Downhill Mountain Biking on Iron Mt in Merritt, BC

Merritt BC.

Merritt’s a high traffic town on the junction of two major highways (BC 5 and 97) that’s often left in the dust unless you know what it has to offer.   One of these amazing offerings are stunning DH mountain bike trails on Iron Mountain that are easy to shuttle. The best way to ride these trails that we have found is to have odd rider out shuttles from the easy to find Merritt Info Center.  A lackadaisical group on a day trip can easily get 3-4 runs in; a focused group taking all day could probably get 6 or more.

On this trip we were on bigger all mountain bikes. Phat tires would help here too as the trails are demanding! On previous trips we have been also on all round bikes (2008) and on DH bikes (2010) but have found the full-on DH bikes to be a chore on the characteristic pedally exits from the Iron Mountain trail system.

The shuttle up is ~20km and takes about 20-30 minutes, Each lap takes about an hour give or take for photos, flats and blow down. Give yourself a 1.5-2hr turn around. So if you have 4 or 5 people in a truck you will each get 3-4 runs 1100m runs.

98 is the easier of the DH runs and gives you the longest ride back on the technical Godey trail.  You  can also opt to push up to Lonesome Pine and ride the Ridge trail or other info center trails if you want another option to exit. 99 to Treats to the alternate Tyrant are steeper with more techy rock options. Rotary Wankle and Fifi are STEEP! Butt puckering STEEP.  Compared to those two previously mentioned trails, Godey Steeps and other Iron Mountain or Merritt steep trails are flat bikepaths.  Be warned!

Iron Mountain – Merritt Mountain Biking June 13, 2016 from Lee Lau on Vimeo.

 

The Info Center can be very busy especially on the weekends.  It’s hot and can lack shade but is a nice place to hang out.  The Samosas are killer!

All Iron Mountain trails start here.

Steep, rocky technical –  99.

Steep, rocky technical – 99.

Rotary Wankle is Fricken STEEP!

Andy and Jac on 99

Relics of the past.

Elephants head on Treats is technical committing rock move

Steep, rocky technical on Treats – get the feeling this is a trend?

More rocky tech on Treats.

Jac riding like a girl on 3 Shot Willow

The less steep of the three exits to the Godey Canyon on this side is still steep.

All rides exiting Godey end heading back to the Info Center.

Steeper section of 98

Optional technical section of 98 –  there is a ride around.

Lonesome Pine, top of the Info Center trails.

Ridge trail above info center. They say its a black, but compared to Iron Mountain trails its a pleasant ramble.

View from Ridge trail overlooking Merritt.

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