Rose Valley; Lake Loop + Daze of Roses + City on the Edge + Rooster + 3 Unknown Trails!

Everyone appeared to be doing the Daddy thing today, so I left Louise with maps of my intended exploration zone and headed out, flyin’ solo to Rose Valley in Westbank.  Last time in the area I ran into the local builder (Doug L.) and was regaled with tales of new trails - the likes of which I had not yet seen; I was keen to see em'!

The main goal of this visit was to experience the new trail which runs from the end of West Kelowna Rd., near the water-tower, down to the lake, as well as a trail on the west side of Rose valley lake, uniquely titled “City on the Edge of Forever”.  Naturally, I was also drawn to explore several others while in the area; nearly 20km of ascending / descending later, I was physically spent but hugely satisfied with my time in the mountains!

The new entry (I think that it's called “Rooster”, but don’t quote me on that) is (((far))) better than the steep, baby-head-strewn track that we’ve been using for years to get down to lake-level.  It even looks eminently ascendable, though I didn’t choose to ride back up that way.  Rooster has the signature of the Daze of Roses and Smith Creek builder all over it.  When you see it, you’ll know what I mean.

City on the Edge’ is a mind-blower; whoever hewed it out of the mountainside is a rock-demon, sections of the excavation are indescribably massive, and the trail itself is >crazily< technical.  There are many zones where the side-hill exposure makes Campbell Mt.’s Canyon Trail look like the kind of place you’d feel safe to let the kids play!

I figure that I’m a pretty good technical rider, but I found myself getting off to walk sections on several occasions, and that’s with armor on!  This insanity continues for a little less than half of the overall vertical drop, then the trail turns into a fantastic route on all counts, before hooking up with the Rose Lake Trail.

I thought that I knew Rose Valley fairly well, but today’s explorations also found me riding three new-to-me trail sections, which invariably featured additional turns-offs to ???  My “Brute Force and Ignorance” strategy even found me hike-a-biking to the summit of a height of land; on a trail that was obviously a descent… Live and learn.  Rose Valley is an amazing riding area, one that I encourage all of you to explore this summer!


Rose Valley's Sweet Singletrack




Trail-side Beauties (Thread-Leafed Phacelia)




City on the Edge of Forever (get yur' ʞrazy on!)




C.O.T.E.O.F Trail-Through-Arch

 

The link below is to an iPhone panorama of the entire area;

http://cdnav.com/images/RoseValley/Rose%20Valley.jpg


The day's exploration (too large to post here)

http://cdnav.com/images/RoseValley/Rose%20Valley%20Overview.jpg


Andrew