You’ll be so inclined: Campbell River, B.C., provides a mountain biking playground with many ups and downs

by Ryan Stuart

This article originally appeared in our December 2013/January 2014 edition.

“I don’t think I’m going to make it,” I said as I looked up at the logging road’s incline, which had a grade that would rank somewhere beyond triple hors in the road biking world. But, I’m not one to give up without trying, so I hit the gas pedal of my SUV hoping I had enough horsepower. My friend Chris Baikie and I flew off the short bench of road and went up. No problem. The road then switched back, getting steeper throughout the turn. The vehicle’s tires spun and it bucked over washboards. As I pushed the gas pedal to the floor, there was no response.

We were shuttling up Campbell River, B.C.’s newest mountain biking area, Menzies Mountain. I don’t usually shuttle to the trailhead, but we made an exception that day. With the precipitous angle of the road, we were glad we did. It looked like walking terrain to me. The trails we headed for were built almost singlehandedly in the last four years by local hardman Aaron Smeeth. He gravitates toward long climbs and descents. We anticipated steep and gnarly downhill singletrack, but not the steep and gnarly logging road access. In more than 10 years on the West Coast, I’d never seen a road hit such angles.

Menzies is on the edge of the Vancouver Island frontier, the edge of the “working forest” – a wooded area that sees both logging and recreational uses – and the foothills of the rugged Vancouver Island mountains. There is nothing gentle or easy about northern Vancouver Island and that goes for the riding around Campbell River, too. Menzies looms to the north of the River City, surrounded by endless forest and steep mountains. To the west of town, the cross country trails of Snowden rarely offer a breather as they meander over bluffs and through rooty forests. A ferry ride away, Quadra Island’s loops climb and fall over and over again like the line on a cardiograph chart. On the pavement, almost every route climbs its way out of town or confronts headwinds alongside the ocean with its sweeping views.

My SUV somehow made it through the corner onto the flatter terrain above, which continued until ditches across the road forced us to ride to the trailhead. Soon, we found the trail and were navigating technical but mellow terrain. Slowly, first with short drops and then with more sustained plunges, the angle grew in steepness until we made it to a bluff with one hell of a view. Below, a ring of lakes trailed across rolling forest to the outskirts of Campbell River and the waters and islands of Discovery Passage. In the three other directions, ridge after forested ridge jumbled together, climbing toward snow-crusted summits. Aside from the odd clearcut and logging road, it looked uninhabited and wild, but not as rowdy as the drop below us.

The map showed the trail pitching almost straight down off the cliff, a 100-footer that flattened out momentarily before cresting off a few smaller bluffs below. It looked like we’d need a rope to get off of there. Tentatively, we rolled downhill expecting to find a rock-climbing bluff at any minute. But Smeeth, the trail’s designer, had linked a series of benches and ledges into a steep but rideable descent. We focused on the trail ahead, squealing down hairpin turns, grunting over small rock drops and carving through the forest as if we were on skis. Slowly, the angle got steeper and our speed picked up. Near the bottom, we opened it up, launched off some small-gap jumps, skidded around a loose corner and almost ploughed into Smeeth himself. The trail builder was hacking away at a stump, smoothing out the landing on a jump he hadn’t built: fixing someone else’s poor craftsmanship. “So what did you think of the trails?” he asked, sincerely interested in our feedback.

Despite having the longest trails close to town, Menzies remains little known. Local riders who have lived in Campbell River for years have never ridden here. “They’ve been missing out,” Baikie says. It was his first time. To Smeeth, we gushed about the steep but ridable terrain, the amount of trails built and how much work it must have been. Smeeth figured he spent more than 200 days working on the trails throughout the past four years on days off from his job in forestry. “The trail goes higher than where you started, almost from the top of the mountain. It’s more cross country up there,” he said. But it was the lower, steep part that originally got Smeeth interested in Menzies. “I wanted somewhere I could do a really long climb and there just wasn’t anything else around,” he said.

I saw what he meant when I visited the Snowden Demonstration Forest a little while later. Snowden is Campbell River’s main mountain biking zone, a short drive out of town, with more than 100 km of trails. I rode through Snowden as part of the B.C. Bike Race a few years earlier and still remember the punishment: the 950 m of elevation gain on the 50-km course disappeared without a major climb. The trails lean toward the technical with a lot of rock- and root-strewn sections. It almost always feels like you’re climbing, but the ascents are rarely steep and hardly long, topping out at maybe 10 minutes. The descents swoop through the forest and off slick rock.

