Trailforks Trail of the Month: The Gorge

This month we focus our attention on a small town in Atlantic Canada. With a population of just under 7000 people, the Town of Kentville, Nova Scotia has taken a line out of the movie Field of Dreams to heart, "If you build it, they will come!" The town has seen the light and realized the positive impact mountain biking can have on the community and the local economy. The town's Recreation department in conjunction with the local trail association Annapolis Valley Mountain Bike Association have created something truly special. They've created a partnership that has benefited mountain bikers across the region. Nearby towns have started to adopt the same mentality as Kentville and newly constructed bike trails, skills parks and pump tracks have started popping up all over the province.

The Gorge in Kentville has become home to several purpose built mountain bike trails, complete with man-made features, signage and a skills park with many technical wooden features for all level of riders. The area has also become popular with the downhill crowd and now hosts, Fear the Gorge the 5th stop on this past seasons Provincial DH Gravity Series. The town, with the help of Trailflow Outdoor Adventures and AVMBA has even hosts The Kentville Mountain Bike Festival, a weekend long event to help introduce people to the sport of mountain bike and highlight all the area has to offer.

The trail system itself is not new by any means. The town acquired the 26 hectare parcel of land back in 1930, the original doubletrack trails were built in the early 50's and still remain to this day. Over the last five years, many hours of hard work have been put in to revamp the network of trails. New wooden features have been added, and existing ones have been rebuilt. Bridges were built to help alleviate erosion on trails that were notoriously wet. Machines were brought in to help create a couple of new trails and smooth out a few sections of existing trails to create better flow. A large wooden picnic shelter was also built, so riders could have a relaxing place to replenish and rest before they headed back out to explore more of the trails.

I reached out to a few of the local riders and asked them, "What would you consider to be the "must ride" trail when visiting The Gorge and why?". They all said, Lower Phase 2 combined with the newly constructed Upper Phase 2. The trail itself is not all that technical, but what it lacks on the technical side it makes up by how well the trail flows. Technically the Phase 2 trails are not part of the main Gorge trail network, but are still within The Gorge boundaries and can be accessed by a short ride across the Upper Service Rd.

Once you've finished exploring The Gorge and all it has to offer, make sure to check out the neighbouring towns of Wolfville and Berwick. Thanks to the hard work of all the volunteers at Annapolis Valley Mountain Bike Association the two areas combined offer another 30 km's of well-maintained singletrack to ride.

If you like what you see then please support our friends at the Annapolis Valley Mountain Bike Association and earn some Trail Karma while you're at it.