The trails at Gillard are accessed via the Gillard Fire Service Road (FSR), which branches off Mission Drive in the southern part of the Mission Valley. The official trail parking lot is on the left, 3 kilometres after the Gillard FSR leaves Mission Drive, but it's legal to drive all the way up the FSR to reach the Kettle Valley Rail Trail. As such, the bike routes at Gillard can be done as shuttle runs and you can tag team riding and driving. There are also various spots to park on the way up the FSR but they are officially only drop-off points and not parking spots. That said, if you did park at them you certainly wouldn't be the first people to do it....If you "break the rules" then at least do so respectfully and we suspect you'll have no problems.

We've shown this route going from the main parking lot, and the first task of the ride is to follow the FSR up to the Kettle Valley Rail Trail. The ride up is something of a slog, but it's pretty efficient, and the ascent will take most riders less than an hour. When you reach the KVR, hang a right and ride easily along for a few minutes to reach the top of Moose Knuckle.

The first few metres of the trail are really tight, and although it does open up slightly, the whole route is pretty narrow! The highlight section is after a few hundred metres, when the trail passes over some rock slabs high above a small canyon. After the canyon there are some really steep, rocky sections until things mellow out slightly as you roll down to a jeep track.

We've shown the descent finishing here, simply because there are so many options to choose from. Our suggestion would be to follow our route down Hucking Grasshole (which is a few hundred metres to the left) but Lower Kerplop is a great option too.