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Dirtriding area database

59K views 59 replies 40 participants last post by  Shawn Watson 
#1 ·
Hey y'all.

So I'm totally new to dirtriding, and I wanted to get some input from some of you more experienced riders.

What area some good places to go? Why are they good? Is there anything particular someone should know before riding there? How do you get there? (directions) How long is the drive to get there? How long is the ride? etc, etc...

I know some people are secretive about their favourite spots...which is understandable. But for the rest of you, I urge you to post up any knowledge you would be willing to share.

I'm hoping to sticky this thread at the top so we can have a good centralized source for riding information. It was a real headache trying to look through past posts for this stuff.

Thanks guys, it's appreciated. :thumbup
 
#2 ·
Well, I'll be lazy and just paste a portion of my PM to you here: :drinkbeer

Hello,
That FSR in Squamish I filmed the video on is just off of the #99 after you pass the big climber's parking lot at the Chief. I park in the climber's "over-flow" parking lot which is right next to the hwy on your right. The gravel road starts right there and heads east. It goes for 35kms to the top of Indian Arm. There's usually not much cage traffic and it's easy riding. Here and there you can explore some side roads (see 2nd last note at bottom for this weekend) for more adventure. It's definitely for riders of all levels as you can go at whatever speed pleases you.

Unfortunately, there's nothing on the North Shore, it's all illegal - bylaws. That being said, when I got my bike I did a run up the Eagle Lake access road in W. Van and didn't get caught but had an evil look from a lone jogger who I passed slowly.

Closest legal areas is Squamish that way and Maple Ridge (Blue Mountain) to the east. If you want more info on Blue Mountain area let me know. It's probably less distance to the end of the road than the Squamish FSR by a long shot. You get nice views to the east and depending on which branch of the road you take views of Alloutte Lake to the west. Been 4x4ing up there years ago as well.

If you want a loooong ride, you can go past Mission, before the Lougheed crosses the first set of double tracks heading east (convenience store and restaurant right there) go straight on the north side of the tracks until the road makes a sharp left and heads straight for the mountain. Don't take the sharp right, go straight, onto the gravel road. This is the access road for the Mission/Abbotsford water reservoir. If you follow the main road you come out at the golf course next to the Harrison River in the area of the Sasquatch Inn. Very long ride. All logging road. Sometimes it's gated but don't worry about that. Watch out for logging trucks, it's still an active area.

Get a trial membership at www.keyhole.com and you can get satellite images of where you want to ride. Just hit ALT-PrintScreen. Then PASTE the clipboard image into photoshop or whatever and crop it and print. Outside of big cities the resolution isn't that great though. It wasn't good enough for me to see if the Meager Creek hotsprings bridge was still washed out which I think it is. Doh!

Other than that, if you call up the Squamish Forest District they will mail you free maps of all the logging roads in the entire area up to Pemberton. I've got a collection of them I need to dig up and dust off.
 
#4 ·
Upon Bruce's recommendation, ^that^ was the first site I visited when looking for riding areas. But I couldn't find anything like an easy to access list of riding spots, with other relevant information. Do they have anything like that on that site? Am I just too blind to see it?
 
G
#6 ·
Harps said:
Hey y'all.

So I'm totally new to dirtriding, and I wanted to get some input from some of you more experienced riders.

What area some good places to go? Why are they good? Is there anything particular someone should know before riding there? How do you get there? (directions) How long is the drive to get there? How long is the ride? etc, etc...

I know some people are secretive about their favourite spots...which is understandable. But for the rest of you, I urge you to post up any knowledge you would be willing to share.

I'm hoping to sticky this thread at the top so we can have a good centralized source for riding information. It was a real headache trying to look through past posts for this stuff.

