Nelson BC - Baldface Lodge, Cherry Tops and Shannon Pass rides

Sep 10, 2009

Hurtin' for Vert 2009 - Part 2 of 4

Since we’d been too tired from day one to drive south into the Kootenays during the night, we were all stoked when Lorraine said that we could stay under her roof and then get up super early to head to the Galena Bay ferry for our trip to Nelson. Our game plan today – head to Nelson, meet Pat Williams of Dirt Tours and go ride at Bald Face lodge. Today we can expect steep hike a bikes and lots of descending!

Check out day 1 from Nelson, B.C. inside!

Words by Tyler Maine (unless otherwise noted)
Pictures by Margus Riga (unless otherwise noted)

Rounding up 12 riders at 6:15AM is not an easy feat, but we did it and hit the road. Straight to the ferry as missing it would mean our day trip to Balface would not happen due to timing and that would be a poor excuse on our part.


Our convoy rolled through the Kootenays with the Sacred Ride in Nelson as our meeting point with Pat. Thankfully Pat had convinced local pro and all around good guy Mike Kinrade to drive our vehicles back to town once he was done a day’s work up at Baldface as to save us a 2 hour recovery at the end of our riding day. Thanks MIKE! Matt J from the North Shore Bike Shop in Vancouver was in town on holidays with his wife and joined our traveling circus for the next 2 days as well.


BaldFace - 18.5 km Descent 5500', climb 700'

Driving up to Baldface is a journey in itself and to think that the Cherry Tops Challenge course goes right up this road makes me realize just how far I have to go to call myself a real rider. The Rocky truck suffered its second flat tire of the trip on this road - make sure you have good tires before going up there!


From the lodge it's still another 1.5 kms up to the top of Cherry Tops and I hiked 95% of that climb, but I'm sure the Dingo, Dre and a few others pedaled their way. Once on top of Cherry Tops it was time to take in the view, put on some armor and drop in. Cherry Tops took us to the Meadow trail, to Swamp Donkey and then a short climb up to the great descent that is Shannon Pass.


We rolled back into town hungry, tired and stoked to the max from our first day in Nelson. The whole crew rode to the Mill Street Diner to eat and then out into onto Baker street to peruse the night market that was going on. Pat then rallied all of us up to Mike Kinrade's pad where we spent the night. Thanks again Mike!


Tomorrow we are riding a local Nelson Trail called Paper Bag which drops us directly on the lake. At that time we'll board a Helicopter and fly up to the Burn and Beyond trail. Check back in a few days for the whole story.

Check out the Hurtin for Vert Riders here.
Check here if you missed part 1.