We are excited to announce a supremely awesome mountain biking trail is being opened to all mountain bikers permanently for the first time next Friday. In fact, this will be the first provincial Wilderness Area in Nova Scotia where mountain bikers will be allowed.
Environment Minister Margaret Miller will cut the ribbon and MLA Ian Rankin will join us for the bike ride. It was opened up for one-day-only bike ride last summer for the Ecology Action Centre’s Hike The Greenbelt project and it was a blast. The trail allows for excellent flow with small hills shooting you up and down. It feels like a roller coaster.
The trail was built by the Safety Minded ATV Association in partnership with Five Bridges Wilderness Heritage Trust. They have created a wonderful, 12km facility for mountain biking and they would like to share the wealth. (They gained access to the trail thanks to a volunteer agreement. Extending permission to include cyclists has been done in part on their initiative).
2 Difficulty Levels
Ian Rankin will lead a contingent in and out on a very tame trail to the start of the Wilderness Area. A hybrid bike with no shocks would be fine for this section. A second group will continue into the Wilderness Area. For this section, you will want a proper mountain bike.
Yeah, I’d describe it as a narrow dirt road. There are some parts that are quite rocky and rough where the soil has washed away, but you could easily drive it with a truck. It’s currently only improved up to Nine Mile River. There are quite a few mud holes east of the river. (And a truck would have to turn around.)
It’s still a fun ride. It definitely feels like you are in the wilderness for parts of it.
Found maps here from the Safety Minded Atv Club: http://www.smatva.ca/WPA.html
Not sure what parts are involved in the “12km facility for mountain biking”
Hopefully they fixed this spot from last years ride!
and here:
The big water hole is definitely on the east side of Nine Mile River. It’s not fixed, but wasn’t nearly that bad this summer. The other one is probably on the west side based on the look of the road, but it must have rained a lot around the time that photo was taken.
@chucsutt is this an official press release? It would be nice to include an external link.
I’m not trying to be a downer, new legal trails are great but that language in the release really annoys me. They didn’t create an mtb facility. I highly doubt anything to do with the trail had mountain biking considered when building it. They built an ATV trail and it just so happens you can ride bikes on it. Just sayin’.
