Bikes and Beers Adventures

Huntsville:

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 06:06:33 -0700

There’s a version of mountain biking in Ontario that we grew up on: rolling terrain, sandy soil, XC-style loops. And then there’s Huntsville. If BRMC opened our eyes to what Shield riding could feel like, the trails at Hidden Valley and Deerhurst turned the volume all the way up. This is Ontario riding with real elevation, real rock, and real consequences — and it’s hosting Canadian Enduro League races because the terrain earned it.

Muskoka is defined by its geology: 1,600 lakes carved by glaciers, ancient exposed granite everywhere you look, and the kind of vertical relief that just doesn’t exist south of Barrie. The Huntsville Mountain Bike Association — HMBA — has taken full advantage. What they’ve built here is exceptional.

What You’re Actually Riding

The HMBA network is spread across a few different properties around Huntsville, but the flagship is the connected trail system at Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area and the adjoining Deerhurst Resort. There are roughly 8 kilometres of trails at Hidden Valley (open to the public) and another 12 kilometres over at Deerhurst (for HMBA members and Deerhurst guests only). Combined, you get a network that takes a strong rider two to three hours to complete once, with enough variety that you’ll want to session multiple laps of your favourites.

The terrain is Muskoka at its best. More elevation than most Ontario trail systems. Exposed granite features. Natural rocky sections. Trails that make full use of the geography rather than fighting it. There are green trails that will still surprise a beginner with a rocky section here and there — you’re on the Shield, and there’s no way around that — but the difficulty ramps progressively, and the HMBA has built the network to grow with you.

This is the kind of riding that makes flatland Ontario riders come home...Read More

BRMC:

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 06:11:43 -0700

If you’d asked us five years ago where to ride in Muskoka, we would have talked about the drive north and shrugged. Not anymore. The mountain bike scene in Muskoka has exploded, and the trail system at the Bracebridge Resource Management Centre — BRMC to the locals — is at the heart of it. What started as a modest set of trails opened in 2019 has become one of the most talked-about riding destinations in central Ontario, and for good reason.

The soil here is thin. The rock is ancient. The Canadian Shield sits right under your tires. Which means BRMC rides like nothing else on our regular rotation. You’re not going to find sandy flow here. You’re going to find granite, roots, punchy climbs, and technical descents that will teach you what your bike can actually do.

What You’re Actually Riding

BRMC sits just north of downtown Bracebridge, right off Highway 11, on the edge of the Muskoka River. The trails are built and maintained by the Muskoka Off-Road Cycling Association — MORCA — a volunteer club formed in 2018 that has been aggressively expanding the network ever since. There’s roughly 19 kilometres of trail on the property now (some estimates put it closer to 25), spread across a mix of doubletrack and singletrack, with new trails constantly being added.

The network splits into two flavours based on which parking lot you use. From the North lot, you get more mellow trails through pine forest — flow lines, family-friendly options, gentle intros to the terrain. From the South lot, things get real fast. The trails here take you into the exposed Canadian Shield with rocky technical climbs, punchy descents, ridges, and features that will demand your full attention.

The Shield doesn’t forgive lazy riding. You learn to trust your tires, look ahead, and let the bike work. Once you do, you never want to...Read More

The Pines:

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 06:09:05 -0700

There’s a stretch of forest just east of Woodstock, tucked in behind farmland and pine plantations, where a small but fiercely dedicated cycling club has spent the last two decades building one of the most fun trail networks in southwestern Ontario. If you live in London, Kitchener, or anywhere along the 401 south of Toronto, and you’ve never made the trip — you owe yourself this ride.

The Pines isn’t big. It isn’t flashy. There’s no lodge, no licensed patio, no bike shop at the trailhead. What it has is fourteen kilometres of some of the best-designed singletrack you’ll find anywhere in the province, and a local club that has genuinely poured its soul into the place.

