Riders who enjoy pedaling the trail networks at Otway Nordic Centre or Pidherny Recreation Site might not know about a new mountain bike trail destination being built on the east side of Prince George.
After six years of planning and consultation, the Association of Caledonia TrailBuilders (ACT) opened the first 6.5-kilometres of the Tabor Mountain Bike Trails last summer and work to expand the facility has continued this year with volunteers and a professional trail building contractor collaborating on the project.
“We have plans for another three kilometres of cross-country, that’s something Prince George doesn’t have very much of and we’re surprised at the really positive reception it’s getting,” said ACT President Dan Domes.
“Many folks are interested in getting out into the forest for a ride and not having to fight with roots and rocks. We’ve been fortunate to get enough grant funding from various sources to allow us to hire trail building contractors.”
Built to Recreational Sites and Trails BC standards, the new trails are geared to riders of all abilities – beginner, intermediate and advanced - and include a 1.75 km wider and flatter trail section for users with physical or intellectual disabilities who require adaptive three-wheeled bikes.
A trail counter shows about 1,000 riders uses the trails each month. Domes says riders can use the service road that goes to the telecommunications towers on summit of Tabor Mountain to shuttle their bikes to the highest point of the new trails.
“We’re building our trail network from the bottom up,” said Domes. “Maybe next year we’ll be halfway up. I can see this project going on decades.”
The unseasonably warm and dry conditions over the past two months have kept the trail crew busy, and Sunday work parties have attracted as many as 15 volunteers to lend a hand. So far this year, another 4.5 km of trail has been cut into the forest on the west side of the mountain, which faces Prince George and is visible from the city.
Large Douglas fir stumps in the forest show evidence of when the area was logged decades ago and Domes said the old skid trails used to hauls those big logs away are still visible and they used them to plan the routes of some of cross-country trails they’ve built for riders.
The trails, which are also geared toward skiers and hikers, have been named after some of the people whose contributions brought the project to life.
Domes says the potential is there for the Tabor Mountain Bike Trails to become a tourist destination on par with bike trail networks in Valemount and Burns Lake.
Since the project got started in 2017, close to $600,000 has been raised through grants and private donations and a significant portion of that has not been spent. Contributors include Northern Development Initiative Trust, Northern Health, Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, and the province’s Destination Development Fund.
ACT and is one of several recreational groups now affiliated with Tabor Mountain Recreational Society.
To find the trails, turn right from Highway 16 East at Tabor Lake East Road, then left at Giscome Road to the next right at Groveburn Road, which leads directly to the parking lot.
