Celebrating National Tourism Week in Canada with 10 of Our Favourite Canadian Bike Destinations

 I'm with you. However, the Island doesn't need recognition on this list. Those of us who ride here know how special it is.

 Keep Van Island on the down low please.

 @toast2266: I also wish pinkbike would review more bike destinations in third world countries

 @toast2266: I'm not sure if you're funny or illiterate. "MTB Destinations: Canada."
Also, it's Okanagan. One 'O,' no 'E.'

 @toast2266: you will be issued a full refund for the cost of this article.

 Why are Silver Star, Big White, and the Okanagan separate, when they're all the same region, but Kicking Horse and Fernie, which are four hours apart, grouped together?

 @toast2266:
Hello Karen, thank you for calling our customer service number. How may we be of service to you today?

 @toast2266: Sounds like someone who's never bean to the great white north, eh.

 @luckynugget: I dunno, I really enjoy Silverstar. I ride every BC park every summer and if I had to choose only one for the season it would be Silverstar. The trails aren't ever in terrible shape, I've never had to wait more than 5 chairs to get on the lift and the variety is pretty stellar. I love Whistler but it's too busy and get blown out by the end of May (well, not this year but most years). Fernie is a trash fire, particularly last year with the Timber chair closed. I typically prefer the Elk valley trails anyway but the park has really lost its mojo since about 2012. Sun Peaks is fun, but dusty quite often with a smaller variety of trails. Big White has potential, but I ride with a range of skill level people and it is pretty focused on the more advanced riders so far. Panorama is starting to get its act together, but they have a few years of trail building to go to start drawing people back in droves. It was god-awful about 5 years ago but much better now. Kickinghorse is fun for a day. But a lot of their trails see no love the entire year which is understandable since they're so damn long and they have a small budget. Revelstoke is new, jury is out. Mt Washington on the Island is fun and I'm glad they reopened it, but it will be a while until it's up to the rest of the parks in BC.

A lot of the smaller trail centers like Valemount etc. are incredible but for people looking for a lift-accessed park with at least a few things to do after the ride and decent weather Silverstar is pretty awesome. Plus, I love Bugaboos pre-ride and hanging out with the doggo on the patio of the Bulldog afterward.

 @maxgod: Third world, failed state or shithole country... Lots of options to choose from for that descriptor.

 @toast2266: Whining about a Canadian bias on an article about a Canadian tourism event, on a Canadian website, run by Canadians in Canada. That's peak American entitlement right there.

 @toast2266: holy cow. total whoosh from our friends in the great white north.

 @toast2266: I have heard stories about a trail there that has like a 1000" of descending. Might not be true, but that is the story I have heard.

 @toast2266: hahahaha

 @toast2266: you could go over to MTBR and get NorCal Biases. Just saying

 @rivercitycycles: that's better, but I'm specifically looking for Oklahoma biases.

 @maxgod: they list USA locations all the time!

 @axcooper: it’s because they wrote that Travel article last year Including the two and want you to reread it.

 @toast2266: please feel free to write your own Oklahoma Destination article and submit for homepage viewing, super easy actually! I’m from Louisiana, of all places, and mtb’ing is actually a thing there now. I’d love to know where to head when visiting back home... when that’s allowed.

 @toast2266: I dunno, I don't think Canadian National Tourism week is a good time to promote mountain biking in Oklahoma. Maybe it's just me?

 @jayacheess: false premise: there's no such thing as a bad time to promote mountain biking in Oklahoma!

But in the interest of compromise, maybe we can agree that pinkbike should be promoting mountain biking in Oklahoma AND Canada.

 @toast2266: Those Canadian communists are stealing the thunder of MURICA gaddammit!

 @toast2266: pinkbike should be promoting mountain biking in Oklahoma and Canada during Canadian National Tourism week. Brave thinking, I must say. Way out of the box.

 Actually the Cumberland / Comox area sucks. Nobody should ever go there to ride.

 @axcooper: Fernie and Kicking Horse are owned by RCR.

 Right? How about including the Yukon Territory. Not many people know about the midnight sun and killer trails we have up here!

 @toast2266: so elonmusk of you


in a good way

 @bendrew: hear anything as ot flew overhead?

 "Okanagan"

 I'm not sure if there are even any hills between Alberta and Ontario...lol. Seems like PB forgot a lot of great mountain bike trails, including Squamish & the North Shore trails on the mainland, and Mount Tzouhalem, Mount Prevost, Mount Benson, & Doumont (Wastelands) on the island just to name a few...

 For what its worth, theres some really cool trails in eastern Alberta in Redcliff and the Cypress Hills. If you have to drive to AB, I recommend a stop to check them out.

