How to find it

There are two ways to ride this trail; ride from town or truck drop.

Ride from town: Head up Coal Creek Road, and keep going – about 13 kms from town you come to a turning that says Paiges Draw, heading off to the right. You want to head left and up another 2-3kms until you see a road on your left labeled Marten Ridge Road. Head up here another 1 km or so, looking out on your right for a road leading up and back (there is a right turn just before this one, but it heads off flat and into the distance, your right is uphill and coming back above Martin Ridge Road), there is a cairn and some flagging tape. If you get as far as yellow metal barrier with a big flat turnaround area, then you’ve gone too far. Cairn and start of the trail are at approx. N49° 30” 13.1” W114° 53’ 03.7”

Go up this rocky road a little way until it hits a newer road, up over the berm onto the new road and then turn right. You’re now on a long, fun trail, full of surprisingly deep puddles, with regular flagging and lots of bike tracks. You’ll be on this road for about 6kms, and you need to turn off it, left, onto single track at around N49° 32’ 55.3” W114° 54’ 59.3”. You then follow this singletrack all the way up and over the ridge and down the other side. When you get back down into the Elk Valley, you hit the Ridgemont Road – turn left and look out for a Coal Discovery Trail yellow sign on the right a few hundred metres further on.

Truck drop: Essentially drive the first section as above, all the way up Marten Ridge Road and look for the turning off it where the trail starts. You can either park beyond or before it – there are flat open areas. The cairn and start of the trail are at approx. N49° 30” 13.1” W114° 53’ 03.7”

The trail

Wow – this is one seriously awesome ride – allow a good 5 hours for the riding from town option, 3 hours at least for the truck drop. Bring plenty of water, don’t go alone (grizzlies, long way from home) and let someone know where you are going before you leave. Coal Creek Road is a long uphill grunt and many will choose the truck drop. From the trailhead on Marten Ridge Road, you have a very fun long section on an old road, ups and downs, rolling terrain and some man-eating puddles, mostly with some shade. Once you switch to singletrack, you head off into the forest, some wet sections, a short rock climb and generally not especially challenging riding, getting steeper up towards the end. Beautiful scenery and great forest. The top arrives without any great fanfare – climb up the rocks a few metres for amazing views of the valley a long way below.

The down starts with a pretty steep loose section for a about 100m, and the first switchback is pretty loose and steep – after that it is just amazing good fun – long, long straight sections, where you could pick up real speed, but again, remember this is a long way from home if you wipe out! The trail carries on like that, with some easy switchbacks, some a little harder and killer views. Towards the bottom you get to a sharp switchback that has an animal skull on it – slow right down, you are getting near to Ridgemont Road, and the last bit is pretty sketchy, slow down or walk onto the road. Turn left, and look out for a Coal Discovery Trail yellow sign on the right a few hundred metres further on. Drop onto this for some seriously fun roling terrain through the trees. A few ups in there to finish you off as well.

It spits you out eventually onto Old Stumpy and an easy cruise back to town. Congrats – you just rode downhill over 1,000 metres!

You're feeling tired - now think of the guys who built it! You know who you are - great work!