What’s Brewing in Cumberland?

A newly rebuilt trail recently opened in Cumberland that stands out from every other trail in this 200km+ trail network. While machines have been used in Cumberland to rough in various trails since the construction of the climbing trail, which was completed in 2021, this rebuilt trail is the first to be built with machines from start to finish. The rebuild features six large berms and 12 bike-park style tables and hips ranging from 16-24 feet long. The trail we are talking about is 6-pack, a double black, easily lapable trail in the lower part of the network. While this is an exciting new direction for the Cumberland trails, it may remain an anomaly as United Riders of Cumberland (UROC) Executive Director Dougal Browne says the network intends to stay a “singletrack trail environment.”

United Riders of Cumberland (UROC) Executive Director Dougal Browne

Browne says that typically they “just use machines to remove the organic, punch the line, and put in a permanent drainage for us, and then put back organic on sections of trail that we've borrowed dirt and so on.” For trails such as the climb trail, Sobo No Michi, and the blue flow classic, New Vanilla, this use of a machine helps save hundreds of hours of labour making it easier for funded trail projects to fit into the necessary 18-month completion windows. 6-pack is an exception to this trend; let’s discuss why.

Local rider, Robin Jansen, carving through the berms and getting air.

After years of west coast winters, the wooden structures that formed the gap jumps on 6-pack were starting to rot and sink. The trail was beginning to need an excessive amount of maintenance. As the premier jump trail in Cumberland, they needed to keep the jumps large, but it was also clear that the best move was to build them out of dirt to minimize the long-term maintenance associated with wood structures. So, they started looking into the cost of building the trail with a machine. “We would be nowhere near upgrading 6-pack if we were doing it by hand,” says Dougal. When the local excavator operator generously offered to do the rebuild for the whopping price of $1.00, Dougal says “We were able to add more, make it better, make it bigger, and make it safer for less liability and risk.” After a few months of work, a super fun trail emerged that allows riders to go big with minimal risk if they fall short of clearing the gap. The result: an unprecedented level of jump progression for the Cumberland trail network. Another exciting part about this trail is its position at a lower elevation in the network allowing it to be ridden throughout most of the winter.

While there are no current intentions to continue this scale of machine work on other trails, there are a handful of other exciting projects in the works for UROC including a future rebuild of 6-pack’s little sibling, 4-pack, to increase progression in this zone. Beyond that, they have another nearby jump trail in the works that should cater to the gap in progression between 4-pack and 6-pack; a new trail called 1-pack for the kiddos; a future progression-focused rebuild on Buckets of Blood; and a 39km epic single track trail that makes its way to the highest elevation within the UROC land-use agreement area. This network that receives more than 250,000 uses a year is about to get even more exciting.

Robin sending it with style on 6-Pack.

Whether you are looking for some of the classic singletrack that Cumberland is known for or are interested in tapping into some of the more modern advanced gravity trails like 6-pack or Sphagnum P.I., Cumberland is a must-visit destination. With the village’s laid-back bike-friendly vibe, the temperate environment allowing year-round riding, and the epic trails, Cumberland is a mountain biker’s paradise!

Cumberland and the communities of the Comox Valley are located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the K’ómoks First Nation. The K’ómoks people, have lived on and cared for this land since time immemorial on which we are greatful for the opporunity to live, work, and recreate.