 Yep, Canmore, Jasper, Lethbridge, the Alberta side of Crowsnest Pass, all great riding areas. I haven't ridden out of BC & Alberta but I'm sure there are areas in other provinces & territories worthy of mention. As much as I like Fernie just a short drive east there is incredible riding in the Crowsnest Pass area (& way drier). Author, try to get out of the lower mainland & Okanagan area, if you're going to be BCcentric it's a huge province with a lot more to offer than the regular beaten path.

 True, and what about the Yukon? No mountains there? BCers, stop complaining about too many people, your province is basically empty.

 BC= Best Cycles

 That lap is all time for me. I dream about that s#&t!

 Quite a bit of trails in NB actually, but fat biking... fuck that.

 And we definitely don’t have a provincially run bike park made by gravity logic either, not sure why Sarah wouldn’t mention that... oh yeah it’s a lazy copy and paste article.

 Everywhere is getting overrun. More people are getting out there for better and worse.

 But now you mention it, good job...

 @ybsurf: I've been taking notes. Don't worry I've met Island locals on a trip down in Baja. They invited us.

 Reninds me of what we used to tell people about the backcountry ski runs: it was horrible, don't go! Haha

 Use this opportunity to build B.C. style trails near your home. The mountains/terrain doesn't disappear south of the border.

 Panorama should have definitely made this list over kicking horse.

 It’s pretty typical of RCR to put zero money in their bike parks.

 Let’s keep it that way

 The new Maelstrom area will be open at this time. #slabcity #goldcity etc.

 If it's for any time before September, get a refund. The border's not opening up any time soon.

 @idontknowenduro: you may be right but we dont care, having a summer without international tourism will be great for us. Also if nobody can come in nobody can get out so people will stay home and visit their own backyard so spend their money at home

 @idontknowenduro: @smithcreek Canada would just as soon the US having the Freedom to conduct its own grand experiment in balancing fatalities and economy.

By blocking US zombie contagion we're offering ourselves up as a control group of quasi-communist, health-care-loving, trail-building, mountain-biking beatniks. This way there'll be different data points. Aren't real-world experiments grand?

 @leelau: And I'll admit to it. I'm financially tied to the Canadian Tourism economy. As a dual citizen I am lucky enough to be a part of it and work with some of your tourism departments. That's why I give a damn. Talk to those departments. get out of the eco chamber you're living in and ask the wineries in the Okanagan, the retail stores in whistler, the border town of Fernie. How long can you keep the gate up and have a functioning economy.

 @smithcreek: People who compare it to a bad flu season ARE idiots. You have already had over 100,000 deaths in the US alone from COVID-19 in the last 3 months. The CDC estimates around 30,000 deaths from the flu per year. So yeah, it's worse than the f*cking flu.

 @idontknowenduro: Sorry some got political but it's hard not to seeing the situation down there.

The border won't open for a long time. Eventually I can see Trump wanting to for showing people things are actually normal when its not but I hope we keep it shut for a year. Hell we probably need to shut the border between Ontario and Manitoba too! ;p

 @idontknowenduro: Also, you need to work on reading. Transactions have dropped up to 29% so far due to people not going house shopping during lockdowns. Prices are expected to fall a total of 8-20% based on your cited source. The fallout from the US housing collapse was worse at about 35% and home ownership levels have not recovered since.

 @cueTIP: your response is a prime example of the problem I'm trying to explain.

100k out of 330million. 90% of that number had underlying conditions.

The average age of death is 81. Higher that the average life expectancy in the us.

And 40% of that 100k happened in nursing homes due to failed policy.

50-80% of people are asymptomatic.

So based of of this, we can assume that elderly people with underlying conditions are the highest risk. Sooo we can make policies that don't crush tourism because we know what group needs to be protected and what groups can travel around.


You know what other virus has infected 3/5th of the world, 90% of those infected don't know it, and has an infant mortality rate of 60% for those babies infected with it? Herpes, but I don't see radical anti sex policies being pushed in Whistler.

 @idontknowenduro:
Reading isn't a strength of yours is it.

According to that article
Prices. 8-19%
Number of sales will drop by: 19-29%
Number of starts starts by 50-75%

The loss of Tourism is going to hurt us economically. But we are at a really good starting point and will be able to handle things better then most of our neighbours.

Plus when you live in the best place in the world you just don't need as much money because well you don't have to travel to find amazing riding.

 @idontknowenduro: wtf are you talking about? Where did you get your “facts” on house prices?

 @idontknowenduro: btw it stayed home sales..not prices.

 @idontknowenduro: tourism season will be a 50% capacity due to social distancing so no we dont need international tourism this summer, like you said you're benefiting from tourism so leave your bias opinion at the door.

 @ybsurf: you demonstrate the economical know how of a 6 year old!

 @leelau: maybe read the words you type outloud before you publish? Just a thought

 @ybsurf: where do peeps in BC go on vacation?