For anyone who likes the ups as much as the downs, Snowden is a lot of fun and constantly varied. During my visit with Baikie, we raced along old logging railway grades, all that’s left is the smooth surface, along Lost Frog to Lost Lake and then up Scotty’s. This route has one of the most sustained climbs in the area, swinging back and forth on ridable singletrack ever upward. Eventually, we topped out on a small summit, and then worked our way back down over plenty of slick rock. Even on the down, I could feel my heart racing to keep up with the effort of navigating the corners, rolls and rocks.

Later, I skipped the drive back to town in favour of the Pump House network, a set of trails that lie to the west of Campbell River. Following the ridge of the river valley, the predominately doubletrack trail is perfect flow. I rarely hit the brakes as I pinned it slightly downhill to a logging road and then had a fast bomb down the hill to the town’s namesake, right on the edge of town.

“Quadra Island’s loops climb and fall over and over again like the line on a cardiograph chart.”

The Campbell River itself is quite short: maybe 6-km long from the tidewater to where it enters a narrow canyon. While the town is synonymous with salmon fishing – you can catch pink salmon from the river banks – it’s the ocean fishing that has made Campbell River a destination since the 1880s. The lure remains strong. From the bike path that follows the town’s waterfront, I saw dozens of fishing boats bobbing across the Discovery Passage at the south end of Quadra Island. At the Discovery Pier, a pedestrian jetty jutting out into the channel, boat-less anglers try their luck as the tides rush ocean water back and forth and locals slurp giant ice cream cones in the summer.

The bike-path system runs along most of Campbell River’s waterfront, a significant distance in a town where almost every home seems to have an ocean view. Another path parallels it along the hillside behind town. Joining the two creates a scenic loop that includes views, not only of the water and Coast Mountains, but also of the much closer Vancouver Island mountains. This loop also passes the River City’s other mountain bike area, beginner-friendly Beaver Lodge Forest Lands. Small in area, but rich in atmosphere, the wide and mostly easy trails wind through towering Douglas fir.

Earlier on Menzies, Smeeth had urged us to take one more lap; this time self-propelled. It didn’t take much convincing. As we grunted up the same overly steep logging road, I was equally concerned that I wouldn’t make it up the steepest section, this time under my own power. But again, I somehow willed myself over.

Baikie and I appreciated the challenge and were glad we made the effort. We took a different trail at the bluff that was even steeper than our first run. My butt brushed my rear tire for ages as we slalomed through the trees down a hillside I never would have guessed was ridable. As we coasted out the bottom, hands and forearms cramping from so much braking and steering, I realized I was loving this frontier style of riding. Bring on the steeps.

Details

How to get there
You can fly to Campbell River ( crairport.ca ) on Pacific Coastal Airlines and Central Mountain Air’s puddle jumpers from Vancouver or into nearby Comox ( comoxairport.com ) via WestJet from Calgary and Edmonton. But most people arrive by car: from Vancouver, hop aboard the ferry from Horseshoe Bay ( bcferries.com ) to Nanaimo and head north on Highway 19 (the Inland Island Highway) for two hours. From Victoria, you can travel on the same highway for three and a half hours to Campbell River.

Where to stay
With a regular influx of fishermen, Campbell River doesn’t lack for places to stay. Just 2 km from town, across a bridge from the Pump House trails, Elk Falls Provincial Park campground on Highway 28 can’t be beat for biking ( env. gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/elk_falls ). The Coast Discovery Inn sits right in the heart of Campbell River’s small but bustling downtown and, as one of the tallest buildings in town, the views across Discovery Passage to Quadra Island are stellar ( coasthotels.com/hotels/bc/ campbell_river/coast-discovery-inn-and-marina ).

Where to eat
Check out the Riptide Marine Pub, right on the marina full of huge yachts, for great burgers and solid pub food ( riptidemarinepub.ca ). Up for something spicy? Try Baan Thai on downtown Campbell River’s Shoppers Row for some of the best food in town (1090 Shoppers Row, 250-286-4850). The West Coast is known for its super fresh sushi and Campbell River is no exception. With offthe-boat fresh salmon, crab and halibut, try Koto Japanese Restaurant (250-286-1422).

Where to find support
Check in at any of the bike shops in town for detailed directions of local trails. Find links to trail maps for Snowden, Pump House and Beaver Lodge on Swicked Cycles’s website (swickedcycles.com ). The River City Cycle Club organizes regular group rides on trail and pavement; check rivercitycycle.ca for details.