Fernie Mountain Biking: The Top 10 Trails

May 4, 2017

Hey, My name is Ryan and I’m the Ride Direc­tor and Lead Guide for Sacred Rides British Colum­bia. I’ve been in a steady rela­tion­ship with bikes for about 32 years. I enjoy a wide vari­ety of bik­ing; be it all day all moun­tain, full speed down­hill, free-ride, dirt jumps, tri­als, errors, you name it, I’ll ride it. When I’m not rolling on a bicy­cle, I enjoy fix­ing them, or, rolling on dirt bikes and skate­boards, slid­ing on snow, climb­ing on rocks, yoga, slack­lin­ing and park­our. A gen­er­al love for action sports and the nat­ur­al world dri­ves my pas­sion to make a liv­ing doing what I love, and to share these expe­ri­ences with others.

With years of expe­ri­ence moun­tain bik­ing in British Colum­bia, and being part of the Fer­nie moun­tain bik­ing scene, I have com­piled a list of my favourite top 10 moun­tain bike trails in Fer­nie, B.C.—the place I call home.

Expe­ri­ence the best moun­tain bik­ing in British Colum­bia on our 6–13 Day Guid­ed Moun­tain Bike Adven­tures. You’ll get a taste of the best fer­nie moun­tain bik­ing trails.

Hope you ride with you in British Colum­bia soon!

- Ryan drop­ping in on Dirt Dig­gler in Fernie.

My Top 10 Trails in Fernie, British Columbia

Dis­claimer: This list cov­ers a wide array of trails, and show­cas­es the diver­si­ty of moun­tain bik­ing in British Colum­bia.. I love the chal­lenge of rid­ing it all on one bike (my 6″ trav­el Knol­ly War­den), and I invite you to do the same. You can park any­where in Fer­nie, and eas­i­ly access all of these trails.

The fol­low­ing pho­tos all rep­re­sent trails in Fer­nie, a cou­ple pho­tos do not match the trail name they are under.

Get the most out of each ride and go ful­ly guid­ed in B.C. with one of our kick-ass guid­ed moun­tain bike trips in British Colum­bia — all based out of the beau­ti­ful, rocky moun­tain town of Fernie.

1. HYPEREXTENSION
   Rat­ing: Black Dia­mond
   This is a long time favourite of mine. It’s fast, twisty, and a heavy dose of tech­ni­cal. There are many tight cor­ners, root beds and sur­pris­es that throw you for a loop every time, I call it ‘bro­ken flow’. A sol­id sev­en min­utes of near­ly full speed shred­ding that leaves me feel­ing like I could do some­thing bet­ter every time I ride it. Com­pare your time to the pros for a slice of hum­ble pie.

2. KUSH
   Rat­ing: Black Dia­mond
   This trail is not on every­one’s top 10, because it’s a car­dio pumper. It takes you through sev­er­al steep ups and downs that require mas­sive ply­o­met­ric bursts of ener­gy to ride quick­ly. Calm your breath­ing before you start, then give ‘er hard and crank through Kush, Kushi­er, Kushi­est, and the lat­est exten­sion Kush­ion for a 4 part car­dio-crush­er with some awe­some high speed sec­tions. I’m sad to say the area has been fresh­ly logged, but the trail remains, and it will come back to life the more it gets ridden.

3. BRAD’S GAY
   Rat­ing: Dou­ble Black Dia­mond
   The rea­son for the trails name was a result of Brad not com­ing to dig, just so you know.. This is an advanced free-ride jump trail, recent­ly rebuilt with ful­ly formed dirt jumps, berms, and rollers from top to bot­tom. Unless you fre­quent 15–20ft gaps, then this isn’t for you, but go check it out just for fun. It’s one of the first trails I laid eyes on in Fer­nie, and it cer­tain­ly made me think ‘Wow Man, Fer­nie is Rad’.

