The British Columbia Kootenays in August.
We drove to Castlegar with the intention of camping at Gladstone Provincial Park. This being August, the park was full. If you want a first serve site you need to be there at 7:00am to line up. Our second choice was Pass Creek Campground, near our Goose Creek ride, but it too was full. We ended up camping at Castlegar Golf Club and RV park which was actually good! I’d stay here again.
In Castlegar we rode;
This area has one trail that is worthy. Again we had the EBike to retrieve so we could maximize riding so we rode this twice! Don’t worry, we made a donation to Castlegar Parks and Trails Society, and you can too! This group maintains all the Castlegar trails.
Access by driving up Pass Creek Rd 11km to Goose Creek rd. Turn left and drive to the parking lot. You can shuttle from here, or do what we did which was E-trieve! The road was washed out past 6km, so we parked at 5km. The trail starts about 7km up the road. There is one fork, stay left. I would not be a bad rode to ride up.
Accessed from the Merry Creek FSR off Crowsnest Hwy. You can drive up the FSR or take the climbing trail – Merry Go Round and ride the two lower trails, or continue on Mr. Green Jeans to 1470m high point. The Mr. Green Jeans climb is a GREAT example of route finding! From the top there is one trail down – Kaptain Kangaroo. Once back at the FSR, you can continue your descent on the steeper hucky Crazy Mary, or flow down Hail Merry. More trails are coming to this area!
Again we took advantage of the E-trieve by stashing the Ebike at the bottom of Rialto FSR and driving 10km up the road. We descended the fun and steep Grandiflorum. The top has its share of babyheads, then it gets better. There are some easy jumps and skinny’s on this trail. This trail ends about 7km from the Rialto FSR resulting in a not bad road ride back to the Rialto FSR.
Castlegar Golf and RV Park
Goose Creek – Rock slabs and flow!
Such a diversity of terrain over well-routed mix of old and new school singletrack. We rode it twice it was that good. Thanks to Warren Caldwell
Goose Creek
Goose Creek
Goose Creek
Merry Creek
Merry Creek has perhaps the best climbing routing trail we’ve every experienced anywhere. The pride of work is outstanding. The quality of the build has to be seen to be believed. Then you also get into diverse descending options. Like Goose Creek it’s a small area but so worthwhile
Well signed trails.
Necessary bridges to navigate the terrain
Mr. Green Jeans sign
Necessary easy bridges to make the route possible.
The high point
The descent!
Although Castlegar has no lake; the Millenium Park swimming holes on the banks of the Columbia are very worthwhile
Rialto
Rialto has two trails. We rode the single black variant as the double black was dusty, loose and a bit much given our XC bikes. Again, a fun area but on the small side and definitely had a more straight-down flavour then the slightly more diverse Goose and Merry areas.
Top bridges
Hucks!
Hucks!