Where to live/ride - Atlantic Canada

Bicycling
1

Hi Everyone,

Newbie to this site, but not unfamiliar with riding in Atlantic Canada. I lived in Halifax from 2002-2006 and was somewhat active on the old ecmtb.com forum. Been back living in Southern Ontario (where I grew up) since leaving Nova Scotia.

My partner and I (she’s originally from Truro) are looking to make the move back to Maritimes next summer. We are in a fortunate position now that employment opportunities for us only require an internet connection. So we are looking to simplify life a little, buy our piece of rural paradise, have more opportunity for outdoor adventure, travel, gardens, property, etc. East coast seems to fit, especially the affordability of that piece of paradise compared here.

We are both avid cyclists, being each involved for 15+ years. It’s a huge part of our life. We typically grab the mountain bikes first, but almost equally enjoy exploring the back routes on both the road and even more so, on the CX bikes (gravel/forest road/ATV trail/etc). We also have fatbikes to keep the season going, but equally enjoy snowshoeing and XC skiing.

So my question here is, where would you live? Since cycling is such a big part of our life, we want to ensure we are positioned to continue to readily enjoy it. Here are some basic criteria.

  1. It would be nice to have a couple sets of MTB trails within 45-60 min where we could ride for 1.5 hours. Even better if there was a trail set that was relatively close (under 15 minutes) and another in that 60 minute range.
  2. It would be great to have a local community of cyclists (club) that are relatively active with things such as weekly group rides. Or maybe a weekly race series. We recognize it will be tough to make friends being in our 30’s and moving to a more rural environment, so things like this will help ease that transition to meet like minded people.
  3. Easy access to network of back roads for exploring, especially on the CX bikes (or even MTB).
  4. Similarly it would be nice to winter opportunities (snowshoeing, XC skiing) with similar criteria to the mountain biking.

I know the HRM and the trails there pretty well (have a good idea what is available). Made it back last summer for a trip through Whopper and also rode Victoria park for the first time. Beyond HRM I’m not overly familiar. Beyond isolated trips to the valley, Keppoch, Wentworth I never did much riding outside the HRM.

Given that we can relocate essentially where we want, we are trying to find the ‘best’ spot. We’ll certainly take advantage of all that Atlantic Canada has to offer, but being centered around the best opportunity is important.

We’ve been looking into the area around Hillsborough, maybe west towards Caledonia Gorge. Access to Hillsborough, St. John, Moncton, Fundy Park seems to be a good fit. The valley is a consideration as well as the area generally around Wentworth, which seems pretty central. PEI would likely have to outshine both southern NB and NS in all our criteria to be a consideration.

We’ll be out visiting in late October. No bikes, but we’ll bring the shoes to hopefully trail run some of the trails.

Any recommendations/comments, hidden gems I’m missing out on?

2

Valley, so many good trails, close to HRM, Gore and Truro. Beautiful place too. Only really far from Fitz and Keppoch.

Man, you are in for a treat, several of the trails around here have improved dramatically in the last several years, especially Gore and Keppoch.

3

I would strongly suggest the Truro area. Victoria Park has some sweet riding right in town, Hub Cycle, where I purchased my bike, is an awesome shop with a great cycling club. You are less than an hour from Gore, Nine Mile River, Wentworth and Fitzpatrick Mountain, which are all great places to ride. There are plenty of opportunities for trail running, winter activities and other biking nearby. Having spent 4 years going to the NSAC, Truro has all the amenities needed, but is not too big to have the drawbacks of the city(traffic, parking, etc.)

The Wolfville/ Kentville/ New Minas area is another nice spot for all of the reasons mentioned above as well.

Good luck finding a spot…

4

Another vote for the Annapolis Valley. Lots of great riding and quieter pace.
I relocated to Windsor 2 years ago after growing up in Cape Breton and living most of my adult life around Halifax.
(with the obligatory 2 year tour of duty ‘out west’, of course)

Valley Stove and Cycle are good guys with a nice mix of MTB and roadie expertise. A recently renovated shop in the heart of Kentville will make a big difference fo rthe local riding community. Having said that, I will agree with spelham that Hub Cycle in Truro is an awesome shop and I’ve spent much time and money in there over the past few years. Bruce and Daisy are fantastic to work with.

As for finding a little slice of paradise, the valley is perfect. It doesn’t take too long to get off the beaten path and find some quiet land to build on. Yet, you are never too far from amenities. New Minas will get you just about anything you would find in the larger business parks of Bayer’s Lake or Dartmouth Crossing.
If you are looking to building/buy in a rural setting, I would suggest West of Avonport/Wolfville. The water quality/quantity in the Windsor area can be dodgy - especially in the late summer.

My $0.02
Alan

5

Thanks for the comments so far.

As for Truro, we actually bought a bike there last summer on the way through and spent some time in the shop. Agreed, we had a great experience, including Bruce calling people to find out trail conditions around halifax for us.

6

Really I think there are zones 4 MTB hot zones: Halifax, Wolfville/Kentville, Truro and Antigonish. I might be a bit biased but I think Windsor/Hantsport/3 Mile Plains area is good spot, for 2 reasons,

Firstly you’re super close to trails at Castle Frederick, Grey Mountain/Eldridge Rd, Irishamn’s Rd, Gore, even Uniacke Estates, plenty of backroad to explore too. Hit up Martock in the winter. 30 min to 1 hour away there’s lots in the Wolfville/Kentville (Reservoir Park, Anima Mundi, Gorge, 4x track at Burger Hill, Blomidon, the Links…) You’re within an hour of Halifax to hit up trails there. Truro is a bit more 1.5-ish hours (depending on how you drive:))

Secondly houses and land are cheap! In general you’ll get more for your money than in the valley, Hell you can get a house on 9 Acres of land right in “Downtown” Windsor for $229K (http://www.viewpoint.ca/property/cutsheet/45056041?&no-nav=1&no-footer=1).

