McDougal Rim / Bylands Loop

Two titles, same trail...

Played hooky from work today and drove up to Westbank in order to meet up with some old friends and ride the McDougall - Bylands Loop; a classic from before there was much in the way of developed trails in our beautiful valley.

Doug, Eric and I set out shortly after 11am with vague recollections of riding the trail in decades past (literally) - none of us clearly remembering just how big of a ride this was. All of us had heard through the grapevine and via Internet websites that the trail had been savaged by motorized trail users and was no longer worth riding; but since all three of us were fans of the route “back in the day”, we just had to see it for ourselves.

As it turns out, the forest service road component of the trail was a lot longer than we had recalled, and the route was a hella’ lot more complex than any of us remembered as well. Luckily, I had a track from a friend loaded on my GPS as well as a smartphone with same as a backup to guide us. A note to the wise; if you try this route, make sure that you are riding with a dependable and knowledgeable guide or have a GPS device loaded with the accompanying track, as there are far more junctions and single/dual/quad track options to this route than I could even begin to describe! Bring a second form of GPS or trail-map backup as well; there are that many intersections for 80% of the route!

Regarding the Internet chatter about the singletrack portions of the trail having been obliterated; I’m pleased to report that rumors of the McDougall-Byland route’s death have been greatly exaggerated! It’s still a highly recommended mountain bike ride, but only for extremely fit individuals, as it’s a Kong-sized adventure! I’d further suggest that it be tackled in late May to early June and beyond, as we experienced a good bit of snow on-trail today.

The alpine sections of the route bore no tracks beyond moose, so it’s safe to assume that we were the first group through this year. As such, we found tons of deadfall across the path. We cleared quite a bit of it, but numerous trees were simply too large for our 10” hand saws. Quad-riders with chainsaws do have a place and time… it’s just too bad that they don’t go away after they’ve cleared the large trees :-)

We all agreed that the singletrack sections of the loop were supremely sweet, and in no better or worse condition than we collectively experienced nearly twenty years ago! The route that we enjoyed on the way up also featured a new section of firm-surfaced, cedar-laden quad-trail, running creek-side through the forest; it was really beautiful and eliminated sections of FSR - which can be a little tedious. We also had a hoot crossing McDougall Cr., Hayman Cr. and Hidden Creek; all of which were raging in full aquatic regalia. With a little ingenuity, we managed all three crossings without getting soaked!

The route is about 24km long and rises from 630m to 1429m - thus a raw elevation gain of 799 vertical meters, which in old-school lingo is 2621 vertical feet. This doesn’t include the (many) small climbs and descents found within the route as a whole. I’m guessing that there is in excess of 3000 vertical feet of rise overall to the experience. Yup’, it’s a whopper of a ride! Five hours later, we popped out at our vehicles - luckily we each had a cold one on ice awaiting us! Andrew’s rating; get freekin’ fit and giver er’ a go!


Cedar-Lined Two-Track




Snow Near The Summit




Creek Crossing Hilarity!




Alpine Two-Track




Alpine Flowers Everywhere!




Sweet, Sweet, Alpine Singletrack!




Looking down at Rose Valley Lake / Trail Network and Okanagan Lake




Map



Google Earth File for this route


Andrew

I'm getting a lot of email about this post, specifically - that the very bottom section of the ride is shot beyond all reasonable doubt. The problem is one of following the 'correct' path rather than being tempted by the shortcut... I've experienced the section that they refer to, and its truly a nightmare.

Here is the deal; as one approaches the very end of the trail - the last 1km or so, a path drops off to the right. Sensing the they are immediately above the vehicle parking area, most riders are tempted to drop down said path. That's a mistake - as the trail leads into the gates of hell!

The actual trail continues along, bearing southeast, allowing riders to experience a beauty', flowing section of 'wide singletrack', soon popping out at your vehicle - with nary a 'slip, slide and away' section to be seen!

The different is day and night. The 'Hell Trail' section was likely created by dirt-bike riders ascending, and despite having been blocked off by logs on numerous occasions, is often open and inviting to mountain bikers heading back to their vehicles. When next riding this trail, pay close attention to the GPS track at hand, or simply resist the temptation to drop to the right as you sense the ride coming to a close.

Andrew

In the one creek-crossing pic' you may notice Eric's bike; V-Brakes, Brake-Boosters on an original Marzocchi Bomber with perhaps 2" of effective fork travel. Now (((that's))) kicking it old school!

If the trail can be ridden with finesse on that bike, there should be absolutely no complaints from anyone about the validity of this route!

A.

I also heard that he had a bit of a crash but nothing that a beer couldn't fix.

Yup - Eric the Viking soil-sampled on a relatively easy section - kinda' like the places that many tend to wipe out for some odd reason... inattention, day-dreaming about beer or girls etc. I suspect...

A.