WHEEL WELL
BIKE TOWN From flow trails for beginners to the biggest jumps and steepest lines this side of the Rockies, Sault Ste. Marie is Ontario’s new MTB hub
words & photos :: Colin Field House Rock is a massive glacial erratic deposited atop one of the funnest downhill trails in Ontario. And in 2017 a couple of local crazies built a ramp to launch you on top of it, then off it again, over a gap and onto the landing. Watching Luke Watson (one of the trail builders) hit it over and over is freaking awesome. Even with ten local riders of incredible skill level standing around, he’s the only one hitting it. And I don’t blame anyone for skipping it. It’s a gnarly thing to see. Then we drop into the jump line. During the first 100 metres, it quickly occurs to me: Holy chromoly this is steep. Rolling over a rock I question how steep my bike will go before catapulting me. But I remain faithful and it’s all good. My suspension sucks up the terrain and I plummet downwards. It worked. This trail is awesome. I skid to the side of the next jump, a Survivor-looking bridge contraption. Then I watch the local trail builders hit it again and again. They’re so stoked to be riding. It’s seriously infectious. But this seems to be how it goes in Sault Ste. Marie: The people into riding are really into riding. The landscape is rugged and wild, creating tough riders ready for tough adventures. While Watson rarely
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rides uphill, other masochists from the Soo tend to ride way farther than is normal. Jan Roubal, owner of the local bike shop Velorution, is an absolute animal. While I was there, he hosted a bike ride across the road from his house. One lap was 30 kilometres of singletrack; many people rode four laps. This summer, Jan also rode his gravel bike to Sudbury and back in one day. Well, kinda; it took him 30 hours to do the ride, so technically it took just over one day. “I get these kinds of ideas in my head and I just can’t let them go,” he says. While some choose to regularly do century rides, others build the biggest jumps and steepest lines this side of the Rockies. And many people fall somewhere between the two. Which means the calibre of rider in the Soo is high. ••• What I’m shown next is the Farmer Lake Area and the Darkside Trail on the north end of Hiawatha: a heinous, rocky, rooty downhill track complete with steeps, drops, jumps and rollers. It’s a terrifying roll through the rugged bush of the Canadian Shield. There are five-foot drops, machine-built berms and an over/under jump that defies reason.