What You’re Actually Riding

The Pines sits on private land east of Woodstock, on the banks of the Thames River. The trails wind through a pine plantation where the trees are planted in orderly rows — which sounds boring until you realize what the trail builders did with them. They snaked the singletrack between and around the trees in tight, twisting, endlessly creative lines. There are no long straightaways to bore you and almost no doubletrack to slow you down. Just fifty-plus named trails packed into a compact footprint with all the flow you could ask for.

The terrain is mostly flat by the river with short hills in the interior. The soil is compact, mostly smooth, with some sandy sections and just enough roots to keep you honest. There are bermed corners, log rides, small ramps, a few boardwalks, and a couple of rock garden features. It’s the kind of place where you finish a lap, catch your breath, and immediately want to do another one.

You’ll ride here once and understand why locals return every weekend. Fifty trails in a compact footprint means you’re never far from something new to try.

Dufferin County Forest:

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 06:56:59 -0700

If Mansfield Outdoor Centre is the polished, licensed, pay-to-play trail centre in the Mulmur Hills, Dufferin County Forest is the wild, sprawling, free-to-ride cousin that shares the same neighbourhood. Both are worth your time. Both are excellent. But they’re fundamentally different rides.

Dufferin is what happens when you take a 1,066-hectare stretch of managed forest, hand it to a passionate community of trail builders, and let them thread singletrack through it for two decades. The result is a network so big that most Ontario riders — even ones who’ve been coming for years — haven’t ridden every trail. And that’s part of the charm.

What You’re Actually Riding

Dufferin County Forest is broken into multiple tracts, but the one you want for mountain biking is the Main Tract, just north of Mansfield on Airport Road. There’s over 50 kilometres of dedicated mountain bike singletrack in this tract alone, spread across roughly 75 named trails on Trailforks. The Mono Tract to the south adds another 27 or so trails if you want to keep going. Combined with the neighbouring Mansfield Outdoor Centre property, you’re looking at over 1,900 acres of connected riding.

The terrain is classic Mulmur — sandy loam soil that drains fast, gently rolling hills that get steeper as you head east, and a smooth, fast-flowing character that makes Dufferin one of the best XC destinations in the province. Hills are gentle at first, then more punchy as you push deeper into the network. Nothing here is scary. Everything here is fun.

Fifty kilometres of flowing singletrack, sandy soil that stays fast, and a network so vast you can genuinely get pleasantly lost in it. This is why we come.

Who It’s For

XC and endurance...Read More

Turkey Point: 85 Kilometres of Singletrack, Sandy Soil, and the Trail System That Saves Spring

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 06:08:12 -0700

Every spring, the same thing happens. The snow melts, the days get longer, the trails everyone wants to ride are too soft to touch, and Ontario mountain bikers find themselves staring at their bikes wondering when they can finally get back out. And then someone in the group chat says, "Turkey Point is open."
And just like that, the season starts.
Turkey Point — or TP, as the locals call it — sits on the shores of Lake Erie in Norfolk County, about 90 minutes south of Hamilton. It has roughly 85 kilometres of singletrack, sandy soil that drains in hours rather than days, and a microclimate that means it’s rideable when nothing else in the province is. For Ontario riders, TP is the trail system that saves spring. And it earns a place on your annual rotation for far more than just that.
What You’re Actually Riding
The trails at Turkey Point are managed by the Turkey Point Mountain Bike Club — TPMBC — which started in 2011 with 52 members and has since grown to over 575. The club holds memorandums of understanding with eight different landowners in the area, including Turkey Point Provincial Park, the St. Williams Conservation Reserve, and various private landholders. The result is a sprawling network of 85-plus kilometres of singletrack stitched across multiple tracts, with five separate parking areas serving as access points.
The terrain is flat. We mean it. The longest descent on the entire property is maybe 20 metres of vertical drop. What Turkey Point lacks in elevation, it more than makes up for in trail design — tight, twisting singletrack threaded through Carolinian forest, sandy fast-rolling sections, the occasional rooty challenge, and route options that essentially never end. With over 70 named trails, you can ride here all weekend and not retrace your tire tracks.
Le Massif is a different kind of day. You don’t pedal up. You ride a gondola or a chairlift to the top, you point your bike down, and you do it again. And again. And the entire time, the St. Lawrence stretches out beneath you like an inland sea.
What You’re Actually Riding
Le Massif de Charlevoix sits in Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, about an hour east of Quebec City along the river. The bike park opened in 2020 — relatively new in the bike-park world — and has grown rapidly into a major destination. There are roughly 55 kilometres of purpose-built trails on the mountain, including 23 gravity-fed enduro routes, two skills zones, and a pro line for the truly committed.
The vertical drop is the headline number: 770 metres top to bottom. That’s the most vertical you can ride in eastern Canada, and it changes the entire character of the day. A single descent can be 5, 6, even 7 minutes of continuous riding. By lap three, your forearms know you’re at a real bike park.
The trail building is excellent. Most of the trails fall on the flowy, fast end of the spectrum — bermed corners, machine-built tabletop sections, predictable rhythm. But there are also technical lines, rock features, and tighter natural sections added in recent years for the riders who want them. The crown jewel for most visitors is Cerise sur le Sundae — 3 kilometres of pure descent with the...Read More

