Rossland/Nelson riding tips

[Huskier]

BC tourism's insta campaign got to me and now I'm heading up for a few days riding. Scoping trails it looks like there are some pretty decent long rides, anything must-see? Have the option of a sprightly down-country rig to log miles or a full on bro-duro sled. Which bike?

[D(C)]

I’ve ridden a few things around Nelson. It’s a lot of steep climbs to sustained descents. I’d say the bigger bike is the call.

Some friends were raving about Castlegar as well. I don’t have any firsthand experience but you may want to check there out as well.

[toast2266]

Nelson is one of the few places where a full enduro rig actually makes sense for almost every trail there. Most of the climbs are steep grinds (often on dirt roads) and most of the trails are even steeper plummets.

Rossland is fun but a bit mellower. I'd still rather have the big bike on a lot of that stuff though. 7 summits is worthy of the downcountry bike, but personally I generally skip it. It's a lovely trail, but I think there is better riding in the region.

Nelson kind of has too many awesome trails to list, but if I had 2 days and I wasn't shuttling at all, I'd probably ride Svoboda area one day (a lap on log jam, back up and all the way down paper bag, then maybe some shorter laps if you need more). The next day I'd go to the north shore and ride sitkum in the morning and over to Nooner, morning sickness, and newtsac in the afternoon. Shuttles can potentially be arranged through sacred ride downtown. If you can get on one of those up to powerslave, you won't regret throwing some money at it.

In rossland, I'd hit some combination of whiskey, cherry Poppins, and crown point (all in one zone) and then flume or SMD (in the same zone but dropping down the other side of the hill).

Castlegar is also great. There's a couple trails north of town that are big descents and are super fun. There's also a small network south of town that's worthwhile and has a nicely built climbing trail.

[Eluder]

Can you bring both? I guess it depends how much of sled your enduro rig is. There will be ample pedaling but you will be undergunned on the down country bike on many trails.

Merry Creek is the spot west of Castlegar. Super fun.

[t.odd]

they like the fall line in the Kootenays! another vote for more is better out there. Make sure Paper Bag's been cut out recently as it's prone to a lot of blow down with every storm that comes through town, Middle Earth is really fun in that area too, Una Canuma has a bit of a an xc traverse to get to the descent but also really good. Looks like the Vein is back open on Mountain Station, maybe on of my favourite trails in BC, Skirt(s) and Eli Sim are really good too. If you have a driver Cherry Tops/Shannon Pass is worth it too.

Haven't ridden in Castlegar so can't say much about that, Rossland is fun, but as with the skiing I'd personally give the nod to Nelson for my preferences when it comes to bikes.

[bennymac]

The baked goods at Empire coffee in Nelson are a good way to refuel.

[LeeLau]

For Rossland you can camp at the Lions campground or at Nancy Green Park out of town ( has a lake). The bike shop runs shuttles to Seven Summits.

One option not mentioned was to ride 7 Summits to Plewman. This was a lot of fun also

Castlegar has a nice municipal park swimming hole in town. We camped at the golf course which had shady spots and no bugs and breezes. Merry Creek has been mentioned. Goose Creek was also superb.

[Falcon3]

The baked goods at Empire coffee in Nelson are a good way to refuel.

Haven’t tried Empire but the breccy sando with sprouts at Oso Negro Coffee is out of this world

[bennymac]

Haven’t tried Empire but the breccy sando with sprouts at Oso Negro Coffee is out of this world

Wow drool. I think I’d hit Oso for that and coffee and then walk to empire for desert and second coffee.

[Huskier]

For Rossland you can camp at the Lions campground or at Nancy Green Park out of town ( has a lake). The bike shop runs shuttles to Seven Summits.

One option not mentioned was to ride 7 Summits to Plewman. This was a lot of fun also

Castlegar has a nice municipal park swimming hole in town. We camped at the golf course which had shady spots and no bugs and breezes. Merry Creek has been mentioned. Goose Creek was also superb.

Yeah Nancy Green was my plan for night 1. And the lake will prob be useful cause it is gonna be balls hot. Thx all for the Intel

[LeeLau]

Yeah Nancy Green was my plan for night 1. And the lake will prob be useful cause it is gonna be balls hot. Thx all for the Intel

I forgot to mention the better campsite at Castlegar is Syringa provincial park west of town; but it'll be booked solid by now so unless you can book in advance then it might not work

Pass Creek has a little lake and creek running through it for camping but it won't have the breezes that the Golf Club has so that's the trade-off.

In Nelson the city campground is nice and you can pretty easily get to Rotary Park for lake dips.

Forgot to mention that you should call in advance and get the Rossland bike shop shuttles as they can fill up

[toast2266]

In Nelson the city campground is nice and you can pretty easily get to Rotary Park for lake dips.

My experience with the city campground is that it's mostly skeezy hippies that'll try to steal your shit. I avoid that place.

Kokanee creek campground is nice, but likely booked solid. There's plenty of logging roads you can drive up and camp if you don't need any amenities. Gold creek is easy enough, especially if you go up a ways. And there's great trail in that zone.

[Beaver]

Someone was asking about wild camping in the nelson area, I posted a coordinates of a couple great spots by the creek near my house. Drive to the end of soukoroff rd and across the old ball park to the creek. Also access to really nice spot along the creek just off winter road near the fire hall. Castlegar has some great riding. Merry creek trails are fun but pretty short, Goose creek is about 900m vertical 7km long, Grandeflorium is a good long decent, Awakener starts a couple km above Grandeflorium, it's got some fun features (step ups, skinny, drops).

[Beaver]

Hot as fuck right now, no time to be riding.