Bur Oak Trail (Mountain Biking)

I didn't run on any interesting new trails this week, but I returned to one of my favourite biking trails: the Bur Oak tail in Bird's Hill Park.

Bur Oak is actually three trails in one: a paved walking path, a short off-road bike trail, and a longer and more technical biking trail. Please do not walk on the bike trail. You may snow shoe in the winter, but if you walk on it in the summer you will be run over.

DESCRIPTION/REVIEW
The bike trail was planned and built by a local bike club -- I don't recall which one, but they did a good job. There is a wide variety of terrain and it makes for an interesting ride, especially if you venture off into the more technical loops.

You will find long, flat straightaways, twisty turny sections with exposed tree roots and rocks, sandy areas, muddy areas (depending on the weather) and some really fun roller-coaster stuff.

You can get a hint of the variety in the terrain from my Garmin stats, if you look at the speed graph. There are some areas where I was zipping along at almost 30 km/h and some where I was grinding at less than 10:

Even though there is only 13 m of elevation change on the course you are going up and down quite a bit in some areas. It's not a super technical ride, but wear your helmet. You could clip a tree with your handle bar or catch a rock the wrong way and go for a tumble.

It's a nice length too. At 6.8 km (4 miles) it's not long, but gives you a good half hour ride. If that's not enough, do the same loop in reverse direction for a good hour long work out -- depending on how fast you ride. If you're a little tired, take one of the short-cuts to bypass the technical areas and shorten the loop.

After you're done, grab a drink from the cooler in your car and walk the paved trail to cool down, or drive to the nearby beach.

It's the best off-road biking trail in the vicinity of Winnipeg in my opinion

SCORE: 9/10

GOOD STUFF:

• great variety of terrain
• good length for a morning or afternoon spin
• possible wildlife sightings
• beach nearby to cool off and walking trail right there for a relaxing stroll after the ride

BAD STUFF:

• need a park pass
• more elevation change would be nice

I don't have any photos from today, but I will post again about this trail. Meanwhile here is a photo from last fall: