs onto the south side of Lake Cowichan and is accessible from several spots in town. The terrain rises from neighbourhoods to an expansive plateau and then arcs steeply up a hillside.
We begin our ride on the west side of town off the Fairservice Main, the logging road that gives the network its name, beside a small creek where Chinook salmon return to spawn.
“You’re really in the wilderness out here,” Bob Day tells us before setting us out on the trails with a couple of locals. “We see elk and bears all the time.”
From the creek we climbed onto one of the first purpose-built bike trails, Layer Cake, and disappeared into the forest. I’m quickly lost in the woods as we connect the rolling fun of Layer Cake to other sections of cross country single track, old logging roads and ATV trails. The riding feels old school and raw. It’s slow and twisty through saplings and then fast and smooth as we swing back and forth on a double track or along an old road line. There are roots and rocks and logs, creek crossings and mud puddles. In a time when every trail network is manicured, the rough-around-the-edge is fun and different.
Eventually we cross the plateau and slog up ridiculously steep logging roads. At the top of Upper Steam Donkey we can see almost the entire area under access agreement: down the steep hillside, across the plateau and into town and the lake beyond. On the hillside our guides point out a beautiful ridgeline where they are working on a long descent.
The majority of the riding, though, is on the plateau. The flatter terrain may not lend itself to the world class riding found in other areas of the Cowichan Valley, but it differentiates Lake Cowichan and keeps it close to the community, says Robertson.
Early on she hired Mark Wood from Trail Holistics, a mountain bike consulting firm, to develop a trail master plan. He gave Robertson some important advice: don’t build a network to attract tourists; build it for the locals.
“He told me to focus on what the locals want because they are the ones that will build the bike culture,” she said. “Everything, from people travelling here to an outdoor rec economy, will grow from the locals loving their trails and loving where they live.”
That’s what turned Day into a mountain biker. As the mayor of Lake Cowichan he worked hard to get residents outside more, but was often stymied by access issues and the lack of trails.
“I’m a firm believer that people need to get off the couch and get outdoors,” he says. “As a community we need to have access to the forest to be happy in life.”
For some that means puckering downhills. For others, like Day, it’s going for an easy ride through the forest and stopping for a break to watch salmon spawning. By standing on the shoulders of CFC and a generation of mountain bikers across Vancouver Island, the Trail Blazers have fast tracked themselves to both experiences and opened the forest to everyone in town.
For the visiting rider, Fairservice Fun is a unique option. The trails are quiet. The scenery is beautiful. And the riding is unique. It’s less polished and more adventure. It feels like exploration but, with sign posts at every junction, without the risk of getting lost.
It’s only going to get better.
Before the Fairservice Fun’s grand opening in June 2023, Robertson handed over leadership to Day. The Trail Blazers are busy building more trails, adding more sign posts and dreaming of a future with machine built flow and riding to rival the Cowichan Valley’s other networks.
But here again there are lessons to be learned from those that went first. Day is the first to acknowledge that building a trail network is mostly about patience, persistence and a lot of shovelling in the dirt.
“Even with this big fancy trail plan and all the agreements,” says Day, “it’s still going to happen organically.”
Just the way it should.
Cowichan Valley with Mount Tzouhalem in the centre
Cowichan Ride Guide
Getting there: Lake Cowichan and the Cowichan Valley is 40 minutes north of Victoria and 40 minutes south of Nanaimo.
Coffee: Backing onto the Cowichan River, Ed’s Coffeehouse is the place to get caffeinated in Lake Cowichan.
Post ride bevy: Jake’s at the Lake is a classic pub, a short drive from the trails and, yup, right on the Cowichan Lake.
Swimming hole: The options are numerous and around just about every corner. For starters try the dock at Saywell Park, right in the heart of Lake Cowichan.
Accommodation: The log cabin Cowichan River Lodge sits right on the river and includes breakfast with its comfortable suites.
Support: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=DEU46BSSKEZRC
Guiding: Nolan Riding
Find out more: Cowichan Lake Trail Blazers Society and Cowichan Trails Stewardship Society
Trailforks Link: https://www.trailforks.com/region/duncan/
Where else to ride: Don’t miss the three main trail networks in the Cowichan Valley: Prevost, Tzouhalem and Maple Mountain.
Cowichan is home to the unceded and traditional territories of the Quw’utsun, Malahat, Ts’uubaa-asatx, Halalt, Penelakut, Stz’uminus, Lyackson, Pauquachin, Ditidaht & Pacheedaht Peoples who have stewarded these lands since time immemorial.