megaTour 2.0 • Conkle Lake Loop - rail-trail, a beautiful lake and a whole lotta gravel
The bike: the megaTour is a value-packed bicycle capable of bringing your back-country, over-landing dreams to life. Fully-loaded or not, it’s also pretty awesome for single day excursions to remote places with technical terrain.
Key Features
6061 Aluminum Frame
Lots of mounting points
Carbon fibre expedition fork
Shimano 4 piston hydraulic disc brakes
WTB Ranger, 29 x 2.6 tires
Shimano CUES 2X 36/22 • 11-45 drivetrain
Dropper-post routing
The route this day would have us starting and ending in Rock Creek, British Columbia.
Our 70+km loop had less than 10 kilometres of paved road. Our goal was a refreshing swim in Conkle Lake Provincial Park just past the mid-point and a stiff climb.
The Kettle Valley River section of the KVR rail-trail at the start is serene, wild and full of colour. As the path crosses various blocks of private land, be sure to lock every gate behind you.
Wider, relatively smooth forest service roads greeted us at the start of the climb up to Conkle Lake and its namesake provincial campground. Doing this loop counter-clockwise, farther along, resulted in a more technical, steeper and shorter climb up to the lake. A great place to appreciate the super low gearing and traction of the megaTour 2.0.
*Note: water options can be few and far between. Be sure to carry enough liquids and/or bring a water purification system of your choice. There is a water pump at the lake with a permanent boil water advisory.
Conkle Lake: replete with a soft sand beach, swimming, fishing, SUP’ing and more at your campground doorstep!
A less strenuous descent with the backdrop of a far away storm made for some great views. The full carbon expedition fork is stiff enough to provide good handling yet also decent damping from all the small vibrations on this terrain.
A super fun, fast and beautiful last couple of longs turns highlighted the stability of the geometry, predictability of the handling and reassurance the 180mm brake rotors brought.
8 kilometres, virtually all downhill back to town, wrapped up a fantastic adventure on quiet forest service roads. Be sure to get back to town by 5pm for the ice-cream!