You’ve likely never heard of Nordegg, Alberta. The tiny town — with only 200 residents — sits just north of Banff National Park and had a history of mountain biking in the 90s.

Sadly, that history, well, became history. That was until the Nordegg Off Road Cycling Association (NORCA) formed, advocating for trails and building 30km of singletrack in its first few years, establishing the Black Mountain Trail Network. With 20 more kilometers to come in the next few years, the massive undertaking isn’t over.

Photo: Mac Vidal

“Bringing a B.C.-style trail system to Alberta”

“We didn’t have many true mountain bike trails, and would always drive to British Columbia for our ‘big rides,’” Hannah Landon, NORCA Board Secretary, told us. “We always wished to have more trails in our own backyard.”

That meant flow and tech, wallrides, drops, skinnies, and rock rolls. And it also meant big descents. Riders heading down trails like “The Lucky Goose” are treated to over 1,600 feet of descent on a 3-mile, bike-only, downhill-only, intermediate trail. In fact, Landon said that most of the trails at Black Mountain are descending-only.

The Lucky Goose is one of two trails at Black Mountain that provides a top-to-bottom singletrack experience. Landon said that the trail starts out a little chunky and chundery near the top, but gets flowier as it heads down the mountain and dips into old-growth forest.

Photo: Mac Vidal

While still being squarely a flow trail, Landon did say that The Lucky Goose is the “techier cousin of North Corner,” another intermediate flow trail coming from the top. North Corner also stretches three miles, descends nearly 1,400 feet of elevation, and incorporates lengthy wooden bridges, a wallride, and optional skinnies.

“A person can ride a total of 5,550m of blue flow from the summit to the bottom,” Landon said. That’s over 18,000 feet. In fact, only blue trails (currently) reach the top of the trail system. But that doesn’t mean that more advanced offerings aren’t present.

Evacuation Order is a rough and raw enduro-style trail. A true tech trail, it is rooty and rocky, has steeps, and includes both optional and mandatory drops. At just under half a mile long, Evacuation Order’s nearly 400-foot descent is solid.

Evacuation Order (left) has a steep wooden roll option or a rock drop. Photo Brady Starr

Riders can connect Evacuation Order with the option of more black tech or black flow. Those looking for continued tech will opt for Skimmer, riding more rock drops and trail-style jump options. If they need flow, Black Like Velvet is the option. This trail features jumps, optional drops, and a rockface wallride.

“This trail has a cult following,” Landon said.

Both trails are about a mile long and descend nearly 700 feet. For a little more rooty, advanced tech, riders can jump on the quarter-mile Magic Forest, which descends 300 feet to the bottom. All told, Black Mountain offers nearly the same top-to-bottom experience on black trails as it does blue trails.

“We have roughly 35 combinations of descents from the summit back to the main parking lot,” Landon explained. “These descents are possible because the mountain has a Bottom, Middle, and Top Junction where trails feed so that riders can meet up at points and create lines that combine tech, flow, and tech-flow trails.”

Green trails too

While the lion’s share of the descending is made up of intermediate and advanced trails, Black Mountain has solid options for beginner riders as well. This includes a DH-only green trail dubbed Makoons, which is also an adaptive trail. At almost a mile long and descending nearly 300 feet, Landon explained that Makoons is the trail that a beginner can progress on but is also fun for more experienced riders. Those looking to push can find speed and start thinking about doubling up on different rollers.

Makoons is one of four beginner options at the Black Mountain Trail Network and one of 17 trails currently there. Trail systems with 30km (that’s almost 20 miles) across 17 trails, with an established mix of green, blue, and black, have been around for years, right?

Not always.

From 0 to 30km in just 3 years?

“This small community has had a long history of volunteers building a couple of fun bike trails,” Landon told us. “In the 90’s, it hosted provincial mountain bike races on Black Mountain — the Black Mountain Challenge. When the races stopped in the 90’s, logging took place on Black Mountain, erasing some of the trails, and then nature did the rest.”

But that didn’t stop what would eventually become NORCA from trying to get proper mountain biking trails back on Black Mountain. Connections were made, a friend knew a friend, and eventually the group was talking about funds and potential grants from timber sales, allotted to organizations by the West Fraser Timber Company.

And NORCA took advantage of that, applying for grants and actively pursuing bids from trailbuilders. But then a wildfire in 2022 brought the progress to a grinding halt, leading NORCA to pick back up in its aftermath.

So they did. And Landon says that looking back on the fire, it was both a blessing and a curse. The fire scorched quite a bit of Black Mountain’s summit, exposing different rock features and potential lines that were buried in thick forest. It also created a shuttle road — well, fire crews and West Fraser created a shuttle road. To fight the blaze and eventually harvest timber, crews plowed a road to the summit, inadvertently creating future shuttle access.

“We broke ground on trails on July 18, 2023,” Landon shared. That is 10km of trail per year for the last three years. And more are coming.

NORCA is working with Starr Trail Solutions on another intermediate blue trail, “Buffaflow.” They also have plans for a long advanced tech trail, a blue XC trail, and another green trail.

“Currently, [there are] about 30km of trails. The target at the end of building is 50km.”

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