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Campbell River 50k returns as the Snowden Trail Challenge, ready to hit Vancouver Island trails Sept. 6

Until 2011, the Campbell River 50 k race was one of the more popular, even notorious mixed trail events on Vancouver Island, B.C. This year, it's back, and it has a new name.

Image: Snowden Trail Challenge
Image: Snowden Trail Challenge

Until 2011, the Campbell River 50 k race was one of the more popular, even notorious mixed trail events on Vancouver Island, B.C. With both a running and mountain biking component, it was conceived before its first 2009 installation as an opportunity to provide experienced, trail-hardened Islanders with the maximum challenge.

This year, it’s back, and it has a new name.

The Campbell River 50k has been resurrected as the Snowden Trail Challenge, happening on Saturday, Sept. 6 in the woods of Snowden Demonstration Forest, just outside Campbell River, B.C. The terrain is a dense, winding network of singletrack and doubletrack trails — and for mountain bikers, some of those trails are among the best on Vancouver Island.

Off-road riders can tackle that terrain in a couple of ways. There’s the 50k course, an intermediate-level ride that covers roads and single track trails. The route winds through a long, tree-lined loop that starts at the field area of the PRT Nursery on Iron River Road, near the outskirts of Campbell River, and back again. As a second option, the route can also be done in 25 kilometre increments, and for mountain bikers, it can be approached solo or relay-style.

However the Snowden Trail Challenge is attempted, though, riders are advised to be on the lookout for other trail users, as they’ll be open to the public on the day of the ride.

Until it was discontinued in 2011, the original Campbell River 50k race was legendary among Island mountain bikers and runners alike, thanks to the course’s intensely challenging combination of distance and terrain. Efforts to resurrect the event began in 2014, when a local marathon athlete, Arlene Halwa, organized a committee to explore the idea. Making it a reality involved the leadership of the River City Cycle Club, a bike club in Campbell River with expertise on both the road and the trails. The maintenance of trails themselves, a focus of the organizations many “trail days,” was a significant part of those efforts.

Markers, reports say, have been erected in the woods along those trails, ready for riders to hit the dirt on Sept. 6.