 @cueTIP: Not that you are wrong, but I just want to point out that the criteria for saying someone died from the CCP virus, in the US, was greatly expanded in the beginning which inflates the numbers. An individual could have covid, be asymptomatic, die of a stroke but test positive for the virus and they say the virus killed him.

 @cueTIP: Home ownership in the US was declining before the collapse. Don't conflate

 @rivercitycycles: I currently work in mental health. The fallout is worse and it is just starting.

 @savagelake: I can only speak for myself and my family - but we don’t even leave Van Isle for vacations. We moved here because we used to travel to (where we live now) for vacations! The riding here is off the charts good - soo many options within a stones throw of each other.

 @DhDWills: speaking for myself I really hope the US can work through the pandemic and various other issues.

Suffice it to say that approximately 80+% of Canadians (IpsosReid poll) agreed with the conservative approach being taken by their public health officers). There is remarkable United social consensus on this.

By reasonable inference many look askance at the patchwork US response. And there will likely be disagreement between the countries as to how re-emerge, CFR, IFR, public private sector roles, public-health measures etc. And disagreement is fine. But we (referring to that large plurality of Canadians) do not want to be part of the grand US real time laboratory experiment hence the border controls.

Of course Canada can not be autarkic. Of course there will be economic impact. But in the calculus of (pandemic-causal) loss of life vs (economic-impact) loss of life it seems Canada and Canadians want to walk their own path.

And perhaps the US, Sweden, Brazil, Belarus, Nicaragua (select countries taking a more economy-focused approach) will be "right" and that other countries have been too risk-averse. So be it. Time will tell. And collectively we will learn from the different approaches.

But until then most Canadians are satisfied with the border controls. Best wishes to all Americans and to everyone in the world of all creeds, colours, and wheelsizes

 @leelau: Well said! But, how can you lump us with Brazil and the like? China travel was shutdown early on(one of the earliest countries to do so) and people said Trump was overreacting among other things. The great majority of U.S. states were completely locked down for a full 60 days.

The point of lockdown is not to stop the virus. You cannot stop an extremely contagious entity like this. The point of lockdown was to slow it (flatten the curve) so that healthcare is not overwhelmed.

 @DhDWills:
The US had/has really mixed messaging. Lock downs only work if people actually listen to them. I suspect the mixed messaging caused a lot of your citizen to not take the social distancing as serious as they should have. As an outsider it looks like the US is having the worse possible out come, a lockdown that caused great economic pain but failed to stop the spread of the disease.

In BC we did not have a lock down, some businesses were closed but a lot stayed open. What happened here is by in large we had most of public buy into the messaging from our public health office. Last week we average less than 10 new case per day. Now we are in a position where things are starting to return towards normal.

Interesting tid-bit for you. BC has a huge Chinese population, we restricted travel from China pretty close to the exact same time we restricted travel from the US. Yet, we have faired way better. Italy like the US also put a travel ban on China really early....

Travel bans are only effective if a country is already doing the other hard work (testing, contact tracing, asking citizens to make the difficult decision to social distance, ect...). The travel bans that countries like the US and Italy made early on were about politics not about effective health policy. And that should be obvious from the case and mortality counts in those countries.

 @CDT77: exactly and most of bc is like that either for surfing, climbing, biking, hiking BC have it all.

 @savagelake: they will stay in bc, we live in one of the best place on earth we everything outdoor enthusiasts are dreaming of.

 Grand Forks / Christina Lake is sitting on a mountain biking gold mine. Someone needs to get into that LBS and start promoting mtb more. The base trail systems are there, but with the lake, amenities on both the GF side and the lake side, the proximity to the border, etc, it could be a mtb destination.

 @rrolly: I thought the same thing, spent an afternoon there...pushed n hauled my bike up TNT (?) and down....Spooner..Street? I forget but I remember thinking that with some regular maintenance that TNT trail would be unbelievable.

 @stoo61: There are some other ones there too. Lots of opportunity. Just need someone out there to take the lead. They really need to get involved with GF's LBS as well.

 @rrolly: Oh yeah Im sure there is. Was just passing through and fancied a pedal. Almost all provincial towns and villages in BC have awesome trails near by. Its mad.

 MSA is heavily featured in the Local Flavours: Quebec City

 Bromont doesn't get the attention it deserves in my opinion. It's crazy how Mont Tremblant gets more attention but isn't really that much of a mtb destination...

 *nanaimo

 I got to visit some day just to get some nanaimo bars

 And that’s why your username is letsgoridebikes right? LOL, I envy you, BC is even better than CH

 Did you ?

 I just had my dinner ????

 ? Maybe ????

 The scene is coming together. Small park, some community trail systems being built. Take a shovel. The potential is substantial. Rocky, missy, loamy deciduous forest and some Vertical if you know where to look. The trail potential out there is phenomenal - 1000s of acres have been clear cut for a now defunct pulp and paper industry and the crown land has been opened to recreation...