Vallée Bras-du-Nord: The Trail System That Single-Handedly Put Quebec on the Map

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:07:07 -0700

If you ride mountain bikes seriously and you’ve never been to Vallée Bras-du-Nord, here’s your sign. VBN is the trail system that more or less kickstarted the modern Quebec mountain bike scene, and almost twenty years after the first trails went in, it remains one of the most jaw-dropping riding destinations in eastern North America. We don’t say "bucket list" lightly. This is bucket list.
VBN sits about an hour northwest of Quebec City in the rolling hills around Saint-Raymond, and the riding here doesn’t feel like riding in Canada. It feels like riding in a Pacific Northwest backcountry film. Rushing rivers. Towering cliffs. Waterfalls in the middle of descents. Wood features built into the landscape like they grew there. It’s the kind of place that makes you reconsider everything you thought you knew about Ontario riding.
What You’re Actually Riding
Vallée Bras-du-Nord has over 100 kilometres of singletrack spread across two distinct sectors. The Saint-Raymond sector is the more accessible side — roughly 30 kilometres of trail laid across three small countryside-style mountains right at the edge of town. The trails here are shorter, more playful, more technical in spots, and easy to access for a half-day session. This is where you’ll find Mont-Laura with its iconic chapel viewpoint at the top, and the Roquemont trails that connect right to the hotel and brewpub of the same name.
The Shannahan sector — 20 minutes north of Saint-Raymond on a gravel road — is the wild side. This is the VBN that gets written about in international cycling magazines. The trails wind through boreal forest along glacial hills, climb past cliffs, and trace the Bras-du-Nord River past waterfalls and cascades that look like postcard backdrops.
And then there are the Neilson trails. Neilson Est, Neilson Nord, and Neilson...Read More

Empire 47: The Quebec City Trail System That Actually Welcomes Everyone

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 06:05:42 -0700

Quebec City is one of the best mountain bike regions in North America, and it can also be intimidating. The trails are technical. The terrain is unfamiliar. The signage is in French. For an Ontario rider on their first Quebec road trip, knowing where to start can be the difference between an incredible weekend and an overwhelming one.
Start at Empire 47. We mean that genuinely. E47 — as the locals call it — is the most welcoming, most accessible, most progression-friendly trail system in the Quebec City region, and it just happens to also have advanced trails that will satisfy the strongest riders in your group. It’s the perfect first stop on a Quebec trip, and it’s the easiest sell for bringing newer riders along.
What You’re Actually Riding
Empire 47 sits in Lac-Delage, about 20 minutes north of downtown Quebec City. The network is roughly 70 kilometres of marked singletrack, split into two complementary zones: a steeper, more enduro-oriented section with serious climbs and serious descents, and a flatter cross-country area built around accessibility. Most of the trails are connected by an easy or intermediate loop, which means you can pick any line, regroup at the next junction, and dial up or down without ever feeling stranded.
The trail building here is excellent — Whistler’s Gravity Logic has compared some of these lines to what you’d ride in Squamish. There are two jump lines, including the pro-line Haut Valkyrie with stepdowns and gaps that will make your jaw drop. There’s a paved, lit pump track at the base for warmup or sundown laps. And there’s a proper skills park for working on technique.
This is the trail system that bridges the Quebec experience for a wide range of riders. Beginner laps in the morning, jump-line laps in the afternoon, pump track at sunset.
Read More

