Trail to Ale + Slunt, Fernie, BC | 44km, 1773m
Wow! We had a heck of a crew for Trail to Ale - 9 people! A leisurely full day of mountain biking. For Fernie Brewing Co’s 20 year anniversary, they tacked on a 4th trail to be entered into a raffle to win some sort of prize. Though winning the prize was unlikely, we figured we’d do the 4th trail anyway and that we would start with it.
We pedaled from town up Phat Bastard to Mushroom Head…
… to Lactic Ridge (brutal. I hear the best way to start a ride is with zero warm up.) to Stupid Traverse…
… to the top of the first trail - Slunt (aka S-bomb, trail 1, or the bonus trail). The first full view of Fernie did not dissapoint!
Then we cruised down Slunt to Brokeback Ridge and across the Powerlines to the P9 Access Trail (trail 2). Climb 2 really had us start to feel it! I personally couldn’t wait to get back to town to stop for a bagel break.
I forgot to capture a photo of the Big Bang bagel but the views were a good snack too.
We then climbed from town up Easy Beaver to Montane Blue to Uprooted then Roots. This climb was directly in the heat of the day with little to no shade. We got to see Fernie ski hill though!
The next climb was Hyperventilation. This was my favorite climb as it was very cross country and had many switch backs.
We got a group photo at the top of trail 3 - Hyperextension.
Hyperextension was so beautiful and so fun!!
We filled up water at Gearhub. After one more cruise through town, we climbed up Fairy Creek Trail to Swine Flu - trail 4. Swine flu was the easiest climb and luckily the last on our journey! This trail was flowy and burmy and fast on the way down and fully in the trees.
Then we finally finished at Fernie Brewing with our well earned free beer and raffle prize entry.
- Total time: 8:27:28
- Moving time: 5:04:17
- Total ascent: 5818 ft (1773 m)
- Total descent: 5769 ft (1758 m)
- Total distance: 27.37 mi (44.05 km)