For the Love of Trails: The People Behind Squamish’s Trails

Squamish’s trails may be free to ride, but they are not free to maintain. This summer, For the Love of Trails is inviting visiting riders to look past the perfect dirt and see the people, tools, humour and hard work that keep Squamish rideable.

There is a certain honesty to riding in Squamish. The trails do not feel overly polished or designed to please everyone. They are coastal, technical, creative and sometimes a little stubborn, shaped by granite, roots, rain, loam, old lines, new fixes and years of local knowledge layered into the dirt.

That is part of what makes riding here so good. The trails feel natural, but they are not accidental. Every ride sits on top of a lot of quiet work: drainage cleared before the next storm, corners rebuilt after a heavy season, deadfall removed, bridges repaired, and volunteers and trail crew returning again and again to keep the network rideable.
That is the heart of For the Love of Trails, a new visitor trail stewardship campaign from Tourism Squamish and the Squamish Off-Road Cycling Association (SORCA). It is built around a simple message: Squamish’s trails may be free to ride, but they are not free to maintain.

The campaign also has a sense of humour about it. One of its central characters is Steve, the “real trail fairy”, a slightly absurd reminder that trails do not magically fix themselves overnight. He is part mascot, part inside joke and part uncomfortable truth: Squamish’s trail network can feel magical, but maintaining it is anything but.

Built with care. Maintained by actual humans.

Anyone who has ridden in Squamish knows the feeling. You roll into the forest, climb through the trees, hit that perfect mix of roots, rock, slabs and loam, and for a few minutes the world gets very simple. There is the trail, your front wheel and the next feature. What is easier to miss is everything that happened before your ride. Behind the scenes, SORCA’s trail crew, volunteers, builders, land managers and local contractors are working year-round to keep the network safe, sustainable and rideable. And in a
place with more than 500 kilometres (310 miles) of trails and 300+ trails to prioritise, the work does not really stop.

SORCA’s paid trail crew contributes roughly 6,000 hours a year to the network, with volunteers adding 2,000+ hours through organised dig days alone. And that is just the tracked time. Some projects also need machine work, specialised trail-building expertise and local contractors. Passion is a huge part of what keeps the trails going, but passion still needs shovels, saws, gravel, lumber, fuel, excavators, replacement parts and time.

A campaign made by people who actually ride here.

Part of what makes For the Love of Trails land differently is that it was not built from the outside looking in. The campaign was created by people who understand Squamish trail culture, the humour, the resourcefulness, the occasional absurdity, and the deep love riders have for this place.

The creative team includes filmmaker Scott Secco, photographer Robin Munshaw and artist Taj Mihelich, whose illustrations bring the campaign’s slightly weird trail-world characters to life. Local riders Jesse Melamed and Andréane Lanthier Nadeau also helped bring the concepts to screen, adding a familiar Sea to Sky presence to a message that could otherwise feel a little too earnest.

Because yes, the campaign is about donations. But it is also about awareness. It is about helping riders connect the dots between the trail they just loved and the work it takes to keep that trail open, draining, safe and fun.

If you ride here, you are part of this.

About half of Squamish trail users are visitors. That is a good thing, mountain biking is part of what brings people here, supports local businesses and connects riders from across BC and beyond to this place. But it also means the responsibility cannot sit only with locals.

If you came to Squamish for the trails, you are part of the trail story. That does not mean you need to show up with a shovel on your weekend away, though nobody
would stop you. It can be as simple as donating through the campaign, becoming a SORCA member, respecting closures, staying off muddy trails, packing out your snacks, parking like a decent human and spending money locally while you are here.

This summer, Tourism Squamish is matching donations to SORCA through the For the Love of Trails campaign up to $10,000. All donations go directly to SORCA for trail maintenance.

Ride, eat, sleep, repeat - and leave something behind,

A good Squamish bike trip can be a lot more than a quick lap off the highway. Stay overnight. Ride a zone you have not explored before. Ask a local shop what is running well. Build in time for coffee, food, a patio, a brewery stop or a slow wander through town when your legs are cooked.

Squamish has a way of making riders feel like they have found something special. The best way to honour that feeling is to leave a little good behind. Donate a few dollars. Say thanks when you see trail work happening. Support the businesses that support the riding community. Share the message with the people you ride with.

Because the trail fairy is not real.

But the people doing the work definitely are.