Sentiers du Moulin: The Rock-Slab Wonderland That Belongs on Every Ontario Rider’s Bucket List

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 07:48:52 -0700

Ask a hundred riders from southern Ontario where they’d ride if they could be teleported
anywhere in eastern North America for a long weekend, and a meaningful number of them will say the same thing: Quebec City. And once you’ve been there once, you understand why. Sentiers du Moulin — SDM for short — is the trail system that sets the tone. Just 25 minutes from downtown Quebec City, tucked into the Laurentian mountains around Lac-Beauport, it’s the kind of place that resets your sense of what eastern Canadian mountain biking can be.
We’ve ridden SDM a few times now as a club. It’s genuinely one of those trail systems where you stop halfway down a descent, look around, and wonder if you somehow got
teleported to Squamish.
What You’re Actually Riding
SDM has roughly 70 kilometres of trail spread across two distinct zones, both of them carved into the granite of the Canadian Shield. The SDM area is the original network —
enduro-style trails with relatively manageable climbs and short, intense
descents packed with rock features and rolled lines. The Maelstrom area is the
newer expansion, and it’s where things get unreal. Big slab roll-downs, exposed
rock ridges, and views that genuinely look like they belong on the West Coast.
The big-ticket trail here is Slab City — a 1.5 km descent that rides almost entirely on
exposed granite. It’s been described as the world’s longest rideable rock slab
on a mountain bike, and it absolutely lives up to the billing. The other one
everyone talks about is Saga: 4.2 kilometres long, 237 metres of vertical, full
commitment from the moment you drop in. There’s no bailout. The first kilometre
tells you whether you’re prepared, and after that you’re going to the bottom
whether you’re ready or not.

It’s the kind of trail system that...Read More

Mansfield Outdoor Centre: The Quiet Revival That’s Making the Mulmur Hills Essential Riding

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 13:35:05 -0700

There’s a quiet revival happening an hour north of the GTA, and if you haven’t been paying attention, you’re missing one of the most exciting trail stories in Ontario
right now. Mansfield Outdoor Centre has been around forever — the property, the
lodge, the bones of a trail network — but the last few years have been a
different chapter. New ownership, new trail leadership, an active build crew,
and a renewed willingness to invest in mountain biking have turned MOC into one
of the best riding destinations within a day’s drive of Toronto.
And here’s the kicker: the soil is sandy. Which means when other trails are too wet to ride,
Mansfield is open. When the rest of southern Ontario is sloppy after a spring
rain, the Mulmur Hills are tacky and fast. That alone makes it worth the drive.
What You’re Actually Riding
Mansfield sits in the Mulmur Hills in Dufferin County, about an hour north of the GTA and 25 minutes south of Collingwood. The property has roughly 30 kilometres of
dedicated mountain bike trail — a mix of singletrack and doubletrack, with new
sections being added constantly. Trail manager Johnny Yeaman and a passionate
crew of volunteers have been rebuilding most of the legacy trails from scratch
while threading in modern flow lines, machine-built berms, and purpose-built
climbs that make the long pulls to the top feel like part of the ride rather
than a tax on it.
The terrain is rolling — not Niagara Escarpment dramatic, but plenty of vertical relief
stitched together by smart trail design. The soil is packed, sandy loam, which
means consistent grip, fast drainage, and the kind of conditions where you can
confidently lean into a corner without surprises.

Sandy soil, fast drainage, modern trailbuilding, and a licensed pub at the trailhead. We’re not sure what...Read More