4. Phat Bas­tard
   Rat­ing: Black Dia­mond 
   What? An uphill in the top 10 list?! Yeah, that’s right. This is uphill at the  finest. An exam­ple of how real moun­tain bik­ers like to climb. This ain’t no fire road, well actu­al­ly it starts with a road climb to warm you up, then some tough dou­ble track to get the blood flow­ing and oxy­gen pump­ing, and then it gets HARD, but offers just enough breaks to catch half a breath between the 14 or so crux’s along the way. 

5. Red Son­ja
   Rat­ing: Black Dia­mond
   When you get to the top of Phat Bas­tard then get into DH mode for this rip­ping descent. It only takes a cou­ple min­utes, but all you will remem­ber is a blur of excite­ment. This adren­a­line rush is like sky div­ing — it hap­pens fast, but it lasts a while. Com­bine with the trail Mush­room Head to get the full experience.

6. Project 9
   Rat­ing: Black Dia­mond 
   Leg­endary. There’s a beer named after it. Check out the Fer­nie Brew­ing  Company!

7. Swine Flu
   Rat­ing: Blue 
   The locals favourite after­noon quicky. Feel like you need to squeeze one in? Go get some Swine Flu and come down feel­ing odd­ly sat­is­fied every time (unless you blow one of those cor­ners — these things hap­pen).  Want to get inspired to come ride Swine Flu…  WATCH THIS (video on Pink Bike)! 

8. Undis­closed Name—Steep and Scary Down­hill
   Rat­ing: Dou­ble Black Dia­mond
   If you ask the locals about a trail name that starts with a hot dog condi­ment, and ends with a striped ani­mal, they might tell you about a place where only crazy peo­ple go. They will first size you up, size up your bike, and ask “Who sent you here?” Tell them you heard that this trail is amongst the steep­est in BC and you wish to con­quer it. Only then may the loca­tion be revealed. They might also sug­gest you ride Dopamine and Dig­gler first.

9. Old Goat
   Rat­ing: Blue
   Fer­nie Provin­cial Park is a mag­i­cal place. Lose your­self in this AM trail net­work through incred­i­ble old growth for­est. It’s rather coastal-like in the mossy, damp, thriv­ing nat­ur­al eco-sys­tem. The trees are huge, the scent is super nat­ur­al, and the trail sur­face is always loamy and organ­ic feel­ing. End a day of lift-access at Fer­nie Alpine Resort with a long mean­der­ing flow through the Park, all the way back to town. This is a unique expe­ri­ence you can only get here in one of the best moun­tain bik­ing towns in B.C.

10. Unbuilt Down­hill Jump Flow Trail—Coming Sep­tem­ber 2017!
    The trail build­ing com­mu­ni­ty in Fer­nie is very active and pro­gres­sive. A lot goes into main­tain­ing the high qual­i­ty trails we have, and a lot of mon­ey and effort go into new trails every year. A project is offi­cial­ly get­ting under way to cre­ate a mod­ern super flow down­hill jump, berm, and roller trail. It will be a blue lev­el free-ride trail filled with black lev­el bonus fea­tures. We’re excit­ed and I know it will be on my top 10 list when it’s fin­ished, come check it out soon!

For more infor­ma­tion and trav­el tips on moun­tain bik­ing in British Colum­bia, check out our arti­cle “Plan­ning a Moun­tain Bike Trip to British Colum­bia: Must-See, Must-Do”

Also check out the Fer­nie Tourism web­site and Tourism B.C. and for all the oth­er awe­some activ­i­ties you can do in the area!

And remem­ber, always go local. Rid­ing with a local guide and moun­tain bike expert in your cho­sen des­ti­na­tion has end­less ben­e­fits for both your over­all expe­ri­ence and safe­ty. If you’re think­ing of moun­tain bik­ing in Fer­nie, we’d love to hear from you. Whether you decide to trav­el with us or on your own, we’re always excit­ed to chat about moun­tain biking!