West Koots Mountain Bike Loop
Whether it is a walk, a bike ride, or a road trip, I think adventures are often better as a loop. It might be cliché to say something about an endlessly changing horizon, but there is something to going on an adventure that doesn’t involve backtracking. When planning routes for a mountain biking road trip, I am always looking for the possibility of doing a loop and connecting as many different riding locations as possible into a single trip. On this trip, we connected Nakusp, Nelson, Salmo, and Castlegar in the West Kootenays to get a taste of the best mountain biking each of these destinations had to offer.
In May 2024, I left the Mountain Biking BC Symposium in the afternoon and drove my GMC Safari campervan through Kelowna to pick up my partner, Chloe. Then, the two of us headed through Revelstoke (which, in hindsight, should have been a stop rather than a pass-through) and caught the midnight ferry across Arrow Lake. We arrived at Mount Abriel Rec Site to a star filled sky.
Mount Abriel
The Mount Abriel network in Nakusp reaches up into the Valhalla Mountains and weaves its way down and through a BC Rec Sites and Trails campground that stretches down to the shores of Arrow Lake. While at Mount Abriel, I went for three rides. First, my partner Chloe and I rode up the series of climb trails, which were all super mellow, and then went down the flowy singletrack blue trail Ride On. We ended the day with a cold swim in Arrow Lake and a few games of crib beside the campfire.
The following day, I met up with Nikolai and Jon from the Nakusp Area Bike Society (NABS). We rode the upper part of Minty Fresh, a rad flow/tech hybrid black trail that starts with a wood bridge to drop with epic views of the lake, and continues with more wood features, some rock work and steep rooty sections. From a mid-point on Minty Fresh, we pedalled back up and descended on Pepé, another black trail, but a more approachable trail than Minty Fresh for those just stepping into the realm of black trails. After Pepé, we rode the rest of Minty Fresh down to the parking lot, where we ran into another local named Tristan and his dog Bronson. After Nikolai and Jon drove off, Tristan took me down the lower portion of Rolaids, a bike-park-style black flow/jump trail that rolls through the campground and right down to the lake. After a good chat with Tristan, we parted ways, and I pedalled the double-track Lake Trail, which traverses the network and led me straight to my camp spot overlooking the lake. The combination of the epic trails and the quiet campground on the lake makes Mount Abriel a hard place to beat.
On the final day in Nakusp, I met up with Jon and Keara, the president of NABS, and rode a quick shuttle lap on the upper sections of Dusty Panther and Rolaids. Jon, Nikolai, and Keara shared a ton of info about their success in building this epic trail network and the challenges of maintaining this destination, which is built within the relatively small community of Nakusp, where there are limited locals to purchase memberships (this is an excellent opportunity to plug the Trail Karma program in the Trail Forks app, an easy place to donate a few dollars to trail organizations when you visit a new trail network for a few days). After the ride, Chloe and fired up the van and drove through the Valhallas, along Slocan Lake, and into the Selkirk Mountains over the scenic pass between New Denver and Kaslo to camp and ride in Nelson for a few days.
Nelson’s North Shore
In the late afternoon, we pulled our van into Kokanee Creek Provincial Park just outside Nelson and walked down to the beach on Kootenay Lake as the sun was setting. The following morning, we crossed the highway and entered Nelson’s North Shore trail network. After a punchy pedal up the FSR, we started our descent on Upper Goosebumps. This mellow blue was a good way to stimulate the brain before we dropped into Ledges. Many people have heard the term “Nelson Blue,” as Nelson and many other locations in the Kootenays are known for harder-than-average trails. From my research, Ledges was one of the easier blacks in the network, and it was the perfect challenge for me and offered some fun, challenging rock features for Chloe with some ride-arounds on the gnarlier features. This trail was somewhat of a choose-your-own-adventure zone full of rock rolls and slabs – a must-ride trail in the area.
Morning Mountain
The following day we drove into Nelson and headed to Morning Mountain. The climb trail was awesome, with easy switchbacks, loads of nice views, interesting woodwork, and some more technical sections on the upper reaches of the climb trail. From the top of our climb, we started descending on Placenta Descenta, a fun, fast trail with loads of roots and chunder. It made me feel like a downhill racer, only slower. We left Placenta Descenta early and connected onto Blue Steel, which had a bit of a similar feeling to Placenta Descenta but with more flow. Both of these trails are more on the dark side of the blue spectrum. At the bottom of Blue Steel, we hopped onto Rhythm and Blues, a machine built, adaptive friendly blue flow trail, which was a rad way to change the vibe and finish off the ride. After pulling out of the parking lot, we headed out of Nelson onto our next stop, Salmo.
Hooch Creek
I have a family member who lives in Salmo near the Hooch Creek network who welcomed Chloe and me to stay for a couple of nights. The Hooch Creek network is small but well worth the visit when passing through. While at first glance the network only has blue trails, most of them, in my opinion, should probably be black. We rode Upper Hooch, which has some super fun steep loamy sections, bits of exposure, a bit of woodwork, and a couple of small jumps. We then finished our descent on Blood Sweat and Beers, which starts as a flowy loamer through the forest before popping out into an open area with more shrubs and deciduous trees. This section has a series of large rock rolls and slabs that have brought me back to this network every time I have passed through Salmo.
Merry Creek
Last but certainly not least is Merry Creek. After leaving Salmo we pulled into Castlegar, parked our van at the Pass Creek Campground, and settled in for the night. For our last stop of the trip we saved one of the more epic rides in the area. The two climbs, Merry Go Round and Mr. Green Jeans, had some impressive bridges, loads of wildflowers near the top, and epic views of the Columbia River Valley along the way. The first descent trail, Captain Kangaroo, was voted Trail of the Year last year on Trail Forks, and for good reason. This trail had everything you could ask for on a mountain bike trail. Alpine slabs, steep loamy sections, wood stunts, flow, skinnies, and more. Riders should beware: this black trail is comparable to many double-blacks in different areas of BC, and paired with the remoteness at the upper reaches of the trail, it is good to take this trail slow and not send features blind. There were many slabs with rowdy entrances and exits that could buck ya if you rode in with too much sauce! From the bottom of Captain Kangaroo, we rode the blue trail Hail Merry, which allowed us to let go a little bit and play in our comfort zone on the way to the bottom.
After our ride, we drove down into Castlegar for a swim in the Columbia River at Millenium Park and then headed out of town. We pulled into Gladstone Provincial Park on Christina Lake, another town that I’ve heard has some fun trails (we are so spoiled in BC), and had a relaxing evening before driving home to the Okanagan the following day. With tired legs, a dirty bike, and visions of steep descents through cedar forests replaying in my mind, I settled back into the arid climate of the Okanagan and started dreaming up the next road trip.
The West Kootenay region is steeped in the rich history of the Ktunaxa, Okanagan, and Sinixt Peoples. We honor and respect all Indigenous communities whose traditional lands continue to be the foundation of our lives, work, and recreation today.