Happy Thanksgiving! Whether your long weekend includes a long ride, a short ride to make room for pumpkin pie, or no ride at all, here's one more thing to be thankful for: the people who look after BC's recreational bike trails.
If you rode a rail trail in BC this summer, someone cleared the fallen trees before you got there. Someone fixed the culverts, raised the money, or spent years asking for the trail to exist at all. Whether it's your local trail or a favourite stretch you discovered while passing through on a bike trip, there are people behind it worth thanking.
Usually, it's a mix of people. A regional district or city might own a trail, while volunteers have spent years getting it built or turn up every spring to clear the brush.
This Thanksgiving, let's pass some of that thanks along. Here's who to thank, and a few fun ways to do it.
Who to thank, trail by trail#
Here are the groups behind many of the trails touring and gravel riders love, with a favourite detail about each.
Vancouver Island
Cowichan Lake back roads. The Cowichan Lake Trail Blazers build and maintain trails on working forest land around Cowichan Lake, by agreement with the landowner. Members can join trail-building days on November 14 and December 12.
Gabriola Island. Volunteers with the Gabriola Land and Trails Trust meet twice a month on Sunday afternoons to cut back brush and clear fallen trees.
Log Train Trail, Port Alberni. This old rail grade is shared by cyclists, walkers, and horse riders, and it's a horse club, the Alberni Valley chapter of the Back Country Horsemen of BC, that puts in volunteer hours and grant money. The Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District leases it from the Province.
Vancouver, Coast & Mountains
Squamish's in-town gravel paths. Squamish Trails Society volunteers brushed, resurfaced, and realigned part of the Finch Creek Loop last year, and cleared downed trees off Loggers Creek Trail.
Sea to Sky Trail, Squamish to Pemberton. The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) looks after it and takes donations for it. The idea began in 1991 with a volunteer society that wanted one trail linking communities from Squamish to D'Arcy. Volunteers still help build and maintain it. Through Whistler it follows the Valley Trail, more than 50 km of paved path the Resort Municipality of Whistler keeps up, clearing about 38 km of snow every winter.
Vedder Rotary Trail, Chilliwack. This flat gravel loop along the Vedder River is part of the Trans Canada Trail. Kilometre 0 of the 100 km stretch to Hope is a trail pavilion near the Lickman Road parking lot. The City of Chilliwack runs it, and Chilliwack's Rotary clubs helped build it.
Thompson Okanagan
Myra Canyon trestles. BC Parks runs the park. The Friends of the South Slopes have looked after the trestles and trails for more than 30 years. Remember to walk your bike across the trestles.
Okanagan Rail Trail. Four owners run it together: the City of Kelowna, the District of Lake Country, the Okanagan Indian Band, and the Regional District of North Okanagan. Friends of Okanagan Rail Trail raises money and runs the trail ambassador program.
Splatsin te Secwépemc / Shuswap North Okanagan Rail Trail. The Splatsin and two regional districts are building it, and it now runs 40 km from Sicamous to just south of Enderby. More than 26,000 people used the Sicamous–Mara Lake section this year. The free ferry that takes riders around the Bruhn Bridge work set a record of more than 800 trail users in one day. Donations for building and maintaining the trail go through the Shuswap Community Foundation.
Grey Canal Trail, Vernon. The Regional District of North Okanagan runs it. Ribbons of Green has championed it and other Vernon-area trails for 25 years.
Mission Creek Greenway, Kelowna. The Regional District of Central Okanagan runs it. The Friends of Mission Creek raised the money to buy land for the greenway.
Kootenay Rockies
Slocan Valley Rail Trail. The Slocan Valley Rail Trail Society looks after all 50 km under an agreement with the Province, and finished this year's fall brushing in early October. When Trans Canada Trail recognized their treasurer as one of 10 volunteers across Canada, the award paid for a pizza night for the trail's volunteers. There are donation boxes at every trailhead.
Nakusp to Summit Lake rail trail. The Nakusp and Area Community Trails Society looks after the Nakusp end, where all-terrain vehicles are allowed. The Rosebery Bonanza Summit Trail Alliance looks after the non-motorized section east of Island View Road.
