Gillard Trails

Gillard is the Okanagan’s original freeride mountain-bike area, on the hillside south of Kelowna’s Kettle Valley neighbourhood, and is now an official Recreation Sites and Trails BC trail network maintained by Mountain Bikers of the Central Okanagan. The trails took shape in the late 1990s and remain built for intermediate to expert riders — fast singletrack, jumps of every size, rock gardens and slabs, wooden features and steep technical lines — with enduro, freeride or downhill bikes recommended. It is best ridden as a shuttle network, though MTBCO’s multi-year climbing-trail project now gives riders a way up under their own power. Tourism Kelowna’s route: Lakeshore Road to Chute Lake Road, then Gillard Forest Service Road to the Recreation Sites and Trails BC parking lot about 3.8 km up. Provincial recreation-trail rules ask that pets be kept quiet and under control; parking costs are not published.