River Valley Cycling

Supporting Cycling In and Around Fredericton

Winterbike Plan 2023 – Woolastook

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Riders!

It might be raining today but planning for the 2023 Winterbike season continues. It will snow! Your Winterbike membership supports trail grooming at several locations in the Fredericton area. Here’s our plan for Woolastook.

This year RVC groomers will keep a little more than 9 km of trail open at Woolastook. The layout here will let riders plan out routes using stacked loops so lots of distance options will be available. You’ll want to build up to a full distance ride though because the winter lookout is worth it. We won’t tell anyone if we see you pushing your bike up the last bit of that steep hill up to the lookoff – we promise.

Woolastook mountain biking trails

Mike Hutchinson, RVC’s vice president and Woolastook project lead will do some heavy lifting this winter and plans to groom regularly. From time to time he may get a little help from Dave & Andy. Give these guys a huge thanks if you are out and you run into them. Grooming snow for fatbike is a tough job and volunteering is how it all happens!

Can’t wait!

This grooming plan is what you can expect RVC will keep open for the duration but from time to time we’ll probably be able to enjoy a few other pieces of singletrack opened up by volunteer snowshoers. If you want to update your Trailforks app the winter mode map is now up to date.

Remember, you can join RVC Winterbike right now for 2023! This year we’ve kept our winter membership price the same despite our cost of running the equipment going way up. We hope you enjoy and we appreciate your support.

Winterbike Plan 2023 – MVP

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We just got our first dump of snow this weekend. RVC is excited for Winterbike. You’re excited. Undisputed RVC Grooming Champion Dan Breau messaged us today to say he’s excited for another winterbike season! We’re all ready!

So what better day than to tell you about the grooming plan for MVP this winter!

For 2023 MVP will have ~ 22 km of groomed singletrack. This is basially the same network that was groomed last year. For you riders who have never ventured over to ride Greg’s Way in the summer make sure to go check it out in the winter. The Back 40 is a game changing connection and it open’s up access to the Greg’s way area. Back 40 is a hilariously good trail in it’s own right. We’ll keep the parking lot open all winter so that you don’t have to brave narrow slushy roads to get to the riding. We fixed up the water issue that turned the parking lot into a skating rink last year so fingers crossed (thanks Norm and Bev)! We’ll also keep the Trailforks map up to date but remember to hit the ‘winter trails’ option on the map and you may need to refresh the data on your phone app.

MVP mountain biking trails

Keeping 22 km of singletrack groomed takes a lot of resources and a heroic effort from the groomers! This winter if you see the sleds out while on the trails make sure you stop them to say thanks!

You can get your 2023 RVC Winterbike membership here to access the trails and support the grooming. Also, if you love winter trails and want to consider giving something more you have the option to take out a gold-level supporter membership. All the perks of a normal membership plus that satisfying feeling that comes with making an extra donation. Thank you!

2023 Winterbike

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Hey riders – registration for the 2023 Winterbike season is now live. Join!

If you’re new to riding singletrack in the winter here’s the scoop:

  • RVC runs Winterbike on a totally separate membership and budget.
  • Your membership supports our grooming effort at MVP and Woolastook. Gas is pretty expensive and the grooming sleds need regular maintenance.
  • Membership also lets you join our regular group rides. We hit the trails every week. Follow the conversation on RVC’s Facebook and Insta.

Keep following us over the next few weeks as we share our 2023 grooming plans, winter-biking tips, and more news.

Join RVC Winterbike for 2023!

RVC Welcomes Dig In to Woolastook

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Hey Riders,

Last week we released our big master plan for Woolastook park. This week, the plan is being put into action. RVC is proud to share the news that Dig In Trail Building & Design has broken ground on the main connection between what will be Woolastook’s front-country and the new back-country trails that will come next year. RVC’s first professionally built trail is underway!

Ernie and Ian of Dig In bring a very impressive trail resume and we are so psyched to be supporting growth in our local trail industry. They’ve got some impressive skill with both hand-building and using a mini-ex machine and these guys have recently completed projects like the new Fox Trot trail at Poley Mtn., High Tide and Low Tide at Rockwood Park, as well as improvements on the Rockwood Classic MacKay Skyway. You can check out their work on their Instagram channel.

They’ll be working on about 800 m of trail for the remainder of this fall targeting a solid ‘intermediate’ level difficulty and using the IMBA Canadian Guidelines for building. Now – you will see this under construction over the next few weeks as you are out fat biking. Please stay off. This is under construction until we announce that it’s open for riders but that will not be until the ground firms up next spring and Dig In can complete their finishing work. For now – it’s called T-22 because that’s how it was identified in our plan but we’ll come up with a better name. We’ve got all winter to think about it.

More value coming to Woolastook and the surrounding local communities from our Canada Community Building Fund Grant!

Cheers!

Woolastook Gets a Master Plan

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We are excited today to release a Trails Master Plan for Woolastook that will guide our construction efforts (both professional and volunteer) over the next several years as we develop the area into a top-caliber trailhead.

We wanted to do this right.

We invested some serious time and money into the development of this plan. That’s why we engaged Professional Trailbuilders Association member and local legend Matt Hadley to lead the development of this plan. Matt, and his team members at McElhanney had an impressive depth of experience to bring to the project. They travelled to New Brunswick on several occasions to walk the woods and to understand our goals. They brought ideas and valuable advice on how to develop a trail network sustainably, that’s got a lot to offer to all riders, and will stand the test of time.

Bench cutting uses up a lot of calories – measure twice… cut once.

This plan will:

  • Reshape Woolastook to offer a far better rider experience. We’ll minimize confusing intersections and instead implement hubs where loops can logically stack together to offer enjoyable routes. Spend more time riding and less time checking a map on your phone.
  • Offer a variety of experiences that cater to riders of all levels. Easier trails will be concentrated to the ‘front country’ adjacent to the trailhead and the further you venture into the ‘backcountry’, the more exciting the ride will get.
  • Leverage naturally interesting terrain that we have available to us under our agreement with the Province. We’ll develop a dedicated climbing trail to the height-of-land near the popular look-off, and we’ll give you several interesting options to get back downhill.
  • Provide trails that are enjoyable for our hiking, running, and other non-motorized friends that share our space while minimizing conflict with ATV users who have their own trails in close proximity to us.

We hope you’ll take the time to read through this, and let us know what you think. You can send us messages, email, or engage us on our social channels. We want to hear from you!

We need to make a few acknowledgements. This plan wouldn’t have come together without expertise of Matt Hadley and his team – that is for sure. Locally, we need to also acknowledge folks like Norm Siebrasse, Bev Bunker, and Adam Hadley, who spent many days walking the bush in Woolastook over the last year. We want to thank Sam Bosence, Mountain Bike Atlantic, and local ambassador Scott Debreuil who’ve helped raise the profile of the park. We want to thank Des as great neighbor and partner at the Woolastook Park Campground for all of his support in developing the area. We also have to acknowledge that this plan was funded – in full – through RVC’s grant under the Canada Community Building Fund. Finally, the whole club owes some thanks to Mike Hutchinson. Mike conceived this project from the start, and he’s running it as quickly as he can towards success.

You’ll learn more very soon about the partnerships we’re striking to start the construction, and having this plan puts us in a great place.

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Proud Members of: Velo New Brunswick

Canadian Cycling Association

International Mountain Biking Association