Grand Forks. Grand Forks Community Trails develops and maintains the trails around town, including 17 km of crushed gravel and singletrack on the Kettle River Heritage Trail.
Boundary Country rail trails, Eholt to McCulloch. Since 2015, the Trails to the Boundary Society has looked after 155 km of the Kettle Valley and Columbia & Western rail trails under an agreement with the Province. Its volunteer directors come from seven small communities along the way, including Greenwood, Midway, Rock Creek, and Beaverdell. Expect to share parts of it with ATVs.
Railgrade, Rossland to Warfield. Kootenay Columbia Trails keeps it clear with a seasonal trail crew. It's rough; wider tires recommended.
Skattebo Reach, Castlegar. Castlegar Parks and Trails finished upgrading this section of the Trans Canada Trail last fall to make it more bike-friendly.
Coal Creek Heritage Trail, Fernie. The Coal Creek Heritage Society, Fernie Trails Alliance, and Tourism Fernie opened a new suspension bridge on the trail in June.
Markin-MacPhail Westside Legacy Trail, Invermere to Fairmont. Columbia Valley Greenways led the more than $9 million project to build this 25 km paved trail, then handed it to the Regional District of East Kootenay. A local couple bought the land for one loop and donated it. It's closed for the season now and reopens May 1.
NorthStar, Cranbrook to Kimberley. The two cities maintain it. The community spent five years putting a gazebo above Marysville, and volunteers wheeled the donated picnic tables up to it.
Northern BC
Cycle 16, Smithers and Telkwa. The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako owns and maintains it. The Cycle 16 Trail Society has raised $2.3 million toward the $7 million trail. The first section opened in 2023, and construction of the remaining sections is underway, including a planned underpass beneath Highway 16.
Rec sites along our trails and resource roads#
For bikepackers, the people behind the trails aren't the only ones to thank. Many of BC's simple, inexpensive places to camp depend on volunteers, too.
Some of these campground operators aren't who you'd expect. The Back Country Horsemen of BC, for example, look after a handful of campgrounds as well as putting work into the Log Train Trail. A volunteer fire department runs one near 100 Mile House. The Four Wheel Drive Association of BC looks after 27, most with a few campsites by a lake or river.
Some groups look after a whole string of lakes. The Lakes Outdoor Recreation Society keeps 25 campgrounds around Burns Lake. Just outside town, the local bike club, Ride Burns, runs the Kager Lake campground at Boer Mountain. Around Clearwater, a community services society looks after 17 lakeside campgrounds, and its job program lists rec site maintenance as paid work for adults with developmental disabilities.
And nearly 300 rec sites with camping and road access are "user maintained." If you stayed at one, you were the maintenance crew. Thank you.
To find out who runs a site you stayed at, look it up on sitesandtrailsbc.ca. Each site's page names its operator under Contact.
Ways to say thanks (no pie required)#
- Write a thank-you note. Two sentences is plenty. Trail volunteers usually hear about a trail when something's broken…. tell them about your good day instead :)
- Feed the trailhead box. The Slocan Valley Rail Trail has a donation box at every trailhead. We're all carrying less change in our saddlebags these days, so they take e-transfers and PayPal too.
- Join for less than the price of a pie. Island Pathways membership is $10 for life. Kootenay Columbia Trails is $10 a year.
- Buy a metre of trail. It costs about $160 to surface one metre of the Shuswap North Okanagan Rail Trail. Every bit helps, and gifts over $20 get a tax receipt.
- Trade a Sunday ride for a Sunday rake. Gabriola's trail volunteers meet twice a month on Sunday afternoons. Email them to get on the list.
- Be the trail's eyes. Spot a fallen tree or a washout? Tell the group that looks after it, with a photo and a specific location when you can.
- Leave the trailside better than you found it. Pack out what you brought, plus some litter.
- Tell your council you love your trail. Regional districts and cities own many of these trails, and they fund what people ask for.
- Riding singletrack? Mountain Biking BC's Support the Trails page will point you to local clubs – they need your support too!
Know a group we missed?#
The groups above are on our Trail Organizations page, with links to donate or get involved. If we missed a group that looks after a trail you love, tell us and we'll add them.
Happy Thanksgiving!