Thanks guys, it's appreciated. :thumbup
Go to the Team Grizzly website for detailed directions to all the singletrack areas in southern B.C. Vedder and Chipmunk Creek are the closest, though Vedder can be gnarly. Hope tailing ponds is the best local area, it has a good mix of trails. Kamloops area is by far the best and once you go there you will be spoiled. Greenstone Mtn., Inks Lake, and Chewels Mtn. Don't forget, these are all areas where dirt bikes are allowed. Stick to the designated areas please, It's not gonna get any easier for us to find good places to ride.
 
#13 ·
Harps said:
Hey y'all.

So I'm totally new to dirtriding, and I wanted to get some input from some of you more experienced riders.

What area some good places to go? Why are they good? Is there anything particular someone should know before riding there? How do you get there? (directions) How long is the drive to get there? How long is the ride? etc, etc...

I know some people are secretive about their favourite spots...which is understandable. But for the rest of you, I urge you to post up any knowledge you would be willing to share.

I'm hoping to sticky this thread at the top so we can have a good centralized source for riding information. It was a real headache trying to look through past posts for this stuff.

Thanks guys, it's appreciated. :thumbup

What kind of ridding are you looking to do????...if you go to Chimpmunk there is a network of roads that will take you all the way to dino park on the hwy 1...there is single track everywhere but if your new you will get lost...or find yourself somewhere you may not get out of.....rule of thumb if you go down it ...will you be able to get back up it? I ride with a GPS and still get stuck....but I am here telling you about it so it never was that bad....I been riding off road all my life and ride with lots of the OLD guys who actually cut a lot of the trails all over BC ... most of them are members of all the links you have...pm me next time you are heading out and I may be able to help....hey...heres an Idea...organize a dirt bike ride for newbs...I may be able to take you and a group for a nice ride....
 
#14 ·
we just did some of vedder mountain yesterday, i have to admit this is one of the best riding areas i have been to. so far i have gone to stave, mcnutt, harrison, squamish, and sylvester road. vedder had just about everything you could ask for, i found it big enough, that you did not run into too many riders, and the trails are nicely marked. vedder also has a 96db noise limit, posted up.
 
#15 ·
Mr.Sushi ya ha said:
What kind of ridding are you looking to do????...if you go to Chimpmunk there is a network of roads that will take you all the way to dino park on the hwy 1...there is single track everywhere but if your new you will get lost...or find yourself somewhere you may not get out of.....rule of thumb if you go down it ...will you be able to get back up it? I ride with a GPS and still get stuck....but I am here telling you about it so it never was that bad....I been riding off road all my life and ride with lots of the OLD guys who actually cut a lot of the trails all over BC ... most of them are members of all the links you have...pm me next time you are heading out and I may be able to help....
Thanks Mr Sushi, I'll be in touch.

Mr.Sushi ya ha said:
hey...heres an Idea...organize a dirt bike ride for newbs...I may be able to take you and a group for a nice ride....
Hey, that's a good idea! Stay tuned...I'll try to get something organized.
 
#16 ·
If anyone is looking for a good ride or exposure to trail building/maintainace and a great way to give something back to your sport, then come to the hope nicklemine tailings ponds this friday through sunday. There is a big work party/ride that the FVDRA club members will be attending there, anyone is more than welcome to join and have a good time, family is welcome as the club is for everyone, not just the nutter's! See ya there
 
#17 ·
McNutt is the best that I have ridden here in the Lower Mainland. I hear Vedder near Chilliwack is awesome as well but haven't made it out there yet. Sqaumish is pretty boring. Too many logging roads, not enough single track. I am from Kamloops , so I was pretty spoiled growing up. It is hard to compare anything around here with the Loops, God I miss it there.
 
#18 ·
Two diiferent types

nitrous1234 said:
McNutt is the best that I have ridden here in the Lower Mainland. I hear Vedder near Chilliwack is awesome as well but haven't made it out there yet. Sqaumish is pretty boring. Too many logging roads, not enough single track. I am from Kamloops , so I was pretty spoiled growing up. It is hard to compare anything around here with the Loops, God I miss it there.

