A Trail Day with the North Okanagan Cycling Society
By guest blogger, Mathew Wanbon
When you visit Vernon for a mountain biking adventure, you're not just presented with a vast network of trails, but also with a unique terrain that truly sets Vernon apart as the Trails Capital of BC. What often goes unnoticed when visiting is the sheer dedication and countless hours of work that go into crafting these trails. On a recent trip to Vernon, I tagged along with the North Okanagan Cycling Society and Contour Trails for a volunteer trail day. This experience provided me with a firsthand view of the immense effort this community invests in building and maintaining the trails that I had been enjoying for the past several days.
The North Okanagan Cycling Society (NOCS) was founded in 2005 and has since advocated for the sanctioning of existing trails, built and maintained new trails, and continuously supported the community through various events. Currently, the society manages and maintains 94 trails in Vernon, totalling 105 kilometres, with an additional 50km of future trail development laid out in their master plan.
On the morning of the trail day, I met up with Cam from Contour Trails, his trail crew, and a group of volunteers to arrange carpooling to the King Eddy Plateau. We then drove up the FSR to put some of the finishing touches on a new black loamer called Super Connected, which is intended to increase connectivity between the King Eddy Plateau and the trails in Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park.
I caught a ride up to the plateau with Cam, and he told me a bit about his deep-rooted history in the area. As an adolescent, Cam was a ski bum living up at Silver Star Resort. He dipped his toes into the mountain biking world early, before NOCS was formed when all trails were unsanctioned. Since then, Cam has been involved with NOCS, worked at Silver Star, and founded his own trail company, Countour Trails, which is regularly contracted to build trails in Vernon. Cam has built over 200 trails in Vernon over the years. When I asked Cam what visitors should know about biking in Vernon, he emphasized the massive variety of terrain: between the rolling grassy hills in lower Kal Park, flow trails and loamers in the upper reaches of Kal Park, massive granite slabs at Predator Ridge, tons of fun cross-country riding in Ellison and the King Eddy Plateau, lots of fun rocky terrain at Sovereign Lake, and the world-class bike park at Silver Star. There is really something for every type of mountain biker in Vernon.
After arriving at the top of King Eddy Plateau, we all wandered down a trail called Monet’s Meander and then turned off onto Super Connected. As we worked our way down the trail, I was frothing over all the rock rolls and steep, loamy sections of the trail. My excitement for wanting to eventually ride this trail was met with an equal appreciation for all the volunteers who had taken time out of their weekend to shovel dirt, move buckets of earth, rake soil, and hack out stumps. Every trail that I have ever ridden was built by a group of volunteers similar to the group that I found myself with on the King Eddy Plateau. This makes me think about the fact that there are not a lot of other sports that rely on volunteer-based organizations to build their infrastructure. In fact, there is no other sport that I know of where this kind of community-based participation is central to the construction and management of infrastructure.
Seeing all the effort that goes into the trails makes me, as a visitor, consider my responsibilities to the places where I visit to ride. One easy way to support NOCS, or other trail organizations like NOCS, is donating to the organization through the Trail Karma program within the Trail Forks app. This allows you to donate as little or as much as you want to, with 100% of the money going towards the trail organization. If you feel extra generous, you can become a member of the organization. Membership comes at a higher cost, but the membership numbers go a long way toward helping trail organizations secure grants and other funding that are the foundation of trail networks.
As we made our way to the end of the Super Connected trail, Cam proudly showed us the trail's grand climax: an optional double black line with a slab that rivals some of the gnarliest lines you would expect to see in places like the Sea to Sky region, but with a perfect machine-built landing. A feature that, despite needing some finishing touches to be safe to ride, looked ready to be plastered on the cover of a magazine. We all stood for a minute in awe of this massive feature that is sure to become iconic in the Vernon area before walking our way back up the freshly built trail. We then drove back down the FSR to where we had met earlier that day. Once back at the parking area, Cam and his trail crew quickly set up the barbeque, brought out some drinks and snacks (courtesy of NOCS), and ensured everyone was hydrated and full of food before returning home.