The only real down point is there isn’t a shop super close since Valley Stove & Cycle moved to Kentville.

7

What about Pictou County?

You have Kepoch and Fitzpatrick mountain nearby and the beaches are awesome in the summer. (Northunmberland Strait has the warmest waters north of the Carolinas, so I’m told).

8

I moved to the valley from Hali for a few reasons, but the biking both road and mountain drew me in. There are a lot of other things to do including camping, hiking, snowshoeing, a ski hill (yes, not huge but it’s there!).

You are very close to the city. I visit once a week in conjunction with the weekly mtb rides on Tuesday evening.

Look me up if you want to when you are in the valley, would be happy to show you around.

9

I live in the Valley now and give it great marks, grew up in Pictou Co. and think that place is awesome, but need to side with Bent6543 in agreeing that Windsor, West Hants is the best place to live. Being central to most of the NS mainland you are nearly an hour away from most of the best trails in the province, though housing prices in the area are quickly rising, (we just sold there $$$) it is still affordable, and you remain close to Halifax in case of that Sunday evening Sushi craving.

10

I live just a few short pedals from whopper. I didn’t know it at the time, but nothing beats riding from your house and getting a 1.5hr ride in. So easy to just blow off some steam.

11

Yep. Currently living in Hamilton and I have about 100 km of off-road trails accessible from essentially right out my door.

So while I don’t expect to be able to live right near a trail head, hoping to at least be situated in a place where I have exploration options via CX bike.

What are the trails like in the valley? I assume a little more flowier than those around HRM?

12

We have a a good mix here in the Valley. Some rocky, rooty technical stuff and some fast flowy stuff. Nothing like Whopper and Fight trail but good stuff none the less.
There are also hundreds of km’s of fire roads and paved roads with great climbs if you want to road ride or rip around on a CX bike.

The only downside that we have encountered living here, mind you we are far into the Valley, in Greenwood, is the fact that we are so far away from all the other stuff in NS.

13

Another vote for the Kentville / Wolfville area. It’s a very good time to be a mountain biker here!

Some reasons…

  • Group rides typically happen most Wednesdays with the Annapolis Valley MTB Association.

  • Two new public skills parks (new pump track opening very soon too!)

  • Likely the only four cross course in Atlantic Canada

  • Gobs of racing happening for 4X, DH, XC and Enduro races. I think this year we’ll have had 15+ races in The Valley alone.

  • Lots of support from local towns for biking and trail building

  • New trails popping up all the time

  • Within 15 minutes you have several excellent riding options such as The Gorge, Reservoir Park, Anima Mundi, etc…

  • WIthin 30 minutes you get to The Links, Blomidion, Cape Split, Grey Mtn, etc…

  • Within an hour or so to Halifax and some very cool and unique trails there (Whopper, Fight, etc.)

  • Off season you can go skiing at Martock only 30 minutes form Wolfville, they have both downhill and a excellent nordic centre. Lots of killer snowshoeing to be had here too on all the above mentioned trails and more.

If your ever coming to the area to do some pre setting scouting I’d be more then glad to take a few hour and show you around some of the local hot spots too.

14

Thanks Pepperjester. Greatly appreciate the detailed information.

We have been looking more carefully at the area and are going to check it out well when we come visit at the end of October. Seems to be fitting the bill really well.

15

I’d take Pictou County over The Valley any day. But I’m not mega into mountain biking, more into road riding. The MegaBoxStoreopolis of New Minas or whatever it is is so depressing to go through, I once shortcutted a road ride and had to go through it and it was worse than any Bayers Lake experience (Bayers Lake is one of those Mega Box store ‘communities’ that haved popped up all over NA the past 10+ years or so).

And I don’t experience a lot of bad drivers, but I’ve noticed that a disproportionate amount of the ones I do have experiences with tend to be in The Valley.

16

[quote=“mechwarrior”]I’d take Pictou County over The Valley any day. But I’m not mega into mountain biking, more into road riding. The MegaBoxStoreopolis of New Minas or whatever it is is so depressing to go through, I once shortcutted a road ride and had to go through it and it was worse than any Bayers Lake experience (Bayers Lake is one of those Mega Box store ‘communities’ that haved popped up all over NA the past 10+ years or so).

And I don’t experience a lot of bad drivers, but I’ve noticed that a disproportionate amount of the ones I do have experiences with tend to be in The Valley.[/quote]

mmmmmm smell that fresh Sulphur - Pictou County air.

17

Its a pretty big county, never really noticed. Spend most of my riding in Earltown/Wallace/Tatta area.

Truthfully though, I don’t think anything can match the eye watering stench that comes from biking past those packed like sardines chicken factories of the valley.

18

Almost forgot…

Spring arrives in the valley…

2 weeks ahead of Halifax
3 weeks ahead of Pictou County/Northern NS
4 weeks ahead of Cape Breton

19

From my experience it’s not when spring will show up in Nova Scotia, it’s a matter of will it actually show up.

20

[quote=“mechwarrior”]Its a pretty big county, never really noticed. Spend most of my riding in Earltown/Wallace/Tatta area.

Truthfully though, I don’t think anything can match the eye watering stench that comes from biking past those packed like sardines chicken factories of the valley.[/quote]

Earltown/Wallace/Tatamagouche aren’t in Pictou County.