There’s a new place on the map for Ontario mountain bikers, and it’s not where you’d expect.
Wilderness Tours, long known for rafting and whitewater kayaking on the mighty Ottawa River, has quietly become one of the province’s fastest-growing and most exciting mountain bike destinations.
Wilderness Tours’ bike park is now three seasons deep. What started with two trails punched in during the fall of 2020 has exploded into a full-on downhill and enduro playground. Complete with tech, flow, climb trails and a brand-new shuttle setup.
Building momentum
When the pandemic hit, Wilderness Tours made a big move. They relocated from their longtime property on Rafting Road to the former River Run Resort, just downriver. The new location had 87 m of elevation game. By Ontario standards that’s a vertical drop that’s worth taking advantage of. They got to work fast.
“We’ve been doubling in size every single year,” Matt McGuire, the guy largely behind the transformation says. “Trail-wise, we’re up to about 25 kilometres, with eight top-to-bottom trails and two climb trails. We just opened a new black line on Friday. It starts techy, turns into big berms, big tables, then finishes with a clean 3-to-4-foot drop.”
And it’s not stopping there. A new cross-country loop is on the way, with hopes of connecting 15–17 kilometres around the perimeter.
Shuttle up. Rip down.
The vertical may not match Whistler, but the shuttle laps are quick and efficient. A new 16-bike trailer and 15-passenger van gets riders to the top in under six minutes.
“We run it on weekends, or midweek by request,” McGuire explains. “If you’ve got a crew that wants laps, we’ve got the rig.”
The pricing is also friendly: $15 for a day pass if you’re pedalling, $50 for a full day of shuttles.
All-inclusive adventure
The mountain biking is only part of the draw. Wilderness Tours has 62 units of on-site accommodation ranging from glamping tents to fully furnished homes, a licensed restaurant, nightly live music in summer and even fibre-optic Wi-Fi (rare for the Ottawa Valley). It’s kind of like a bike-and-paddle Club Med. There are options for full meal plans or not. Everything’s totally customizable. And they’ve invested accordingly.
“We’re at about $200,000 in trails now,” says McGuire. “That includes the mini excavator we just bought.”
Everything’s done in-house.
“I’ve tried to teach machine operators to build mountain bike trails. It…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…