Bachelor Heights is no doubt awesome but it's more like Green Stone mountain, big runs and massive hills and I love that feeling of hitting those things tapped out in fith all the way up as you go down trough the gear box in order to make it. Before I had a wife and kids I spent alot of time in that neck of the woods (some times up to 3 days) and took some serious soil samples to remember it (on a CR500 no less) but nowdays, the only way for me to do it is to leave on a friday and spend the one night, ride all day saturday until my arms fall off and then come home to mamma bear or else... well you know the deal !!! Today for instance I got to ride Vetter Mountain. Boy let me tell you, that place is super chalenging, goat trails city. What I love the most there is how you can zip into a trail, spend an hour in the thick and then, out of the blue, there's the road again. It would be very hard for one to get lost in there but I guess it could happen. My buddy Shane is having a blast on his new 450 X and his electric start really comes in handy let me tell you, but in there, the bike of choice I would have to think would be a 250 four stroke. Well, now that motard season is over, expect to ear more dirt stories... until then, peace out :thumbup
 
#19 · (Edited)
#20 ·
kamloops has some of the best riding you will ever find. we have greenstone mtn, barnhartvale, batchelor heights, and a mx track. riding here ranges from never riden a bike to pro level trails that make me cry. - as for directions...i could try to tell you, but its alot easier to show you. next time anyone is down here looking for a ride.. let me know and we will go out and have a blast getting lost.

but we really do have it all... you want mud, we got it. you want impossible hill climbs, we got it. tight trails - yup got that too....thined out trails that you can hit 4th pinned - the best ones to ride - we got it....

you get the point
 
#23 ·
kamloops has some of the best riding you will ever find. we have greenstone mtn,
Agreed on this area as being good, as we have some trials events there, usually the May long weekend. More technical stuff would always be nice.

As with most overnight deals though, it would be great if riders could cool it through the campsite areas, and wait until the hills and trails to pin it...! Someone's young one is going to get run over at a high rate of speed in the campsite.
 
#21 ·
Now that Ive got an enduro (new to this dirt thing too) man Id be up for a noob ride. if for nothing else than to find out where to go! I have NO CLUE, but these links are awesome so far.

Someone get a noob ride organized and im so in.
 
#22 ·
If anybody wants to part with some of their local spots it would be great if you could pm me if you didn't want to post it up here. I'm on the look out for nearby lower mainland spots to hit up that don't require hours of drive time to get to.. the only two spots I have right now are illegal...LOL I guess all spots in N.Van are illegal anyways.. I only know of Ealge mtn right now, after that it's a drive out to chilliwack, and or hope.
 
#30 ·
Useful Free Map Database

Hello Mate

I don't know if this thread is still being viewed much but I've just got back into the Dual-Sport thing. I'm not sure if you're looking for pure dirt bike stuff or whether you're riding there on something like a BMW or KLR, etc.

I'm running a BMW Dakar and so far I've been all over the place around Squamish. I reckon it's great on a fairly heavy bike but maybe a bit tame for a CR or RM, etc. You see shed loads of wildlife so beware of the bears. There is bear crap all over the place at the far ends of the trails and I nearly ran into what must have been Yogi's dad on Canada day, nearly necessitating an emergency underwear change.

Anyway, there's a great free map on the web. You can move it around, zoom into to areas, stick a legend on the side and print the maps off in pdf format along with coordinates, just in case you use GPS.

Here's the link - http://www.tsa.gov.bc.ca/sites_trails/finding/launch_interactive_map.htm

Copy it into your browser and have a mess around with it until you find what you need.

Happy hunting and if anyone wants a bit of company on the trails up there, drop me a pm.

If you go on your own, take a shed load of tools, first aid kit and plenty of water / food. If you get stuck it's a hell of a long way back to civilisation, 49 miles (not km) from the end of Squamish Valley Logging Road!
 
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